SLICES AND LUMPS: DIVISION AND AGGREGATION IN LAW AND LIFE

Presented by Lee Fennell, Max Pam Professor of Law

Configuration—how things are divided up or pieced together—shapes nearly every facet of law, policy, and everyday life. From “lumpy goods” like bridges and highways that are valuable only when complete, to resources and assets that become more valuable when artfully subdivided, human well-being depends on assembling useful lumps and carving out useful slices. As increasing urbanization and environmental threats raise the stakes for assembling resources and cooperation, new business models are refining the segments in which we produce and consume. This talk will examine problems of slicing and lumping, as well as connections between them, in contexts ranging from eminent domain to the sharing economy.

Lee Fennell joined the Law School faculty in 2007, having previously served as a Bigelow Fellow from 1999 to 2001. In the intervening years, she taught at the University of Texas School of Law from 2001 to 2004 and at the University of Illinois College of Law from 2004 to 2007. She has also held visiting positions at Yale Law School, NYU School of Law, and the University of Virginia School of Law. She received her JD magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1990. Before teaching law, she practiced at Pettit & Martin, the State and Local Legal Center, and the Virginia School Boards Association.

Her teaching and research interests include property, torts, land use, housing, social welfare law, state and local government law, and public finance. She is the author of The Unbounded Home: Property Values Beyond Property Lines (Yale University Press 2009) and Slices and Lumps: Division and Aggregation in Law and Life (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming Fall 2019), as well as many articles and essays.

Registration will begin at 11:30 a.m. followed by lunch at 12 noon.

The University Club of Chicago
76 East Monroe Street
Chicago, Illinois

Business or business casual attire required. There is no charge for this event.