Property and the Law of Finders

Are finders keepers? This most simple of questions has long evaded a satisfactory legal answer. Generally it seems to have been accepted that a finder acquires a property right in the object of her find and can protect it from subsequent interference, but even this turns out to be the baldest statement of principle, resting on obscure and confused authority.

This first full-length treatment of finders sets them in their legal-historical context, and discovers a fascinating area of law lying ...