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Full-Text Articles in Law

Existing Uses And The Limits Of Land Use Regulations, Christopher Serkin Nov 2009

Existing Uses And The Limits Of Land Use Regulations, Christopher Serkin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article identifies property law's special protection for existing uses, explores possible justifications for this protection, and argues that none can support the strong protection that existing uses currently enjoy. Various land use doctrines- from zoning to the vested rights doctrine to amortization rules for prior noncon- forming uses--assume that the government cannot eliminate existing uses without paying compensation. The Article asks whether this result is compelled either by constitutional rules or by normative considerations. Neither the Takings Clause nor the Due Process Clause requires this level of protection for existing uses. Norma- tively, many obvious-seeming justifications dissolve on closer …


Escaping The Takings Maze: Impact Fees And The Limits Of The Takings Clause, Charles T. Switzer May 2009

Escaping The Takings Maze: Impact Fees And The Limits Of The Takings Clause, Charles T. Switzer

Vanderbilt Law Review

The cost of a new home in swanky Naples, Florida-home of charming shopping districts, lovely white-sand beaches, and more golf holes per capita than anywhere else in America-recently topped $450,000. Included in this cost is a staggering $33,000 impact fee bill from the county. Even amidst a meltdown in the housing industry and a severe economic slump, local politicians have refused to reconsider the high fees. Impact fees are levied by local governments on new developments to pay a share of the costs of providing public infrastructure for those developments. The money is used to improve sewers, roads, parks, and …


Condemning Religion: Rluipa And The Politics Of Eminent Domain, Christopher Serkin, Nelson Tebbe Jan 2009

Condemning Religion: Rluipa And The Politics Of Eminent Domain, Christopher Serkin, Nelson Tebbe

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Should religious landowners enjoy special protection from eminent domain? A recent federal statute, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), compels courts to apply a compelling interest test to zoning and landmarking regulations that substantially burden religiously owned property. That provision has been controversial in itself but today a new cutting-edge issue is emerging: whether the Act's extraordinary protection should extend to condemnation as well. The matter has taken on added significance in the wake of Kelo, where the Supreme Court reaffirmed its expansive view of the eminent domain power. In this Article, we argue that RLUIPA should …


Law And The Emotive Avatar, Llewellyn J. Gibbons Jan 2009

Law And The Emotive Avatar, Llewellyn J. Gibbons

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The barriers between fantasy and reality in virtual worlds are becoming increasingly permeable. There is a rhetorical need among some legal scholars to distinguish between a law of virtual worlds or concepts of net-sovereignty and the so-called real world. These metaphorical distinctions are unhelpful and confuse the issues as to exactly what is being regulated. A more productive line of analysis is to consider the avatar as an extension of the individual or an agent of the individual in virtual spaces and then to shift the focus of analysis away from the avatar and back to the individual because it …


Applying Old Theories To New Problems: How Adverse Possession Can Help Solve The Orphan Works Crisis, Megan L. Bibb Jan 2009

Applying Old Theories To New Problems: How Adverse Possession Can Help Solve The Orphan Works Crisis, Megan L. Bibb

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This Note focuses on orphan works--works whose copyright owners cannot be found--and the problems they create for libraries and archives that wish to preserve and facilitate access to them. After describing the legal basis for the orphan works problem, the Note analyzes and critiques proposed legislative and scholarly solutions. After concluding that prior solutions fail to adequately address the needs of libraries and archives, the Note offers a solution based on the policy rationales underlying the traditional property concept of adverse possession, since the justifications that supported the advent of the adverse possession doctrine can also be applied to the …