Posted by Ilya Somin:
My Yale Law Journal Pocket Part Regulatory Piece onTakings and the Poor:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_09_23-2007_09_29.shtml#1190872202
The editors of the Yale Law Journal Pocket Part asked me to write a
short reply to [1]Hannah Jacobs Wiseman's article arguing that laws
requiring the government to compensate property owners for regulatory
takings will hurt the poor. In [2]my contribution to the debate, I
argue that regulatory takings reform is unlikely to hurt poor
communities, and might actually benefit them by impeding the enactment
of regulations that harm the poor for the benefit of more affluent
interest groups. Here's a brief excerpt:
Does requiring government to pay compensation for regulatory
takings harm poor communities? My answer to this underanalyzed
question is �probably not.� Because of the relative political
weakness of the poor, unfettered government regulatory authority is
likely to be used to their detriment more often than to benefit
them. History shows that unconstrained government power to abrogate
property rights has caused great harm to the poor.
The issue of regulatory takings reform is distinct from, but related
to, post-Kelo eminent domain reform. The former seeks to force
government to compensate property owners in certain cases where their
property rights have been restricted by regulation - treating such
regulations as takings, but allowing them to go forward so long as
compensation is paid. The latter seeks to prevent certain types of
takings entirely. In [3]this Northwestern University Law Review
article, I criticized claims that post-Kelo reform is bad for the
poor.
References
1. http://yalelawjournal.org/2007/09/16/wiseman.html
2. http://yalelawjournal.org/2007/09/16/somin.html
3. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=979201
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