Real Property: Eminent Domain
EMINENT DOMAIN - Government’s 5th A. power to take property for public use in exchange for just compensation.
- Explicit takings: acts of government condemnation. (i.e. government condemns your land to make way for a public highway.
- Implicit or regulatory takings: A governmental regulation that, although not intended to be a taking, has the same effect.
- EX: You buy land in North Carolina for development. 3 months later, the government imposes a ban on all development. Note that you have not been the target of an overt condemnation. Still, you argue that the regulation is an implicit taking. It has worked an economic wipeout of your investment.
- The remedy for a regulatory taking – government must either:
- Compensate owner, or
- Terminate the regulation and pay owner for damages that occurred while the regulation was in effect.