International hybrid conference: Takings for Climate Justice and Resilience | Land Portal
Contact details: 
Björn Hoops (b.hoops@rug.nl)
Organizers: 

The University of Groningen has a rich academic tradition dating back to 1614. From this tradition arose the first female student and the first female lecturer in the Netherlands, the first Dutch astronaut and the first president of the European Central Bank. Geographically, the University is rooted in the Northern part of the Netherlands, a region very close to its heart.

The University of Cape Town is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest university in Sub-Saharan Africa in continuous operation.

The University of Johannesburg is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University, the Technikon Witwatersrand and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University.

Language of the event: 
English

The Expropriation Expert Group, founded in 2013 as a collaborative effort of the universities of Cape Town, Groningen, and Nijmegen, is organising the sixth international conference of the Rethinking Expropriation Law series.

The conference aims to return to its roots, Groningen in the Netherlands,  to continue the stimulating intellectual exchange on expropriation law at previous conferences. The challenge will be taken up to illuminate what the implications are of expropriation law for the fight against the climate crisis, which expresses itself in phenomena such as global warming, increases in natural disasters and extreme weather events.

Expropriation is taken in its widest sense (takings) to include both formal expropriations (condemnations) and excessive regulation and other restrictions of property (regulatory takings, constructive expropriations, etc.). In light of increasing global warming the world is certain to see more takings for climate protection. The less effective incentives to climate-proof homes and businesses – such as subsidies – become, the more governments will have to force people to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the boundaries in takings law to such government action for climate protection are mostly unexplored and therefore uncertain. Instead of having each jurisdiction reinvent the wheel, the Conference would like to explore the boundaries to the use of the government’s regulatory police power (to restrict property rights) and its power of eminent domain (to expropriate property) for climate protection at an international conference.

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