PropertyProf Blog

Conference Announcement: 'Heirs' Property and the Racial Wealth Gap

'Heirs' Property and the Racial Wealth Gap,' the 2024 ILHPR Conference: March 21-22, 2024

Well over $32 billion in real property in the U.S. is estimated to be heirs’ property, a highly unstable form of ownership. Loss of heirs’ property and heirs’ properties that lack clear title increase the racial wealth gap. Learn about the problem—and existing and potential solutions.

Conference highlights include:

- Presentation from Dr. Dewayne Goldmon, Senior Advisor, Racial Equity, USDA
- Panels with senior staff from USDA, Fannie Mae, FEMA, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
- Screening of award-winning feature-length documentary Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land (in-person attendees only), followed by Q&A with director Eternal Polk, film participants, and Tharlyn Fox from John Deere
- Keynote address and Fireside Chat with Drinan Professor and MacArthur 'Genius Grant' recipient Thomas W. Mitchell, founder & director of BC Law's Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights, and BC Law Dean Odette L.
- Panels addressing many heirs’ property issues, including partition law abuse, property tax foreclosure, clear title/tangled title matters, and racial will-making gaps
- Panels with leading heirs' property academics, researchers, and practitioners
- Roundtable on media’s role in uplifting Black property & heirs’ property issues with award-winning reporters, documentary filmmakers & people featured in such media pieces

More Information and to Register:
https://lnkd.in/eYyUuPQ6

Co-sponsored by The Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights at BC Law; The Boston College Institute of the Liberal Arts, and The Center For Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law & Graduate School

Foundations of Private Law @Harvard: Call for Fellowship Applications

The Project on the Foundations of Private Law at Harvard Law School is seeking applicants for full-time, one- to two-year residential appointments, starting in the fall of 2024. The Project on the Foundations of Private Law is an interdisciplinary research program at Harvard Law School dedicated to scholarly research in private law. Applicants should be aspiring academics with a primary interest in one or more of property, contracts, torts, intellectual property, commercial law, unjust enrichment, restitution, equity, and remedies. The Project seeks applicants with a serious interest in legal structures and institutions, and welcomes a variety of perspectives, including economics, history, philosophy, and comparative law.

Application materials are due to Bradford Conner (conner at law.harvard.edu) by 9:00 a.m. on March 5, 2024. Details on both the fellowship and the application can be found at https://plproject.law.harvard.edu/people/ under "Apply to be a Postdoctoral Fellow."

Professors' Corner: Legislative Exactions & Sheetz v. Co. of El Dorado

Following-up on our prior post, check out this upcoming webinar featuring Tim Mulvaney discussing the Sheetz case:

Professors' Corner - Legislative Exactions & Sheetz v. Co. of El Dorado

Can legislative action constitute an exaction subject to the Nollan/Dolan/Koontz test? In his concurrence to the Supreme Court's 2016 denial of certiorari in California BIA v. City of San Jose, Justice Thomas made clear that he was eager to examine this issue. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to address this during the 2024 session in the case Sheetz v. Co. of El Dorado. 

The federal courts have split on whether legislative action can constitute an exaction subject to the Nollan/Dolan/Koontz test. In his concurrence to the Supreme Court's 2016 denial of certiorari in California BIA v. City of San Jose, Justice Thomas made clear that he was eager to examine this issue. Justice Thomas's wait is over; the Supreme Court granted certiorari to address this very question during the 2024 session in the case Sheetz v. Co. of El Dorado. Our expert panel will discuss all sides of this extremely interesting case and its implication for takings jurisprudence.

Register for the webinar here!

 

 

Wisconsin L Rev. Seeks “Stategraft” Case Studies

The Wisconsin Law Review Forward (the print publication’s online, companion journal) is soliciting ~1,000 word case studies on “stategraft” as a continuation of this year’s symposium, which was held on the same theme.

Stategraft is a concept coined by Professor Bernadette Atuahene referring to instances “when state agents transfer property from persons to the state in violation of the state’s own laws or basic human rights.” Here is the link to the 2023 NYU Law Review article that elaborates the concept.

The Wisconsin Law Review Forward has recently extended the submission deadline to February 15th, 2024 at 11:59 p.m., Central Time. Send submissions as Word documents (preferred) or PDFs to [email protected]. For additional information about the concept of stategraft, please see Professor Atuahene’s recent article, A Theory of Stategraft, in the New York University Law Review and this posting from the Wisconsin Law Review Forward.

If you have any questions about submissions, please reach out to Clay Goetz, Senior Forward Editor at [email protected].

Guest Blogger: Mulvaney on Sheetz v.. County of El Dorado

Check out this post by guest blogger Tim Mulvaney (Texas A&M):

The U.S. Supreme Court held oral argument today in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, a property rights case with the potential to redefine land use regulation nationwide.  

It has long been a common practice for local governments to adopt legislation that dictates the types of conditions that will attach to development permits. For a routine example, consider local laws requiring developers to dedicate a defined percentage of their land to retain floodwaters. These conditions affect all corners of community life, as they aim to offset development impacts connected not only to flood risks but also to water and sewer infrastructure, roads, schools, fire and police response, housing affordability, the environment, and beyond. 

Mr. Sheetz is questioning the constitutionality of this ubiquitous approach to the permitting process. It follows that anyone who hopes to one day develop land and anyone potentially impacted by the development of land—and most people fall into at least one of these categories—have something on the line.

Mr. Sheetz’s legal challenge revolves around the Takings Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. By way of background, this constitutional provision precludes the government from “tak[ing] private property for public use, without just compensation.” It has been interpreted to apply not only to physical appropriations of property but also to regulations on property’s uses.

In the ordinary “takings” suit, as with civil litigation generally, the complaining party bears the burden of proving their case. However, the Court concluded thirty years ago in the conveniently rhyming cases of Nollan v. California Coastal Commission and Dolan v. City of Tigard that things are different where individual government officials exercise discretion to condition land use permits on the dedication of land or require a fee in lieu of such dedication on a case-by-case basis.

Where these case-by-case impositions are at stake, the Court expressed concern that government officials effectively could hold development permits for ransom. It concluded, therefore, that in this situation it is the government who, upon a landowner’s complaint, must demonstrate that the permit condition meets an exacting standard of “nexus and proportionality” to avoid having to pay compensation. To do so, said the Dolan Court, the government must make an “individualized determination” about the impacts anticipated to result from the claimant’s proposed development and align the permit conditions directly to those impacts.

In the case the Court heard this morning, Mr. Sheetz contends that a local ordinance requiring all similarly situated developers to pay a traffic impact mitigation fee poses the same threat of government extortion that animated the permit condition contexts at issue in Nollan and Dolan. The Sheetz case thus will decide whether heighted scrutiny of the Nollan and Dolan variety applies not only to permit conditions imposed on a case-by-case basis but also in situations in which the government adopts more broadly applicable permit conditions via legislation.

I have addressed the merits of this question in several prior articles, including here and here. Rather than rehash those claims, I will home in here on the ongoings at today’s oral argument.

The County conceded at the top that simply because a permit condition is imposed via legislation does not categorically immunize that condition from unconstitutional conditions review. Justices Thomas and Gorsuch raised the prospect of the Court concluding only as much. Were the Court to do so, though, it would leave a range of issues with which lower courts would have to wrestle. It seems possible, then, that the Court will at least begin to do some of that wrestling itself. Among the myriad sticky questions on the table, two seemed to jump out as matters of particular concern to the Justices.

First, should all legislative permit conditions be subject to heightened judicial scrutiny, or only some subset thereof?

The Court’s casting a wide net here risks encapsulating the massive number of legislatively-authorized taxes, fees, special assessments, and tolls associated with land use development, and the Justices showed little appetite for extending heighted scrutiny that far. (Counsel for Mr. Sheetz appeared to stoke the fire on this score when he refused to concede that highway tolls are not compensable takings.) In light of that concern, perhaps such scrutiny, Justice Jackson ruminated, should be applicable only to those legislative permitting schemes that require the dedication of land for the state’s possession. Justice Alito countered, though, that any such framework is manipulable, for a fee could be construed as offsetting the government’s acquisition of a “no-build easement.”

Alternatively, perhaps heightened scrutiny should apply when the government has not drawn sharp lines to delineate the classes of development to which permit conditions will apply. Justices Kagan, Kavanaugh, and Barrett probed counsel for both sides as to how detailed must the classes be to avoid triggering heightened scrutiny. Is, for example, deeming all single-family homes as a single class sufficiently reticulated, or need local governments drill down further to, say, divide single-family homes—to draw on a hypothetical offered by Justice Kavanaugh—into “small, medium, and large?”

Second, what would the analysis will look like in those situations in which at least some subset of legislative permit conditions were subject to heightened scrutiny?

Despite Petitioner’s urging, Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Sotomayor, Kavanaugh, and Kagan all expressed doubts about the workability of requiring local governments to undertake in the legislative context the same type of project-specific analysis that Nollan and Dolan call for in the context of case-by-case administration. Against that backdrop, will the Court create a new standard  for examining the relationship between a legislative condition and the types of impacts generated by a specific class of developers that is something short of, or distinct from, the type of individualized reviewed required by Nollan and Dolan?

With so many open questions, the case surely will be an interesting one to watch. A decision from the Court is expected by June.

Florida Law Seeks Property Visitor (Spring 2024)

This just in from Florida Law:

University of Florida Law Seeking Property Visitor for Spring 2024

The University of Florida Levin College of Law is currently seeking applications for a visiting faculty position for the Spring 2024 semester to teach Property (4 credits) in the first-year, required curriculum, as well as a second course in an elective subject of the visitor’s interest. The University of Florida, located in Gainesville, FL, is currently the fifth-best public research institution in the nation and the flagship university of the third-largest state. This is a non-tenure accruing position.

Qualifications: Successful candidates will have a commitment to excellence in teaching, and enthusiasm for creating inclusive environments for all students.  Candidates must also have a JD, PhD, or equivalent degree in a related field.

Application Instructions: Application materials should include a cover letter, a resume with at least three references and recent course evaluations, if available. Materials may be uploaded at http://jobs.ufl.edu and emailed to Associate Dean Amy Stein ([email protected]). Review of applications will begin immediately. The Levin College of Law fosters a diverse and inclusive environment for faculty, staff, and students, and we welcome applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds and perspectives.  

Final candidate will be required to provide official transcript to the hiring department upon hire.  A transcript will not be considered “official” if a designation of “Issued to Student” is visible.  Degrees earned from an education institution outside of the United States are required to be evaluated by a professional credentialing service provider approved by National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES), which can be found at http://www.naces.org/.

The University of Florida is an equal opportunity institution dedicated to building a broadly diverse and inclusive faculty and staff.

The University of Florida is An Equal Employment Opportunity Institution. If an accommodation due to a disability is needed to apply for this position, please call 352/392-2477 or the Florida Relay System at 800/955-8771 (TDD). Hiring is contingent upon eligibility to work in the US. Searches are conducted in accordance with Florida's Sunshine Law.

Call for Papers: ALPS @Pepperdine

The Association for Law, Property, and Society (ALPS) announces that the Call for Papers (CFP) for its 14^th Annual Meeting is now available and open. We are excited to host the meeting at Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law in Malibu, California, from June 13 to 15, 2024. 

Individual paper or panel proposals are due by December 31, 2023, and the registration deadline for program inclusion is May 1, 2024.  Our submission portal can be found at https://alps-law.org/submissions. 

The entire CFP, which includes submission details, can be downloaded at https://alps-law.org/call-for-papers. Please feel free to distribute the CFP widely! For more information, please visit our newly redesigned website at https://alps-law.org/annual-meeting. 

Questions can be directed to [email protected]. 

Heirs Property on the Big Screen: Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land (Film)

Friend of the blog, MacArthur Fellow, and reporter for the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, Thomas Mitchell (Boston College), recently shared a new, award-winning film titled Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land. Thomas is even featured as one of the main cast members! Check out the synopsis from the film's official website:

In just a few decades after the end of enslavement, Black Americans were able to amass millions of acres of farmland. Today approximately 90% of that land is no longer in Black hands. Various factors have been employed to take Black land including violence, eminent domain and government discrimination. But it is a little-known issue, Heirs’ Property which has had a devastating effect on Black land ownership. Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land from Emmy Nominated Director Eternal Polk examines the causes, effects, and what is being done to fight the exploitation of this law and how landowners are reclaiming their agricultural legacy and creating paths to generational wealth.

The film was recently shown at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in mid-June and will also be shown at the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival on August 6th. 

For more info, check out coverage by BC Law here.

Mandelker on Mixed-Use Development Zoning

Daniel Mandelker (WashU) has posted Zoning for Mixed-Use Development (Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Journal) on SSRN. Here's the abstract:

Mixed-use development combines residential, commercial, and office uses into projects that emphasize diversity and community, accessibility to work and shopping, and public space. It is part of a strategy for sustainable development and good urban form, with the objectives of attaining economic vitality, social equity, and environmental quality. A wide variety of zoning alternatives are available, but there is little appreciation of their advantages and disadvantages, how they function, and how zoning should differ with different types of development. Zoning for mixed-use development also is market related, and decisions must be made on the extent to which zoning
should control market development.

Mixed-use development can be planned or unplanned, which is development resulting from the separate, unrelated actions of several different developers. It can also be vertical or horizontal. This article considers horizontal mixed-use development.

Walkability, a multilayered public realm, inclusive living choices, and authenticity are important for planned mixed-use development. Retail space is a major challenge. Decisions must be made on land use mix, design detail, how markets work, and zoning that will support active retail uses. A compact, walkable urban village is recommended, good design and configuration are essential, and vacancies must be controlled. Office space can be integrated with retail space, built separately as individual structures, or included in an office campus. Social objectives include internal trip capture, which is the measure of the number of trips that begin and end in a development, housing cost issues, and racial and income diversity issues.

The structure of zoning is an obstacle because it is designed to prevent the mixing of uses. Authorizing mixed-use development usually requires a zoning change, which may include
discretionary review and approval. A variety of zoning alternatives are available. They include planned unit development, design guidelines, and form-based zoning. Unplanned mixed-use development requires the adoption of zoning districts in which mixed use is permitted, requires attention to scale, and may require a variety of mixed-use districts. Planned mixed-use development requires more zoning detail that can define critical project elements and that may include extensive design controls. Mixed-use zoning can also be used for special development objectives that can include transit-oriented development, mall redevelopment, and live/work units.

Job Announcement: Property, T&E, & Real Estate Law @Suffolk

This just in from John Infranca (Suffolk):

Suffolk University Law School in Boston expects to fill up to three tenure-track or tenured doctrinal faculty positions, starting in 2024-2025. We seek candidates with a strong record or promise of significant scholarship and a demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching. Our search will focus on Property; Constitutional Law; and a third position open to a range of teaching and scholarly interests.  Our needs in the area of Property include the first-year course plus advanced courses in Trusts and Estates and Real Estate Transactions.  Our needs in the area of Constitutional Law include the first-year course plus advanced courses in First Amendment and Civil Rights (including the intersection of law and race, gender, and sexual orientation). Our additional needs include Family Law, Business Law, Technology Law, Professional Responsibility and Health Law. 

Interested candidates should include in their application a curriculum vitae with a cover letter and scholarly agenda addressed to Professors John Infranca and Linda Sandstrom Simard, co-chairs of the Appointments Committee. Candidates are invited to share in their cover letter how they would advance the law school’s commitment to diversity and inclusion through their teaching, scholarship or service.  When you post materials on Jobvite, do not send duplicate materials to the Chairs of the Appointments Committee via email. 

Suffolk University does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, genetic information, or status as a veteran n admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs, activities, or employment. As an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer, the University is dedicated to the goal of building a diverse and inclusive faculty and staff that reflect the broad range of human experience who contribute to the robust exchange of ideas on campus, and who are committed to teaching and working in a diverse environment. We strongly encourage applications from groups historically marginalized or underrepresented because of race/color, gender, religious creed, disability, national origin, veteran status or LGBTQ status. Suffolk University is especially interested in candidates who, through their training, service and experience, will contribute to the diversity and excellence of the University community.

Apply here.

Job Announcement: Property Lateral @Iowa Law

The University of Iowa College of Law
Faculty Hiring Announcement

The University of Iowa College of Law anticipates hiring one to two lateral faculty members in the areas of Property Law and Civil Procedure.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE: To apply, candidates should submit a letter of interest, CV, a list of three references, and a law school transcript through Jobs@UIOWA, https://jobs.uiowa.edu, refer to Requisition #74767.

Consistent with the mission and responsibilities of a top-tier public research university, we are interested in candidates who are recognized scholars and teachers and who will participate actively in the intellectual life of the College of Law.  In addition, we desire candidates with a demonstrated ability to maintain effective and respectful working relationships with the campus community to uphold a standard of cultural competency and respect for differences consistent with the College of Law’s commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. (For more on the College’s DEI commitments, see Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | College of Law - The University of Iowa (uiowa.edu).)  We also desire candidates who would bring significant new scholarly strengths to the College of Law. Candidates who can contribute to these goals are encouraged to apply and to identify their strengths in these areas.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Required Qualifications for Associate Professor:

• Consistent record of ability as a teacher of law students.
• Consistent record of scholarly productivity.
• JD, PhD or other advanced degree related to the area of the candidate’s scholarly work.
• Experience teaching in the areas of property or civil procedure, as applicable.

Required Qualifications for Professor:

• Consistent record of high-quality teaching at all appropriate instructional levels.
• Scholarly achievement of high quality, accompanied by unmistakable evidence that the candidate is a nationally and, where applicable, internationally recognized scholar in the chosen field.
• Record of significant and effective service to the law school, university, and, if appropriate, to the profession.
• JD, PhD or other advanced degree related to the area of the candidate’s scholarly work.
• Experience teaching in the areas of property or civil procedure, as applicable.

Desirable Qualifications for Associate Professor and Professor:

• Demonstrated ability to maintain effective and respectful working relationships with the campus community to uphold a standard of cultural competency and respect for differences consistent with the College of Law’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Will bring significant new scholarly strengths to the College of Law.

For questions, please contact Chris Odinet, chair of the Faculty Appointments Committee at [email protected].

The University of Iowa is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment free from discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth and related conditions), disability, genetic information, status as a U.S. veteran, service in the U.S. military, sexual orientation, gender identity, or associational preferences.

Persons with disabilities may contact University Human Resources/Faculty and Staff Disability Services, (319) 335-2660 or [email protected], to inquire or discuss accommodation needs. 

Prospective employees may review the University Campus Security Policy and the latest annual crime statistics by contacting the Department of Public Safety at 319/335-5022. 

 

Announcement: The Land Loss, Reparations & Housing Policy Conference @HLS & BC

Boston College Law School's new Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights, founded and directed by Professor Thomas W. Mitchell, a MacArthur Fellow, will have its launch on March 23rd and 24th 2023 with its Land Loss, Reparations & Housing Policy Conference. Professor Lisa T. Alexander serves as the Faculty Director for Housing and Property Rights Programs.

On March 23rd, there will be an evening roundtable discussion on Black land loss at Harvard Law School and on March 24th there will be a daylong conference followed by a reception at Boston College Law School. A link to the conference information and registration is below. Panelists include law professors and professors of urban history & policy and economics, elected officials, community development professionals, the lead lawyer in the landmark Bruce's Beach case, government housing officials and more. The launch events are co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School Food Law & Policy Clinic, the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at the New School, and the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Boston College.

Everyone is welcome but registration is required. We have capacity for 300 hundred attendees but are approaching 200 registrants at this time. A link to register is below.

https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/law/centers/land-initiative.html

St. Louis Seeks Property Visitor

Just in from SLU:

Saint Louis University School of Law seeks a visiting professor for spring 2024 to teach a course package which includes property (a 4-credit, 1L course).  We are open to considering visitors for one semester or the entire 2023-24 academic year, depending on the individual’s interests and ability to cover additional needs.  Interested individuals should send a letter of interest to Dana Malkus, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs ([email protected]).  

TAMU Journal of Property Law Symposium: Property Rights and Social Justice (by R. Walsh)

This just in from Vanessa Casado Perez (Texas A&M):

This year the Property Journal at Texas A&M is hosting a symposium around Rachael Walsh’s (Trinity College Dublin) new book Property Rights and Social Justice: Progressive Property in Action. (CUP).

When: November 11, 2022, ​9 am - ​​2 pm CST
Where: Online via Zoom

Here is the webpage for information and registration: https://law.tamu.edu/current-students/academics/law-journals/journal-of-property-law/fall-2022-symposium.

Panelists:

• Gregory Alexander, Cornell Law School
• Rashmi Dyal-Chand, Northeastern University School of Law
• Lorna Fox O'Mahony, University of Essex School of Law
• J. Peter Byrne, Georgetown School of Law
• Larissa Katz, University of Toronto School of Law
• Christopher Serkin, Vanderbilt Law School

Moringiello & Odinet on Blockchains in Real Estate

Juliet Moringiello (Widener-Commonwealth) and Chris Odinet (Iowa-me!) have just posted Blockchain Real Estate and NFTs (William & Mary Law Review) to SSRN. Here's the abstract:

Non-fungible tokens (popularly known as NFTs) and blockchains are frequently promoted as the solution to a multitude of property ownership problems. The promise of an immutable blockchain is often touted as a mechanism to resolve disputes over intangible rights, notably intellectual property rights, and even to facilitate quicker and easier real estate transactions.

In this Symposium Article, we question the use of distributed ledger technologies as a method of facilitating and verifying the transfer of physical assets. As our example of an existing transfer method, we use real property law, which is characterized by centuries-old common law rules regarding fractionalized ownership and local land records that still, in many jurisdictions, rely on paper. We explain the history of real property title protection and then identify the problems with the existing system. We then compare the extant system (and its problems) with what blockchain could offer, concluding that a blockchain system would provide few, if any, benefits.

That said, we concede that tracking and transferring ownership of certain rights—specifically, purely intangible rights—is a long-standing legal problem that begs for resolution. We focus on ownership signals, and contrast ownership of physical assets—which is broadcast in part by manual possession in addition to, in the real estate realm, recording—and ownership of intangible assets, which cannot be possessed in a way that easily gives a signal to the entire world that the possessor is the owner. Because of that difference, we conclude that the true use case for NFTs and distributed ledgers is in tracking and verifying ownership of intangibles.

LSU Looking for Property Law

LSU is looking to make multiple hires this year in a variety of areas, including, but not limited to, property law. The chair of the Faculty Appointments Committee is Missy Lonegrass, who you may contact at [email protected] with any questions you may have.

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, PAUL M. HEBERT LAW CENTER seeks to hire tenure-track or tenured faculty in a variety of areas, including, but not limited to, faculty who have expertise in business law, civil & comparative law, civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law and procedure, evidence, family law, professional responsibility, and property. Applicants should have a J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school (foreign equivalencies will also be considered), superior academic credentials, and a demonstrable commitment to the production of quality scholarship, as well as a commitment to outstanding teaching. 

Louisiana State University is an R1 land, sea, and space-grant university with a footprint across the state of Louisiana. It is one of only eight universities in the nation with a law school, dental school, medical school, veterinary school, and an elite MBA program. The LSU Law Center, the flagship state law school of Louisiana, is part of LSU A&M’s campus, located in the state capital, Baton Rouge. See more about LSU, including links to the area, at https://lsu.edu/visit/index.php.

LSU is committed to providing equal opportunity for all qualified persons in admission to, participation in, or employment in the programs and activities which the University operates without regard to race, creed, color, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, religion, sex, national origin, age, mental or physical disability, or veteran’s status. LSU is committed to diversity and is an equal opportunity/ equal access employer. LSU believes diversity, equity, and inclusion enrich the educational experience of our students, faculty, and staff, and are necessary to prepare all people to thrive personally and professionally in a global society. To learn more about how LSU is committed to diversity and inclusivity, please see LSU’s Diversity Statement and Roadmap.

Please note that applicants must apply through the LSU Career Opportunities website. Only those persons who apply online will be considered for employment. Please apply using the following link: (https://lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LSU/job/0400-Hebert-Law-Center/Assistant-Professor-of-Law-Associate-Professor-of-Law-Professor-of-Law_R00069560). Applications should include a letter of interest, resume including a list of three references, research agenda, and, if available, teaching evaluations.  

Questions may be directed by email to Ms. Pamela Hancock, the LSU Law Center’s Coordinator of Administration, who assists the Faculty Appointments Committee ([email protected]). 

Suffolk Looking for Property Law

Suffolk University Law School
Position Announcement: Contracts, Property, & Law and Technology

Suffolk University Law School in Boston invites applications for up to three faculty positions (two tenure-track and one tenured or tenure-track), starting in the 2023-2024 academic year. We seek candidates with a strong record or promise of significant scholarship and a demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching. Consideration will also be given to relevant practice experience. Our search will focus on three areas: Contracts, Property, and Law and Technology. Our specific curricular needs in the Contracts area include the first-year course plus upper-level business offerings, such as Business Entities and Bankruptcy. In the general area of Property, our needs include the first-year course, plus Intellectual Property (particularly Patents, Life Sciences, and Biotech), Trusts and Estates, Wills, and Real Estate Transactions. In Law and Technology, we invite applicants teaching and writing on topics falling under the broad umbrella of technology law, such as Law and Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain Law, FinTech Law, and Cyberlaw or Internet Law. 

Interested candidates should include in their application a resume or curriculum vitae with a list of references, a scholarly agenda, and a cover letter addressed to Professors John Infranca and Linda Sandstrom Simard, co-chairs of the Appointments Committee. Candidates are encouraged to describe previous activities mentoring members of underrepresented groups or how their scholarship and planned courses address issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. All materials should be uploaded to the Suffolk University website at: https://jobs.jobvite.com/suffolkuniversity/job/o3Pskfwo.  

Candidates are encouraged to submit applications via Jobvite by September 21, 2022. Candidates should not send duplicate materials to the Chairs of the Appointments Committee.  

Suffolk University is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. Suffolk University does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, genetic information, or status as a veteran in admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs, activities, or other settings. The University is dedicated to the goal of building a diverse and inclusive faculty who contribute to the robust exchange of ideas on campus and are committed to teaching and working in a diverse environment. We strongly encourage applications from groups historically marginalized or underrepresented because of race/color, gender, religious creed, disability, national origin, veteran status or LGBTQ status.  

Huq on Takings Law After "Cedar Point"

Aziz Huq (Chicago) has posted Property Against Legality: Takings After Cedar Point (Virginia Law Review) on SSRN. Here's the abstract:

The zealous defense of property is closely aligned with the rule of law in the American constitutional tradition. The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment vindicates both property rights and the rule of law by prohibiting arbitrary, lawless state action. But the standard story linking property rights, legality, and a constraint on arbitrary governance is more commonly stipulated than analyzed. This Article uses a dramatic break in Takings jurisprudence, the Supreme Court’s June 2021 decision in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, to closely scrutinize the relationship between legality and property rights. To that end, it offers first a careful analysis of the sharp rupture that Cedar Point makes in Takings jurisprudence. Not only is the Court’s result difficult to explain in terms of traditional legal methods, it also destabilizes a previously predictable litigation landscape and so engenders profound uncertainty on the ground. There is, further, no obvious way for the Court to restore stability and predictability to the doctrine. So Takings law will likely prompt confusion, not certainty, for the foreseeable future. As a result, a judicial vindication of property rights comes at the paradoxical cost of dramatically increasing the space for decisions unguided by law by one group of officials in the judiciary.

This close reading of Cedar Point invites more general analysis of the complex, nuanced relationship between the rule of law and property. Drawing on the general jurisprudential theories of H.L.A. Hart and others, the Article explores ways in which the rule of law can be incompletely realized in paradoxical and harmful ways. Placing property at the center of the rule of law, it shows, can be consistent with, or even an incitement to, serious derogation of the rule of law. Doing so can undermine rule-of-law goals, such as constraining arbitrary rule and fostering social welfare. This suggests a need to decenter property rights in accounts of the rule of law, and to explore, in more nuanced fashion, how the practice of judicial review mediates systemic values of legality and predictability.

Book Symposium: Hanoch Dagan ‘A Liberal Theory of Property’ (CUP 2021)

PropertyProfs, check out this King’s Law Journal book symposium on A Liberal Theory of Property, featuring reviews by leading English property scholars, followed by a response from the author, Hanoch Dagan (Tel-Aviv):

• Yael Lifshitz & Irit Samet: Introduction 
• Ben McFarlane: Property: Duties, Diversity, and Limits
• Aruna Nair: Property and Autonomy in the Marketplace: Freedom to Sell as Freedom of Exit
• Nick Sage: Liberalism and the Common Callings
• Katy Wells: Crucial Options: Dagan on Self-determination and Structural Pluralism 
• Author's Response: Liberal Property: Clarifications and Refinements

NCBE and Real Property Topics

This just in from the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE):

I write because the National Conference of Bar Examiners has just released the proposed outlines of the content to be tested on the future bar exam, expected to launch in 2026. The outlines include Real Property (see p. 30-35) and touch on which subjects will be tested and at what depth (some topics will require more in-depth knowledge and some less).

NCBE is looking for public comment on the scope and depth of subjects to be tested. The deadline for public comments is April 18.

For followers of the blog, you are welcome to weigh in by providing comments through the official commenting portal at https://nextgenbarexam.ncbex.org/csopc-register/.