Awards

• Nominated for David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History or Biography 2008
• Nominated for Herbert Jacob Book Prize 2009
• Nominated for Littleton-Griswold Prize 2009
• Nominated for Pfizer Award 2010

Overview

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9780674030824

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Reviews

[An] engaging book...Historically, British and then US common law declared that property in one's land extended from the center of the earth to the heavens. Yet ownership of the sky was all but impossible until the inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries made it accessible. At the very moment that ownership was possible, laws recognizing that property right were challenged. Banner narrates a terrific story, discussing how technology, first with the balloon and then other air travel, challenged the law and eventually changed it. The book weaves together the Wright brothers, legal scholarship, the emergence of the airline industry, and eventually the Supreme Court, offering fascinating details about the law on airspace. These changes climax first in a landmark decision by the Supreme Court clarifying airspace property rights, and then the 1967 Outer Space Treaty declaring the universe a common heritage beyond ownership...This is a fun, well-written, and informative book. -- D. Schultz Choice (06/01/2009)

Author Information

Stuart Banner is Norman Abrams Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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