Are some things so personal that they should not really be considered property at all? Reinterpreting Property makes a major contribution toward redefining and humanizing the way our society conceives of property and, ultimately, itself. This collection of essays by one of the country's leading property theorists revitalizes the liberal personality theory of property. Departing from traditional libertarian and economic theories of property. Margaret Jane Radin argues that the law should take into account non-monetary personal value attached to property - and that some things, such as bodily integrity, are so personal they should not be considered property at all. Gathered here are pieces ranging from Radin's classic early essay on property and personhood to her recent works on governmental "taking" of private property.

Boilerplate--the fine-print terms and conditions that we become subject to when we click "I agree" online, rent an apartment, enter an employment contract, sign up for a cellphone carrier, or buy travel tickets--pervades all aspects of our modern lives. On a daily basis, most of us accept boilerplate provisions without realizing that should a dispute arise about a purchased good or service, the nonnegotiable boilerplate terms can deprive us of our right to jury trial and relieve providers of responsibility for harm. "Boilerplate" is the first comprehensive treatment of the problems posed by the increasing use of these terms, demonstrating how their use has degraded traditional notions of consent, agreement, and contract, and sacrificed core rights whose loss threatens the democratic order.

Margaret Jane Radin examines attempts to justify the use of boilerplate provisions by claiming either that recipients freely consent to them or that economic efficiency demands them, and she finds these justifications wanting. She argues, moreover, that our courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies have fallen short in their evaluation and oversight of the use of boilerplate clauses. To improve legal evaluation of boilerplate, Radin offers a new analytical framework, one that takes into account the nature of the rights affected, the quality of the recipient's consent, and the extent of the use of these terms. Radin goes on to offer possibilities for new methods of boilerplate evaluation and control, among them the bold suggestion that tort law rather than contract law provides a preferable analysis for some boilerplate schemes. She concludes by discussing positive steps that NGOs, legislators, regulators, courts, and scholars could take to bring about better practices.

The Internet Age has created vast and ubiquitous databases of personal information in universities, corporations, government agencies, and doctors' offices. Every week, stories of databases being compromised appear in the news. Yet, despite the fact that lost laptops and insecure computer servers jeopardize our privacy, privacy and security are typically considered in isolation. Advocates of privacy have sought to protect individuals from snooping corporations, while advocates of security have sought to protect corporations from snooping individuals. Securing Privacy in the Internet Age aims to merge the discussion of these two goals. The book brings together many of the world's leading academics, litigators, and public policy advocates to work towards enhancing privacy and security. While the traditional adversary of privacy advocates has been the government, in what they see as the role of the Orwellian Big Brother, the principal focus of this book is the fraternity of Little Brothers-the corporations and individuals who seek to profit from gathering personal information about others.

Boilerplate--the fine-print terms and conditions that we become subject to when we click "I agree" online, rent an apartment, enter an employment contract, sign up for a cellphone carrier, or buy travel tickets--pervades all aspects of our modern lives. On a daily basis, most of us accept boilerplate provisions without realizing that should a dispute arise about a purchased good or service, the nonnegotiable boilerplate terms can deprive us of our right to jury trial and relieve providers of responsibility for harm. Boilerplate is the first comprehensive treatment of the problems posed by the increasing use of these terms, demonstrating how their use has degraded traditional notions of consent, agreement, and contract, and sacrificed core rights whose loss threatens the democratic order. Margaret Jane Radin examines attempts to justify the use of boilerplate provisions by claiming either that recipients freely consent to them or that economic efficiency demands them, and she finds these justifications wanting. She argues, moreover, that our courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies have fallen short in their evaluation and oversight of the use of boilerplate clauses. To improve legal evaluation of boilerplate, Radin offers a new analytical framework, one that takes into account the nature of the rights affected, the quality of the recipient's consent, and the extent of the use of these terms. Radin goes on to offer possibilities for new methods of boilerplate evaluation and control, among them the bold suggestion that tort law rather than contract law provides a preferable analysis for some boilerplate schemes. She concludes by discussing positive steps that NGOs, legislators, regulators, courts, and scholars could take to bring about better practices.

How far should society go in permitting people to buy and sell goods and services? Should they be able to treat such things as babies, body parts, and sex as commodities that can be traded in a free market? Should politics be thought of as just economics by another name? Margaret Jane Radin addresses these controversial issues in a detailed exploration of contested commodification. Economists, lawyers, policy analysts, and social theorists have been sharply divided between those who believe that commodifying some goods naturally tends to devalue them and those who believe that almost everything is legitimate grist for the market mill. In recent years, the free market position has been gaining strength. In this book, Radin provides a nuanced response to its sweeping generalization. Not only are there willing buyers for body parts or babies, Radin observes, but some desperately poor people would be willing sellers, while better-off people find such trades abhorrent. Radio argues that many such areas of contested commodification reflect a persistent dilemma in liberal society: we value freedom of choice and simultaneously believe that choices ought to be restricted to protect the integrity of what it means to be a person. She views this tension as primarily the result of underlying social and economic inequalities, which need not reflect an irreconcilable conflict in the premises of liberal democracy.