Private Property and Public Power

Private Property and Public Power PDF

Author: Debbie Becher

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2014-08-12

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0199322562

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

News media reports on eminent domain often highlight outrage and heated protest. But these accounts, Debbie Becher finds, obscure a much more complex reality of how Americans understand property. Private Property and Public Power presents the first comprehensive study of a city's acquisitions, exploring how and why Philadelphia took properties between 1992 and 2007 for private redevelopment. Becher uses original data-collected from city offices and interviews with over a hundred residents, business owners, community leaders, government representatives, attorneys, and appraisers-to explore how eminent domain really works. Surprisingly, the city took over 4,000 private properties, and these takings rarely provoked opposition. When conflicts did arise, community residents, businesses, and politicians all appealed to a shared notion of investment to justify their arguments about policy. It is this social conception of property as an investment of value, committed over time, that government is responsible for protecting. Becher's findings stand in stark contrast to the views of libertarian and left-leaning activists and academics, but recognizing property as investment, she argues, may offer a solid foundation for more progressive urban policies.

Takings

Takings PDF

Author: Richard A. Epstein

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 0674036557

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

If legal scholar Richard Epstein is right, then the New Deal is wrong, if not unconstitutional. Epstein reaches this sweeping conclusion after making a detailed analysis of the eminent domain, or takings, clause of the Constitution, which states that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. In contrast to the other guarantees in the Bill of Rights, the eminent domain clause has been interpreted narrowly. It has been invoked to force the government to compensate a citizen when his land is taken to build a post office, but not when its value is diminished by a comprehensive zoning ordinance. Epstein argues that this narrow interpretation is inconsistent with the language of the takings clause and the political theory that animates it. He develops a coherent normative theory that permits us to distinguish between permissible takings for public use and impermissible ones. He then examines a wide range of government regulations and taxes under a single comprehensive theory. He asks four questions: What constitutes a taking of private property? When is that taking justified without compensation under the police power? When is a taking for public use? And when is a taking compensated, in cash or in kind? Zoning, rent control, progressive and special taxes, workers’ compensation, and bankruptcy are only a few of the programs analyzed within this framework. Epstein’s theory casts doubt upon the established view today that the redistribution of wealth is a proper function of government. Throughout the book he uses recent developments in law and economics and the theory of collective choice to find in the eminent domain clause a theory of political obligation that he claims is superior to any of its modern rivals.

Private Power, Public Law

Private Power, Public Law PDF

Author: Susan K. Sell

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780521525398

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Analysis of the power of multinational corporations in moulding international law on intellectual property rights.

Private Property and Public Power

Private Property and Public Power PDF

Author: Deborah Lynn Becher

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 9780199394746

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This volume explores the legitimacy of government involvement in private economic actions by presenting a study of property takings. In the first comprehensive study of a city's eminent-domain acquisitions, Debbie Becher explores which properties Philadelphia pursued for private redevelopment and how stakeholders decided that government actions were either a use or abuse of power.

The Idea of Property

The Idea of Property PDF

Author: Laura S. Underkuffler

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9780199254187

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Legal scholars and philosophers have long been engaged in studying the secret of the internal structure of property in law. This text aims to advance our understanding of property as an idea and the power that claimed property rights should have against competing public interests.

Private Property and the Constitution

Private Property and the Constitution PDF

Author: James Huffman

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-12-05

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1137376732

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book details the relationship between private property and government. As private property is important to both individual welfare and the public interest, the book provides an intellectual framework for the analysis and resolution of contemporary property rights disputes.

Takings

Takings PDF

Author: Richard A. Epstein

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1985-01-01

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9780674867291

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

If legal scholar Richard Epstein is right, then the New Deal is wrong, if not unconstitutional. Epstein reaches this sweeping conclusion after making a detailed analysis of the eminent domain, or takings, clause of the Constitution, which states that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. In contrast to the other guarantees in the Bill of Rights, the eminent domain clause has been interpreted narrowly. It has been invoked to force the government to compensate a citizen when his land is taken to build a post office, but not when its value is diminished by a comprehensive zoning ordinance. Epstein argues that this narrow interpretation is inconsistent with the language of the takings clause and the political theory that animates it. He develops a coherent normative theory that permits us to distinguish between permissible takings for public use and impermissible ones. He then examines a wide range of government regulations and taxes under a single comprehensive theory. He asks four questions: What constitutes a taking of private property? When is that taking justified without compensation under the police power? When is a taking for public use? And when is a taking compensated, in cash or in kind? Zoning, rent control, progressive and special taxes, workers’ compensation, and bankruptcy are only a few of the programs analyzed within this framework. Epstein’s theory casts doubt upon the established view today that the redistribution of wealth is a proper function of government. Throughout the book he uses recent developments in law and economics and the theory of collective choice to find in the eminent domain clause a theory of political obligation that he claims is superior to any of its modern rivals.

Design for Liberty

Design for Liberty PDF

Author: Richard A. Epstein

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2011-11-15

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0674063058

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Following a vast expansion in the twentieth century, government is beginning to creak at the joints under its enormous weight. The signs are clear: a bloated civil service, low approval ratings for Congress and the President, increasing federal-state conflict, rampant distrust of politicians and government officials, record state deficits, and major unrest among public employees. In this compact, clearly written book, the noted legal scholar Richard Epstein advocates a much smaller federal government, arguing that our over-regulated state allows too much discretion on the part of regulators, which results in arbitrary, unfair decisions, rent-seeking, and other abuses. Epstein bases his classical liberalism on the twin pillars of the rule of law and of private contracts and property rights—an overarching structure that allows private property to keep its form regardless of changes in population, tastes, technology, and wealth. This structure also makes possible a restrained public administration to implement limited objectives. Government continues to play a key role as night-watchman, but with the added flexibility in revenues and expenditures to attend to national defense and infrastructure formation. Although no legal system can eliminate the need for discretion in the management of both private and public affairs, predictable laws can cabin the zone of discretion and permit arbitrary decisions to be challenged. Joining a set of strong property rights with sound but limited public administration could strengthen the rule of law, with its virtues of neutrality, generality, clarity, consistency, and forward-lookingness, and reverse the contempt and cynicism that have overcome us.

Lanterna Rally - Theme by Grace Themes