Property Posts

January 2024 Council Meeting Updates

At its meeting on January 18 and 19, 2024, the ALI Council reviewed and discussed Council Drafts of the following projects and approved drafts and portions of drafts as listed.

Sacred Easements

This Article proposes a new approach, rooted in property law, for Native American faith communities to protect their sacred sites.

The Capitalization of Incomplete Property Rights to the Groundwater Commons

Incomplete property rights are common across a range of natural resources such as fisheries and groundwater. This paper takes a hedonic approach to understanding how three core features of prior appropriation water rights in Kansas—access, allocation, and seniority—confer value to irrigated farmland.

October 2023 Council Meeting Updates

At its meeting on October 19 and 20, 2023, the Council reviewed and discussed Council Drafts of the following projects and approved drafts and portions of drafts as listed.

Toward a Tribal Role in Groundwater Management

This Article considers the Agua Caliente groundwater litigation a decade since its inception and outlines the present opportunity to reimagine the role of tribes in groundwater management.

Section 8 vouchers take center stage in dispute between landlord and disabled tenant

Federal law bars housing discrimination against a person with a disability. Under the Fair Housing Act, landlords and sellers must provide “reasonable accommodations” to give someone with a disability “equal opportunity” to rent or buy a home. These cases examine whether the FHA requires landlords to accept so-called Section 8 vouchers from tenants who are too disabled to work.

U.S. Supreme Court Decisions, Both Decided May 25, 2023, Protect Private Property Owners from Overreach by Local (Tax Sale) and Federal (Wetlands) Regulators: Tyler v. Hennepin County and Sackett v. EPA

This piece analyzes two U.S. Supreme Court rulings that expand the constitutional protections afforded private property owners in two regulatory contexts—tax sales administered by local governments and the EPA’s classification of wetlands as “waters under the United States” under the Clean Water Act.