Judicial Takings

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We really want you there…

One (nearly) last reminder that there’s still time to register for your space at the 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, February 1-4, 2023, in Austin. In the past several years, we have sold out due to the conference room capacity and the conference hotel block. But there’s still space, although we are nearly full. So register now – don’t delay any further! 

Here’s the brochure with the complete agenda, schedule, and faculty listing. But to tempt you, here are some of the highlights of the program:

  • Everything Old is New Again: Why Today’s Practitioners Need to Understand the Original Meaning of the Takings and Just Compensation Clauses
  • When the SWAT Team Comes (No) Knocking: Police Power Takings

  • Private Utility Takeovers – Lessons From a 67 Day Trial

  • “Contraband”: How Property Rights Helped Pave the Way for Civil Rights

  • Valuation

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Continue Reading (Nearly) Last Call: There’s Still Time To Join Us For The 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Feb 1-4, Austin

Due to our 808 roots, we’ve been fielding a lot of questions related to the ongoing eruption of Mauna Loa on the Big Island.

It’s big, it’s spectacular (see video above), and (for us) it’s law.

The questions (who owns “accreted” lava?, how does the NPS let the public out to see this?, what uses can be made of property covered by lava?) made us realize that we had addressed some of those issues in prior posts. So we’re reposting:

Hope you find useful these things that make Hawaii property law pretty interesting at times.Continue Reading Law Of The Lava – Who Owns New “Accreted” Land? (And Other Questions)

Here it is, the official agenda and program for the 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, February 2-4, 2023 (with a special event the evening of Wednesday, February 1, 2023 to entice you to arrive early).

Screenshot 2022-11-18 at 13-35-13 ALI CLE PA NY VA TX FL Continuing Legal Education

Here’s the brochure with the complete agenda, schedule, and faculty listing. But to tempt you, here are some of the highlights of the program:

  • Everything Old is New Again: Why Today’s Practitioners Need to Understand the Original Meaning of the Takings and Just Compensation Clauses

  • Private Utility Takeovers – Lessons From a 67 Day Trial

  • Valuation Issues When Billboards and Signs are Condemned

  • Setting Client Expectations and Identifying Red Flags

  • Developing Property Right Issues in Texas – Questions and Answers from the Bench: A View From the Bench (with Texas Supreme Court Justice Jimmy Blacklock)

  • Eminent Domain and Regulatory Takings Updates: Important Decisions You Need to Know

  • Ethics:

…
Continue Reading Here’s The Program For The 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Feb 1-4, 2023, Austin

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We spoke on the second panel of the day at the 2022 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference at the William and Mary Law School. The subject of our panel — which included Professors David Callies, Tim Mulvaney, and Dave Owen — was “Reshaping the Framework Protecting Property Under the Roberts Court.“

Here’s a rough transcript of my remarks.

————————————–

President Reveley, Professor Butler, distinguished Brigham-Kanner Prizewinners (present and future), mentors, colleagues, family and friends: thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

The story goes that when asked what it was like to be a part of the “Rat Pack,*” that Dean Martin responded “It’s Frank’s world, we just live in it.”

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When I first heard the title of this portion of the program and the discussion of how and if the Roberts Court is reshaping property, my first reaction was a paraphrase of Dean…

Continue Reading Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference 2022 Report: It’s Chief Justice Roberts’ Property World, We Just Live In It

Screenshot 2022-09-13 at 14-12-11 Feed LinkedIn

One last reminder that there’ still time to register for the upcoming Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference at the William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia, September 29-30, 2022. If you can’t make it to the historic campus, there’s an option to attend remotely.

In our opinion, the Conference is the best of its kind because it brings together legal scholars and the practicing bar to talk dirt law theory and practice. We also a have a full supplemental program for law students, that covers property law and careers in eminent domain law, a recruiting session, a program on international property rights, and a program on land use law.

Registration for the Conference is ongoing, and you can sign up here.

Here is the full agenda. (We’ll be speaking on Panel #2, “Reshaping the Framework Protecting Property Under the Roberts Court.”)

Come on, join us!

Continue Reading Still Time To Join Us (In-Person Or Remote) For The 19th Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference

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If you understand the headline of this post, congratulations: you are officially so deep in the weeds that you deserve both a Federal Courts and a Takings merit badge. 

For those of you not in so deep, here’s the short story behind the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit’s short opinion in Efreom v. McKee, No. 21-1382 (Aug. 18, 2022).

This is one of those pension cases, where the state (here, Rhode Island) shored up its tottering pension system with a new statute that “altered in various ways the retirement benefits to which public employees were entitled, including by reducing the amount and availability of cost-of-living adjustment (“COLA”) payments to retirees.” Slip op. at 4.

As the court noted, “[l]itigation promptly ensured in state court.” Slip op. at 5. Takings claims were included in the lineup. All of the cases were consolidated for trial. Most of the…

Continue Reading CA1: Rooker-Feldman Defeats Federal Court Takings Claim By “State Court Losers”

Screenshot 2022-07-07 at 13-44-38 The Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference

By now, you know that the 19th Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference is set for September 29-30, 2022, at the William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia (register here – space is limited – fee ranges from free to $195 – a bargain!). And you know that our colleague Jim Burling is this year’s B-K Prize winner.

But now you know who is speaking at the Conference, and the topics: here’s the full agenda. The list of speakers is too long to list here but check out these topics:

  • Panel 1: The Importance of Property Rights: A Tribute to James S. Burling
  • Panel 2: Reshaping the Framework Protecting Property Under the Roberts Court (that’s the panel we’re speaking on)
  • Roundtable: Emerging Issues in Takings and Property Rights Litigation
  • Panel 3: Choosing A Property Regime
  • Panel 4: Property Rights in Times of Scarcity and Crisis

Who can …

Continue Reading Here’s The Full Speaker And Topic List For The Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference (Sep 29-30, 2022)

Whatpropertydoes

Worth checking out: Christopher Serkin, What Property Does, 75 Vand. L. Rev. 891 (2022).

Covering (inter alia) property, rule against perpetuities, adverse possession, Lucas background principles, judicial and regulatory takings, Mahon v. Keystone Bituminous, and vested rights and amortization of preexisting uses.

Here’s the abstract:

For centuries, scholars have wrestled with seemingly intractable problems about the nature of property. This Article offers a different approach. Instead of asking what property is, it asks what property does. And it argues that property protects people’s reliance on resources by moderating the pace of change. Modern scholarly accounts emphasize voluntary transactions as the source and purpose of reliance in property. Such “transactional reliance” implies strong, stable, and enduring rights. This Article argues that property law also reflects a very different source of reliance on resources, one that rises and falls simply with the passage of time. This new category…

Continue Reading New Article: Serkin, “What Property Does,” 75 Vand. L. Rev. 891 (2022)

Here’s one we’ve been following since its inception, even before we joined the law firm that represents the property owner. (And because our Pacific Legal Foundation colleagues are repping the plaintiffs in this one, we won’t be commenting in-depth.)

You may remember that in Gunderson v. Indiana, 90 N.E.3d 171 (Ind. 2018), the Indiana Supreme Court concluded that the public owns the land up to the ordinary high water mark on Lake Michigan, and had done so all the way back to statehood in 1816. Problem is, according to some lakefront property owners, “undisputed local, state, and federal acknowledgement over the years” was otherwise – the law said that lakefront land was was private, not public, down to the ordinary low water mark. Thus, the plaintiffs alleged, “the Gunderson judgment changed the law of the State of Indiana, as recognized by prior Indiana court precedent as well…

Continue Reading CA7: Like Other Circuits, We’re Going To Dodge The Judicial Takings Question

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After a two-year absence in which we went remote, in the last week of last month (our usual spot on the calendar, between the playoffs and Super Bowl), we once again met in-person for the American Law Institute-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference.

Approximately 200 lawyers, judges, legal scholars, appraisers, law students, right-of-way agents, relocation experts, property owners, and other related professionals gathered in-person–yes, in-person–at the Scottsdale (Arizona) Resort at McCormick Ranch, to get reacquainted, learn stuff, and renew ties last made in-person in Nashville in 2020. In addition to the live attendance, we also welcomed about 50 remote colleagues, who joined the live webstream.

This was the 39th edition of the Conference, one of the most-established and successful conferences in the ALI-CLE stable of programs.

To those who joined us – thank you. This conference reminded us of why this program is so…

Continue Reading 2022 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Scottsdale: You Should Have Been There!