Maidan

US Supreme Court Approves Private Property Seizures by Government

by Terry Hallman
Maidan

The US Supreme Court ruled today that private homes and properties can be legally seized for business purposes.  According to Associated Press, “A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

“The 5-4 ruling – assailed by dissenting Justice Sandra Day O’Connor as handing ‘disproportionate influence and power’ to the well-heeled in America – was a defeat for Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They had argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas.”

The ruling comes at a time when potential Western investors in Ukraine reportedly express concerns over Ukrainian government’s stance on the security of private property ownership, particularly visible in debate over seizure and reprivatization of formerly state-owned enterprises allegedly sold under illegal terms and conditions.  The Ukrainian issue is said to bring into question the validity of private property rights in Ukraine.

With private property rights in the US having now been rendered null and void, Western investors’ expectations for Ukraine take on a new dimension.  Property rights and ownership are the basis of US/Western capitalism and economics.  Without private property rights, the whole of capitalism, at least in the US, is entirely undermined and rendered moot.

Now, rather than insisting that Ukraine adopt the US/Western model of private property ownership, investors can at best hope for a new haven where such rights are valid.  Arguments that Ukraine must adopt a more US-style ownership scheme – thus expediting and limiting the reprivatization efforts judiciously undertaken by Ukraine’s new government – are meaningless.  There is no US model that investors can pressure Ukraine to imitate or duplicate.