“Yosemite,” according to California Place Names, Erwin Gudde’s seminal work on the origins of (surprise) California place names, means “they are killers.” It was “[e]vidently a name given to the Indians of the valley by those outside it.”
I raise this historical tidbit because I must admit to feeling a little like “those outside
The City of Hayward, California, was concerned that residential rentals within its borders were “decent, safe, and sanitary,” and by ordinance required the owners or tenants of such units to allow city officials to inspect them. If an owner or tenant refused, the “Enforcement Official” was authorized to procure an “inspection warrant” and levy a
The Natural Resources Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association has kindly asked me to speak to its members at their monthly lunch meeting, next Tuesday, November 1, 2011, from noon to 1:00 p.m. at the HSBA conference room, located on the 10th floor of Alakea Corporate Tower, 1100 Alakea Street.
I’ll be discussing the case
Law professor Richard Epstein was a featured speaker (and past Brigham-Kanner prize winner) at the recent B-K Property Rights Conference in Beijing. He’s summarized his thoughts and insights in “Going Red on Property Rights,” posted at the Hoover Institute’s site. He writes:
Earlier this month, I attended a Chinese-American Conference in Beijing on property rights co-sponsored by the William and Mary Law School and the Tsinghua University Law School. One purpose of the conference was to award in absentia the Brigham-Kanner Prize to retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor for her contributions to understanding the law of property. The intensive two-day discussions on property rights were open, animated, and cordial. They also revealed deep ironies in both the Chinese and American approaches to property rights.
The entire piece is well worth reading. All of our posts on the B-K Conference are collected here. I’m writing my wrap-up of the Conference and will post it shortly.
In the meantime, I offer this little story.
A few of us are walking the 15 minutes from the hotel to the moot courtroom at the Tsinghua Law School, through the university campus. We cross the lightly traveled road, and most of us step up onto the opposite sidewalk. Professor Epstein, engrossed in conversation with another lawprof, doesn’t notice they are walking down the middle of the road, blocking traffic.
A few seconds later, a car comes up behind them.
In Beijing, pedestrians decidedly do not have the right of way.
“Get out of the road!” we call out.
Epstein slowly turns around, looks at the car, looks at us, and says with a smile, “sidewalks are for mere mortals.”
(But he does get out of the road.)
Continue Reading Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference – “Mere Mortal” Professor Richard Epstein on “Going Red on Property Rights”
A note to our Mainland colleagues: when next you are called to Hawaii on business, if you emulate His Georgeness, you can’t go wrong.
In our Bishop Street Fashion Guide, we commented upon the unwritten rules for the unique haberdashery in Honolulu, and what is considered appropriate business wear for lawyers when not
Here’s the latest in the lengthy West Linn Corporate Park tale from Oregon. After having bounced from federal court, to the Oregon state courts, then back to federal court, the case is now in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The issue in the case is whether the Ninth Circuit was correct when it
Here are the links to the cases and other items discussed today at the session Regulatory Takings – Looking Back and Looking Forward at the Cal State Bar’s Environmental Law Section’s Environmental Law Conference at Yosemite.
These cases are also in your written materials.
Earlier, we posted Justice Scalia’s assertion at a recent conference that Kelo ranked among the top all-time blown calls by the Supreme Court. While the Kelo majority opinion is decidedly foul, does it really sink to the level of Dred Scott, the opinion in which the Court concluded that Africans could never be U.S.
The Urban Lawyer, the law review produced by the ABA Section of State & Local Goverment Law has published my article Recent Developments in Condemnation Law: Public Use, Private Property, 43 Urban Lawyer 877 (2011).
The article “summarizes recent cases in which the issue was the power of condemnors to take property, including
The Pacific Legal Foundation, the Cato Institute, Professor Paul M. Sullivan, The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, and the Goldwater Institute have filed this amicus brief, supporting the cert petition filed last month in Corboy v. Louie, No. 11-336 (cert. petition filed Sep. 15, 2011).
That’s the case seeking SCOTUS review of the Hawaii
