Land Use Law Commons^™

Washington's Vested Rights Doctrine: How We Have Muddled A Simple Concept And How We Can Reclaim It, Roger D. Wynne

Seattle University Law Review

The article explores many of the problems with the details of the vested rights doctrine and outlines a statutory solution to them.' Part I examines the inconsistent rationales that underlie the various manifestations of the doctrine. The differences between the "mandamus" and "fairness/certainty" rationales help explain some of the confusion that has become a fixture of the doctrine. Part II discusses a host of issues that the doctrine fails to resolve adequately. It groups these issues into four fundamental questions, the divergent answers to which often form the key dispute in any vested rights case: (1) to which types of …