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Product Description

If legal scholar Richard Epstein is right, then the New Deal is wrong, if not unconstitutional. Epstein reaches this sweeping conclusion after making a detailed analysis of the eminent domain, or takings, clause of the Constitution, which states that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. In contrast to the other guarantees in the Bill of Rights, the eminent domain clause has been interpreted narrowly. It has been invoked to force the government to compensate a citizen when his land is taken to build a post office, but not when its value is diminished by a comprehensive zoning ordinance.

Epstein argues that this narrow interpretation is inconsistent with the language of the takings clause and the political theory that animates it. He develops a coherent normative theory that permits us to distinguish between permissible takings for public use and impermissible ones. He then examines a wide range of government regulations and taxes under a single comprehensive theory. He asks four questions: What constitutes a taking of private property? When is that taking justified without compensation under the police power? When is a taking for public use? And when is a taking compensated, in cash or in kind?

Zoning, rent control, progressive and special taxes, workers' compensation, and bankruptcy are only a few of the programs analyzed within this framework. Epstein's theory casts doubt upon the established view today that the redistribution of wealth is a proper function of government. Throughout the book he uses recent developments in law and economics and the theory of collective choice to find in the eminent domain clause a theory of political obligation that he claims is superior to any of its modern rivals.

About the Author
Richard A. Epstein is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago and an Adjunct Scholar of the Cato Institute.

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
disproportionate impact test, eminent domain clause, public use limitation, eminent domain approach, police power limitation, public use requirement, physical invasion test, explicit compensation, police power justification, implicit compensation, redistributive motive, partial takings, navigation servitude, private defendant, eminent domain law, mill acts, eminent domain cases, uniformity clause, social pie, takings clause, legislative grace, forced exchanges, reliance interest, uncompensated takings, prospective advantage Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Supreme Court, New York, First Amendment, Legal Stud, Penn Central, Los Angeles, San Diego, Bill of Rights, Fifth Amendment, District of Columbia, New Deal, General Motors, Hyde Park, Joseph Story, Russian Hill, Tucker Act, City of Tiburon, National Labor Relations Act, Theory of Strict Liability, World War, Bruce Ackerman, City of Detroit, Constitutional Limitations, Court of Claims New!
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