John Lovett
De Van D. Daggett, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law
Education
J.D., Tulane University, 1995
M.F.A., Indiana University, 1991
B.A., Haverford College, 1988
Departments
- College of Law
- Law
Expertise
- Louisiana Civil Law
- Property Law
Bio
John A. Lovett has been a member of the faculty at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law since 2002. His teaching and scholarship focus on property law in common, civil, and mixed jurisdictions. Professor Lovett has published many articles in law reviews in the United States, Europe, and South Africa and contributed numerous chapters to books published in the United States and abroad. He is a co-author of Louisiana Property Law: The Civil Code, Cases, and Commentary (2d edition, Carolina Academic Press 2020).
Professor Lovett has been involved in and led many law reform activities. Most recently, he served as Reporter for the Uniform Law Commission’s Drafting Committee for the Uniform Easement Relocation Act, which was approved and recommended for adoption in all 50 states by the Uniform Law Commission on July 15, 2020. He also served as the Reporter for the Public Recreation Access Task Force Report, submitted to the Louisiana Legislature in January 2020.
Professor Lovett has served as Chair of the Property and Real Estate Transactions Sections of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) and has served as contributing editor to the ABA journal, Probate and Property. In the fall of 2009, Professor Lovett was a McCormick Fellow at the University of Edinburgh Law School. He held the title of Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh Law School from September 2017 until August 2020 and was recently appointed as Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh. From 2012 to 2015, Professor Lovett served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Academic Affairs at Loyola. He is a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL).
Professor Lovett received a B.A. from Haverford College in 1988, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Indiana University-Bloomington in 1991, and a J.D. from Tulane Law School in 1995, where he graduated Order of the Coif and served as an Articles Editor for the Tulane Law Review.
Classes Taught
Civil Law Property
Property, Land Use, and Justice
Louisiana Sale and Lease
Land Use
Areas of Expertise
Property law in civil law, common law and mixed jurisdictions, land use and real estate transactions.
Publications
Case Books
Louisiana Property Law: The Civil Code, Cases, and Commentary (Second Edition, Carolina Academic Press 2020) (with Markus G. Puder and Evelyn L. Wilson).
Louisiana Property Law: The Civil Code, Cases, and Commentary (Carolina Academic Press 2014) (with Markus G. Puder and Evelyn L. Wilson).
Articles
Oil, Trees, and Water: Evaluating the Transition from Natural Property Rights to Property Conventions, __ Tex. A&M J. Prop. L. ___ (forthcoming Spring 2023).
Adverse Possesion by the State, 69 Loy. L. Rev. 1 (2023) (with Björn Hoops).
Easements on the Move: The Uniform Easement Relocation Act, 37 No. 5 Prob. & Prop., 40 (Sept./Oct. 2022)
Easements and Change, 74 Baylor L. Rev. 1 (2022).
Restating the Law of Prescriptive Easements, 104 Marquette L. Rev. 939 (2021).
Community Land Trusts: Institutionalizing the Human Flourishing Theory of Property, 29 Cornell J. L. Pub. Pol. 621 (2020).
The Parable of Portobello: Lessons and Questions from the First Urban Acquisition under the Scottish Community Right to Buy Regime, 80 Mont. L. Rev. 211 (2019) (with Malcolm Combe).
Good Faith in Louisiana Property Law, 78 La. L. Rev. 1163 (2018).
Moving to Higher Ground, Protecting and Relocating Communities in Response to Climate Change, 42 Vt. L. Rev. 25 (2017).
Disseisin, Doubt, and Debate: Adverse Possession Scholarship in the United States (1881-1986), 5 Tex. A&M L. Rev. 1 (2017).
Precarious Possession, 77 La. L. Rev. 618 (2017).
Tragedy or Triumph in Post-Katrina New Orleans?: Reflections on Possession, Dispossession, Demographic Change and Affordable Housing, 40 Fordham Urb. L. J. City Square 22 (2013), available at http://urbanlawjournal.com/3-tragedy-or-triumph-in-post-katrina-new-orleans-by-john-a-lovett/ , reprinted in 23 Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development 289 (2015).
Love, Loyalty, and the Louisiana Civil Code: Rules, Standards and Hybrid Discretion in a Mixed Jurisdiction, 72 La. L. Rev. 923 (2012).
The Right of Responsible Access Meets the Right to Exclude: Scotland’s Bold Experiment in Public Access Legislation, 26 No.2, Prob. & Prop. 52 (Mar.-April 2012).
Progressive Property in Action: The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, 89 Neb. L. Rev. 739 (2011).
Meditations on Strathclyde: Controlling Private Land Use Restrictions at the Crossroads of Legal Systems, 36 Syracuse J. Int’l L. & Comm. 1 (2008).
Creating and Controlling Private Land Use Restrictions in Scotland and Louisiana: A Comparative Mixed Jurisdiction Analysis, 2008 (2) Stellenbosch L. Rev. 231.
Property and Radically Changed Circumstances: Hurricane Katrina and Beyond, 74 Tenn. L. Rev. 463 (2007).
Doctrines of Waste in a Landscape of Waste, 72 Mo. L. Rev. 1209 (2007).
Rebuilding a Region: Housing Recovery Efforts in the Wake of Katrina and Rita, 20 No. 5 Prob. & Prop. 49 (Sept./Oct. 2006).
A New Way: Servitude Relocation in Scotland and Louisiana, 9 Edinburgh L. Rev. 352 (2005).
A Bend in the Road: Easement Relocation and Pliability in the New Restatement (Third) of Property: Servitudes, 38 Conn. L. Rev. 1 (2005).
On the Principle of Legal Certainty in the Louisiana Civil Law Tradition: From the Manifesto to the Great Repealing Act and Beyond, 63 La. L. Rev. 1397 (2003).
Another Great Debate?: The Ambiguous Relationship Between the Revised Civil Code and Pre-Revision Jurisprudence as Seen Through the Prytania Park Controversy, 48 Loy. L. Rev. 615 (2003).
The Alien Tort Statute: Subject Matter Jurisdiction and a Cause of Action in United States Courts for Suits by Aliens Alleging Torts in Violation of the Law of Nations, 47 Rocky Mtn. Min. L. Inst. 24-1 (2001) (with Donald R. Abaunza).
Tortious Interference and Unfair Trade Claims: Louisiana’s Elusive Remedies for Business Interference, 45 Loy. L. Rev. 395 (1999) (with George Denegre, Jr. and Shannon Holtzman).
Comment, Batture, Ordinary High Water and the Louisiana Levee Servitude, 69 Tul. L. Rev. 561 (1994).
Book Chapters
Towards Sustainable Community Ownership: A Comparative Assessment of Scotland’s New Compulsory Community Right to Buy, in Land Reform in Scotland: History, Law and Policy, Malcolm M. Combe, Jayne H. Glass & Annie Tindley, eds., 177-212 (Edinburgh University Press, 2020) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3326967.
Professor Longhair’s Legacy, Revendicating Movables under Louisiana Law, in Northern Lights: Essays in Private Law in Honour of David Carey Miller, Douglas Bain, Roderick Paisley and Andrew R.C. Simpson, Eds., 31-65 (Aberdeen University Press, 2018) available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2726062.
Tacking in a Mixed Jurisdiction, in Nothing So Practical as a Good Theory: Festschrift for George L Gretton, Andrew J.M. Steven, Ross Anderson, & John MacLeod, eds. 162-76 (Avizandum Pub. Ltd. 2017), available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3103308.
Can Charter Schools Save Cities?: Social Capital and Urban Public Education, in How Cities Will Save the World, John Travis Marshall and Ray Brescia, eds. 159-187 (Routledge 2016).
“Somewhat at Sea”: Public Use and Third Party Transfer Limits in Two U.S. States, in Rethinking Public Interest in Expropriation Law I, Bjorn Hoops et. al., eds., 93-124 (Boom/Eleven International and Juta 2015), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2685860.
Commercial Title Conditions in Scotland and Louisiana, in Mixed Jurisdictions Compared: Private Law in Louisiana and Scotland, Vernon Palmer and Elspeth Reid, eds. 30-66 (Edinburgh University Press 2009).
Property and Radical Change: Observations on Property Relationships from Post-Katrina New Orleans, in Law and Recovery after Disaster: Hurricane Katrina, Robin Paul Malloy, ed., 7-36 (Ashgate 2008).
Book Review-Essays
Yaëll Emerich, Book Review, Conceptualising Property Law: Integrating Common Law and Civil Law Traditions, 12 J . Civ. L. St. 379 (2020).
One Fine Day in Stellenbosch: A Review of Bram Akkermans, Ernst Marais and Eveline Ramaekers (eds.), Property Law Perspectives II (Intersentia 2014), 4(3) Eur. Prop. L. J. 223-252 (Dec. 2015).
Tributes
Into Centuries of Centuries: Reflections on Marc. R. Poirier (1952-2015), 3 J. L. Prop. & Soc. 1 (2017), available at http://alps.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/JLPS-2017-04-Lovett.pdf.
Reports
Louisiana Contributor, Acquisition of Immovables through Long-Term Use, Common Core of European Private Law, eds. Björn Hoops & Ernst Marais (nterstentia 2022).
Public Recreation Access Task Force Report to the Louisiana Legislature., available at http://www.dnr.louisiana.gov/assets/Legal/PublicRecAccessTFReport.pdf.
Report to the Legislature on Senate Resolution No. 180 of the 2015 Regular Session: Feasibility of the Use of Levee Roads by Owners of Enclosed Estates, Private Use of Levee Roads Committee, Louisiana State Law Institute, (Oct. 10, 2016) (Reporter).
Potential Uniform Easement Relocation Act, The Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Real Property Acts (Dec. 2010) (sole author).
The Challenges of Sudden Natural Disasters for Land Administration and Management: The Case of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, J. David Stanfield, ed. (April 2008) (contributor to case study submitted to the United Nations-Habitat Program).
Symposia Introductions
Symposium Introduction, Fourth International Congress of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists (Conference Papers), 62 Loy. L. Rev. 613 (2016).
Symposium Introduction, Third International Congress of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists (Conference Papers), 57 Loy. L. Rev. 703 (2011).
Symposium Introduction, Revitalizing Community Assets: Blighted, Abandoned and Tax Adjudicated Property and Land use in Post-Katrina New Orleans, 53 Loy. L. Rev. 719 (2007).