ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the interdisciplinarity of real property law and ecology, by examining relationships between people, land, and nature. We explore these relationships through a social-ecological systems lens that conceptualises real property as land that is inseparable from place. Through this lens, place is defined by environmental context and by the interconnections between living and non-living systems connected to land, including ecosystems as well as legal, policy, and planning systems. We consider land as a life support that has a carrying capacity, whose function includes serving the various needs of current and future generations, and in relation to which people as rightsholders have a concomitant responsibility as custodians and as stewards. Both property law and ecology are relationships-oriented disciplines that define life on land; rarely studied together, each is inherently tied to sustainability and linked by the life-sustaining interdependencies between people and nature. In the context of Australia’s Anglo-rooted dominant property law system, we offer our thoughts on the stewardship responsibility and on practical tools to revitalise our connection to place.
