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Definition: Eminent Domain from The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences

A government's right to claim private property if intended for public use (e.g., schools, parks, highways, etc.). The government can only exert this right if the owner of the property is given fair compensation, based on market value.

eminent domain

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the right of a government to force the owner of private property sell it if it is needed for a public use. The right is based on the doctrine that a sovereign state has dominion over all lands and buildings within its borders, which has its origins in the landholding system under feudalism . Eminent domain is implicitly enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, which in the Fifth Amendment requires that private property not be taken for public use without just compensation. The process of acquiring private property by eminent domain is known as condemnation. Eminent domain traditionally has been used by governments to condemn land for building roads, schools, goverment buildings, and the like. The right of eminent domain may also be assigned to public and private corporations engaged in activities regarded as benefiting the public, such as the development of port facilities, the building of a canal or railroad, or the redevelopment of a blighted area. In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court, in Kelo…
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Full text Article Eminent Domain

From Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedias in Social Sciences: The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies
Eminent domain is the term for the constitutional power of a government to condemn private property and take it for uses that would serve the public good, with fair market compensation to the owner. Reynolds (2010) notes that this power seems to be taken for granted across history and most…
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Full text Article eminent domain

From Encyclopedia of American Government and Civics
The concept of eminent domain comes from the distinguished Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, who in a 1625 legal treatise, wrote about the legal rights of the state to confiscate private property for some state purpose. The word comes from the Latin dominium eminens meaning supreme lordship. Eminent domain…
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Full text Article eminent domain

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the right of a government to force the owner of private property sell it if it is needed for a public use. The right is based on the doctrine that a sovereign state has dominion over all lands and buildings within its borders, which has its origins in the landholding system under feudalism . Eminent…
| 282 words
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Grounded in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the concept of eminent domain refers to the government's right to condemn and appropriate private property for public use. Other terms meaning essentially the same thing include “condemnation” (but that has additional implications, see below) …
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Full text Article eminent domain

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
The power of a sovereign state to take private property for public use, subject to making reasonable compensation, as distinct from seizure or expropriation . This power is recognized as a (conditional) right by certain theories of natural law (e.g. those of Grotius and Pufendorf ); it is familiar…
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Full text Article eminent domain

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
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Full text Article eminent domain

From Webster's New World Finance and Investment Dictionary
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Full text Article eminent domain

From Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law
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Full text Article eminent domain

From The Macquarie Dictionary
| 31 words
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Full text Article eminent domain

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
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