PROPERTY LAW EXAMINATION REVIEW
Advance Reading Material
Question One: A Statement of Progressive Property
Property operates as both an idea and institution conception of property as
protection of individual control over valued resources
Property implicates plural and incommensurable values
o Some of the values promote individual interests, wants, needs, desires and
preferences, some promote social interests and others govern human
interaction
o Values are not solely about personal preferences but generate moral demands
and obligations
o Values promoted by property include life and human flourishing, the protection
of physical security, the ability to acquire knowledge and make choices, etc.
Alexander’s Social Obligation Norm
o The pursuit of these values implicates moral and political conceptions of social
relationships, just distribution and democracy Locke would agree with exclusion
but argue that increasing utility of land is good; AGAINST
o Plural values implicated by property are incommensurable as they relate to
qualitatively distinct aspects of human experience, they cannot be adequately
understood or analysed through a single merit reducing values to health,
friendship, human dignity and environmental integrity to one thing distorts their
intrinsic worth AGAINST? Neglecting to consider the benefits derived from
exclusive position distorts/neglects to take into account it’s extrinsic/intrinsic
worth?
Property confers power and allocates scarce resources; because of the equal value for
human life, property laws should promote the ability of each person to obtain the
material resources necessary for full social and political participation
Property enables and shapes community life; property law can make relationships
exploitative and humiliating or liberating and ennobling; property law should establish
the social life free and democratic Hegel emphasises development as a person so
believes that recreational easements enables social participation and social life
necessary for a free society
Question Two A: Bringing Beaches Back to Life
The act of raking or fluffing the top inches of a beach which loosen the rocks and mid,
and old clam shells – performed by First National ‘knowledge holders’
o When tide comes back in it will flush out rotting organic matter
o This is known as a clam garden, an ancient indigenous form of mariculture
o Skye Augustine (Stz’uminus First Nation) has begun the first clam garden
rehabilitation in Gulf Islands, BC
, Prior to colonization, clam gardens offered sustainable food for coastal nations
o Offered 300% more productiveness and clams grew larger and faster than now
o Oldest clam garden was 3,500 years ago which prove that First Nations were not
only foragers but also had established agricultural practices these ideas
justified displacing the communities from their ancestral lands and criminalizing
of traditional practices
Nicole Norris: they are stewards of the land, the same land their ancestors walked, and
they are completing the work they started
o Anticipating bringing younger generations to the beaches to harvest again
o Many locals have said that certain birds and plants are returning
In addition to providing food, clam gardens have provided opportunity for family
bonding, teaching of the environment, sharing stories, language and spiritual ties
o One of the most important things about restoring the places is that it restores
people’s relationships with them
o Clam gardens help to challenge the idea that the only relationship humans can
have with nature is a rapacious one
Question Two B: Kwakwaka’wakw Clam Gardens
Abstract
o The indigenous peoples of the West Coast of North America managed natural
resources in diverse ways, one was clam beds
Over the last 15 years, assessment of practices and managements of plant and fish
resources have expanded the representations of the aboriginals as Hunter-Gatherers
o This has turned attention to clam gardens in coastal BC
o History: clam gardens were distinct from natural clam beds, constructed to
provide a productive and predictable food resource
Clam gardens of the Kwakwaka’wakw
o Clams were also a key resource, contributing to stability and food security of
coastal communities
o There is archaeological records of occupancy over 10,000 years or more showing
reliance on clams and shellfish
Context of Kwaxsistalla’s training
o He was hidden from police by his parents when they came to take children to
residential schools
o He grew up being taught the ways, stories and food harvesting of his people,
later he became an educator, Clan Chief, potlatch director and commercial
fisherman
Clams in the culture and subsistence and culture
o Clams are nutritious and high in protein, omega3, fatty acids, vit b12, and
minerals
o Clams were generally only gathered in winter months
, o The shells are also useful; to scrap beaver hides, crushed and used in gardens,
containers
Cultural context of the Loxiwey
o Clams are featured in a number of cultural performances, suggesting their
importance in antiquity
o There are oral traditions being associated with the distant time of spirit being
before the advent of modern humanity
o The people have the same voice as the animals, humans maintained and
enhanced the habitats of culturally preferred species, guided by notions of
reciprocity and responsibility to the species on which they depended
They were motivated to ensure that clams were able to thriv e and
have their needs met – if this was done, the interests and needs of
humans would be returned in harvest
o They were also used for trade
o “wherever you see clam shells, that’s where people lived” – clams were a source
of food in winter when regular food may have been sparse and clans travelled
about their territory
When the salmon run was over, sometimes Chiefs had to mobilize their
people to the clam gardens
Thus, the clam gardens appear to have helped facilitate large and stable
populations prior to European arrival
o Also used to enhance ecosystem for other animals and attracted small animals
that could be hunted around the clam gardens for extra food
During colonization
o Disease resulted in rapid population decrease, but also a decrease in the need
for resources
o The important point during these years was ensuring the continuity of social and
ceremonial practices in the face of disruptive changes, using traditionally
harvested natural resources
o These traditional resources allowed families to enter into cash economy or
maintain themselves after fur trapping declined
Discussion
o It is now known the aboriginals had sophisticated and purposive mechanisms for
resources
o Oral traditions suggest that these functions bolstered social demographic,
economic stability and myriad implications for inter-village rank and relations
Question Three A: Among the ‘Property Guardians’
Rectory Gardens, a residential mew in Clapham Old Town is being emptied and will
likely then be changed into guardians
o Guardians are people who pay the company to live in disused buildings
