The Development of the Bundle View and its Critics

Forschungsprojekt

For most of the 20^th century, the idea of a ‘bundle of rights’ or ‘bundle of sticks’ has been regarded as the property paradigm in the United States, despite the lack of a unified interpretation of this concept. However, since the late 20^th century, criticism of this paradigm (which I refer to as the ‘bundle view’) has intensified. Based on a shared understanding of the property concept, a group of scholars known as the ‘new essentialists’ have developed the essentialist property view as a new property paradigm in an attempt to replace the bundle view.

According to Thomas Kuhn’s theory, a paradigm shift is typically accompanied by a crisis in the old paradigm. My thesis aims to clarify whether the current criticism of the bundle view by the new essentialists is accurate. In other words, has the bundle view faced or is it about to face a conceptual crisis? To address this question, the first half of my thesis will trace the historical development of the bundle view from its inception to its establishment as the dominant paradigm, emphasizing its specific claims and their evolution. The second half will focus on assessing the criticisms of the bundle view by the new essentialists. After summarizing the current critiques of the bundle view, their accuracy will be assessed. The assessment will be based not only on the specific content of the critiques but also on the objective of the critiques themselves, exploring whether the new essentialists are presenting a distorted image of the bundle view for the purpose of criticism.