Article: The Nature of Leasing

Yun-chien Chang (Cornell Law School) and Thomas Merrill (Columbia University – Law School) recently published, The Nature of Leasing, 2025. Provided below is an Abstract: 

Leases at the common law are said to be a property form becoming increasingly contractual, while leases in the civil law are said to be a type of contract becoming “reified” and hence increasingly like property. Leases in the common and civil law worlds thus begin with very different starting points but, over time, have moved toward a hybrid form. This does not mean that starting points do not matter. The different legal systems around the world are not converging toward a unified conception of a lease. Advancing a conceptual theory of the distinction between property and contract, we argue that lease law in common law jurisdictions (primarily the U.S., England, Canada, and Australia) and 86 civil law jurisdictions reveal significant overlap along some dimensions, but continued divergence on others.