Private Property and the Constitution [Paperback]

Professor Bruce Ackerman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300022379 | ISBN-13: 978-0300022377 | Publication Date: September 10, 1978

The proper construction of the compensation clause of the Constitution has emerged as the central legal issue of the environmental revolution, as property owners have challenged a steady stream of environmental statutes that have cut deeply into traditional notions of property rights. When may they justly demand that the state compensate them for the sacrifices they are called upon to make for the common good? Ackerman argues that there is more at stake in the present wave of litigation than even the future shape of environmental law in the United States. To frame an adequate response, lawyers must come to terms with an analytic conflict that implicates the nature of modern legal thought itself. Ackerman expresses this conflict in terms of two opposed ideal types---Scientific Policymaking and Ordinary Observing---and sketches the very different way in which these competing approaches understand the compensation question. He also tries to demonstrate that the confusion of current compensation doctrine is a product of the legal profession's failure to choose between these two modes of legal analysis. He concludes by exploring the large implications of such a choice---relating the conflict between Scientific Policymaking and Ordinary Observing to fundamental issues in economic analysis, political theory, metaethics, and the philosophy of language.

Product Details

• Paperback: 311 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 10, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300022379
• ISBN-13: 978-0300022377
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,743,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #60 in Books > Law > Procedures & Litigation > Remedies

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4.0 out of 5 stars Legal Theory on Property Rights, October 23, 2011

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This review is from: Private Property and the Constitution (Paperback)

Interesting debate on this subject, and this is an important contribution to the debate. Looking forward to reading this book in light of law review articles on slum housing. Only recently are the ancillary effects of a long term recession are being commented on by medical people concerned with public health. The affects of sub standard housing, aka, slum housing to those with little choice in having a decent place to live should be center most in their thinking. His concern is a timely contribution to a problems yet to be of much concern to those affected by the recession.