Geography Studies

1. Geography Studies • How societies organize space and human behavior • How entities with the rights = power to use real property exercise those rights to produce goods and provide services and thus create visible landscapes • Landscapes are the visible effects of human behavior

3. Entities possessing real property rights in different spaces exercise their property rights to produce milk cows Entities possessing real property rights have changed their behavior - stopped exercising their property rights in a way that produces milk cows

4. I have chosen to describe landscapes • Through the lens of landownership http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/lands_minerals/statelandownership0101.pdf

5. My wife and I possess fee title, • as joint tenants, to a single family dwelling on a 4.7acre parcel adjoining • Hornbeam Lake in the City of • Sunfish Lake, Dakota County, MN, United States

6. Real Property Rights – permissible behavior in a particular space • Rights = power • permissible behavior defined, enforced and protected by law • impermissible behavior • Real property rights • permissible behavior with respect to real property – land and buildings – air, water, wildlife, subsurface • Private property rights • permissible behavior with respect to private property

7. Who can possess real property rights? Who can own a house? • How can real property rights be possessed? Form of ownership. How can ownership be proved? • How can those possessing real property rights exercise those rights? How can owners use the house and lot? • How can real property rights be conveyed (transferred)? How can owners transfer the ownership interests?

8. Real Property Rights • A bundle • The power to control use of the real property • The right to benefit from the real property • The power to exclude others from the real property • The right to convey all or part of the real property rights

9. SpaceBehaviorRegulated by Law

10. My wife and I possess fee title, • as joint tenants, to a single family dwelling on a 4.7acre parcel adjoining • Hornbeam Lake in the City of • Sunfish Lake, Dakota County, MN, United States • Our rights are constrained by law • the spatial extent of our rights • the behavioral extent of our rights

11. "Every man, when he enters into a society gives up part of his natural liberty, as the price of so valuable a purchase … obliges himself to conform to those laws which the community has thought proper to establish“ (William Blackstone. Commentaries of the Law of England. A Facsimile of the First Edition of 1765-1769 (1979) vol. 1 p. 121) "We think it is a settled principle, growing out of the nature of a well ordered civil society, that every holder of property, however absolute and unqualified may be his title, holds it under the implied liability that his use of it may be so regulated that it shall not be injurious to the equal enjoyment of others having an equal right to the enjoyment of their property, nor injurious to the rights of the community. All property in this commonwealth is derived directly or indirectly from the government, and held subject to those general regulations, which are necessary to the common good and the general welfare. Rights of property, like other social and conventional rights, are subject to such reasonable limitations in their enjoyment, as shall prevent them from being injurious, and to such reasonable restraints and regulations established by law, as the legislature … may think necessary and expedient“ (Commonwealth v Alger. 7 Cushing's (Massachusetts) Reports 51 at 84; 1851)

12. Law organizes space over which certain entities have power - Jurisdictions

13. Law organizes space over which certain entities have power – Ownership units

14. Section 31 Township 28 North Range 22 West

15. Modern Half–Section Map (S1/2 Section 31 T 28 N R 22 W)

17. United States State County City Township Lots and Blocks Tracts The picture is infinitely more complicated Only dealt with the land surface And with horizontal space What about vertical space? What about time? Organization of Space

18. Organization of Behaviors • Law organizes behavior through a system of  incentives (carrots) and penalties (big sticks) that coerces individuals, organizations, and governments to behave  in particular ways • Makes certain behavior more attractive/rational/profitable than another • Defines, promotes, protects, and enforces acceptable behavior • Defines, promotes, protects, and enforces unacceptable behavior • The law of a jurisdiction provides a context for the behavior of all who reside in the jurisdiction

19. A Generalized View of Property Rights

23. The behavior of landowners may concern how they choose to exercise the rights they possess that have nothing to do with real property

24. Landscapes • The visible evidence of human behavior • constructing Artifacts • producing Goods • providing Services

25. The Nature of Landscape • Our human landscape is our unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, or aspirations, and even our fears, in tangible, visible form.... All our cultural warts and blemishes are there, and our glories too; but above all, our ordinary day-to-day qualities are exhibited for anybody who wants to find them and knows how to look for them • (Peirce Lewis "Axioms for reading the landscape, some Guides to the American Scene" in Donald Meinig (ed) Interpretations of Ordinary Landscapes (New York, Oxford University Press, 1979 11-32)

26. The Nature of Landscape • Landscape comprise a mosaic of spatial units characterized by ownership & jurisdiction • Each unit comprise layers of powers – legal rights (rights described and defined by law) – to do something in the unit • The City of Sunfish Lake, Dakota County, Minnesota, United States • Both are dynamic – they have evolved over time and continue to do so • Some units and some layers make no "sense" in the current setting • They can only be appreciated with reference to an appropriate historical setting

27. Real Property and Real Property Rights • Defined by law, both federal and state, all developed out of necessity • In general states have exclusive jurisdiction over the land within their borders • State law concerning the kind of real interests that can be held and how they are created is not subject to federal law • Local government law is delegated from the state • Federal law concerns legal characteristic of individual citizens and the production of particular goods and services that move from one state to another or that has significant consequences for landowners throughout the nation

28. Census of Governments • A federal government • 50 state governments • 87,453 units of local government • 39,044 are general purpose local governments • 3,043 county governments • 36,001 subcounty general purpose governments - municipalities, towns(hips) • 48,409 are special-purpose local governments • 13,726 school district governments • 34,683 special district governments

29. Origins of Real Property Rights – Land Ownership • United States • Acquiring jurisdiction • Acquiring title - removing aboriginal occupancy and use (usufructuary) rights • Subdividing the land surface - creating an unambiguous legal description • Conveying title to the surface - creating landowners • Creating jurisdictions to guarantee titles to surface – creating dependent territories and sovereign states

31. Evolution and Spread of Real Property Rights • Territorial and State governments • Defining the nature of ownership • what is real property and what rights are defined and protected • who can acquire those rights and how • who can convey those rights and how • Defining what can be owned – legal descriptions • Defining how the legal rights will be guaranteed • Defining how the legal rights can be exercised • United States creating jurisdictions with delegated power • State government creating jurisdictions with delegated power

32. Defining & Protecting Behavior – historically • Increase in jurisdictions and legal entities that could own land – individuals, corporations, even jurisdictions • Increase in demands placed on real property – quantitatively and qualitatively • Increase in powers of jurisdictions • Increase in property rights – the "bundle” of legal rights got larger • Increase in types of real property

33. A Production Spectrum

34. Entities possessing real property rights in different spaces exercise their property rights to produce milk cows What is the cause? Entities possessing real property rights have changed their behavior - stopped exercising their property rights in a way that produces milk cows What was the cause?