Unirule Salon for Young Scholars(V) was held on the evening of July 28 at Unirule office in Beijing. This Salon was privileged to have Dr. Ilya Somin from George Mason University to speak on “The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain”. Unirule Deputy Director, Professor FENG Xingyuan, and American Political Philosophy scholar, Professor Jason Walker were present at the Salon and commented after the speech. There was an audience of more than 20 people. This Salon was organized by Mr. MA Junjie, Project Researcher of Unirule, and the host of the Salon was Mr. ZHANG Lin, Project Researcher of Unirule. 
Professor Ilya Somin is an expert in eminent domain. He illustrate the causes, outcome, and implications of the Kelo case and he thought that it was not only unjust, but also inefficient to transfer the property rights of a person to another entity with government power. He also believed that the scrutinized discretion of the judges were critical when it came to the concept of public interest. It also asked for public participation in this case in order to carry out eminent domain properly. He also asked for thorough analysis to decide whether the eminent domain was for the public interest in reality. For this reason, in countries where property rights were protected properly, there are not so many property owners who refuse to move when the land is expropriated. Professor Somin thought China should take a lesson from Kelo case and improve the current situation for eminent domain. 
Professor FENG Xingyuan thought Professor Ilya Somin’s judgment was reasonable and pointed out that it was not right to put the right to use before the right to own, as some scholars recently argued. He thought distortion of the use of resources and properties would occur without the strict protection of property rights. In that case, public power would also expand into a greedy hand. Professor Jason Walker started from a political philosophical point of view and argued that the limit of government power was the core of political science nowadays. Therefore, no matter for eminent domain or any other powers, the lack of limits of the government power was what worried people. Therefore, the rule of law was needed. During the Q&A, the audience discussed around two questions, one was the definition of “public interest” and the problem-solving process by public procedures and public power; and the other was the rule of law in the context of China as the land were either state-owned or collectively-owned in China which was very different from the American system. Professor Somin answered the questions and reemphasized that only by protection of the property rights would China be able to bring about more economic development. “Unirule Saloon for Young Scholars from the East and the West” is an open and free platform for academic discussion; it encompasses a wide range of social, economic, political and cultural topics; held once a month, the working language of the saloon is English. We believe that discussion will bring about the light of thoughts, and we hope in free discussion, young scholars from both China and the west will harvest inspiration, thoughts, and wisdom. We look forward to having young scholars from home and abroad join us. Please check our website for the upcoming events. Totally 2 Pages,Now on the 1 Page 1 2 |
