New Book: At the Cutting Edge 2009: Land Use Law from The Urban Lawyer

One of the benefits of doing your own blog is that every now and then you are allowed to engage in a little shameless self-promotion (what's this "every now and then?").

Well, here goes.

The ABA has announced the forthcoming publication of a new book by the State and Local Government Law Section: At the Cutting Edge 2009: Land Use Law from The Urban Lawyer, edited by my colleague Dwight H. Merriam, and which features "[a] compilation of the most recent Section of State and Local Government Law committee reports from The Urban Lawyer."

What this means is that it contains topical and timely articles about the hottest topics in land use law, including exactions and impact fees, green building laws, ethics in land use, regulatory takings, citizen participation in public hearings, and public use and pretext in eminent domain (the piece I authored).

Here's the Table of Contents for a complete list of what the book covers.

University of Hawaii lawprof David Callies authored the Introduction which reads, in part (and here's the shameless self-promotion):

Rob Thomas runs an informative blog on inverse condemnation, http://www.inversecondemnation.com, and follows these developments seemingly by the hour. Thus, he has written "Recent Developments in Public Use and Pretext in Eminent Domain" to describe the hodgepodge of lower federal court rulings that have no apparent pattern or consistency when it comes to determining whether claimed public benefits are pretextual. Maybe this is an area for state legislation, as the U.S. Supreme Court suggested in Kelo (Kelo v. New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005)): "We emphasize that nothing in our opinion precludes any State from placing further restrictions on its exercise of the takings power. Indeed, many States already impose ‘public use’ requirements that are stricter than the federal baseline."

pp. 2-3.

The book is available for pre-purchase here.

$41.95 Regular price, SLG Section members: $33.95 (discounts are just one of the benefits of section membership). Students get it at an even better price: $29.95.