Florida Property Law, Volume 1

Florida Property Law adds two innovative features to the traditional mode of teaching the basic property course — a learning-by-doing approach and a focus on the law of one jurisdiction. In order to provide students with a deliberative learning-by-doing approach, this book is designed to present a hypothetical problem in advance of class so that the student can prepare an answer on his own for later discussion and evaluation in class. Each problem in the book is designed to be solved by reading, analyzing and applying the cases and materials that accompany it. Speed of analysis is no longer a primary factor for success in the classroom. The problems are more complex than those presented ad hoc by the teacher in class, and emphasis is now placed on the student's proactive analytical abilities to solve issues on her own.

The five chapters in the book that are devoted to estates and future interests are designed with problem sets instead of hypothetical problems. This area of the law is best learned by working through several short fact patterns rather than the long fact pattern found in the hypothetical problems. Answers to the problem sets are provided at the end of each chapter.

A second feature of this book, in addition to the problems and problem sets attached to the chapters, is the adoption of cases and materials primarily within one jurisdiction to expound the law. The traditional assignment of cases from several jurisdictions gives the impression that we have one common law jurisdiction when, in fact, each state has its own. Only by studying the law of one jurisdiction consistently can one start to appreciate law as a well-integrated whole, each of whose parts is dependent on the rest. Only within the context of a single jurisdiction does the law truly become a seamless web.

Florida is an ideal jurisdiction to study because most of its law conforms with the rules and principles of property law that are generally accepted throughout the states. When a rule or principle differs radically from the rest of the states, that fact is indicated. When a rule or principle to govern a particular issue is undecided in Florida, cases from other jurisdictions are offered to provide an opportunity for students to argue policy reasons for or against adoption of the rule in Florida. This absence of law on a particular point of law in Florida makes the policy argument real in the sense that it will probably have to be made one day in the Floridacourts or legislature.