Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference Celebrates 22nd Year, Honors Professor William Fischel

An interesting thing happens when you revisit Kelo v. City of New London two decades later.

This time, Kelo wins.

That’s what happened during a mock moot court when legal scholars, practitioners, and students gathered at William & Mary Law School on October 23–24 for the 22nd Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, part of the Law School’s Property Rights Project. The prestigious event brings together leading voices in property law to explore pressing legal and policy issues.

The student-run William & Mary Real Estate Law Society held a special pre-conference event titled “Kelo Re-Argued.” Marking the 20th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, legal experts reexamined the controversial ruling that allowed economic development to qualify as “public use” under the Fifth Amendment.

Attorneys Jeffrey Redfern (for petitioner Suzette Kelo) and Robert H. Thomas (for respondent New London Development Corp.) presented their arguments before a panel of six judges, composed of academics, practicing lawyers, and law students.  Redfern is a Senior Attorney at the Institute for Justice, and Robert H. Thomas is the Joseph T. Waldo Visiting Chair in Property Rights Law at William & Mary and Director of  the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Property Rights practice group.

The Brigham-Kanner Conference itself began with a reception and dinner at William & Mary’s Alumni House, where William Fischel, Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth College, was presented with the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize for his influential work on land use, zoning, and the concept of “homevoter” democracy.

Fischel joins an esteemed list of Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize winners. Previous recipients include Frank Michelman, Richard Epstein, James Ely, Margaret Jane Radin, Robert Ellickson, Richard Pipes, Carol Rose, Sandra Day O’Connor, James Krier, Thomas Merrill, Michael Berger, Joseph Singer, Hernando de Soto, David Callies, Stewart Sterk, Steven Eagle, Henry Smith, Vicki Been, James Burling, Gregory Alexander, and Lee Anne Fennell.

Professor James Y. Stern, director of the Property Rights Project, also announced that next year’s Brigham-Kanner conference will be held in London, with the prize dinner taking place in the Old Hall of Lincon’s Inn, one of England’s four Inns of Court.  Conference events will take place October 14-16, 2026.  Please mark your calendar and visit our website to learn more about this exciting event as plans take shape.

This year’s conference’s panel sessions began on Friday morning with a tribute to Fischel’s scholarship entitled “Property & Governance,” featuring insights from such legal and economic experts as Vicki Been (NYU School of Law), James W. Ely Jr. (Vanderbilt), Lee Anne Fennell (University of Chicago Law School), and Roderick M. Hills Jr. (NYU School of Law). Moderator James Stern guided the discussion on Fischel’s enduring impact on housing policy and local governance.

The second session, “Kelo at 20: Public Use & Private Benefit,” revisited the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision and the likely status of its holding in the years ahead. The panel was moderated by Andrew Prince Brigham, Senior Partner of the Brigham Property Rights Law Firm, and included panelists Julia D. Mahoney (University of Virginia School of Law), Donald J. Kochan (Antonin Scalia Law School), Thomas W. Merrill (Columbia Law School), and Dana Berliner (Institute for Justice). They explored the legal reasoning, political backlash, and state-level reforms that followed the ruling.

The afternoon began with a presentation on English property law by Professor David L. Callies (Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii), in preparation for next year’s Brigham-Kanner Conference in London. Two attorneys from the Brigham Property Rights Firm, Brett S. Tensfeldt ’16 and Andrew Prince Brigham, spoke about student engagement with the Property Rights Project at William & Mary and the role of the lawyer in property cases.  Attorney Joshua E. Baker ’06 (Waldo & Lyle) was the moderator.

The next panel session, “Property Rights & Abundance,” tackled the “abundance agenda,” examining how property law intersects with efforts to expand housing, infrastructure, and clean energy. Speakers included M. Nolan Gray (California YIMBY), Clint Schumacher (Dawson & Sodd), Gregory H. Shill (Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law), and Michael Allan Wolf (Levin College of Law), moderated by Jonathan H. Adler of William & Mary Law School.

The final panel, “Public Safety, Private Property, & Just Compensation,” addressed constitutional questions surrounding property damage caused by law enforcement and emergency responses. Experts such as Jeffrey Redfern, Patrick E. Reidy (Notre Dame Law School), Shelley Ross Saxer (Caruso School of Law), and Robert H. Thomas discussed the “necessity exception” and its implications for property rights, with student Emma Herber ’26, the Toby Prince Brigham Property Rights Fellow, serving as moderator.

The Brigham-Kanner Conference continues to be a vital forum for advancing scholarship and dialogue on property rights, law, and policy. This year’s event reaffirmed the importance of rigorous debate and interdisciplinary collaboration in shaping the future of property law.

About the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference
The Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference is renowned for its outstanding panel discussions and for bringing together members of the bench, bar, and academia. Founded through the initiative of William & Mary Law School alumnus Joseph T. Waldo ’78 in 2004, the Conference encourages vigorous audience participation through its question-and-answer segments with each of the panels. Waldo served as Conference co-chair from 2004-17, and in 2018, the Joseph T. Waldo Visiting Chair in Property Rights Law was named in his honor.

Sponsored by William & Mary Law School since its inception, the Conference has taken on a larger international perspective as more and more countries deal with property rights issues. In 2011, the Conference was held at Tsinghua Law School in Beijing, China, and in 2016 at the Grotius Center of International Legal Studies at the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands. The 2026 conference will be held in London.

To learn more about the William & Mary Law School’s Property Rights Project and the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, please visit our web page.