Customer Reviews

Property Law: Rules, Policies, and Practices

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a field that is usually dry and obscure, this book brings together fascinating and timely problems, historical materials, and even works from imaginative literature. It also makes all the rules absolutely clear and easy to understand. For any student of property law, or law more generally, this is a must read!

If you are looking for a property text, you cannot do better than this book. It is not only the best property textbook published right now, it is one of the finest legal textbooks I have had to read.

The writing is clear and comprehensible, and the cases are well chosen: provocative while remaining good examples of Black Letter Law.

My property class was the only section using Singer's book, and we are the only section that actually enjoyed the area of property law. This was not a coincidence.

... all you need is this textbook! Logically organized, comprehensive and explains complex concepts in a down-to-earth, easy-to-understand manner. The emphasis on the policy behind the rules is also extremely helpful. You won't need to buy a commercial outline with this book.

Although I agreed with the perspective of the author more often than not, this textbook has an unmistakably liberal slant. The author's first priority seems to be indoctrinating students into his point of view on various academic disputes, as opposed to providing students with practical knowledge about property law and it's day-to-day applications. Many of the issues discussed at length are interesting, but our familiarity with them has no utility to our future clients or employers.

The true greatness of this casebook is that it renders hornbooks and other guides superfluous. It is a truly great casebook in an area of the law I thought would bore me to death. It is so good it makes some of those New Jersey cases almost palatable.

As a 1L using Singer's "Property Law: Rules Policies and Practices" as my assigned property textbook, I have strong issues with this book. I'll divide them into two sections: content and formatting.

Content, 3/5: It seems like Singer covers most, if not all, of the relevant material, drawing on relevant and typically interesting cases. However, the material could be presented in a much more logical manner. When outlining, I compared the sections of his book to the Gilbert Law Summaries: Property; the way Dukeminier organizes the material makes a lot more sense. For example, Singer discusses water rights in a chapter on nuisance, while Dukeminier covers it in a section on acquisition of property. It just seems to flow more naturally (no pun intended) that way. This occurs in several places, making outlining using a study aid a necessary step.

Note: Singer obviously has a strong interest in Indian Law, which he demonstrates throughout. I think that's a good thing, as I find Native American legal issues interesting. If you aren't interested in Indian law, consider a different book.

Formatting, 2/5: As a reader, this book is terrible on the eyes. The font used is much too small, requiring constant squinting. The paper is so flimsy that highlighting or handwritten notes, or even the text on the other side of pages, readily shows through and becomes distracting. There isn't enough leading (spacing between lines) to allow one's eyes to track, resulting in constant re-reading.

Moreover, this 4th edition needs a better copy editor. I've noticed several missing words, incorrect usage of words and insertion of phrases that makes some sentences confusing and looks unprofessional. Is the thing so long (1,202 pages) he couldn't get anyone to read the whole book to check for such simple mistakes?

I had property this semester and this book was great. It has quite a few outlines that can be straight up copied and pasted into your outlines. The cases are abridged really well which keeps the reading assignments reasonable in length. The only negative comment I have about this book is that it does contain a certain amount of repetition. I wish the rest of my textbooks were this clear and concise.

As I'm nearing the end of a full semester reading this book, I must say that this book is nothing special. It has an incredibly liberal spin and discusses complex subject matter as "notes," which often confuses things. While it's not the worst I've read, don't believe that this book is anything extraordinary.

speedy, book arrived in great condition as per the description, better than i anticipated actually. two thumbs up for this seller