ENGLISH

Before Eminent Domain: Toward a History of Expropriation of Land for the Common Good (Studies in Legal History)

By Susan Reynolds

Book information

Year
2010
ISBN
0807833533, 9780807833537
LCC
K3511 .R49 2010
Open Library ID
OL23688094M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
1023 kB (1047094 bytes)
Pages
192\186
Topic
History
Orientation
yes
Scanned
no
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

In this concise history of expropriation of land for the common good in Europe and North America from medieval times to 1800, Susan Reynolds contextualizes the history of an important legal doctrine regarding the relationship between government and the institution of private property. Before Eminent Domain concentrates on western Europe and the English colonies in America. As Reynolds argues, expropriation was a common legal practice in many societies in which individuals had rights to land. It was generally accepted that land could be taken from them, with compensation, when the community, however defined, needed it. She cites examples of the practice since the early Middle Ages in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and from the seventeenth century in America. Reynolds concludes with a discussion of past and present ideas and assumptions about community, individual rights, and individual property that underlie the practice of expropriation but have been largely ignored by historians of both political and legal thought.

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