Law Commons^™

A Wrong Turn With The Rights Of Nature Movement, Noah M. Sachs

Law Faculty Publications

Environmentalists have long dreamed of granting enforceable legal rights to nature, and their vision has recently become reality. Governments in the United States and abroad are enacting Rights of Nature laws, and many scholars have championed this burgeoning movement as one of the best hopes for preserving the environment.

Legal rights for nature seem visionary, but policymakers and scholars are overlooking considerable problems with this approach. This Article spotlights these problems, including the vague and incoherent content of nature’s rights, the difficulty of defining the boundaries of natural entities, the absence of limiting principles for the rights, and the legislation’s …

Home Of The Dispossessed, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

The objects that people interact with on a daily basis speak to and of these people who acquire, display, and handle them—the relationship is one of exchange. People living among household objects come to care for their things, identify with them, and think of them as a constituent part of themselves. A meaningful problem arises, however, when people who have deep connections to the objects that populate their lived spaces are not those who possess the legal rights of ownership. These individuals and groups—usually excluded from the realm of property ownership along lines of gender, race, and ethnicity—live on an …

Uncivil Asset Forfeiture: An Analysis Of Civil Asset Forfeiture And Virginia H.B. 48, Brent Ashley

Law Student Publications

Introduced in 2016, Virginia House Bill 48 proposed civil forfeiture reforms which would raise the burden of proof required for law enforcement agencies to seize property related to criminal activity. Civil forfeiture has grown in recent decades to deprive innocent property owners of their belongings, often due to connections between the property seized and persons accused of using the property illegally without the owners’ consent. Additionally, with a burden of proof much lower than the standard that must be met for a criminal conviction, civil forfeiture as it stands now risks depriving property owners of their possessions despite a lack …

The Categorical Lucas Rule And The Nuisance And Background Principles Exception, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

This article examines the seminal 1992 United States Supreme Court decision, Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 1 specifically focusing on the Lucas nuisance exception. I surveyed approximately 1,600 reported regulatory takings cases decided since the Lucas decision involving Lucas takings challenges. I identified the statutory nuisance cases in which state and local governments unsuccessfully asserted the Lucas nuisance exception as a defense to the courts' findings of a Lucas taking. This article examines the prospective potential of these cases for assisting private property owners in enhancing private property rights protections within the area of regulatory takings.

The Right To Enforce: Why Rluipa's Land Use Provisions Is A Constitutional Federal Enforcement Power, Qasim Rashid

Law Student Publications

The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”) superseded the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”), which the Supreme Court held unconstitutional in its application to states in 1997. A two-pronged law, RLUIPA protects prisoners from unjust impositions to their freedom of worship and also ensures religious institutions may use their property for legitimate worship purposes without burdensome zoning law restrictions. This paper focuses specifically on the latter prong and analyzes RLUIPA in light of the growing Islamophobia in America during the previous twenty-four months. For example, the United States Department of Justice reports “of the eighteen RLUIPA matters involving …

Eminent Domain: The Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis Or Overstepping Government Boundaries?, Anne T. T. Jensen

Law Student Publications

This article will provide both an analysis of the legal concept of eminent domain and its likelihood of success in resuscitating real estate markets in towns like San Bernandino. Sections Two and Three will explore the background of the mortgage crisis and provide an in-depth description of the eminent domain proposal by the Mortgage Resolution Partners ("MRP"). Section Four takes a deeper look into the state and federal precedent on a municipality's power to use eminent domain, revealing that the definition of "legitimate public purpose" would likely apply to the seizing of mortgages. Finally, Section Five will focus on the …

Cases And Materials On American Property Law, 6th Edition, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

This casebook continues its traditional approach to the teaching of property law. The new edition features a number of new cases inserted into almost every chapter of the book. The notes and comments have been appropriately updated. The opening chapter continues to include a section of cases designed to hone a student's skill in close case analysis. The book in its entirety introduces students to a broad spectrum of material traditionally covered in a first-year property course.

The Silver Lining In The Red Giant: China’S Residential Mortgage Laws Promote Temperance Among The Surging Middle Class, Clayton D. Laforge

Law Student Publications

This comment examines the rise of China‘s middle class and proactive governance to protect its economy from a housing bubble during the global downturn. An analysis of recently enacted Chinese labor and corporate laws demonstrates how the government facilitated the rise of the middle class. The comment dis-cusses the ramifications of strict domestic residential mortgage regulations and how China‘s tempered investment structure secured its domestic housing market. Part II of this comment examines China‘s investment and consumption patterns compared to domestic growth. Part III discusses how the surging middle class grew to seek investment opportunities in the real estate market …

Women And Subprime Lending: An Essay Advocating Self-Regulation Of The Mortgage Lending Industry,Symposium On Law As Transformative Agent: Thinking And Doing Law In New Categories, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

The subsequent national mortgage foreclosure crisis that seemed almost 5 uncontrollable by 2007 ignited a mortgage-related financial crisis that affected the global market place. News media, business reports, government investigations, 6 regulatory inquiries, and citizen suits focused national attention on the housing crisis and the problems attending what soon came to be known as the “mortgage meltdown.” A dual mortgage market had emerged in which subprime lending 7 disproportionately affected minorities (particularly blacks and Hispanics), women, and the elderly.8 Evidence of the disparate impact felt by certain minority borrowers is abundant and the evidence of gender disparities in subprime lending …

Rethinking Adverse Possession: An Essay On Ownership And Possession, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

In the wake of the present real estate crisis, there has been prolonged discussion of the wrongdoing that led to systemic failures in the national real estate market. The mortgage crisis caught the nation’s attention because of its large scale and its rippling effect throughout the economy. Equally nefarious is the impact of adverse possession on the rights of individual property owners. While a single adverse possession does not affect the national market in the same way as the mortgage crisis did, to the individual owner, the wrongdoing, in the form of a trespass, that ripens into title, is just …

Intent And Empirics: Race To The Subprime, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

The United States’ history of racially discriminatory banking, housing, and property policies created a community of black Americans accustomed to exploitative financial services and vulnerable to victimization by subprime lenders. My thesis is that black borrowers are experiencing a new iteration of intentional housing discrimination in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; lenders identified a vulnerable 'emerging market' of black homeowners and borrowers and knowingly targeted them to receive subprime or predatory loan products when equally situated white borrowers were given superior, prime mortgage products. This Article explores how disparate lending practices coupled with banking deregulation undermined the Congressional push for …

Kelo V. City Of New London And The Prospects For Development After A Natural Disaster, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

The tension between private property rights, human rights, and community are at an all time high in many parts of the world. Social and political changes along with the pressures of globalization call for a new look at the role of private property and its place within the framework of democratic societies.This book addresses the current status of eminent domain and takings law jurisprudence. The focus is the relationship between private property, individual rights and community. The work covers a variety of points of view with respect to the legal, economic, and socio-legal aspects of property and of takings law, …

The Houses That Eminent Domain And Housing Tax Credits Built: Imagining A Better New Orleans, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

Proposals for investing in and rebuilding urban enclaves such as New Orleans are layered with controversy and difficulty. One of the most significant impediments to rebuilding New Orleans will be addressing the need to replenish the depleted rental housing market. Racial and economic integration of housing markets and appropriate use of private sector money to replenish the rental housing stock within a “reasonable” time period are indispensable components of a responsible revitalization and renewal plan. This Article contends that a combination of the smart exercise of eminent domain and of ”housing production subsidies” – housing tax credits – is necessary …

A Time To Preserve: A Call For Formal Private-Party Rights In Perpetual Conservation Easements, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

For more than a century, conservation easements have been used in the United States to maintain open space or protect the environment. Such easements produce a public good. They increase the amount of protected landscapes by preserving property encumbered by easements from private development or consumption while simultaneously allowing grantors the flexibility to negotiate the retention of development rights tailored to meet the grantors' needs. My thesis is that private parties should have a common law property interest in conservation easements sufficient to confer standing to seek injunctive relief to enforce conservation easements and to sue for damages when they …

Casting Lots: The Illusion Of Justice And Accountability In Property Allocation, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

When does resorting to random selection by casting lots produce a just distribution or allocation of property? Some argue generally in support of casting lots, asserting that it is a viable substitute for equal distribution of property. Others argue against casting lots, contending that it undermines distributive justice. This article considers instances of casting lots from the nineteenth century to the present and explains why the latter view is the better view.

The Antelope is one of the earliest United States Supreme Court cases addressing distribution of property by casting lots. It chronicles a dispute over the allocation of captured …

Brief Of Alain De Foucauld As Amicus Curiae In R.M.S. Titanic, Inc. V. The Wrecked And Abandoned Vessel, John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

From the Summary of Argument:

The court below erred in its judgment that the procès verbal of October 20, 1993 should be refused recognition because it is contrary to French law. Article 13 of Decree No. 61-1547 (Dec. 21, 1961) does empower a maritime affairs administrator to award goods to a salvor under the conditions of this case, and there is no basis, in the record or in comity, for a conclusion to the contrary. Legislative acts in Canada and the United Kingdom affording administrative officers in those countries similar powers in cases of wreck and salvage persuade that, to …

Taking The Takings Claim: A Policy And Economic Analysis Of The Survival Of Takings Claims After Property Transfers, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

What ought to be the nature of an owner's right to pursue a regulatory takings claim when the regulation the owner seeks to challenge was in place when the owner acquired the regulated property? Some argue that an owner should not be entitled to challenge such a restriction as a Fifth Amendment taking if the property was already impaired by the regulation at the time the owner acquired it. Proponents of this view contend that allowing subsequent owners to challenge the enforcement of regulations, pre-dating their acquisition of title, and of which they had notice, would confer undeserved windfalls and …

Property Law, W. Wade Berryhill

Law Faculty Publications

As legal years go, action on the 1996 legislative and judicial fronts was relatively quiet in the area of property law. The legislative activity which spawned most of the interest was bills addressing the definitional limits of the unauthorized practice of law in real estate closings. These bills were not enacted and have been carried over for the next legislative session. Several judicial decisions, although none could be described as landmark determinations, are of interest and clarify points of law. These cases, as well as selected items of legislation which are believed to be of the most practical interest to …

Sin, Scandal, And Substantive Due Process, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

For students of civil procedure, the names Pennoyer and Neff evoke these dry facts: In an initial suit, one J.H. Mitchell sued Neff in Oregon state court. Because Neff could not be found within Oregon, he was served by publication. Neff never appeared, and a default judgment was entered against him. To satisfy the judgment, Mitchell attached Neff's Oregon real estate. The property was sold at auction, and Pennoyer later acquired it. Nearly a decade later, Neff returned to Oregon and brought suit in federal court to evict Pennoyer from the land, claiming that the original judgment was invalid. The …

Property, W. Wade Berryhill

Law Faculty Publications

This year, the courts decided many property law issues of interest to the general practitioner. Section I discusses cases from the federal district and circuit courts, as well as the Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia Court of Appeals. The 1987 session of the General Assembly resulted in several changes affecting property laws in Virginia. Section II lists the most significant statutes.

Property, W. Wade Berryhill

Law Faculty Publications

The 1986 General Assembly may be remembered as much for what it did not do as for what it did. Carried over into the next session was House Bill 810, which would have abolished dower and curtesy in favor of a statutory share for the surviving spouse in the deceased spouse's estate. Of course, passage of this bill would have ushered in significant change in the practice of decedents' estates. Significantly, passage of the bill also would have legislatively overruled recent judicial and legislative activity which has created the sole and separate estate, for both female and male, allowing circumvention …

Property, W. Wade Berryhill

Law Faculty Publications

The General Assembly made several minor changes affecting property law in Virginia. The most significant of these changes was the amendment of the Code's provisions regarding a spouse's dower and curtesy interests in the separate estate of a deceased spouse. In addition to this legislation, the Virginia Supreme Court decided several cases dealing with varied property issues. The decisions discussed below are those which should have the most interest to the general practitioner. The real estate specialist, no doubt, is already aware of most of them. In the majority of the cases which follow, the Virginia Supreme Court affirms and …

Taking Precedents In The Tidelands: Refocusing On Eminent Domain, W. Wade Berryhill

Law Faculty Publications

The focus of this article is on the state's power of eminent domain as a means of controlling the use of scarce coastal resources. However, in order to determine whether this rather drastic exercise of governmental power is the most appropriate means of effecting its purposes, the state or its delegate must consider the alternatives. This article therefore will first examine briefly other possible means of control; it will then discuss the substantive and procedural requirements of eminent domain; and finally, it will consider problems of post-acquisition resource management.

Title Examination In Virginia, W. Wade Berryhill

Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of the basic procedures of title examination. The emphasis is on the mechanics and practical considerations involved in a search of title. Although the focus of any legal work is "the law," this article is not meant to be a legal treatise. It is rather a practical "how to" guide. The author hopes, however, that this writing will not only acquaint the reader with the basic techniques of title examination but will also assist the title examiner in solving the related problems which arise when some of the more common …

The Due-On-Sale Clause: A Marriage Gone Sour - A Checklist For The Practitioner, W. Wade Berryhill

Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to identify and examine the influencing considerations and the attachment of significance given to them by the courts in the "due-on" cases. After a discussion of recent litigation addressing the enforceability of the "due-on" clauses in Virginia, a summarizing checklist will follow detailing the factors which must be considered by the practitioner preparing to draft or litigate the clause.

Warrantless Search Of A College Dormitory, Ronald J. Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

Student Conduct is as much a part of the collegiate experience as intellectual pursuit, and regulation of student conduct has been a concern of university officials for as long as there have been students and universities. Until the 1960s the courts had few occasions to concern themselves with the regulation of student conduct; and, university officials were free to take any action short of action that was arbitrary and capricious. University officials were deemed to stand in loco parentis and thus could make and enforce any regulation for the physical training, moral enrichment, and betterment of their pupils that a …