Research Projects

Trends in the Use of Expropriation for Urban Purposes: A Comparative Study of Latin American Countries

Start Date: December 2008
End Date: February 2010

Researchers
Antonio Azuela holds a law degree from the Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico), a LL.M. from Warwick University, and a doctoral degree in sociology from Mexico’s National University (UNAM). He is a researcher, professor and member of the Social Research Institute at the UNAM. Maria Mercedes Maldonado Copello is a lawyer and holds a PhD in Urbanism from the University of Paris XII. She is a professor at the Institute of Urban Studies at the National University of Colombia. Collaborators in the projects include José Angel Oyarvide Polo and Diego Isaias Peña Porras.

Description
This project aims to widen the scope of comparative research on eminent domain (ED) for urban development in Latin America. On the one hand, it will explore the status of ED in countries that have undergone constitutional debates which included the definition of property rights (Ecuador and Venezuela). On the other hand, it will build on previous research in countries with more stable urban land legislation and policies, around two basic questions: the level of compensation and the role of the judiciary in dealing with conflicts over the use of ED. Those two questions are considered as strong indicators of the way in which institutional settings determine the content of property rights in the urban context.