ABSTRACT

As an opening section of the book, this chapter lays down some of the foundational premises of the legal analysis of land. In particular, it presses a conceptual distinction between land and property – whilst identifying the fact that conceiving land as property flattens its understanding and does not, in any manner, encapsulate the core sociology of the resource, the chapter goes on to conduct a detailed assessment of the constitutional conception of property. It argues for reconsidering the interpretation provided to the right to property as having an inherent element of redistribution and reform. It contests the dominant idea that the right to property stood against the government agenda of redistribution and instead states that after the First and Fourth Amendments, the legislature had created a specific place for land reform laws in the Constitution. Recognizing the predominant paradigm of property, it also lays down a theoretical framework for the idea of property to be inclusive of an equality element along with those of liberty and freedom.