This morning, I joined my Owners' Counsel colleagues Leslie Fields and Joe Waldo (the programming co-chairs), and more than 100 fellow eminent domain experts in New Orleans under the auspices of ALI-CLE at our annual gathering for the start of 2 1/2 days of legal education.
Joe and Leslie asked me to join Professor James Ely to speak about "The Full and Perfect Equivalent for Just Compensation: The Historical Context and Practice." Professor Ely led us off with a crash history of just compensation, starting with the Magna Carta and where we've been, and then handing it off to me for the "where we are and where we may be going" segment.
Just to prove to you all that while in New Orleans, I really did show up and not get distracted by the many (many) distractions that this city can offer, the above is a "proof of life" photo I took from the lectern before starting my talk on the upcoming trends in the field.
Just to show that we didn't fake it, a colleague in the audience took this photo of our panel, incluidng the jumbotron which allows those in the back of room to see the speakers.
Anyhow, here are the links to the cases and materials I mentioned during the talk:
- The decision by Canada's Supreme Court about business losses in expropriation cases, even where the property has not been taken, but only been affected by a taking.
- The Columbia Law Review article on undercompensation in eminent domain, Just Undercompensation: The Idiosyncratic Premium in Eminent Domain, 113 Colum. L. Rev. 593 (2013).
- The Fourth Circuit decision about EAJA fees, and how the government's reasonable trial conduct does not automatically insulate it from overall liability for its pretrial unreasonable behavior.
- The case, now pending before the California Supreme Court, about whether the judge or the jury decides questions about whether there was a reasonable probability that a city would condition a property owner's use on the owner's dedication of property, and if so, whether the dedication passed the Nollan/Dolan nexus and rough proportionality requirements.
One final photo. One of the afternoon sessions was held on the hotel's rooftop conference room, 16 floors above the French Quarter. Hard to concentrate on takings, compensation, and relocation benefits when this is the view out of the window, no?
