Thomas Hartmann, is a lecturer in Planning at the Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Barrie Needham is Professor of Spatial Planning at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

• Contents: Introduction: why reconsider planning by law and property rights? Thomas Hartmann and Barrie Needham; Part I Methods for Exploring the Possibilities: Interests and rights in property, and their place in land-use; Exploring the effects of property rights using game simulation, Esther Geuting and Barrie Needham. Part II Coping with the Wider Institutional Framework: Planning law reform and change in post-apartheid South Africa, Mark Oranje and Stephen Berrisford; Talking about property rights over tea: discourse and policy in the US and Europe, Harvey M. Jacobs; Managing riverside property: spatial water management in Germany from a Dutch perspective, Thomas Hartmann and Tejo Spit. Part III Coping with Environmental Change: Improving institutional conditions for adaptive planning in the Netherlands, Joost Tennekes; Global climate change and the stability of property rights, A. Dan Tarlock; Government or governance? The challenge of planning for sustainability in the Ruhr, Michael Wegener. Part IV Coping with Uncertainty and Lock-Ins: Planning and uncertainty: how Dutch municipalities try to reduce uncertainty on the market for industrial properties, Huub Ploegmakers and Erwin van der Krabben; The Dutch office space tragedy: unlocking the lock-in, Leonie B. Janssen-Jansen; The fraught relationship and the conflicts in dealing with uncertainty, Edwin Buitelaar; Conclusion, Barrie Needham and Thomas Hartmann; Index.

"[A]s a reflection about the various aspects and challenges of planning by property rights, the book is certainly a welcome addition to an area of academic inquiry that is becoming increasingly important and deservedly so." - International Planning Studies, Claudio De Magalha, University College London, UK