Chapter 10 surveys the history, the concepts and the institutions of property in premodern India, China, the Near East, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Formal rules of ownership and inheritance formed the basis of all premodern legal regimes and undergirded economic performance (for instance, growth), as has been frequently stressed by New Institutional Economists. The enforcement of property rights reveals a good deal about the diverse economies, environments and cultures of premodern societies. The chapter summarizes the sources for property rights, which are rich and varied; and the control and use of resources occupy a considerable part of private legal documentation in all premodern systems that have yielded written material.

In Defense of Property: begins by cataloging various types of property and the ways in which Indigenous and European conceptions of property differ. It then proceeds to illustrate ways in which those conceptions have been stereotyped, thus leading to mistaken assumptions about the incompatibility of the two approaches. Carpenter, Katyal, and Riley conclude that using the concepts of fiduciary duty and stewardship found in both approaches can supply a foundation for bridging the different conceptions of property.