Brigham-Kanner Conference

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Here is a transcript of the remarks I delivered today at the 2019 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference. I was honored to join lawprof Henry Smith and Florida Supreme Court Justice (ret.) Ken Bell (who authored the Florida court’s opinion in Stop the Beach Renourishment which was challenged in SCOTUS as a “judicial taking”) to speak about “Public Resources and Private Rights” (moderated by Professor Katherine Mims Crocker). After paying our respects to 2019 B-K Prize winner Professor Steven Eagle, we each addressed some part of the question.

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The New New Property

As always, I bring to you tidings of “aloha” from the state where the legislature thought it was a going to reduce the price of residential housing by taking fee simple interests from “A” and giving them to “B,” the leaseholders. 

Where now, the median price for a single-family, two bedroom, one bath…

Continue Reading 2019 Brigham-Kanner Conference: The New New Property – Public Resources And Private Rights

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Today’s the kickoff events for William and Mary Law School’s Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference. We started the day with eminent domain and property law attorneys speaking about the practice of law (pictured above, Justin Hodge (TX) and Christian Torgrimson (GA)).

Toronto’s Shane Rayman and I spoke about international and comparative property and eminent domain (expropriation) and how even though our way of approaching cases may be different, the goals are the same: justice and fair treatment for our clients. And what we can learn about our own cases by looking at how other jurisdictions do it. 

In that vein, here are the links to the cases we (and others) mentioned:

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Continue Reading 2019 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference Kickoff

With the 2019 edition of the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference (and award of the B-K Prize to Professor Steven Eagle) to get underway later this week, it is also publication time for the latest issue of the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Journal. 

This edition focuses on the “Federalism Dimension of Constitutional Property,” and we contributed a short essay, “Emerging Issues in Property Law.”  (And yes, this essay was part of my talk at an academic conference, so used the word “normative.”)

Thomas, Emerging Issues in Property Law, 8 Brigham-Kanner Prop. Rts. J. 113 (2019) 

Continue Reading New Article: Emerging Issues in Property Law (Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Journal)

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Chief Justice Marshall (L) and Professor Wythe (R) request the pleasure of your company at the 16th Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference at the William & Mary Law School, in Williamsburg, Virginia, Thursday and Friday, October 3-4, 2019. Register here, and make your plans to join us. 

The Conference’s main event is the awarding of the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize to Professor Emeritus Steven J. Eagle, recognizing his lifetime of work and scholarship about property law and property rights. Here’s the official announcement:

The annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference is presented by the William & Mary Property Rights Project and is named in recognition of Toby Prince Brigham and Gideon Kanner for their lifetime contributions to private property rights. The conference is designed to bring together members of the bench, bar, and academia to explore recent developments in the law that affect property rights. The Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference began…

Continue Reading Space Still Available: Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, Oct. 3-4, 2019

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We’re about to get underway with the fall semester at William and Mary Law School, where we’re again teaching an upper-division course, Eminent Domain and Property Rights. 

We’ve more than doubled the size of last year’s enrollment, so it looks like the word is getting out. We cover not only eminent domain and just compensation, but takings (yes, we have a lot of new materials to cover there), civil forfeiture, a small bit of crossover with land use, local government, and related, property rights as civil rights, how property law is discussed in the public sphere, due process, and how to lawyer up these cases. And in early October, the opportunity to have some of the nation’s best property law scholars “guest lecture” during the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference. Here’s the official description:

Property rights and the sovereign’s power of eminent domain have been essential components of…

Continue Reading Law 608: Eminent Domain And Property Rights – Season 2

Mansfield flyer 3-13-2019

If you are in the Williamsburg, Virginia area next week Wednesday, March 13, 2019, please hold the lunch hour (12:50-1:50pm, Room L127) on your calendar to come join us for a session with Howard Mansfield, author of the recently-published book “The Habit of Turning the World Upside Down – Our Belief in Property and the Cost of That Belief.”

In November, we chatted with Mr. Mansfield, and this semester are basing a seminar on property rights at the William and Mary Law School on the book. Well worth reading. Here’s the printable flyer. 

His book is about property, property rights, and what he has discovered about how these ideas are processed by the American psyche. He will be speaking about how property fits with the culture—the competing narratives attached to the notion of ownership—and the often-contradictory way in which we view the idea of property and…

Continue Reading Upcoming 3/13/2019 Book Talk: Turning the World Upside Down: Property Rights, Pipelines, and Emergencies – A Conversation With Howard Mansfield

SJEBKannouncement

Be sure to save the date on your calendar for the 16th Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, at the William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia.

This year’s B-K Prize will be awarded to Professor Steven J. Eagle. Professor Eagle is a familiar presence to the property bar and the academy, and this award is well-earned. His treatise, Regulatory Takings, is a monumental work, and a book that needs to be on every property lawyer’s and scholar’s shelf. As the media release notes:

Michael M. Berger, an attorney at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and the 2014 Brigham-Kanner Prize recipient, considers Eagle one of the finest property scholars of his generation.

“[Eagle] has devoted much of his life and his prodigious energy toward analyzing the constitutional nuances embedded in real estate law,” Berger said. “His deeply thought out analyses provide major contributions to the body of law examining and…

Continue Reading Mark Your Calendars: October 3-4, 2019 – Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference And Prize Award To Prof Steven Eagle

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With the first snow of the season beginning to fall in Williamsburg, today was the final day of classes at the William and Mary Law School. Which means that my time serving as the inaugural Joseph T. Waldo Visiting Chair in Property Rights Law is beginning to wrap up. There’s still the reading period, exams, and grading, but today was the last day we met as a class.

What a great law school, and wonderful students. I learned way more than I conveyed. A welcoming administration, faculty and staff, too. This was the best experience of my professional life.

A huge thank you to law school dean Davison Douglas, and Professors Lynda Butler and James Stern, for guiding and supporting me, and making me feel like I belonged. And to my students, who challenged me. And, of course to Joe Waldo, who made it all possible.Continue Reading End Of The Term For Law 608: Eminent Domain And Property Rights

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Every year, at the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, the conference publishes a law journal with the articles, essays, and remarks presented at last year’s conference. So it was this year, and Volume 7, with the theme of “The Future of Regulatory Takings,” is now available. 

We contributed an essay, “Back to the Future of Land Use Regulation,” which focuses on the rational basis test in land use law — where it came from and where it might be going — as well as some other current issues in property law such as the recent trend of raising general environmental concerns as property claims. Check it out if you are so inclined. 

Here’s the Introduction:

As always, I bring you greetings from the land of Midkiff, the land of Kaiser Aetna. The jurisdiction in which the legislature thought it was a good idea to try and…

Continue Reading New Article: Back to the Future of Land Use Regulation – From Hadacheck To “New” Property

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Last week, the 15th Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference saw the gathering of legal scholars, judges, lawyers, and law students at the William and Mary Law School to award the B-K Property Rights Prize to Cardozo lawprof Stewart Sterk, followed by a day-long conference focusing on Professor Sterk’s work and the latest developments in property rights law.

Professor Sterk joins the pantheon of property law scholars (and a judge and a practitioner) who have been awarded the Prize. Pretty impressive:

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As always, the program starts off with a candlelight dinner and award presentation in the historic Wren Building, definitely a highlight of the Conference. More about the Conference here. 

And there’s nothing like spending the following day addressing some of the most pressing issues in our area, along with the brightest minds in the business (below is the final panel of the day, with Professor John Echeverria…

Continue Reading 2018 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference Report: Emerging Issues