What, exactly, is private property? Or, to ask the question another way, what rights to intrude does the public have in what is generally accepted as private property? The answer, perhaps surprisingly to some, is that the public has not only a significant interest in regulating the use of private property but also in defining it, and establishing its contour and texture. In The Public Nature of Private Property, therefore, scholars from the United States and the United Kingdom challenge traditional conceptions of private property while presenting a range of views on both the meaning of private property, and on the ability, some might say the requirement, of the state to regulate it.

'The Public Nature of Private Property contains a set of thought-provoking essays written by leading property law scholars, centered upon a single motif involving the nature of property. Modern property discourse usually adopts a frame portraying private property and public regulation as antagonists. From this perspective the task is to decide when private property rights must bend to protect or serve other public interests. These contributions reframe the debate by adopting a different vantage point. Public regulation can be seen as part of the definition of private property, rather than an incursion on property. The reframing has value for two reasons. First, it more accurately reflects the centuries-old history of how the Anglo-American understanding of property has evolved. Second, it enhances the discourse by putting the two strains, private and public property rights, on a level playing field.' James Charles Smith, University of Georgia, USA 'The Public Nature of Private Property is a valuable resource both for the academic property lawyer and the academic administrative lawyer.' The Cambrian Law Review

Robin Paul Malloy is E.I. White Chair and Distinguished Professor of Law at Syracuse University, and editor of Ashgate's Law, Property and Society series. Michael Diamond is Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and author of Corporations: A Contemporary Approach (Carolina Academic Press, 2008).