1113 | Right to Property

This Elective course is offered to students of the BA LLB (III, IV & V Year), LLM and MPP (II Year) programme.

This course will focus on theoretical debates on property rights and cover the trajectory of the fundamental right to property in India, the most debated and most litigated fundamental right in Indian constitutional history and the only right to be abolished.

This course will build on the Constitutional Law courses, Property law course, as well as the “Law, Poverty, and Development” course in the NLSIU curriculum, and courses on “Land Laws” that are also offered in some law schools. In addition, this course will build on learnings in some of the social science courses, like history, political science, economics, and sociology.

Describe how you have approached the course. What have you included/excluded and why? Choice of materials: primary or secondary readings / case law;

This course will consist of a blend of theory, history, constitutional and statutory law, and political economy of property. In excavating the history of a dead right, this course will provoke discussions on the intersection of constitutionalism, democracy, rule of law, rights and economic development.

There are four parts of the course.

1.        Theories of Property

2.        Evolution of Fundamental Right to Property before the Constitution

3.        Fundamental Right to Property from adoption to abolition

4.        No longer fundamental: The Right to Property post the 44th Amendment.

The goal of the course is to understand the issue of the “right to property” from the perspective of its theoretical underpinnings to its constitutional moorings and finally its effectuation in statutory law and actual practical experience on the ground.

Readings will include primary materials like Supreme Court and High Court judicial decisions, and laws. Secondary materials will include book chapters and journal articles.