Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Historic Partition Law Reform: A Game Changer For Heirs’ Property Owners, Thomas W. Mitchell

Faculty Scholarship

Over the course of several decades, many disadvantaged families who owned property under the tenancy-in-common form of ownership—property these families often referred to as heirs’ property—have had their property forcibly sold as a result of court-ordered partition sales. For several decades, repeated efforts to reform State partition laws produced little to no reform despite clear evidence that these laws unjustly harmed many families. This paper addresses the remarkable success of a model State statute named the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), which has been enacted into law in several States since 2011, including in five southern States. The …

Tenant-Victims, Abusers, And No Way To Escape: The Need For An Amendment To The Florida Residential Landlord And Tenant Act, Adam Bent

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Under the Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, there is no right to early lease termination for tenants who must move to escape domestic, stalking, sexual, or dating violence. Florida’s failure to grant a right to early lease termination compounds the physical and psychological harm that victims face; abusers often live with the victim or know where the victim lives. In turn, abusers can return to the victim’s home and harm the victim; often, this results in serious physical harm or death. This Article explains why existing criminal and civil law does not adequately protect victims from their abusers. The …

Are Marine National Monuments "Situated On Lands Owned Or Controlled By The Government Of The United States?", Tyler C. Costello

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

The ocean offers what may seem like endless supply of natural resources, ecosystem services, or for some, simple enjoyment. Yet, in the face of climate change and overexploitation, many of these unique ecosystems and their inhabitants face an uphill battle. A president's use of the Antiquities Act establishing a national monument is an efficient and effective method of protecting these diverse ecosystems, as long as the area to be protected satisfies one of the Act's limitations that the monument be "situated on land owned or controlled by the federal government." Prior to a 2017 lawsuit concerning President Obama's use of …

Defining Fishing, The Slippery Seaweed Slope, Ross V. Acadian Seaplants Ltd., Rebecca P. Totten

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

In Maine, the intertidal zone has seen many disputes over its use, access, and property rights. Recently, in Ross v. Acadian Seaplants, Ltd., the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, held that rockweed seaweed in the intertidal zone is owned by the upland landowner and is not part of a public easement under the public trust doctrine. The Court held harvesting rockweed is not fishing. This case will impact private and public rights and also the balance between the State's environmental and economic interests. This Comment addresses the following points: first, the characteristics of rockweed and the …

The Role Of State Planning Law In The Regulation And Protection Of Ocean Resources, Edward J. Sullivan

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

While land use planning is pervasive in the United States, legal structures for the planning and management of ocean resources are less well known or studied. The passage of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act in 1972 provided federal funds for state planning and regulation of coastal areas, with the incentive of binding federal agencies to state and regulations plans certified by the Secretary of Commerce. Most of the focus of CZMA study has been on estuaries and coastal shorelands; much less focus has been on coastal waters. Regarding coastal waters, more attention is given to the three mile ocean …

Avoiding Maladaptations To Flooding And Erosion: A Case Study Of Alaska Native Villages, Elizaveta Barrett Ristroph

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

This article offers perspective on how Alaska Native Villages (ANVs), which are small and rural indigenous communities, are adapting to changes in flooding and erosion. It considers which adaptations might be maladaptations and what might be done to facilitate adaptation short of relocating entire communities. It outlines the United States' legal framework applicable to flooding and erosion and considers why this framework may do little to assist ANVs and similarly situated small and rural communities. Findings regarding adaptation strategies and obstacles are drawn from my Ph.D. research, which involved a review of plans for fifty nine ANVs and 153 interviews …

Shells Of The Stores They Once Were: Returning Vacant Retail Property To Productive Use In The Midst Of The "Retail Apocalypse", Mairead J. Fitzgerald-Mumford

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note intends to address responses to retail vacancies by local governments in nonurban areas where land is relatively cheap and low-density development predominates. Its purpose is to assist these municipalities in motivating owners of vacant retail structures to return the property to productive use, thereby significantly reducing the number of empty retail shells that litter the landscapes of many communities. Alternatively, in cases where the owner is unable or unwilling to mitigate the negative externalities imposed on the community by a vacant retail structure, I propose solutions tailored to commercial properties that will allow local governments to intervene in …

Mitigating The Legal Risks For Landlords Under The Rental Assistance Demonstration Program, Erica Mahoney

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Public housing units are deteriorating while there are insufficient allocations for their renovation or maintenance. In 2012, Congress initiated the Rental Assistance Demonstration (“RAD”) in an attempt to save public housing without the need to apportion additional funds to housing assistance pro- grams. The RAD program converts public housing to mixed-income housing and transfers majority ownership to private developers. Current tenants of these public housing complexes are transferred to mixed-income apartment complexes owned by private landlords and developers who receive a portion of the rent from the tenant and additional rent from the local Public Housing Authority. The success of …

High-Speed Rail: An Opportunity For Texas Eminent Domain Reform, Aaron Mitchell

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

With the Texas Central’s high-speed rail fast approaching in Texas, legislators have been presented with an opportunity to reform Texas’ eminent domain laws. The controversial urban-versus-rural project has brought eminent domain policy to the limelight. The Texas Legislature can capitalize on lessons learned from the State’s bout with the Trans-Pecos Pipeline by protecting condemnees and incentivizing good faith efforts by condemnors.

This Article proposes five possible reforms for eminent domain law in Texas. First, the Texas Legislature should protect condemnees by aligning their appraisal disclosure requirements with condemnors, who have no duties to disclose appraisals. Second, legislative changes would allow …

The New "Chain" Of Title: How Blockchain Will Affect Land Title Research, Recordation, And Insurance, Matt Koronczok

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Blockchain has recently driven a financial revolution in the realm of virtual currencies, smart contracts, and escrow services. Over the last year, the technology has also been mentioned as a harbinger of change in real estate transactions and land title research. Speculation about the technology’s likely impact in various industries is more warranted in some instances than others. Goldman Sachs, for its part, has suggested that, like other industries which have benefitted from the transparency and efficiency of blockchain technology, the title insurance industry will experience a dramatic boost in the near future. This suggestion, however, fails to recognize both …

Eminent Domain A Decade After Kelo: Are Takings To Build Professional And College Sports Stadiums In Texas A Valid Public Use?, Lauren Trimble

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

This Comment addresses the controversial Kelo v. City of New London decision and focuses on the state of Texas’ response to Kelo through its enactment of section 2206.001 of the Texas Government Code. This Comment discusses the implications of this statute in the realm of professional and college sports stadiums in Texas. Additionally, this Comment provides a background in the evolution of the eminent domain doctrine and prominent Supreme Court decisions expanding an authorized entity’s eminent domain power under a broadened definition of the entity providing a “public use.” The arguments are analyzed for whether Texas college and professional stadiums …

Financing The American Dream, David Reiss

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Time For A Change In Eminent Domain: A “Dirt Farmer’S” Story Shows Why Just Compensation Should Include Lost Profits, Edward Walton

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Better Left Forgotten: An Argument Against Treating Some Social Media And Digital Assets As Inheritance In An Era Of Platform Power, Shelly Kreiczer-Levy, Ronit Donyets-Kedar

Brooklyn Law Review

Restraining technological platforms’ power has become one of the main concerns of our era. The control over cyberspace and data ownership are among the key issues addressed in the literature. Yet, the ongoing vigorous debate surrounding the inheritance of digital assets remains surprisingly oblivious of the platform’s involvement in shaping memory and continuity. Current legal scholarship and legislation ask whether social network profiles are inheritable property; they balance the user’s privacy and wishes against family members’ interests, without addressing or even considering the corporate power at play. This article argues that we are constantly asking the wrong questions. Instead of …

Dismantling Mid-Century Urban Renewal: A Community-Based Approach For The Future Of New York City, Alia Soomro

Brooklyn Law Review

Despite more than half a century since urban renewal programs were first established throughout the United States, these urban development programs are still negatively associated with the destruction of communities, displacement, and poor urban planning practices. While many jurisdictions continue to utilize state urban renewal legislation, few of these jurisdictions have actually addressed the future of urban renewal programs. This note focuses on urban renewal in New York City, where many of these plans are about to expire, and asks whether urban renewal programs—with its infamous history—can be utilized in an equitable and sustainable way. Analyzing Local Law No. 40 …

Reconciling Police Power Prerogatives, Public Trust Interests, And Private Property Rights Along Laurentian Great Lakes Shores, Richard K. Norton, Nancy H. Welsh

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The United States has a north coast along its ‘inland seas’—the Laurentian Great Lakes. The country enjoys more than 4,500 miles of Great Lakes coastal shoreline, almost as much as its ocean coastal shorelines combined, excluding Alaska. The Great Lakes states are experiencing continued shorefront development and redevelopment, and there are growing calls to better manage shorelands for enhanced resiliency in the face of global climate change. The problem is that the most pleasant, fragile, and dangerous places are in high demand among coastal property owners, such that coastal development often yields the most tenacious of conflicts between public interests …

Property, Dignity, And Human Flourishing, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Review

Human flourishing and human dignity are not empty phrases. They have real content, and they matter in real lives. The facts are that we want to live flourishing lives and we want to live lives of dignity. We cannot live such lives, however, unless certain conditions are fulfilled. Among these conditions, flourishing is personal autonomy, understood in the sense of self-authorship. Autonomy in that sense itself requires certain conditions. Property is among the conditions intimately connected with self-authorship. A person who lacks basic forms of property such as food and adequate shelter is denied self-authorship, without which she cannot experience …

Rethinking "Just" Compensation: Dignity Restoration As A Basis For Supplementing Existing Takings Remedies With Government-Supported Community Building Initiatives, Alyssa M. Hasbrouck

Cornell Law Review

Longstanding calls for the Supreme Court to revisit the Takings Clause's just compensation requirement are especially relevant in light of urban renewal's destructive history. However, the just compensation requirement should be viewed as a floor, not as a ceiling. Even in the absence of formal action by courts, legislatures and local governments can act to fulfill the government's constitutional obligation of "full and perfect" compensation. By taking preemptive action to support community-based initiatives, financially as well as politically, the same legislatures that seized and destroyed urban neighborhoods can begin to set things right. Court-ordered investments in the longterm well-being of …

From Nuisance To Environmental Protection In Continental Europe, Vanessa Casado-Pérez, Carlos Gomez Liguerre

Faculty Scholarship

This paper analyzes the evolution and complexity of the legal response to neighboring conflicts in European civil law countries. All of the civil codes analyzed (France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, and Catalonia) are based on Roman Law rules that are not always clear. The fuzziness of those Roman Law rules explains, in part, why despite this common origin, the Civil Codes did not respond homogeneously to nuisances. The first subsection briefly describes the institution of nuisance in Roman Law. Then, the paper describes the original codification of nuisance and the changes in the treatment of this institution. After assessing the initial …

The Visual Artists Rights Act's "Recognized Stature" Provision: A Case For Repeal, Drew Thornley

Cleveland State Law Review

Using as a case study the recent “5Pointz” litigation, a case involving visual artists’ moral-rights claims to graffiti they drew on a piece of private property in Queens, New York, this article examines the threat that Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA)’s grant to visual artists of the right “to prevent any destruction of a work of recognized stature” poses to common-law property and contract rights. This article advances the argument that the default legal rule should be that the rights of property owners (real or personal), including the right to destroy such properties, trump any moral rights that visual artists …

Aba Rpte Conservation Easement Task Force Report: Recommendations Regarding Conservation Easements And Federal Tax Law, W. William Weeks, Turney Berry, Jonathan G. Blattmachr, Jason E. Havens, Nancy A. Mclaughlin, James Slaton, Steve Swartz, Philip Tabas

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In October 2015, the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Trust and Estate Law (RPTE) section convened a Conservation Easement Task Force. The objective of the Task Force was to provide recommendations regarding federal tax law as it relates to conservation easements. This Report is the culmination of the Task Force’s work.

Part I of the Report is an Executive Summary of the Task Force’s recommendations. Part II provides the background necessary to understand the Task Force’s recommendations. Part III briefly sets forth the Task Force’s comments on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 as it relates to charitable …

Domestic Asset Protection Trusts: A Debtor's Friend And Creditor's Foe, Nora Hood

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In 1997, Alaska enacted the first law in the United States legalizing Domestic Asset Protection Trusts (DAPTs), also referred to as self-settled asset protection trusts, as valid legal entities. Under traditional trust law, a debtor cannot shield assets from creditors by placing them in a trust for his or her own benefit. Alaska’s statute allowing DAPTs calls the traditional rule into question. This Note will examine use of DAPTs in the United States, including whether or not the recently amended Uniform Voidable Transaction Act would consider any transfer to a DAPT voidable per se, and discuss an approach that intends …

Air Banned And Barred: Why New York City's Affordable Housing Crisis Has No Room For Short-Term Rentals, Wilson Chow

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In August 2018, New York City passed a law that required short-term rental websites to disclose information about their users who host in the city. Airbnb, the largest short-term rental company, filed suit with hopes of having short-term rentals legalized. The law stems from the city’s efforts to amelioerate its affordable housing crisis. With over 8.5 million residents living in a tight housing market, New York City should not allow home owners or rental tenants to commercialize their property into de facto hotels that will likely provide accommodations to tourists. This Note will examine the recent law’s impact on New …

Property In Digital Coins, J.G. Allen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Digital coins have burst into mainstream awareness recently, mainly as a result of high-worth ‘Initial Coin Offerings’ (‘ICOs’). The most immediate question in the legal treatment of digital coins is whether they are properly seen as digital ‘commodities’, and/or as ‘securities’, and/or as units of ‘money’. But the conceptual underpinnings of these categories are not clear, nor is it clear how these categories relate to each other; no legal system currently deals adequately with incorporeal objects as objects of property law. This category includes not only digital coins but also some forms of conventional money and securities. Establishing a satisfactory …

Maralex Resources, Inc. V. Barnhardt, Bradley E. Tinker

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Maralex Resources v. Barnhardt, Maralex and property owners brought an action to protect private property from BLM inspections of oil and gas lease sites. The Tenth Circuit looked at the plain meaning of a congressional statute and held in favor of Maralex, finding that BLM lacked authority to require a private landowner to provide BLM with a key to inspect wells of their property. The Tenth Circuit held BLM has the authority to conduct inspections without prior notice on private property lease sites; however, it is required to contact the property owner for permission before entering the property.

Rights Of Creditors To Collect Marital Debts After Divorce In Community Property Jurisdictions, James L. Musselman

Pace Law Review

The primary thrust of this Article is to address the post-divorce liability issue outlined in Part III from the perspective of debtor-creditor law. The rules adopted in most of the community property jurisdictions with respect to this issue appear to be primarily focused on the perspective of marital property and family law without regard to general debtor-creditor law principles and policies. For example, basic fraudulent transfer law has been ignored in those jurisdictions and not applied in the usual manner. As a result, the rules developed in those jurisdictions with regard to the post-divorce liability issue are not consistent with …

Trying Times: Conservation Easements And Federal Tax Law (April 2019), Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Since 2006, the Tax Court, District Courts, and Circuit Courts have collectively issued more than one-hundred decisions relating to the federal charitable income tax deduction for the donation of perpetual conservation easements. This outline discusses these court decisions and other developments in the conservation easement donation context. The outline was prepared for a May 3rd, 2019, program of the same name at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. Presenters at the program were Nancy A. McLaughlin, Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law; Stephen J. Small, Attorney at Law, Law Office of Stephen …

Uncompensated Takings: Insurance, Efficiency, And Relational Justice, Brian Angelo Lee

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Crime And Punishment In Gold Country : A Historical Case-Study, Shih-Chun Steven Chien, Lawrence M. Friedman

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Rural life, small town life, is not and has never been idyllic. It has always had its share of pathology, sometimes deep pathology. Small town life is not necessarily traditional life, close-knit family life, neighborly life. That kind of life certainly exists; but America was never a traditional society in that sense. Its small towns were full of strangers. The population of El Dorado County, small as it was, had been growing rapidly. Like America in general, El Dorado County had its share of anomie; rootless men (and women), without strong relationships: ships without anchors, driftwood on the sea of …

Endangering Missouri’S Captive Cervid Industry, Lauren Hunter

Missouri Law Review

This Note seeks to explore the validity of regulations proposed by the Commission to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease (“CWD”) – a fatal neurodegenerative disease – in cervids, such as white-tailed deer. Part II discusses the facts and circumstances surrounding the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision in Hill v. Missouri Department of Conservation. Part III dissects the delicate balance between private property interests and government interests, the scope of the Commission’s regulatory authority, as well as the driving forces behind the “right-to-farm” amendment to the Missouri Constitution. Part IV unpacks the court’s reasoning in Hill before concluding with a …