This second edition has given me the opportunity to correct mistakes

in the first edition and to revise the order of some of the materials to reflect

more accurately the ways in which teachers actually use the book. Some ma-

terials in Chapters 3 and 9 have been reorganized, and other chapters reflect

minor changes in the placement of cases and explanatory text. Chapter 6 on

common ownership now precedes Chapter 7 on landlord-tenant law rather

than following it. In one major change, Chapters 4 (on servitudes) and 5 (on

future interests) in the first edition have been combined into a single chapter.

This unusual treatment has two purposes. First, I wanted to combine mate-

rials on restraints on alienation and racial restrictions that had previously been

divided between the two chapters. Second, I wanted to emphasize both the

similarities and the contrasts between servitudes and future interests. Both

constitute private arrangements--usually contractual--designed to restrict

or allocate either the use or ownership of real property. Sometimes the two

devices are used simultaneously. Because both servitudes and future interests

raise questions about the interpretation and regulation of private arrange-

ments that divide property rights in complicated ways, and because some of

the most important legal rules apply to both types of arrangements, it seemed

appropriate to treat them as part of the same general topic.