Introduction

This book is the result of the fifth meeting of the Young Property Lawyers Forum (YPLF), which took place at Wadham College, Oxford, in September 2014. The YPLF is an informal network of junior property law researchers, which is primarily aimed at doctoral researchers but also includes researchers who obtained their doctorates within the last 5 years. The YPLF aims to bring property law scholars together from around the world and enable them to discuss their work with each other and with more experienced researchers. It provides an informal setting for young researchers to discuss innovative ideas and research in the area of property law, and to seek support in solving problems and improving their research. Property law is here taken in the widest sense of the term, encompassing fields such as EU property law, comparative property law, virtual property law, constitutional property law, environmental property law, property rights in land, water and volumes of space, and property law theory. As wide-ranging as these fields are, they all share a vision on how to give shape to the property law of the 21st century. Key to this vision is that property law is no longer confined to the borders of a single jurisdiction; that it is influenced by both legal and technological developments (e.g. in EU law, internet, social media, etc.); and that the interaction with other fields of law is crucial. The YPLF continues to form a network for property law researchers around the world with new conferences and publications for both junior and more advanced scholars. It is accompanied by this book series, Property Law Perspectives (PLP), in which the participants’ papers are published. Past meetings of the YPLF have been held in Edinburgh (2009), Maastricht (2011), Stellenbosch (2012) and Leuven (2013). The latter three led to the publication of volumes I, II and III of Property Law Perspectives. The present volume, PLP IV, forms the most recent addition.

Renewed attention for the roots of property law

The papers presented at the YPLF are generally representative of the rapid developments currently taking place in property law and of the expansion of the field (or our understanding of it) to include aspects of environmental law, constitutional law, EU law, and internet law, to name a few.