James Penner to Receive Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize in London
Prominent legal theorist James E. Penner will receive the 2026 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize, given annually by William & Mary Law School’s Property Rights Project. Penner is Kwa Geok Choo Professor of Property Law at the National University of Singapore, where he holds appointments in the Faculty of Law and the Department of Philosophy.
Penner will receive the award at the 23rd annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, which will take place in London, October 14-16, 2026.
The Brigham-Kanner Prize is given annually to a scholar, practitioner or jurist whose work affirms the fundamental importance of property rights. It is named for the late Toby Prince Brigham, a leading property rights attorney, and the late Professor Gideon Kanner, a devoted scholar of property rights at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
One of the most influential property theorists of this century, Penner has been widely cited in jurisdictions around the world, informing debates in United States, Canada, the U.K., Asia, Australia, and continental Europe. He has authored or edited seven scholarly books, including The Idea of Property in Law, which won the precursor to the Society of Legal Scholars’s Peter Birks Prize.
“James Penner has reshaped how we understand the very idea of property, influencing practical accounts of how property works, philosophical accounts of its moral foundations, and legal doctrines that shape its operation on the ground,” said James Y. Stern, Professor of Law at William & Mary and Director of the Property Rights Project. “The Brigham-Kanner Prize is a fitting tribute to Professor Penner for his extraordinary contributions to our appreciation of what property is and does.”
Past winner Henry E. Smith, who is Fessenden Professor at Harvard Law School and the Reporter for the American Law Institute’s fourth Restatement of Property, likewise praised Penner’s groundbreaking work.
“From being among the first to question the bundle of rights picture of property to providing a philosophical theory of the structure of property grounded in our interest in using things and our capacity to respond to reasons, James Penner has changed the way we think about property law,” Smith said. “Penner’s work is subtle and deep and yet never leaves the realm of the practical.”
Smith considers Penner’s many contributions in adjacent areas including equity, trusts, and private law theory to be monumental.
“There are very few scholars who will be read in 50 years and even fewer for whom one can safely predict such a legacy,” Smith said. “Penner is in that highly select group.”
Penner has taught at law schools in eight countries on four continents, including Harvard Law School, the University of Toronto, and the University of London. He also practiced as a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn, one of London’s four Inns of Court, and has remained engaged with the practicing bar, including through service to the Law Society of Singapore and as an international advisor to the American Law Institute in the drafting of the fourth Restatement of Property.
Penner joins an esteemed list of Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize winners. Previous recipients include Frank Michelman, Richard Epstein, James Ely, Margaret Jane Radin, Robert Ellickson, Richard Pipes, Carol Rose, Sandra Day O’Connor, James Krier, Thomas Merrill, Michael Berger, Joseph Singer, Hernando de Soto, David Callies, Stewart Sterk, Steven Eagle, Henry Smith, Vicki Been, James Burling, Gregory Alexander, Lee Anne Fennell, and William Fischel.
About the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference
The Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference is renowned for its outstanding panel discussions and for bringing together members of the bench, bar, and academia. Founded through the initiative of William & Mary Law School alumnus Joseph T. Waldo ’78 in 2004, the Conference encourages vigorous audience participation through its question-and-answer segments with each of the panels. Waldo served as Conference co-chair from 2004-17, and in 2018, the Joseph T. Waldo Visiting Chair in Property Rights Law was named in his honor.
Sponsored by William & Mary Law School since its inception, the Conference has increasingly embraced an international perspective as both international dimensions of property law and the value of comparative perspectives in addressing novel problems have become more prominent.
The 2026 London meeting will mark the Conference’s third trip abroad. In 2011, the Conference was held at Tsinghua Law School in Beijing, and in 2016, the Conference took place at the Grotius Center for International Legal Studies at the World Court in The Hague.