6th Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference honored Prof. Richard Pipes

The sixth annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference and presentation of the 2009 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize was held this past weekend, October 16 & 17, at the College of William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia. The 2009 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize was presented to Professor Richard E. Pipes, Professor Emeritus of History at Harvard University in the historic Sir Christopher Wren Building – America’s oldest academic building – on the William and Mary campus.

The Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference and Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize are named in recognition of Toby Prince Brigham and Gideon Kanner for their lifetime contributions to private property rights, their efforts to advance the constitutional protection of property, and their accomplishments in preserving the important role that private property plays in protecting individual and civil rights. The conference included various panel discussions focused upon private property rights as well as the scholarship of Richard Pipes.

The conference began Friday afternoon with a panel discussion, entitled The Psychology of Property Rights. Panelists included Professor Carol M. Rose, James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona, Professor Stephanie M. Stern, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Professor Janice Nadler, Northwestern University College of Law, Jeremy A. Blumenthal, Syracuse University College of Law and Andrew Prince Brigham, Esq., Brigham Moore, LLP, Jacksonville, Florida.

The second panel discussion Friday afternoon, The Contract Clause Reconsidered, focused upon 3 eras of Supreme Court contract clause jurisprudence. On Friday evening the Law School hosted a reception and dinner in the historic Wren Building during which Professor Pipes was presented with the 2009 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize. In recognizing Professor Pipes and .

The second day of the Sixth Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference commenced with a panel discussion focusing upon Professor Pipe’s property scholarship and his book, Property and Freedom. The panelists included Professor James W. Ely, Jr., Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University, Professor Alfred L. Brophy, Professor of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, and Professor Scott Nelson, Legum Professor of History, College of William & Mary.

The final panel of the 2009 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference featured Toby Prince Brigham and Gideon Kanner as well as Dana Berliner, Senior Attorney at the Institute for Justice. Mr. Kanner began the roundtable discussion, Does Kelo Have Legs?, by answering emphatically, “YES.”

Mr. Brigham focused on the changes in the law of eminent domain in Florida during his years of practice and explained that property rights have been recognized for thousands of years. Mr. Brigham emphasized that, given the long history of protection of the right to own property, there is no need to reinvent the rights of the owner. He closed by stating the best method of preserving property rights is to honor the principles of the Constitution and to maintain the rights that have always been afforded by it. Gideon Kanner discussed the standards employed by the courts in determining just compensation and criticized judges who developed independent compensability rules. He reemphasized the belief that juries should determine just compensation and should do so in accordance with the governing laws, not according to the whims of the bench.

The 2009 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference was video recorded and can be purchased by contacting Mary Beth Dalton (medalt@wm.edu) at the College of William & Mary’s Law School. A copy of the conference brochure is available for download here.

Sharing is caring!