Eminent Domain | Condemnation

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HSBA 2017 Land Use Conference

Registration is now open for the 2017 Hawaii Land Use Conference, presented by the Hawaii State Bar Association and the University of Hawaii Law School, at the downtown Honolulu YWCA’s Fuller Hall on January 19-20, 2017. “This 2 day conference is a must attend for any attorney or professional whose practice involves land use and development,” as the registration web site says (we agree).  

Topics include the latest in Transit-Oriented Development, the Thirty Meter Telescope, GMO (including the recent rulings from the Ninth Circuit), and the topic we’ll be presenting, “Takings: Regulatory and Physical.”

The final agenda has not yet been released, but if experience is any guide, Planning Chair Professor David Callies will put together two days of timely topics, presented by distinguished faculty. 

And the cost can’t be beat: $200 for members of the Real Property and Financial Services Section and government lawyers, $300…

Continue Reading 2017 Hawaii Land Use Law Conference, January 19-20, 2017

Here’s what we’re reading today:

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Continue Reading Monday Round-Up: Food Takings; Honolulu And Nebraska Takings; Property Rights And The Environment

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After a short absence and a change of lead sponsor (from ALI-CLE, to the American Bar Association’s Section of State and Local Government Law), the Land Use Institute is back on.

Download the print brochure here, or visit the LUI web site for more. It will be held February 1-2, 2017, in Miami, Florida, at the Brickell City Centre‘s Akerman Conference Center, in conjunction with the ABA’s Midyear Meeting. One of the best aspects of this program is the registration fee, a mere $300, $250 if you are a judge, an academic, young lawyer, or government attorney (perhaps the best deal in CLE). Register on line here. For those who cannot attend in-person, the LUI will be live-streamed. Register here. 

Planning Chairs Frank Schnidman and Dean Patrica Salkin have assembled a very good faculty and program. Topics include: “Nuts and Bolts of Land Use…

Continue Reading Mark Your Calendars: The Land Use Institute Is Returning – February 1-2, 2017, Miami

There’s been a few decisions recently about entry to private property in anticipation of condemnation, the most prominent being a ruling from the California Supreme Court that entries which exceed relatively minor inconveniences are takings; the court “reformed” the entry statute to import some of the protections of the eminent domain process, but otherwise gave condemnors a lot of leeway. Also, pipline cases around the country have thrust the ability of potential condemnors to come onto property into the public eye. 

This opinion from the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia is the latest on that topic. The court held that a precondemnation entry by a pipeline company to do a survey would not be for a public use, and thus the pipeline company did not have the power of eminent domain. Under West Virginia law, a private company may exercise the power only when the taking would be for…

Continue Reading West Virginia: No Entry For Pipeline Survey Because It’s A Private Taking

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Here’s the final brochure for the upcoming ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Conference, set for January 26-28, 2017, in San Diego.

Early registration gets you a discount (code CY009MK), as does multiple registrations from one office, so now’s the time to commit to joining us for our annual gathering (the 34th Annual) of the nation’s leading practitioners of eminent domain, condemnation, valuation, and takings law. There are multiple ways to register, including on line. 

Like in past years, the first day has three tracks: Practice, Substantive, and Condemnation 101. The latter is a one-day course for those new to the field, or as a refresher course for those with more experience. The second day, the 101 attendees will join the advanced course, and we’ll have plenary sessions in the morning, followed by Practice and Substantive tracks in the p.m. As always, attendees are free to move among …

Continue Reading ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, San Diego, January 26-28, 2017: Final Brochure

A piece from noted eminent domain scholar Professor Ilya Somin, “Beware misguided ‘mainstream’ legal thought – ‘Kelo v. City of New London’ in perspective” at the Washington Post. 

The thrust of his piece (and a forthcoming law review article) is that Kelo isn’t some nutty decision, but was the product of “mainstream legal thought gone off the rails.” Comparing it to Plessy, Korematsu, Buck v. Bell, and Dred Scott, Professor Somin writes:

earlier precedents holding that almost anything can be a public use justifying the taking of property – precedents that ended up authorizing the forcible displacement of hundreds of thousands of people (most of them poor and politically weak). For the most part, the justices who voted for these decisions were not rogue extremists, but respected members of the legal establishment relying on mainstream reasoning and habits of thought.

A truly extreme, non-mainstream…

Continue Reading Somin: Kelo Not An “Extreme” Decision, But Result Of Mainstream Legal Thought

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Several years ago, William & Mary Law School’s Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference departed its usual Williamsburg, Virginia venue and held the event in Beijing. Holding the conference there allowed U.S. legal scholars and property law practitioners to share ideas and compare our ways with our PRC counterparts. The event was a great success.

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Now, W&M has followed up with another international venue for the Conference: the World Court (Peace Palace), in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Conference kicked off last night with a reception honoring this year’s Brigham-Kanner Prize winner, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, who opened the Conference this morning with a summary of his work and theories. One of the most intriguing is that the “Arab Spring” was a cry for property and economic rights.Count us as convinced. 

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The panels began their presentations today. Ours focused on how property rights contribute (or not) to developing nations. My…

Continue Reading In Peace And In War: 2016 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference At The World Court

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The complete agenda, faculty list, and other information (including registration and early and group discounts) for the 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference is now up and ready. 

The conference will be held January 26-28, 2017, at the Westin San Diego. Please consider joining us for the premier national conference on all things related to eminent domain, takings, and property law. You will learn a lot, meet your colleagues from around the country, earn a ton of CLE credits, and have some fun too. 

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Continue Reading ALI-CLE 2017 Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Agenda, Faculty List, And Registration Now Live

Recall that in the wake of the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. New London, at least one of the Connecticut Supreme Court justices whose previous ruling was upheld, expressed his regrets. Others have made similar remarks. 

Well, here may be a chance for the Connecticut Supreme Court to right the ship, so to speak. Later this month, the court will be hearing oral arguments in a case asking whether a state agency’s power to take “land, buildings, equipment or facilities” includes bus companies’ exclusive state-granted rights to operate bus routes. The bus companies have what amounts to a monopoly under state-granted certificates.

While this case doesn’t squarely present the same issue as in Kelo (that may be coming later, in other cases which are making their way up the Connecticut chain), it does represent a chance to see whether the Connecticut Supreme…

Continue Reading Sorry Not Sorry? Connecticut Supreme Court Has A Chance To Make Amends For Kelo

We all know that the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Kelo is lousy. See “Kelo at 10: Still Stinks, And A Decade Has Not Lessened The Odor.”

Or at least most of us know that. But other than crying in our beer, or trying to get the case overruled (efforts continue!), what is there to do, given that the decision remains “good law?”

Well, here’s some suggestions from our Owners’ Counsel of America and ABA State and Local colleague Dwight Merriam, to soon be published in the Connecticut Law Review, “Time to Make Lemonade from the Lemons of the Kelo Case,” 48 Conn. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2016). 

Intrigued? Here’s the abstract:

The decision in Kelo v. New London only addressed the constitutionality of the eminent domain process used to take Susette Kelo’s home. Given the four corners of the case…

Continue Reading New Law Review Article: “Time to Make Lemonade from the Lemons of the Kelo Case”