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Land Use Law Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Land Use Law

Taking The Oceanfront Lot, Josh Eagle Apr 2016

Taking The Oceanfront Lot, Josh Eagle

Indiana Law Journal

Oceanfront landowners and states share a property boundary that runs between the wet and dry parts of the shore. This legal coastline is different from an ordinary land boundary. First, on sandy beaches, the line is constantly in flux, and it cannot be marked except momentarily. Without the help of a surveyor and a court, neither the landowner nor a citizen walking down the beach has the ability to know exactly where the line lies. This uncertainty means that, as a practical matter, ownership of some part of the beach is effectively shared. Second, the common law establishes that the …


Justice Thomas's Kelo Dissent: The Perilous And Political Nature Of Public Purpose, Carol N. Brown Jan 2016

Justice Thomas's Kelo Dissent: The Perilous And Political Nature Of Public Purpose, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

This Essay submits that the arguments that Justice Thomas constructed in his dissent were appropriately focused on the inherently political nature of the Fifth Amendment's Public Use Clause. Unlike the majority, Justice Thomas recognized that when the Supreme Court broadly interprets the public use restriction of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause, and at the same time defers to political actors in this arena, it fundamentally abdicates its constitutional responsibility. By deferring to political actors in this area, the Court in Kelo fundamentally abdicated its responsibility and also adopted a majoritarian doctrinal approach. Further, the Court conflated political ends with constitutional …


Raisins And Resilience: Elaborating Home's Compensation Analysis With An Eye To Coastal Climate Change Adaptation, Joshua Ulan Galperin Jan 2016

Raisins And Resilience: Elaborating Home's Compensation Analysis With An Eye To Coastal Climate Change Adaptation, Joshua Ulan Galperin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The State of New Jersey, the Borough of Harvey Cedars, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers were all preparing for an event like Hurricane Sandy years before the 2012 super-storm made landfall along the Mid-Atlantic coast. The governments began, for instance, a major dune restoration project in 2005 in order to protect the New Jersey coast from massive storm surges that could destroy homes and businesses. To carry out the effort, the local governments sought to purchase the right to build along the seaward portion of property owners' land, and would then construct roughly twenty-foot-high, thirty-foot-wide dunes. If …


Insuring Takings Claims, Christopher Serkin Jan 2016

Insuring Takings Claims, Christopher Serkin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Local governments typically insure themselves against all kinds of losses, from property damage to legal liability. For small- and medium-sized governments, this usually means purchasing insurance from private insurers or participating in municipal risk pools. Insurance for regulatory takings claims, however, is generally unavailable. This previously unnoticed gap in municipal insurance coverage could lead risk averse local governments to underregulate and underenforce existing regulations where property owners threaten to bring takings claims. This seemingly technical observation turns out to have profound implications for theoretical accounts of the Takings Clause that focus on government regulatory incentives. This Article explores the impact …


Taking The Oceanfront Lot, Josh Eagle Dec 2015

Taking The Oceanfront Lot, Josh Eagle

Josh Eagle

Oceanfront landowners and states share a property boundary that runs between the wet and dry parts of the shore. This legal coastline is different from an ordinary land boundary. First, on sandy beaches, the line is constantly in flux, and it cannot be marked except momentarily. Without the help of a surveyor and a court, neither the landowner nor a citizen walking down the beach has the ability to know exactly where the line lies. This uncertainty means that, as a practical matter, ownership of some part of the beach is effectively shared. Second, the common law establishes that the …