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LAND
ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS
by Michael Heller & Rick Hills [ Full Text
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| 121 Harv. L.
Rev. 1465 (2008) |
| Eminent
domain for economic development is both attractive and appalling. States need the power
to condemn because so much land in America is inefficiently fragmented. But public land
assembly provokes hostility because vulnerable communities get bulldozed. Courts offer no
help. The academic literature is a muddle. Is it possible to assemble land without
harming the poor and powerless? Yes. This Article proposes the creation of Land Assembly
Districts, or “LADs.” This new property form solves the age-old tensions in
eminent domain and shows, more generally, how careful redesign of property rights can
enhance both welfare and fairness. The economic and moral intuition underlying LADs is
simple: when the only justification for assembly is over-fragmentation of land, neighbors
should be able to decide collectively whether their land will be assembled. Our legal
theory solution is equally simple: use property law to retrofit communities with a
condominium-like structure tailored to land assembly. Let’s try giving those
burdened by condemnation a way to share in its benefits and to veto projects they decide
are not worth their while. [ More
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Responses in the Harvard Law Review Forum |
The Limitations of Majoritarian Land Assembly
by Daniel B. Kelly
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