While the idea sounds absurd today, up until the 1940s it was not uncommon for property deeds to include clauses that restricted the sale of property to whites only. In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled against these racially restrictive covenants and the practice was outlawed in 1968 by the Fair Housing Act.

Yale and Arizona law professor Carol M. Rose will discuss, “Property Law and the Rise, Life, and Demise of Racially Restrictive Covenants,” at the sixth annual Wolf Family Lecture on the American Law of Real Property at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. The lecture will be March 13, at 11 a.m. in the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center courtroom, and will also be available as a live webcast. The event is free and open to the public.

The Wolf Family Lecture will offer valuable insights for property law students, as well as those interested in constitutional law and students involved with the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations.

Rose is the Gordon Bradford Tweedy Professor Emeritus of Law, and Organization and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, and the Lohse Chair in Water and Natural Resources at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. Her book, Saving the Neighborhood: Racially Restrictive Covenants, Law, and Social Norms (Harvard University Press), which she co-authored with Yale Law Professor Richard Brooks, will be available March 11.

The Wolf Family Lecture Series was endowed by a gift from UF Law Professor Michael Allan Wolf, who holds the Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law, and his wife, Betty. Wolf is the general editor of a 17-volume treatise, Powell on Real Property. The treatise is the most referenced real property treatise in the country and is cited regularly by the courts, including several citations in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Wolf family’s strong ties to the University of Florida date back to the 1930s, when Wolf’s father, Leonard Wolf, was a UF undergraduate. Since that time, two more generations of his descendants have made their way to Gainesville to study and work.

Past scholars who have delivered the Wolf Family Lecture in the American Law of Real Property include Thomas W. Merrill, Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law at Columbia Law School; Gregory S. Alexander, A. Robert Noll Professor of Law at Cornell Law School; Lee Fennel, Max Pam Professor of Law at the University of Chicago; Joseph William Singer, Bussey Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School; and Vicki L. Been, Boxer Family Professor of Law and director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University School of Law.

Harvard legal expert Joseph Singer, a nationally recognized expert in property law, will deliver the fourth Wolf Family Lecture at UF Law tomorrow at 11 a.m. (Photo by Phil Farnsworth, Harvard Law School)

By Matt Walker
Senior Writer

The fourth annual Wolf Family Lecture on the American Law of Real Property will explore how American property law helped serve as the foundation for democracy in the United States.

Harvard Law School Professor Joseph Singer, a nationally recognized expert in property law, will deliver the lecture titled, “Property Law as the Infrastructure of Democracy,” tomorrow at 11 a.m. in the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

“The subprime crisis has confronted us with the problems that come from too little regulation,” Singer said. “But debates about how to prevent a reoccurrence are hampered by the libertarian idea that regulations inevitably take away our freedom. On the contrary, freedom is not possible without the rule of law.”

Singer said regulation is just another word for law: “To see how law promotes freedom, we have only to consider the legal framework of property in a free and democratic society.”

Singer argues that regulations do not take away our freedom, but are what make us free. He said markets work only because of consumer protection and other regulatory laws. The history of American property law and its protections are also important in understanding and appreciating the democratic society we live in today.

“The history and structure of property law give us a better understanding of the legal framework of a free and democratic society that aspires to treat each person with equal concern and respect.”

“We are delighted to have Professor Singer visit UF law,” said UF Law Professor Christine Klein. “His work is always thought-provoking and insightful, making him one of today’s pre-eminent property law scholars.”

The Wolf Family Lecture in the American Law of Real Property was endowed by a gift from UF Law Professor Michael Allan Wolf and his wife, Betty. Wolf, the Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law, is the general editor of a 17-volume treatise,Powell on Real Property, the most referenced real property treatise in the country, which is regularly cited by the courts, including several citations in the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I am thrilled that Professor Singer will have the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with our impressive students and our first-class faculty,” said Wolf.

Past scholars who have delivered the Wolf Family Lecture in the American Law of Real Property include Thomas W. Merrill, Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law at Columbia Law School; Gregory S. Alexander, A. Robert Noll Professor of Law at Cornell Law School; and Lee Fennel, professor of law at the University of Chicago.

This event is free and open to the public.