Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Property Rights: A View From The Trenches, Michael A. Heller

Articles

How do governments create - or in some countries recreate - basic property rights that citizens demand in the transition to a market economy? My first comment, quite briefly, is on the debate within this Symposium on the relationship between constitutional reforms and the emergence of new property regimes. Second, I will comment on the counterintuitive property rights regime that is emerging from the "big bang" - the post-1989 collapse of the old socialist legal order in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and its replacement with a new, market-oriented system of property rights.

Legal Interpretation And A Constitutional Case: Home Building & Loan Association V. Blaisdell, Charles A. Bieneman

Michigan Law Review

The approaches of Hughes and Sutherland are but two extremes in constitutional interpretation. Though only two results were possible in the case - either the Act was constitutional or it was not - there are more than two methods by which an interpreter could reach those results. This Note explores possible ways of deciding Blaisdell, using the case as a vehicle for delimiting the boundaries of a positive constitutional command. As a sort of empirical investigation of legal philosophy, the Note examines how various interpretive theories affect an interpreter's approach to the case, and the results these theories might …

A Critical Reexamination Of The Takings Jurisprudence, Glynn S. Lunney Jr

Michigan Law Review

To provide some insight into the nature of these disagreements, and to suggest a possible solution to the compensation issue, this article undertakes a critical reexamination of the takings jurisprudence. It focuses on the two bases which the modem Court has articulated as support for its resolution of the compensation issue: (1) the articulated purpose of using the just compensation requirement "to bar Government from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens"; and (2) the early case law. Beginning with the Court's first struggles with the compensation issue in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, this article traces …

Zero-Sum Madison, Thomas W. Merrill

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Private Property and the Limits of American Constitutionalism by Jennifer Nedelsky

Judicial Review Of The Compensation Law In Hungary, Peter Paczolay

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article analyzes the Hungarian Constitutional Court's decisions regarding a specific problem of property rights, namely the Compensation Law. It does not attempt to examine the details of broad subjects such as property rights or privatization.

Eminent Domain (Update), James E. Krier

Book Chapters

One of the most challenging and enduring puzzles in American constitutional law is how one distinguishes a compensable taking of power from a legitimate and noncompensable exercise of the police power. To suggest the Supreme Court’s approach to the question, Harry N. Scheiber, author of the Encyclopedia’s principal article on eminent domain, looked back and away from the Court to Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw of Massachusetts.

A Bitter Inheritance: East German Real Property And The Supreme Constitutional Court's "Land Reform" Decision Of April 23, 1991, Jonathan J. Doyle

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article briefly examines the principal expropriatory measures undertaken between 1945 and 1989, the agreements between the two German governments relating thereto, and the divisive constitutional issues raised by this fusion of two antithetical legal systems in the area of property law. The text concludes with an analysis of the German Supreme Court's "Land Reform" decision and the juridical controversy surrounding it.

Less Law Than Meets The Eye, David D. Friedman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Order Without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes by Robert C. Ellickson

The Tragedy Of The Commons, Part Two, James E. Krier

Articles

This symposium is about the idea of "free market environmentalism" in general and the book Free Market Environmentalism, by Terry Anderson and Donald Leal,1 in particular. While I focus chiefly on Anderson and Leal's book, the discussion will necessarily involve the general idea of free market environmentalism as well. The conceit of my tide, which obviously derives from Garrett Hardin's celebrated essay on The Tragedy of the Commons,2 is this: Superficial differences aside, Hardin's essay and Anderson and Leal's book address the same fundamental problem of coordinating human behavior as it affects environmental quality. But both the essay and the …

Rolling Down The Curtain On "Roll-Ups": The Case For Federal Legislation To Protect Limited Partners, Kenneth R. Hillier

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines roll-ups and the lack of alternatives available to reluctant limited partners. Part I focuses on existing judicial remedies for limited partners, such as injunctions and actions for damages, and explains why these courses of action provide inadequate protection. This Part then reviews recent attempts at statutory protection and points out the shortcomings of these remedies. Part II examines safeguards afforded analogously situated corporate shareholders and sets forth arguments why limited partners should receive similar protection. After demonstrating the need for legislation, Part III suggests a workable structure for this statutory protection. Then, the Note discusses the relative …

Icons And Aliens: Law, Aesthetics, And Environmental Change, Scott Schrader

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Icons and Aliens: Law, Aesthetics, and Environmental Change by John J. Costonis

Easment Holder Liability Under Cercla: The Right Way To Deal With Rights-Of-Way, Jill D. Neiman

Michigan Law Review

Responding to growing public concern about the accumulation of toxic wastes, Congress in 1980 passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). CERCLA authorizes federal action to clean up, or to require others to clean up, leaking hazardous waste sites. Congress placed the financial burden for this cleanup on those responsible for the problem and on those who benefited from improper methods of hazardous waste disposal. Through this liability scheme, Congress also intended CERCLA to encourage responsible or benefited parties to respond voluntarily to the hazardous waste problem.

Part I asserts that CERCLA's legislative history, when read against …

The Power Line Health Controversy: Legal Problems And Proposals For Reform, Philip S. Mccune

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note examines the primary means of compensating individuals whose property is affected by EMFs from nearby power lines: eminent-domain and inverse-condemnation proceedings. Although power lines adversely affect property values in several ways, 6 fear of the potential health problems caused by power lines has had the greatest impact.' v Part I evaluates the three approaches that courts have developed to determine whether plaintiffs can recover for the effect of public fears of EMFs on property values. This Part concludes that although testimony about the biological effects of EMFs should be inadmissible, property owners should be able …

The Czechoslovak Approach To The Draft Convention On Jurisdictional Immunitites Of States And Their Property, Vladimir Balaš, Monika Pauknerová

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article deals with four issues: (1) The effort of the International Law Commission of the United Nations to codify jurisdictional immunity. (2) The theoretical and practical Czechoslovak approach toward the institution of jurisdictional immunity of States and the Draft Convention, and a prediction of possible change of the Czechoslovak view. (3) The changing views of East European scholars. (4) An analysis of particular provisions of the Draft Convention with respect to their acceptability by States with different socioeconomic systems and especially by Czechoslovakia.

The Israeli Demolition Of Palestinian Houses In The Occupied Territories: An Analysis Of Its Legality In International Law, Martin B. Carroll

Michigan Journal of International Law

The recent Palestinian uprising in the Israeli Occupied Territories, otherwise known as the Intifadah, has brought greater attention to Israel's security measures. Specifically, the Intifadah has raised questions of the efficacy and legality of Israel's attempts to control the local population by means criticized by many as overly heavy-handed. One such practice employed by the Israelis is the demolition or sealing of houses in which a resident is believed to have committed a political or violent act against the interests of the State of Israel. The intent of this paper is to examine the legality of the destruction of houses …

The (Unlikely) Death Of Property, James E. Krier

Articles

Is property dead? Thomas Grey has argued that it is.' If he is right, we have an answer to the principal question of this symposium panel, which asks whether regulation and property are allies or enemies. If Professor Grey is right, they are neitherbecause property no longer exists. If he is wrong (as I believe he partly is), then, I argue, regulation and property are allies and enemies alike, and will remain so.

Transfers Of Property In Eleventh-Century Norman Law, William John Gallagher

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Transfers of Property in Eleventh-Century Norman Law by Emily Zack Tabuteau

Some Aspects Of Householding In The Medieval Icelandic Commonwealth, William I. Miller

Articles

There has been much, mostly inconclusive, discussion about how to define the household in a manner suitable for comparative purposes. Certain conventional criteria are not very useful in the Icelandic context, where it appears that a person could be attached to more than one household, where the laws suggest it was possible for more than one household to be resident in the same uncompartmentalised farmhouse; and where headship might often be shared. Definitions, for example, based on co residence or on commensalism do not jibe all that well with the pastoral transhumance practised by the Icelanders. Sheep were tended and …

Women And The Law Of Property In Early America, David H. Bromfield

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Women and the Law of Property in Early America by Marylynn Salmon

Condominium Conversion Of Residential Rental Units: A Proposal For State Regulation And A Model Act, Bernard V, Keenan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article has several objectives. Part I provides a foundation for discussion by briefly outlining the relationship between the recent history of the rental housing market and those factors prompting the conversion of apartments to condominium status. With this background information, the relevance of conversion legislation is more readily grasped. Part II seeks to establish that state government is the appropriate governmental entity to formulate legislation intended to protect individuals affected by the conversion of rental units. Federal legislation has addressed this specific issue in the relatively unknown Condominium and Cooperative Conversion Protection and Abuse Relief Act of 1980. In …

The Recovery Of Shipwrecks In International Waters: A Multilateral Solution, Elizabeth Barrowman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note will examine the current state of international law concerning property rights to all types of wrecks discovered in international waters. It will show that a multilateral convention is needed to establish an international framework for property rights to shipwrecks of historical and archaeological value, to wrecks of military vessels, and to wrecks of commercial ships such as the Titanic. There may be obstacles to the establishment of a multilateral convention, but the international community must provide certainty to ownership questions, furnish protection for submarine antiquities, and prevent disputes arising from the wrongful salvage of military vessels.

Farmland And Open Space Preservation In Michigan: An Empirical Analysis, Sandra A. Hoffmann

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note describes the political and economic conditions that gave rise to the farmland and open space preservation enactments. It presents a brief political history of the support for this body of legislation and summarizes the economic arguments raised both for and against these preservation efforts. Part II describes the principal types of state farmland and open space preservation programs enacted during the past thirty years. Finally, Part III presents an empirical analysis of P.A. 116.

Dancing On The Edge Of Article 9, James J. White

Articles

Despite the fact that Article 9 is a much more comprehensive personal property security statute than was ever found in American law prior to its enactment, cases continue to present issues on the scope of the Article. Gone are the cases in which a court was called upon to determine whether a "conditional sales contract" could be dealt with under the "factor's lien" law; it is now clear that all such personal property security devices are governed by Article 9. Yet many problems remain for the unwary lawyer. I will identify several and deal in detail with three of these …

Gift, Sale, Payment, Raid: Case Studies In The Negotiation And Classification Of Exchange In Medieval Iceland, William I. Miller

Articles

Near the end of Eyrbyggja saga Porir asks Ospak and his men where they had gotten the goods they were carrying. Ospak said that they had gotten them at Pambardal. "How did you come by them?" said Porir. Ospak answered, "They were not given, they were not paid to me, nor were they sold either." Ospak had earlier that evening raided the house of a farmer called Alf and made away with enough to burden four horses. And this was exactly what he told Porir when he wittily eliminated the other modes of transfer by which he could have acquired …

Purchaser's Depreciation Rights In Property Subject To A Lease, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the purchase of property subject to a lease may produce several types of depreciable interests. Part I of the Note examines the requirements for depreciability and the role that depreciation plays in tax law. It concludes that even where the method set out by Congress also accommodates other goals, depreciation primarily provides a way to recover costs during a depreciable asset's income-producing life. Part II applies these principles to the task of determining whether improvements - for example, buildings on the property subject to the lease - are depreciable in the purchaser's hands. It concludes that …

The Taming Of A Duty--The Tort Liability Of Landlords, Olin L. Browder

Michigan Law Review

For one inclined to reform the first-year curriculum in law schools the most simple and comprehensive solution is to expand the treatment of the law on landlord and tenant, and only then break up into the traditional basic subjects to deal with matters not previously covered. Thereby one could embrace all the traditional first-year subjects except Criminal Law, and a good deal more as well.

The other side of this conceit is that one who approaches the modem law of landlord and tenant from traditional property perspectives encounters particular problems that arise from the margins, or along the frontal thrust, …

Alternative Mortgage Instruments: Authorizing And Implementing Price Level Adjusted Mortgages, Joel J. Goldberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Of the institutions authorized to make mortgage funds available, only federally-chartered and a small minority of state-chartered savings and loan associations are presently authorized to make PLAM loans. This is due, in part, to a variety of legal and underwriting problems that may outweigh the theoretical advantages of PLAM financing. This Note evaluates these legal and underwriting problems and proposes legal measures to accommodate PLAM financing. Part I discusses the development and advantages of the PLAM. Part II analyzes the legal and practical underwriting objections to PLAM financing, including interest regulations, tax ramifications, and commercial desirability. Part II also suggests …

Interest Representation And The Federal Land Policy And Management Act, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The role of the BLM under the FLPMA, this Note argues, is accurately captured in the "interest representation" model of administrative law; judicial review under this model serves to vindicate the "participation rights" of parties interested in public lands management. Part I places the FLPMA in the context of other recent congressional reform efforts and attempts to justify heightened judicial scrutiny of the BLM's activities. To protect citizens' participation rights, it concludes, courts should recognize a limited right to initiate the planning and management provisions of the FLPMA. The Act, in other words, should be interpreted to comprehend "agenda forcing" …

Selected Problems In Wrap-Around Financing: Suggested Approaches To Due-On-Sale Clauses And Purchaser's Depreciable Basis, Sanford M. Guerin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article will address two unresolved issues surrounding the WA transaction which result from the inherent flexibility available for negotiating financing terms in the absence of an institutional lender. Part I discusses the circumstances warranting exclusion of the WA loan from the purchaser's depreciable basis. Part II addresses whether, and when, a due-on-sale clause in the senior mortgage should negate the possibility of utilizing WA financing.

The Estate Tax Marital Deduction, Harold Dubroff, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

The estate tax marital deduction, section 2056 of the Internal Revenue Code, was enacted in 1948, along with the split-income provisions of the income tax law and the marital deduction and split-gift provisions of the gift tax law. The purpose was to give married residents of common law states approximately the same federal tax advantages that were available to married residents of community property states. Ordinarily, upon the death of a married resident of a community property state, only one-half of the community property is taxed in the decedent's estate. Section 2056 achieves approximately the same result for married residents …