A Hobbesian Bundle of Lockean Sticks: The Property Rights Legacy of Justice Scalia
31 Pages Posted: 25 May 2017
Date Written: 2017
Abstract
No modern United States Supreme Court Justice has stimulated more thought and debate about the constitutional meaning of property than Antonin Scalia. This essay evaluates his efforts to change the prevailing interpretation of the Takings Clause. Scalia sought to ground it in clear rules embodying a reactionary defense of private owners’ prerogatives against environmental and land use regulation. Ultimately, Scalia aimed to authorize federal judicial oversight of state property law developments, whether through legislative or judicial innovation. In hindsight, he stands in a long tradition of conservative judges using property law as a constitutional baseline by which to restrain regulation.
Keywords: takings, property, Scalia
JEL Classification: K11
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation