Monthly Archives: April 2013

Today, the Owners’ Counsel of America (OCA) filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the landowner in Marvin M. Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States (12-1173) urging the United States Supreme Court to review a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in United States v. Brandt, 2012 WL 3935613 (C.A.10 (Wyo.)) which erroneously found that the federal government retained an “implied reversionary interest” in railroad rights of way granted under an 1875 Congressional Act.

The Owners’ Counsel of America (OCA) has filed an amicus brief in support of the landowner in Brandt v. United States (12-1173) urging the United States Supreme Court to review the decision of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeal and resolve a “circuit split” concerning whether the United States has a reversionary interest in railroad rights of way crossing privately-owned lands under a 1875 Congressional Act.

The 2013 Brigham-Kanner Conference will take place October 17-18 at William & Mary School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia. The 2013 Conference marks ten years that members of the bench, bar and academia have come together to explore recent developments in takings and property law and discuss the importance property rights plays in American society.

The University of Chicago Press and the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association has published the inaugural volume of the new Journal of Law and Courts (JLC). The JLC is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal covering a wide-range of topics devoted to the examination of legal institutions, actors, processes and policy.

William & Mary School of Law recently announced that Columbia Law School Professor Thomas W. Merrill will receive the 2013 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize at the 10th annual Brigham-Kanner conference October 17-18, 2013, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Last month Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed into law SB96, titled the “Major 21st Century Manufacturing Zone Act.” The law allows any Alabama city to create a “manufacturing” tax increment financing, or TIF, zone for a number of industries including automotive, aviation, medical, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, computer, electronics, energy conservation, cyber technology and biomedical but requires any municipality wishing to create a TIF zone under the law to invest at least $100 million on a site larger than 250 contiguous acres.