This Article considers the future interaction of environmental regulation and private property rights, with an emphasis on climate change issues. It concludes that environmental issues not satisfactorily resolved at the federal level will lead to more state and local regulation that impinges on...

This research explores effective (economic) property rights granted to contractual parties when a home mortgage is in default. We build upon an existing literature that describes incentives to lenders and borrowers to pursue or prevent foreclosure of borrower rights to the underlying real...

Environmental regulation often involves the need to impose limits on the ways in which individuals can use their property. From municipal bylaws protecting urban trees, to greenbelt zoning and designation of land as critical habitat for endangered species, environmental restrictions can range...

The Coase theorem posits: If [1] property rights are perfect, [2] contracts are enforceable, [3] preferences are common knowledge, and [4] transaction costs are zero, then the initial allocation of property rights only matters for distribution, not for efficiency. In this paper we claim that...

Whenever the use of an asset by one party imposes an externality on another party's use of an asset, entitlements must be allocated. Does an upstream firm have a right to use a river's water or does a downstream firm have a right not to have the water used? And if the downstream firm is to be...

The Supreme Court decisions in Washington v. Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill on the constitutionality of physician-assisted suicide leave much to be desired. Although this topic has been beaten to death in the literature, the vast majority of commentators have either missed the main point entirely...

Using command-and-control regulation of land use to produce a public good (as opposed to preventing physical off-property harms) without compensating the landowner can be expected to produce two unintended consequences: (i) management actions by landowners to reduce the land's attractiveness for...

Real estate ownership is conventionally viewed as a clear matter of public record. Yet purchasers of real estate are increasingly employing legal techniques to preserve their anonymity by registering their properties through trustees or opaque shell companies. This turn of events calls for...