Abstract
‘Rights of property and their regulation’ illustrates that the law of property was at the centre of early American society and governance. By the early nineteenth century, two ideas about property were coexisting in property rights cases: firstly, that rights of property were inherent in American citizenship and held against state regulation, and secondly, that the police power of the state could regulate property to promote public health, safety, or morals. The legal history of property rights in America has been shaped by the interplay between these searches for profitable uses of private property and governmental efforts to ensure that an appropriate share of the resulting profits are put to beneficial public use.
