The Craft of Property

This chapter develops, demonstrates, and defends the conception of property as institutions-namely, as important default frameworks of various categories of interpersonal interaction. In line with the legal realist commitments underlying this conception of property, much of the discussion is situated in the context of one particular property institution: marital property. The test case considered for the discussion is United States v. Craft. In Craft, the Supreme Court discussed the vulnerability of one form of marital property-the tenancy by the entirety-to a federal tax lien resulting from the tax liability of one spouse only.