Nine-tenths of the Law

With the growing concern around the foreclosure crisis and the emergence of the Take Back the Land movement and the Occupy Our Homes initiative, public discourse around the right to land in the United States has been considerably amplified in the past two years.Nine-tenths of the Law aims to chronicle the recent history of squatting and land reclamation in the United States, with an eye toward illuminating the murky legal framework that surrounds a citizen's right to shelter.Dobbz's book is not a guide to squatting, but neither is it an indictment of those who do. Rather, squatting emerges as one tactic in a larger toolbox for defending and reclaiming the right to shelter.Though this is Dobbz's first book, she has already toured the country extensively to promote her documentary Shelter (2008), which chronicled the squatting movement in the California East Bay, and provided the early impetus for the development of this book.Nine-tenths of the Law also examines contemporary squats across the country, particularly ones seeking to gain legal title by way of often archaic laws left over from the 19th century. Dobbz gives give historical context to the laws in which today's squatting practices are rooted.