Download the original
attachment<http://mail.google.com/mail/?realattid=f_fl7809vw0&attid=0.1&disp=attd&view=att&th=11c6dbbff3bc0f81>

*CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS*

*Property Rights and Neo-liberalism: Cultural Demands and Legal Actions*

We are seeking potential contributions to a new edited volume that will
focus on litigation and legal mobilizations concerning property rights.
Over the course of the last several decades, conservative libertarian and
neo-liberal groups have put constitutional demands for greater property
protection on the agendas of courts in several countries, including the
U.S.  In addition to working in national courts and through constitutional
processes, property rights activists, pressure groups and social movements
have used administrative and regulatory processes in their efforts.
Meanwhile, in other arenas, lawyers and various actors have diligently
worked to include expropriation clauses in international treaties, such as
NAFTA; and to structure dispute processes and jurisprudence that, in theory,
protect the rights of investors, particularly from government encroachment.


Property rights have always held high status on the U.S. political agenda,
and in many places featuring a corporate capitalist economic system.  These
rights are included in constitutional designs, debates, and development.
Efforts to curb state appropriation of private properties for public
purposes also have a long and storied history.  The modern libertarian
movement in the U.S. (which has a familial relationship with neoliberalism
abroad) has coupled their animosity toward direct government seizures with
resistance against regulatory systems by attempting to demonstrate specific
regulatory effects that allegedly yield diminished property values.
According to this design, whether it is direct or indirect, government
policy that penetrates the boundaries of private property violates a basic
tenet of fundamental liberty.  Ultimately, the effort appears to place
cultural demands for property in a new light both in the U.S. and throughout
the world.  This collection will provide multiple perspectives on this
phenomenon.

We are interested in chapters that address in some manner these three
particular questions:  1) What are the contours and characteristics of
property rights mobilization(s); 2) have property rights movements
influenced development of law in demonstrable ways; and, 3) what are the
broader cultural, social and economic implications of modern-era property
rights litigation and legal mobilizations?

We welcome proposals addressing these issues from multiple perspectives and
methodologies, including historical, legal consciousness, legal
mobilization, and traditional impact studies.  State courts, local courts,
national courts as well as transnational legal processes can be the foci of
studies.  We are less interested in doctrinal inquiry.  However, we
encourage analysis that considers how constitutional courts and
international tribunals have addressed these issues, and interesting
doctrinal developments in these courts may be considered.  Finally, while
the editors of this volume both write in the U.S. context and welcome
similar work, we strongly desire to include contributions to this volume
that are cross-national, transnational or that focus on property rights
legal action in other countries or regions of the world.

Proposals should include a one-page abstract that provides an overview of
your proposed chapter, as well as the methods and data that you are using in
this work.  Please submit your proposals via email to [log in to unmask]
Information concerning acceptance of your chapter and the subsequent
time-line for the volume will be forthcoming.

The deadline for chapter proposals is October 15th.  The editors will
prepare a proposal for submission to publishers.  If you have questions,
please contact Laura Hatcher at [log in to unmask] or Wayne McIntosh at
[log in to unmask]

Thank you.

Wayne McIntosh, University of Maryland

Laura Hatcher, Southern Illinois University

**********************************************************
             Political Methodology E-Mail List
   Editors: Melanie Goodrich, <[log in to unmask]>
            Delia Bailey, <[log in to unmask]>
**********************************************************
        Send messages to [log in to unmask]
  To join the list, cancel your subscription, or modify
           your subscription settings visit:

          http://polmeth.wustl.edu/polmeth.php

**********************************************************