PropertyProf Blog

Back from AALS

Thanks to all of you who attended the various property programs at AALS in San Diego.  It was great to see so many blog readers in person.

Ben Barros

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Bees, Trespass, and Tangerine Trees

Carl Christensen of the University of Hawaii Law School has sent along a link to a findlaw story,  "Tangerine growers tell beekeepers to buzz off."  The story begins with a questions:

Is it trespassing when bees do what bees do in California's tangerine groves?

That is the question being weighed by state agriculture officials caught between beekeepers who prize orange blossom honey and citrus growers who blame the bees for causing otherwise seedless mandarin oranges to develop pits.

Carl asks what are the respective rights of:  (1) beekeepers, whose bees visit tangerine flowers; and (2) tangerine growers, whose tangerines develop seeds (rendering them less saleable than seedless tangerines) after being visited by those bees?

Alfred Brophy

Off to AALS

I'm heading off to the AALS Conference in San Diego.  Hope to see you there at one of the Property Section events!

Ben Barros

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Malagrino on Communal Theories of Urban Property

Dylan Oliver Malagrino (UC Davis) has posted The Application of Communal Theories to Urban Property on SSRN.  Here's the abstract:

The advantages of privatized property regimes and common property regimes have been debated in legal and economic discourse for ages. Although private property is prevalent in the developed world, a reading of the available anthropological literature shows that common property regimes still thrive in many parts of the developing world to maintain natural resources and to spread the risk of property ownership. Considering the present U.S. housing crisis and its global effect on world markets, perhaps the developed world should incorporate more communal theories to - what has now become the developed world's scare resource - urban land. In fact, after a close look of the lessons learned from the successful operation of common property regimes in the developing world related to their natural resource systems, we see that the theories are relevant to the understanding of a wide-variety of property regimes used in modern societies such as the United States. Thus, the developed world should embrace a more pluralistic property regime. Why? The elaboration of common property regimes in the West, as in the use of instruments such as land trusts, could lessen the social exclusion from the right to property by making housing more affordable. With affordable housing, we can possibly avoid future housing crises such as the one the West is experiencing today.

Ben Barros

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Burke on National Treasures and National Security

Marcilynn A. Burke (University of Houston Law Center) has posted Green Peace? Protecting Our National Treasures While Providing for Our National Security on SSRN.  Here's the abstract:

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Department of Defense ("DoD") convinced Congress that compliance with environmental and natural resource laws hampered the Armed Forces' readiness for combat by limiting use of its training ranges. This Article evaluates whether Congress's post-9/11 exemptions to three important natural resource laws are inefficient, unjust, and/or unwise by examining the effects these laws have had on national security and their real impacts on the natural world. The significance of these exemptions is reflected by the magnitude of the military's land holdings -- over 32 million acres providing habitat for 300 species listed under the Endangered Species Act. Given the potential impacts, DoD has not demonstrated that the exemptions are necessary or appropriate under the current circumstances, and, in fact, evidence suggests they have been harmful. Application of the precautionary principle exhorts that decisionmakers should protect these resources even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established. Abandoning protection of the country's natural resources, treasures that make this country worth defending, in the name of national security deserves greater thought and study, particularly given the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Navy sonar case and the Marine Corps' request to expand its bombing and training range in the Mojave Desert.

Ben Barros

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Poverty Law Events at AALS

From the folks at the AALS Poverty Law Section:

Section on Poverty Law: January AALS Program: "Privatization: Promise and Pitfall at the Intersection of Law, Markets and Poverty" -  January 9, 3:30 - 5:15 p.m.

This year our AALS program addresses the strategy of  harnessing "social justice capital"  to attack poverty and insure community control of development. Can mixed public/private finance, with its reliance on market mechanisms and capital investment, provide resources where government alone has failed to allocate them? The Section is continuing its practice of locating a case study in the city of the AALS conference; here, our example of community capitalism is Market Creek Plaza, the first "community development IPO," in which residents of a disinvested neighborhood in San Diego have taken charge of its redevelopment and partially financed redevelopment through buying their own equity shares. Our panelists, including the CEO of the foundation which supports Market Creek Plaza, will present their experiences as advocates with using capital investment to promote social justice ends.

Panelists: Barbara Bezdek (Maryland), Louise Howells (UDC), Jennifer Vanica (President and CEO, Jacobs Family Center for Neighborhood Innovation)

Commentator: Angela Harris (Berkeley)

Moderator: Susan Bennett (American)

Save the Slot: Program Prequel: Visit to Market Creek Plaza

We have been offered an opportunity to tour Market Creek Plaza, meet some of its shareholder residents, and discuss the history and progress of the resident - directed development.

Here's logistical information for the tour, which will last from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on January 9. We'll meet at the check-in desk at the Marriott at 8:00 a.m. so we can take the trolley ride to Market Creek Plaza. If you're driving, I've also attached driving directions to the Plaza. Also attached are the map of the Plaza, the San Diego Trolley map and important ridership information, and boarding schedules to get you back and forth from the hotel to the Plaza. Since we will have a tight schedule, we've been asked to have all participants, whether arriving by trolley or by car, arrive at the same time - 8:45 - at the Euclid trolley stop, where we'll be met by representatives from Market Creek.

Once everyone is assembled, we anticipate dividing the group into two batches with two residents and one staff member conducting each tour.  A conversation with the resident shareholders and board members of Market Creek will follow the tour.

To give you some idea of the goals, history and structure of the community ownership of Market Place,  our contact at Market Creek has provided the file of its 2007 Social & Economic Impact Report (attached) – a the link to the PolicyLink publication Market Creek Plaza: Toward Resident Ownership of Neighborhood Change:

http://www.policylink.org/Research/MarketCreekPlaza/

We need a head count: so if you think you might attend, PLEASE e-mail [email protected], cc to our contact, MaryJane Garcia,  [email protected],  ASAP.

Ben Barros

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