A Regulatory Takings Glossary (or, How to Translate Property Rights Lawyerspeak)

The WMA Reporter, the monthly publication of the Western Manufactured Communities Housing Association has published A Regulatory Takings Glossary (or, How to Translate Property Rights Lawyerspeak), my short article that attempts to deconstruct some of the more common terms property lawyers toss about. Here's the Introduction:

One of my law school professors once remarked (hopefully in jest) "if it ain’t Latin, it ain't the law." While thankfully we have moved away from the days when Latin and Norman French were the languages of the law, those of us who regularly represent property owners defending their rights sometimes toss about terms that, although they purport to be standard English, often make normal people look at us askance.

We may forget that not everyone might understand what we mean when we say, for example, "The court dismissed the regulatory takings claim on ripeness grounds under Williamson County because the property owner had not exhausted her administrative remedies. That left for the state court to decide whether the claim was a per se Lucas taking, or whether to apply the ad hoc Penn Central analysis."

If you know what that means, congratulations, you don’t need this guide. However, for those of you not yet familiar with the lingua franca of regulatory takings and eminent domain lawyers, here’s a crash course of some of the more common terms.

Download the full article pdf here.