Property Law: Comparative, Empirical, and Economic Analyses

Yun-chien Chang

Jun 2023 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

The first book of its kind, Property Law: Comparative, Empirical, and Economic Analyses, uses a unique hand-coded data set on nearly 300 dimensions on the substance of property law in 156 jurisdictions to describe the convergence and divergence of key property doctrines around the world. This book quantitatively analyzes property institutions and uses machine learning methods to categorize jurisdictions into ten legal families, challenging the existing paradigms in economics and law. Using other cross-country data, the author empirically tests theories about property law and comparative law. Using economic efficiency as both a positive and a normative criterion, each chapter evaluates which jurisdictions have the most efficient property doctrines, concluding that the common law is not more efficient than the civil law. Unlike prior studies on empirical comparative law, this book provides detailed citations to laws in each jurisdiction. Data and documentation are publicly available on the author's website.

About the author

Yun-chien Chang is the Jack G. Clarke Professor in East Asian Law, Cornell Law School. Professor Chang works on property law, comparative law, economic analysis of law, and empirical legal studies and has published more than 10 books and 100 articles and book chapters in English and Chinese. Professor Chang is an Associate Reporter for the Restatement (Fourth) of Property, President of the Asian Law and Economics Association (2023–2024), and a director of the Society for Empirical Legal Studies.