Property Matters: How Property Rights Are Under Assault and Why You Should Care (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "As any casual follower of the news knows, property rights is a hot-button issue..." (more)
Key Phrases: wetlands law, wetlands program, rational ignorance, United States, New York, Supreme Court (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Imagine nearly losing your home to a fire because the government won't let you build firebreaks or clear underbrush on your own property since an endangered species of rat likes to live there. That's what happened in Riverside County, California, in 1993. James DeLong tells dozens of stories of how government at all levels routinely usurps the private property rights of ordinary people through land-use regulations, environmental laws, historic preservation rules, and so on, without due compensation. He shows that property rights aren't just for people who don't like endangered species, but all of us--especially so-called "knowledge workers" whose livelihood depends upon the integrity of intellectual property rights in the form of copyright laws.

From Publishers Weekly

Sympathetic with the growing nationwide movement in defense of property rights, DeLong, a lawyer based in Washington, D.C., here reviews dozens of disputes that pit the aims of environmentalists, historic preservationists and government agencies against home owners, property developers, farmers, loggers, miners, landowners and commercial enterprises. Time and again, he charges, federal regulators dedicated to protecting wetlands, endangered species or other natural resources ride roughshod over the rights of property owners through aggressive application of ambiguous statutes, ignorance of local conditions and inflexibility. DeLong devotes substantial attention to conflicts over grazing, timber, water and recreation in the American West; he also suggests ways to resolve or prevent zoning and environmental and planning controversies in urban and suburban America. Distinguished by its thoroughgoing analysis and levelheaded tone, this partisan casebook will appeal primarily to policy makers, legal experts and activists.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (March 3, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684874377
• ISBN-13: 978-0684874371
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,454,571 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Property Matters predicts the future of federal regulation., May 12, 1998

By	Daniel M. Byrd "ctraps" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

In Property Matters, James V. DeLong argues that the federal effort to protect the environment has sometimes unconstitutionally deprived owners of their property. The book is skillfully written, and it intersperses bits of property law and regulatory history with a catalogue of horror stories. DeLong blames these governmental misdeeds on the tendency of previous liberal- dominated Congressional sessions to create monotonic agencies which lack stopping points. Given these imperatives (e.g., protect endangered species), the federal government has created bureaucracies which rightfully have no concern for private citizens or their rights. When only a few atrocities occurred, the public took little notice, but as the bureaucracies have expanded, more and more families have been harmed. DeLong's book effectively predicts the future of federal regulatory legislation. Eventually, Congress will have hearings that expose these offenses, much as the current IRS hearings have focused attention on a different kind of bureaucratic abuse. Unless environmental groups get a little smarter and cut the public some slack, when the reaction occurs, the pendulum is likely to swing too far in the other direction. Instead of legislation requiring a balancing of interests, Congress may well dismantle some programs.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How Property Rights are Being Assailed by Overactive Goverment, September 12, 2005

By	Ryan Setliff "InternetPundit.com" (VA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

~Property Matters: How Property Rights Are Under Assault and Why You Should Care~ adroitly and incisively explains that property rights are vitally requisite to a free and prosperous civil society, and he further illustrates how the inalienable right to property is routinely being trounced upon by an overactive and uncaring state. The Lockean cliche "life, liberty, and property" succinctly encapsulates the rights that government exists to protect, and yet in our time the state is the single biggest threat to property rights in our time. A zealous and overactive government rountinely tramples upon property rights in complete disregard of the rule of law. Senseless environmental laws, asinine zoning ordinances, the phenomenon of regulatory takings without just compensation and other illegal takings in violation of the Fifth Amendment are rendering property rights null and void. On the environmental front, DeLong chronicles how the endangered species act and wetlands regulations have produced some ridiculous regulations and have done far more harm than good. The assault on property rights has steadily increased year by year. DeLong substantiates that property rights are the vital cornerstone of American liberties and that this right must be protected. He makes it resoundingly clear that Americans must wake up to the importance of property rights and voice their opposition to the assault upon private property.

2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Partisan Politics Provide Poor Analysis, September 21, 2005

By	Jonathan Evans (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews

Unfortunately, instead of an thorough analysis of the genesis, justifications, and problems with overarching property rights, DeLong acts as a mouthpiece for other property rights activists. DeLong covers some of the same ground as Congressman Richard Pombo in his 1996 This Land Is Our Land, simply emphasizing anomalous examples instead of practicable solutions. DeLong's denial of the externalities resulting from uninhibited development leave his analysis unbalanced and ill-founded. DeLong's politics overcome his analysis. This book is similar to his condemnation of industry for their recognition to the denial of carbon dioxide emissions. (...) His political agenda overwhelm his rationale