Teaching Property - a Conceptual Approach. (Symposium: A Festschrift in Honor of Dale A. Whitman‪)‬

The property course has shrank. This fact is well-documented, and is obvious to anyone who has taught the course over any appreciable length of time. For many decades, Property received six credits in most law schools (1) typically three in the Fall and three in the Winter semester of the first year. Now, few schools give the course more than four or five credits, and some have cut it to three. (2) The change seems to have occurred mainly over the last two decades. While it is doubtful that many Property teachers would have chosen this reduction, it is now an accomplished fact. Thus, teachers of the course are left with this question: how can we take best advantage, for our students, of this new poverty of credits? That is the question I propose to address in this short paper.