Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives

Michael Heller and James Salzman

Michael Heller and James Salzman are lawyers and teachers. In Mine!, they explore the full spectrum of who owns what and why. “Mine” might be one of the first words we learn as kids, applied to that struggle over a pail and shovel in a sandbox. We carry that forward throughout our lives into adult struggles with possession concerning house selling and buying, divorce agreements, and wills and estates. From the simple concepts of “possession is nine-tenths of the law” to “first come, first served” to just what exactly copyright includes, we find out that most of our basic concepts of ownership are wrong. Heller and Salzman set up simple examples and then deconstruct the challenges of ownership—for instance, that space in front of your seat on a plane. You set your laptop on your tray table and begin work when the person in front of you decides to recline their seat, shoving your work into your lap. Airlines sell that space twice: to you, and to the traveller in front of you. So who does it belong to? Their examples are commonplace experiences and easy to understand (or to think we understand). They deconstruct complex applications of law and possession with ease, expertise and engaging dollops of humour.