Canadian law student Jacob Kaufman has posted this interesting article about property law in the Lord of the Rings. I actually once created a handout for my Property class on how LOTR is really about the different modes of property acquisition. Sadly, literary critics have neglected this crucial aspect of Tolkien’s masterpiece for too long. Fortunately, property professors and students in at least two countries have begun to fill the gap in the scholarly literature. Below the fold is my handout. You will never see the Ring the same way again. It turns out that property law is even more important in Tolkien’s work than in Jane Austen’s.
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