Gary Becker questions eminent domain

Nobel prize winning economist Gary Becker questions whether eminent domain's time has passed:

IS EMINENT DOMAIN DESIRABLE? In addition to analyzing where to draw the line in deciding what is legitimate "public use", we should ask whether the line should be allowed at all. Is eminent domain a desirable principle in the 21st century? In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, governments did rather little, so there was not much to fear from great abuse of the eminent domain constitutional clause. In fact, the first real eminent domain case was not decided until 1876. Now, however, government at all levels do so much that the temptation is irresistible to use eminent domain condemnation proceedings to hasten and cheapen their accumulation of property for various projects, regardless of a projects merits.

Without the right to eminent domain, governments would have to buy property in the same manner that private companies often accumulate many parcels to create shopping centers, factory campuses, and building complexes, like Rockefeller Center. There are difficulties involved in combining separate parcels into a single more extensive property, but whey should that be made too easy, as through a condemnation proceeding?

Becker-Posner Blog