Donald Kochan to Speak at Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference

This October, Professor Donald Kochan will present at the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference. At the conference, Professor Kochan will join a list of distinguished speakers featured on a panel titled ”Kelo at 20: Public Use and Private Benefit.” The panel will analyze Kelo v. City of New London from multiple perspectives two decades after the U.S. Supreme Court released the opinion. Professor Kochan’s groundbreaking law and economics scholarship on the “public use” question at the heart of the Kelo case was cited and quoted at length in the amicus brief filed in that Supreme Court case by Nobel Laureate James Buchanan and noted economist Gordon Tullock, both former Scalia Law professors, as well as in five other briefs filed in the case.

Professor Kochan is among six members of the American Law Institute (ALI) presenting at the event. An authority on property law and one of the Adviser’s to ALI’s Restatement of the Law (Fourth) of Property, he also publishes widely in areas including constitutional law, administrative law, local government law, natural resources, environmental law, and law & economics. At Scalia Law, he teaches courses in property, civil procedure, and state constitutional law, while also serving as Executive Director of the Law & Economics Center (LEC).

The William & Mary Property Rights Project will host the conference. The event is scheduled to take place October 23–24, 2025. More details about the conference, including how to register are available on the conference’s website.