Regulations, like other legal instruments, often arrive in lumps. An agency, for example, can issue a rule addressing many different subjects, each of which could be split off and issued as a separate regulation.
November
2024
Slices and Lumps Symposium
Law engages aggregation and division in at least one additional, closely related way: law must sometimes decide the proper unit of analysis not just in deciding whether the law has been violated, but also to decide what body of law applies.
One of the many virtues of Lee Fennell’s terrific new book, Slices & Lumps: Division and Aggregation in Law and Life, is her insistence that property scholars vigilantly seek out gaps in existing arrangements. Where there’s a gap, there’s an opportunity to unlock suppressed value.
A popular tweet (popular to a certain segment of folks roughly 250,000 strong, at least) chants, “Who are we? Single young professionals. What do we want? For perishable groceries to be sold in smaller portion sizes.”
Spend too long within the pages of Lee Fennell’s Slices and Lumps and you begin to see slices and lumps everywhere.