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This critique of property examines its classical conception: addressing its ontology and history, as well as considering its symbolic aspects and connection to social relations of power. It is organized around three themes: the ways in which concepts of property are symbolically and practically connected to relations of power the 'objects' of property in changing contexts of materialism challenges to the Western idea of property posed by colonial and post-colonial contexts, such as the disempowerment through property of whole cultures, the justifications for colonial expansion and bio piracy. Dealing with the symbolism of property, its history, traditional philosophical accounts and cultural difference, Margaret Davis has written an invaluable volume for all law students interested in property law.

This book re-imagines law as ecolaw. The key insight of ecological thinking, that everything is connected to everything else – at least on the earth, and possibly in the cosmos – has become a truism of contemporary theory. Taking this insight as a starting point for understanding law involves suspending theoretical certainties and boundaries. It involves suspending theory itself as a conceptual project and practicing it as an embodied and material project. Although an ecological imagining of law can be metaphorical, and can be highly imaginative and suggestive, this book shows that it is also literal. Law is part of the material ‘everything’ that is connected to everything else. This means that once the previous certainties of legal thinking have been dismantled, it is after all possible to think of law as ‘natural’ – as embedded in and emergent from a normative biophysical nature. The book proposes that there exists a natural nomos: animals, plants, and Earth systems that produce their own values and norms from which human norms and laws emerge. This book, then, proposes a new way to understand law, and pursues specific arguments to demonstrate the feasibility of law as ecolaw. Drawing inspiration from current trends in the post-humanities, socioecological thought, and developments across the natural sciences in their specific intersections with humanities and social science disciplines, this book will appeal both to legal theorists and to others with interests in these areas.

This critique of property examines its classical conception: addressing its ontology and history, as well as considering its symbolic aspects and connection to social relations of power. It is organized around three themes: the ways in which concepts of property are symbolically and practically connected to relations of power the 'objects' of property in changing contexts of materialism challenges to the Western idea of property posed by colonial and post-colonial contexts, such as the disempowerment through property of whole cultures, the justifications for colonial expansion and bio piracy. Dealing with the symbolism of property, its history, traditional philosophical accounts and cultural difference, Margaret Davis has written an invaluable volume for all law students interested in property law.

This innovative study attempts a comprehensive reading of the Fourth Gospel so as to make sense of its theology, anthropology and history. The most valuable insights of structuralism and reader-response criticism have been taken up, without ignoring what those methods ignore, namely, questions intrinsically related to the Fourth Gospel itself. Moreover, a just appreciation of the text requires the reader to recognize that particular historical situations affect the nature of any narrative.

In Asking the Law Question, Margaret Davies provides an up-to-date account of traditional and contemporary legal theory. This edition retains the critical and contemporary focus of the first three editions. It has been updated to incorporate discussion of recent works and current trends in legal theory, without losing the emphasis on seeing legal theory in its historical, social and political contexts. This fourth edition includes two new chapters on socio-legal theory and environmental jurisprudence. Legal theory means different things to different scholars. Asking the Law Question reflects the diversity of approaches without attempting to reduce them all into a logical narrative. It is an interdisciplinary work and draws upon a wide range of literary and philosophical sources. Asking the Law Question is an accessible, original and highly readable account of legal philosophy. The text provides succinct explanations of key ideas, as well as in-depth analysis and critique. Suitable for students of jurisprudence, introductory law, feminist legal theory and sociology of law, this book has also proved to be of considerable interest to legal scholars wishing to improve their knowledge of legal theory.

Theoretical variables ¿ an overview -- Limited and unlimited law -- Legal materialism and social existence -- A new legal materialism -- Inner and outer space -- Scales of law -- Subjects and perspective -- Imagining law -- Pathfinding -- Conclusion

The idea of property carries both extensive symbolic resonance and significant practical implications in contemporary Western societies. Traditional legal works on property necessarily emphasise formal legal regimes of property ownership. Traditional works on the philosophy of property, in particular those which have been produced within liberal political contexts, consider the ontology of property, its relationship to individualism, and economic justifications for its existence. My aim in this work is to produce a critique of property, examining its classical treatments in a more cultural-symbolic framework. For instance, traditional justifications of private property relate it to the nature and needs of the individual, where the individual is seen (like property) as a self-contained, exclusive entity. Feminist and race-based critiques of this property ideology emphasise the complicity of property and hegemonic conceptions of masculinity and whiteness (see, eg Jennifer Nedelsky, Cheryl Harris). One aim of the book is therefore to examine the ways in which concepts of property are symbolically and practically connected to social relations of power. A second aim is to consider and critique the 'objects' of property in changing contexts of materialism. Third, the book will explore challenges to the Western idea of property posed by colonial and post-colonial contexts, such as the disempowerment through property of whole cultures, the justifications for colonial expansion, and biopiracy. These broad themes will be considered in four central chapters dealing with the symbolism of property, its history, traditional philosophical accounts, and cultural difference.

Two of Australia's leading feminist legal theorists examine the relationship between persons and property and the concept of self-ownership in relation to current legal debates. What is the legal status of the dead body? What difference does pregnancy make to legal personality? Can human genetic sequences be owned? Does a celebrity own their image? Can the human body and its parts be regarded as a species of property or must human beings, whether dead or alive, whole or dismembered, always be regarded as persons? Is a foetus the property of the mother or a person in its own right'.This lucid and original book considers recent legal theory regarding personality and property as well as the historical development of these concepts and illustrates their continuing importance as foundational elements of the legal mind.