ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a new understanding of the law and morality of adverse possession based on a view of the adverse possessor, not as a land thief nor as a deserving laborer, but rather as someone akin to the leader of a bloodless coup d'etat. The relationship between adverse possession and the legitimacy of post-revolution government is mostly one of analogy. The chapter provides an overview of the three models of adverse possession, which rely upon strikingly different conceptions of ownership and possession. The importance of effective authority to the owner's position continues the analogy between ownership and sovereignty. Social order requires that someone wield ownership authority in the former case, and public authority in the latter. The rehabilitation of the adverse possessor avoids vacancies in the property system just as the rehabilitation of the new ruler following a coup d'etat maintains the possibility of political authority and civil society.
