Review of Jesse Dukeminier and James E. Krier, Property (4th Edition 1998)
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Professors Dukeminier and Krier's property casebook is reputed to be the market leader in Property casebooks; I have heard estimates that it has as much as a fifty percent market share. This position is well-deserved-the casebook is thorough, comprehensive, well-written, error free, and, a significant feature for new teachers, has the best teacher's manual I have encountered for any casebook in any subject. IBM once sold computers because "No one ever got fired for choosing IBM." An analogous claim can be made for this casebook-no one ever provoked significant faculty or student unrest by choosing Dukeminier and Krier. In this review, I will concentrate on two perspectives on the book. I first taught Property in the spring 1998 semester (using the third edition of Dukeminier and Krier) and am (as I write this) about to begin my second year of teaching the course. I can thus give the perspective of a new teacher of the subject. In addition, I am an economist as well as a lawyer and am deeply fascinated by legal history. I try to bring both law and economics and historical perspectives to my teaching. I therefore offer an evaluation of the book with respect to its ambitions in those areas.
