chevron-down Created with Sketch Beta.
Professors' Corner

Professors' Corner: The Commodification of Public Land Records

Professors' Corner is a monthly webinar which features a panel of law professors, discussing recent cases or issues of interest to real estate or trust and estate practitioners and scholars. The Professor's Corner Webinar is sponsored by the Joint Legal Education and Uniform Laws Group of the ABA Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law

Joint Legal Education and Uniform Laws Group
Access to property

Access to property

(Source: GettyImages.com)

Professors' Corner: The Commodification of Public Land Records

Recorded on August 10, 2021

Speakers:

  • Panelists: Stewart E. Sterk, Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
  • Professor Reid Weisbord, Rutgers Law School

Moderator

  • Benjamin Orzeske, Uniform Law Commission

The computerization of land records has created a marketable commodity independent of the deed recording system’s traditional notice-giving function. Content extracted from public land records is now actively traded on the internet and routinely purchased by commercial firms for targeted marketing and customer prospecting. While the accessibility of data from public land records is a win for transparency, the erosion of privacy can dangerously equip wrongdoers with on-demand entrée to personal information. The panelists will trace the deed recording system’s transformation from a notice-giving mechanism of property law to a primary supplier of commodified data for sale. They will survey the traditional functions of deed recording, describe the recent migration of deeds from paper to electronic form as the predicate for commodification, and consider the implications of electronic disclosure for privacy, transparency, and the regulation of anonymous entity ownership. The panelists will also discuss the efficacy of proposed legislative reforms and outline voluntary precautions that homeowners can implement under existing law.

The content of this program does not meet requirements for continuing legal education (CLE) accreditation. You will not receive CLE credit for for this program or any Professors’ Corner programs.

This content is for Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section members only. Please login now to view recording.

Learn more about the RPTE Section member benefits

 

Click To Access the Recording

This webinar will expire on August 2022.

Entity:
Topic:
The material in all ABA publications is copyrighted and may be reprinted by permission only. Request reprint permission here.