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We promise: this is the last time we’re going to try to entice you to the upcoming ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference in New Orleans. We are getting close to capacity, but there is still room. In recent years, we have standing room only in the Conference halls, and have sold out the hotel block. After all, this is a pretty niche area of law. So what gives?

When we were in Austin last year, we thought it might be nice to try and answer that question. We asked Conference participants why they come, year-after-year (and in Austin, despite massive travel disruptions). Yes, it is the various venues (Nashville, Austin, Scottsdale, Palm Springs, to name a few recent locations), and yes, it is the excellent and useful programming.

But as we suspected it is more than that.

Continue Reading No FOMO: There’s Still Room For You To Join Us In New Orleans Feb 1-3, 2024 For The 41st ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference

Here are the cases that Michael Berger and I discussed in today’s presentation to the ABA State and Local Government Law Section’s Land Use group. It was good seeing everyone, even virtually:

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Continue Reading Cases And Links From Today’s ABA State & Local Govt Law Land Use Presentation

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Starting in January, we’ll be helping our friend and former law partner Mark M. Murakami with the venerated and oh-so-important Land Use course (Law 580) at the University of Hawaii’s Law School.

We’re temporarily stepping into some mighty big slippers (this is Hawaii, so we don’t always wear shoes), as this is the course that our mentor Professor David Callies taught for decades. And is there a better venue in which to teach and study land use law and regulation, and its limits? After all, Hawaii may be the most heavily-regulated land on the planet, and is a focal point for every issue you can think of, from zoning to environmental restrictions to takings to public trust to subdivision to admin law to … well, you get the drift.

We’ll cover those topics, as well as the fundamentals. And we have a few surprises up our sleeves — some impressive…

Continue Reading Hawaii Five-80: More Land Use (Law 580) At The University Of Hawaii

ALI-CLE brochure cover page

Here’s the brochure and the full agenda and registration information for the upcoming ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference at the JW Marriott in New Orleans, February 1-3, 2024.

This is the long-running nationally-focused conference on all things eminent domain, takings, valuation, and related. We have three tracks, from which you can choose a la carte – Practice, Substantive, and Condemnation 101:

For over 40 years, we’ve been bringing eminent domain practitioners together to examine the latest issues, engage in healthy debate, and get the information they need to stay current in their practice. This year – our 41st – is THE perfect time to reunite with your eminent domain colleagues. There will be plentiful opportunities to meet and mingle with the faculty and other registrants – throughout the conference and at evening social events. Attendees come back year after year to make new friendships and renew…

Continue Reading Here’s The Program For The 41st ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Feb 1-3, 2024, New Orleans

Here’s what we’re reading about the Supreme Court’s property rights docket — some good, some disappointing — this day.

  • Niina Farah, “Supreme Court flooding case could ripple across the energy sector“ (E & E News / Energywire) – About the Devillier case (which we summarized here), in which we were quoted: “The Supreme Court decision to hear the Devillier case comes after a concerted effort in recent years to convince the court to address procedural maneuvers that have made it challenging for property owners to bring their claims to court, said Robert Thomas, director of property rights litigation at the Pacific Legal Foundation. The nonprofit is among the groups that has asked the court to address takings cases and has lent its support for the property owners in Devillier in a ‘friend of the court‘ brief. ‘There’s a lot of gamesmanship going on

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Continue Reading Supreme Court Property Rights Round-Up

Why is it, you ask, that the ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference (scheduled next February 1-3, 2024, in New Orleans) is an event that seems to be growing in popularity and attendance. In recent years, we have standing room only in the Conference halls, and have sold out the hotel block. After all, this is a pretty niche area of law. So what gives?

When we were in Austin earlier this year, we thought it might be nice to try and answer that question. We asked Conference participants why they come, year-after-year (and in Austin, despite massive travel disruptions). Yes, it is the various venues (Nashville, Austin, Scottsdale, Palm Springs, to name a few recent locations), and yes, it is the excellent and useful programming.

But as we suspected it is more than that. As the above video notes…

Continue Reading ALI-CLE’s Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference (Feb 1-3, 2024, New Orleans): Why Attend? Here’s Why.

Screenshot 2023-08-26 at 10-33-05 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference

Heads-up: the registration page for the 20th Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, October 26-27, 2023, at the William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia, is now up.

Early registration is a good thing because space is limited, especially at the Wren Building banquet on the 26th, at which the 2023 B-K Property Rights Prize will be presented to Prof. Gregory Alexander.

So please don’t miss out.

2022 BK plaque
The Property Rights Hall of Fame (second plaque)

If you are not already familiar with the Conference, it is (in our opinion) the best one-day event on property and property rights theory and practice. Expressly designed to bring together the legal academy and the practicing dirt law bar, the conference is where we discuss the burning property and property rights issues of the day. Here’s the 2023 Program:

  • Property and Propriety (or a Well-Ordered Society): A Tribute to Gregory S.

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Continue Reading Register Now For The 20th Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, Oct. 26-27, 2023

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following, one of the multiple challenges to New York’s latest ratcheting up of rent control.

We think the Questions Presented spell out the issues pretty well:

New York has implemented the most sweeping and onerous rent control provisions the United States has ever seen in its Rent Stabilization Laws and accompanying regulations (“the RSL”). As recently amended, the RSL makes New York’s once “temporary” rent stabilization regime permanent for over one million apartments. Petitioners are owners of apartment buildings regulated by the RSL. The RSL expropriates a definitional feature of Petitioners’ real property—the right to exclude—by granting their tenants a perpetual right to renew their leases. The RSL closes off all viable exit options for Petitioners to change the use of their property and thus avoid RSL regulation. These provisions, when combined with the RSL’s ceiling on the rents that landlords…

Continue Reading Another Cert Petition Challenging NY’s Draconian Rent Control As A Taking

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following since its inception, this cert petition seeking Supreme Court review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s affirming the district court’s dismissal of a complaint alleging that New York (state)’s sweeping amendments to its Rent Stabilization (rent control) statute effected categorical and Penn Central takings:

Petitioners’ physical-takings claims would have been allowed to proceed if they were brought in the Eighth Circuit. That is because the Eighth Circuit has correctly held that property owners plead a physical taking under Cedar Point where a law prohibits them from terminating a tenancy at the end of a lease term. See Heights Apartments, LLC v. Walz, 30 F.4th 720, 733 (8th Cir. 2022), reh’g en banc denied, 30 F.4th 720. But the Second Circuit held here—as has the Ninth Circuit—that the physical-takings principles articulated in Cedar Point are…

Continue Reading New Cert Petition: Forcing Owners To Rent To Tenants Indefinitely Is A Categorical Taking

This just in: the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has issued this Opinion & Order in the case which challenges New York City’s rendering “guaranty clauses” in commercial leases unenforceable due to the declared Co-19 emergency.

This is a case we’ve been following. Earlier, the Second Circuit vacated the district court’s dismissal of the case, holding that the city’s ordinance rendering forever unenforceable certain provisions in commercial leases:

A provision in a commercial lease or other rental agreement involving real property located within the city that provides for one or more natural persons who are not the tenant under such agreement to become, upon the occurrence of a default or other event, wholly or partially personally liable for payment of rent, utility expenses or taxes owed by the tenant under such agreement, or fees and charges relating to routine building maintenance owed by the…

Continue Reading Bust A Deal, Face The Wheel: NYC Rendering Commercial Lease Guaranty Clauses Unenforceable For Co-19 Violates Contracts Clause