Taking land around the world: International trends in expropriation for urban and infrastructure projects

Abstract

Compulsory purchase, expropriation, eminent domain, and simply taking' are different names for the same legal institution: that which allows states to acquire property against the will of its owner to fulfill some purpose of general interest. Traditionally, expropriation has been considered one of the main instruments of land policy. Today, however, it is subject to many criticisms and mounting social resistance. Campaigns for housing rights, movements for the defense of property rights, legislative and judiciary activism, and land tenure reforms, among other factors, are changing the conditions under which governments exercise their power of eminent domain. © 2009 Springer Netherlands.