To download the following articles, click HERE and choose them from list.   

 Property Rights, Property Roots:
Rediscovering the Basis for Legal Protection of the Environment
&
Property Rights and Responsibilities:
Nuisance, Land-Use Regulation, and Sustainable Use

These companion articles were written in 1994 by the brilliant James McElfish of the Environmental Law Institute for the Environmental Law Reporter.  These articles track the nature of property rights back to feudal times arguing that the right always included a duty to use property in the best interests of the community and the environment. 

Reading this article drives home just how much property concepts have changed in the past thirty years, since corporations ramped up their use of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause.  Modern ideas about property rights differ greatly from historical concepts of real property ownership, where property ownership came with a responsibility for the community's overall good.  This change is, in part, due to repeated and successful corporate attempts to invalidate environmental laws that impact property values via the Fifth Amendment.

To download a synopsis of the following book, click HERE and choose article from list.  To download the full book, click HERE.

Gangs of America, A book written by TED NANCE in 2003.

“A brilliant page-turner revealing how powerful, greedy corporations wage institutional terrorism. Reading it is the first step to saving our communities, our democracy and our planet’s environment.”
—John Stauber, author, Toxic Sludge Is Good for You

“A valuable resource for understanding the origins of corporate power in this country. It offers an acute analysis of how the legal system became more and more a protector of corporate interests over human rights.”
—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States