Law Commons^™

Property Rights Or Obstacles To Progress?: The Fundamental Flaws In Takings Jurisprudence, Liam Higgins

Journal of Law and Policy

New York boasts some of the strongest protections for tenants out of all jurisdictions throughout the country. Chief among these laws is the state Rent Stabilization Law (“RSL”). Among other protections, the RSL has limited excessive rent increases on regulated apartments, granted tenants a right of renewal so that they could remain in their homes, and permitted family members to take over the tenancy of their loved ones upon their passing. The RSL has been amended several times throughout its history, each time providing more or less protections depending on the administration at the time. Recently, in 2019, the New …

Takings, Original Meaning, And Applying Property Law Principles To Fix Penn Central, John M. Groen

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fixing A Broken System: Reconciling State Foreclosure Law With Economic Realities, Yianni D. Lagos

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series: Owning Our Values: Supplementing Our Textbooks For Those Engaged In Social Justice, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

General Discretion Under Maine's Site Location Of Development Law, Tybe Ann Brett

Maine Law Review

The 1960s brought nationwide concern about the environmental impact of post-World War II development and industrial growth. Efforts to protect the environment took many different forms. Part of Maine's response to the growing need for environmental improvement measures was the Legislature's enactment in 1970 of the Site Location of Development Law (Site Law). The Site Law gives the state control over the location of developments that would substantially affect the environment, rather than leaving such decisions to single towns and individual developers. The Law also addresses concerns beyond those dealt with in air and water pollution control legislation. The Site …

Construing "Consideration" In Maine's Recreational Use Statute: Robbins V. Great Northern Paper Co., Russell B. Pierce Jr.

Maine Law Review

Since 1961, when the Legislature enacted the original version of Maine's "recreational use statute," the Maine Supreme Judicial Court has had little opportunity to construe the statute's several components. The recent case of Robbins v. Great Northern Paper Co., however, allowed the court to interpret the "consideration" exception of the statute for the first time. In a 4-3 decision, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, ruled that a $95.00 annual rental fee for noncommercial, recreational use of a lot on the defendant's property did not constitute "consideration" so as to fall within the exception to landowner …

Rethinking The History Of The Seventeenth-Century Colonial Ordinance: A Reinterpretation Of An Ancient Statute, Mark Cheung

Maine Law Review

In 1648, the Massachusetts colonial government ordered into print The Book of the General Laws and Libertyes that included an ordinance, commonly known as the Colonial Ordinance. The Ordinance extended private seashore property rights to the low water mark but to no more than one hundred rods beyond the high-water mark. The 1648 Ordinance replaced an earlier version enacted in the Body of Liberties of 1641. While both versions of the Ordinance enumerated public rights of fishing, fowling, and navigation in the foreshore, the 1648 Ordinance provided the critical language extending the private boundary to the low water mark. Prior …

Shoreline Access In Rhode Island: A Case Study Of Black Point, Michael Rubin

Maine Law Review

Access to the shoreline in Rhode Island has been a strong tradition since the colonial era. However, with increasing development pressures on the formerly rural shore areas, especially in the region of the state commonly called "South County," it was only a matter of time before public and private interests collided over the diminishing resource. That inevitable collision occurred at a particular piece of shorefront property known as Black Point, in the Town of Narragansett, when a developer purchased this large tract of ocean-front property and proposed the construction of luxury condominiums. The project would entail the closing of an …

Expanding Public Access By Codifying The Public Trust Doctrine: The Massachusetts Experience, William L. Lahey, Lauren Sandler Zurier, Kenneth W. Salinger

Maine Law Review

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is dramatically expanding public access to the coast through statutory and regulatory codification of the public trust doctrine. Is this legislative and administrative experiment relevant to other states, particularly to Maine? The initial answer to this question may depend on the meaning of the Bell v. Town of Wells decision. For better or for worse, Massachusetts jurisprudence set the course followed by the majority of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Bell. To some, including several of the authors in this symposium, the bearing of the Massachusetts courts leads to a civic wasteland where the public's …

Intellectual Indifference—Intellectual Dishonesty: The Colonial Ordinance, The Equal Footing Doctrine, And The Maine Law Court, Orlando E. Delogu

Maine Law Review

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the recent Bell decision was the fact that it was 4-3, that significant public interests were lost because a bare majority refused to examine, in the detail necessary, the Colonial Ordinance, old and new United States Supreme Court cases, Maine law, or the reasoning of their own colleagues who filed a compelling dissenting opinion in the case. A mere recitation of the dissenting opinion would serve no useful purpose—it is a part of the public record; its rationale speaks for itself. Had the rationale of the dissent been adopted by the majority it would …

Public Access And The New England Shoreline: Editors' Foreword, Kathryn L. Vezina Editor-In-Chief

Maine Law Review

In August 1989, the Marine Law Institute and the Maine Law Review cosponsored a symposium, "Moody Beach and Beyond: Public Use and Private Rights in the New England Shoreline," in Portland, Maine, to provide a forum for presentation of ideas regarding public access rights to intertidal lands. The controversy at Moody Beach was the starting point for the discussion, but the conference included papers dealing with public access issues in other states as well. Four of the papers from this symposium are included in this issue of the Maine Law Review. As were the presentations last August, these articles are …

Public Trust, Public Use, And Just Compensation, Alison Rieser

Maine Law Review

In its recent decision, Bell v. Town of Wells, the Maine Law Court declined to grapple with one of the major legal conceptual problems presented by the case. The court failed entirely to reckon with the intersection of two competing, dynamic principles of American property law; these principles are increasingly significant in an era of growing conflict between public and private interests in land and natural resources. The first principle protects particular expectations of private owners of property through application of the just compensation (or "takings") clause of the fifth amendment. The second principle recognizes that certain property is held …

A Taking By Any Other Name: Why Exclusionary Zoning Should Be Classified As A Per Se Taking, Matthew J. Ruppel

Seattle University Law Review Online

The housing affordability crisis in U.S. cities, particularly on the West Coast, has been well publicized in recent years, and the search for solutions has drawn together allies from across the ideological spectrum. While various cities and states have rolled out many types of reforms, there remains a widespread regulatory failure preventing the adaptation of cities to modern demands. A primary culprit is exclusionary zoning: plot-by-plot designation of which types of structures can be built on a piece of property— particularly which types of structures are absolutely prohibited from being built—and the broad definitional standards to which those structures must …

Crypto & The Climate: Will Local & National Environmental Regulation Save Or Stifle The Cryptocurrency Boom?

Fordham Environmental Law Review

As cryptocurrencies continue to gain traction among mainstream investors and consumers, regulators and lobbyists are increasingly taking note of the potential environmental impacts of the industry. At its core, the process of mining new currency for virtual wallets is energy intensive, which can place strains on electrical grids and accelerate the impacts of climate change. However, these effects are felt very differently depending on what source of electricity the mining operation utilizes and the methodology behind the specific currency. These variable factors are on the minds of legislators and regulators as public pressure to better understand and regulate the industry …

A Shifting Focus: How Algal Turf Scrubbers (Ats) In Natural Waterways Can Prevent Toxic Blooms And Could Save The Algae Energy Industry

Fordham Environmental Law Review

Biofuels have generated global interest among oil companies and governments. In particular, algal biofuels are slated to be more promising than traditional biofuel feedstocks, like corn and sugarcane, which are simultaneously cultivated as food products. However, the drawbacks of harvesting algae on a large industrial scale has led to intense criticism. Most critics focus on issues of sustainability, scalability of production, and the legal and ethical concerns of genetically modified crops. New research in cyanobacteria, however, illustrates algae’s potential to produce clean electricity in addition to oil, ethanol, and gasoline. Moreover, using Algal Turf Scrubbers (“ATS”) in natural waterways offers …

Why We Need A Constitutional Right To Healthy Environment In Canada

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The increasing demand for constitutional recognition of the right to a healthy environment (‘RTHE’) has been a matter of public concern and debate in many countries, including Canada.2 This paper asks, will a constitutional RTHE within the Canadian Constitution add any value when statutes already exist to protect the environment (and thereby health)? The present environmental statutes work towards protecting the environment, and by protecting the environment, public health can be protected.3 Together, both of them form a ‘healthy environment’, ie., an environment that fosters a healthy life.4 This paper will argue that there is additional value in recognizing a …

The Takings Blunderbuss: From Pennsylvania Coal To Dobbs, Michael Allan Wolf

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores three problems with the excess use of the Takings Clause (the "takings blunderbuss") that should cause concern not to left-wing judges and scholars who endorse seemingly unfettered activism from the bench and champion an organic view of the Constitution, but instead, and somewhat surprisingly, to conservatives who claim to eschew those practices. The first problem is that the text and original understanding, as far as we can discern, indicate that the Takings Clause was designed to ensure that owners receive payment when they are forced to sacrifice ownership of their tangible property for public use, most commonly …

Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Journal, Volume 13, William & Mary Law School

Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Journal

Property and Propriety (or A Well-Ordered Society)

October 26-27, 2023

Panel 1: Property and Propriety (or A Well-Ordered Society): A Tribute to Gregory S. Alexander

Panel 2: Equity's Role in Defining Property Rights

Panel 3: Roundtable: Emerging Issues

Panel 4: The Restatement's Impact on Property Rights

Panel 5: The Scalability of Property Rights

Note

Good Deeds? A Critical Race Analysis Of The Nova Scotia Land Titles Clarification Act, Melisa Marsman

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Nova Scotia Land Titles Clarification Act (“LTCA”) is remedial legislation that was enacted in 1964 to resolve insecure land titles within designated communities, particularly African Nova Scotian communities. However, African Nova Scotians had been advocating for legal title to their land for over 100 years prior to the enactment of the LTCA, and those demands were largely ignored by the government. Furthermore, despite the 60-year existence of this remedial legislation, many African Nova Scotians still hold insecure title to their land. Through a critical race analysis, this article explores why the LTCA has failed to achieve its promise to …

Law School News: No Outsiders In Rwu Law Professor's Classroom (8-29-2024), Suzi Morales, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Resolving Land Use Conflicts Without Zoning, Noah Austin

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

This Note presumes the rise of mixed-use development, upzoning, and other deregulatory zoning schemes. It sets aside the question of whether the costs of exclusionary zoning outweigh its benefits to society. And it characterizes the return-of-nuisance problem as something to be mitigated while pursuing land use deregulation, not as a cause for slowing that deregulation.

To this end, this Note offers three possible solutions towards mitigating conflicts between competing land uses in deregulated regimes. This Note contends that where today’s deregulated developments do generate conflicts between conflicting use types, society would reap net benefit by weakening judicial protection of nuisance …

"Zoning" Matters: Rluipa And The New Normal Of Religious Discrimination, Michael Allan Wolf

UF Law Faculty Publications

The protection of religious freedom under federal law waxes and wanes, depending on two unpredictable factors: judicial activism and congressional action. A review of dozens of cases involving alleged violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), including two recent cases heard by the Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit, reveals for the first time that many litigants and judges have ignored the congressional injunction to limit the reach of RLUIPA to two (and only two) forms of land-use regulation: zoning and landmarking. Plaintiffs have instead used RLUIPA to challenge water and sewer, septic, fire prevention, building, …

Bunching In Real-Estate Markets: Regulated Building Heights In New York City, Jan K. Brueckner, David Leather, Michael Zerecero

Business Faculty Articles and Research

This paper presents a real-estate application of the bunching methodology widely used in other areas of applied microeconomics. The focus is on regulated building heights in New York City, where developers can exceed a parcel’s regulated height by incurring additional costs. Using the bunching methodology, we estimate the magnitude of these extra costs, with the results showing a modest increase in the marginal cost of floor space beyond the regulated building height. We use these estimates to predict the additional floor space that would be created by complete removal of building-height regulation in NYC. While this last exercise is circumscribed …

Property And Energy Law—Pay To Play: The Effect Of The Brine Conservation Act’S Statutory “In-Lieu” Royalty Provision On The Long-Term Economic Viability Of Arkansas’S Brine-Lithium Industry, Tyler Gillespie

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Broken Kinship: Family Property Disputes And The Common Intention Constructive Trust In Singapore, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

There has been a proliferation of common intention constructive trust claims in Singapore. The main reason is that families have acquired real estate using their collective earning power without explicitly considering the individual entitlement of each family member. When a dispute arises, the claim is often pleaded as a common intention constructive trust. The complication with applying the law on the common intention constructive trust is that this is an English doctrine developed to deal with a different social context i.e. the breakdown of the relationship between cohabiting couples. In Singapore, the common intention constructive trust applies primarily in a …

Ticnerships, Bradley T. Borden

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Tenancy-in-common (TIC) ownership has been around for centuries, but the commercial use of TIC ownership of real property has accelerated over the last couple of decades. The impetus for TIC ownership of real property is twofold: (1) a desire property owners have to obtain the tax benefits of section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code and (2) the desire property owners have to own property with other property owners and other professional managers and developers. Because section 1031 only applies to exchanges of real property, interests in partnerships and LLCs—the most common type of real property ownership—do not qualify for …

Regulatory Takings In Climate Change: Geo- Engineering One’S Way Around The Fifth Amendment, Noah Chase

Fordham Environmental Law Review

Picture yourself as the owner of a small business located in the downtown area of a large city; your business consists of a shop and an adjoining parking lot. A new regulation has just been passed which requires any owner of property within the city limits to paint all roofs and parking areas with a new reflective coating, in order to reduce the heat which is absorbed by such structures. The idea of closing your business down for this time, along with other connected issues, scares you, and you begin to wonder if your local government truly has your best …

Arizona V. Navajo Nation And Systemic Failures In The Tribal Water Allocation Scheme, Jennifer Horkovich

Fordham Environmental Law Review

When the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. Navajo Nation was published in June 2023, Indian Country was hardly surprised with the Court’s ruling. There, the Court found that the United States had no affirmative duty to affirmatively protect the Navajo Nation’s water rights under the 1868 Treaty.1 The Court was clear: the treaty is insufficient for the Navajo’s current water needs, but the judiciary is unable to step in to find relief.2 This decision is another in a long series of cases on water allocation and the federal reserved water right, where tribes have been unable to …

Environmental Protection, Sustainability And The Prevention Of Satellite Collisions In Outer Space, Yun Zhao

Fordham Environmental Law Review

With space commercialization and privatization continuing apace, more space objects are expected to be launched and put into operation in the future, adding to the already large number of defunct satellites and space debris present in outer space. Hence, serious study should be devoted to possible mechanisms for dealing with potential collisions in outer space for the purpose of realizing environmental protection and space sustainability. In view of the inadequacy of the existing legal regime, this article explores possible such mechanisms (including a preventive mechanism, avoidance mechanism and compensation mechanism) from the perspective of interdependence theory and puts forward a …

That’S No Moon, It’S A Space Station: Determining Ownership Rights On The Moon At The Intersection Of International Treaty And Property Law, Abby Jones

Cleveland State Law Review

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 asserts in no uncertain terms that no State Party to the Treaty shall claim any part of space, including any part of a celestial body like the moon. Outer space and all its components are the providence of humankind. But how can this be? As states and their private entities continue to expand the outer space market, there are plans for footholds like facilities and stations on the moon that will establish a permanent lunar presence. According to most interpretations of property law, this would establish at least some form of property right at …