Brigham–Kanner Property Rights Prize

• Frank Michelman (2004), Robert Walmsley University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, for his article Property, Utility, and Fairness: Comments on the Ethical Foundations of 'Just Compensation' Law.^[4]
• Richard Allen Epstein (2005), James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, for his book Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain.^[5]
• James W. Ely, Jr. (2006), Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law, Emeritus at Vanderbilt University, for his book The Guardian of Every Other Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights.^[6]
• Margaret Radin (2007), Henry King Ranson Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and Faculty of Law Distinguished Research Scholar at the University of Toronto, for her books Contested Commodities and Reinterpreting Property.^[7]
• Robert C. Ellickson (2008), Walter E. Meyer Professor of Property and Urban Law at Yale University, for his body of work on property.^[8]
• Richard Pipes (2009), Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of History, Emeritus, at Harvard University.
• Carol M. Rose (2010), Lohse Chair in Water and Natural Resources professor at the University of Arizon Jame E. Rogers College of Law, for her involvement in property rights at Yale Law School and her books Perspectives on Property Law and Property and Persuasion: Essays on the History, Theory, and Rhetoric of Ownership.^[9]
• Sandra Day O'Connor (2011) for her lifetime of contributions to property rights law, particularly her dissent in Kelo v. City of New London.^[10]
• James E. Krier (2012), Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, for his lifetime of scholarship, including his casebook on Property.^[11]
• Thomas W. Merrill (2013), Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, for his body of scholarship on property, including the books Property: Takings and Property: Principles and Policies.^[12]
• Michael M. Berger (2014), appellate attorney at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, for his years of property rights advocacy in the courts.^[13]
• Joseph W. Singer (2015), Bussey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, for his body of scholarship on property rights.^[14]
• Hernando de Soto Polar (2016), author of The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Elsewhere, and The Other Path: The Economic Answer to Terrorism, for his writing and his efforts at designing and implementing property-rights reforms in developing nations around the world.^[15]
• David L. Callies (2017), author of Regulating Paradise and Preserving Paradise and Benjamin A. Kudo Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, for his decades of practicing, teaching, and contributing to the scholarship of property law.^[16]
• Stewart E. Sterk (2018), H. Bert and Ruth Mack Professor of Real Estate Law and Director of the Center for Real Estate Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law for his years of teaching property law and his body of scholarship on property rights.^[17]
• Steven J. Eagle (2019), Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia School of Law, author of the treatise Regulatory Takings, and a prolific author and speaker in the field of real estate law and takings law whose work has been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States.^[18][19]
• Henry E. Smith (2020), Fessenden Professor of Law at Harvard Law School for his body of scholarship on Property Law, including several casebooks, years of teaching property law, and position as a Reporter on the Restatement (Fourth) of Property.^[20]
• Vicki Been (2021), New York City Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, an Affiliated Professor of Public Policy of the New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, Faculty Director of New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, and former commissioner of New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, for her scholarship and research in many areas of property law and applications thereof in New York City housing.^[21]
• James S. Burling (2022), Vice President of Legal Affairs for the Pacific Legal Foundation, for his decades of advocacy for the civil right of private property ownership, both as an attorney for property owners, including before the Supreme Court of the United States in Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, and as an author.^[22]

Discover more about Recipients related topics

Frank Michelman

Frank Michelman

Frank Isaac Michelman is an American legal scholar and the Robert Walmsley University Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School.

Richard Pipes

Richard Pipes

Richard Edgar Pipes was an American academic who specialized in Russian and Soviet history. He published several books critical of communist regimes throughout his career. In 1976, he headed Team B, a team of analysts organized by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who analyzed the strategic capacities and goals of the Soviet military and political leadership. Pipes was the father of American historian Daniel Pipes.

Carol M. Rose

Carol M. Rose

Carol M. Rose is the Ashby Lohse Chair in Water and Natural Resources at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and was previously the Gordon Bradford Tweedy Professor of Law and Organization at Yale Law School.

Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor is an American retired attorney and politician who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was both the first woman nominated and the first confirmed to the court. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was considered a swing vote for the Rehnquist Court and the first five months of the Roberts Court.

James E. Krier

James E. Krier

James E. Krier is the Earl Warren DeLano Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. His teaching and research interests are primarily in the fields of property, contracts, and law and economics, and he teaches or has taught courses on contracts, property, trusts and estates, behavioral law and economics, and pollution policy.

Thomas W. Merrill

Thomas W. Merrill

Thomas W. Merrill, a legal scholar, is the Charles Evans Hughes professor at Columbia Law School. He has also taught at Yale Law School and Northwestern University School of Law.

Michael M. Berger

Michael M. Berger

Michael M. Berger is an eminent domain and land use lawyer at the firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. His practice focuses on eminent domain, inverse condemnation, due process, and equal protection. Berger received his undergraduate degree at Brandeis University. He received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law and his LL.M. in real property from the University of Southern California. He has argued before the Supreme Court as well as state Supreme Courts and Federal Appellate Courts. Notable cases he has argued before the US Supreme Court include Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd., Preseault v. United States, and First English Evangelical Lutheran Church v. Los Angeles County.

Joseph W. Singer

Joseph W. Singer

Joseph William Singer is an American legal theorist specializing in property law. He is the Bussey Professor of Law at Harvard University, where he has been teaching since 1992. Previously, he taught at Boston University School of Law and practiced law in Boston. He also served as a law clerk in the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

David L. Callies

David L. Callies

David Lee Callies is the Benjamin A. Kudo Professor of Law at the University of Hawai'i's Manoa School of Law. His focus is on the topics of land use, real property, and state and local government. In 2015 he was honored with the Owners' Counsel of America's Crystal Eagle Award for his lifetime of scholarship about land use, eminent domain, and regulatory takings.

William S. Richardson School of Law

William S. Richardson School of Law

The William S. Richardson School of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Located in Honolulu, Hawaii, the school is named after its patriarch, former Hawaii State Supreme Court Chief Justice William S. Richardson, a zealous advocate of Hawaiian culture, and is Hawaii's only law school.

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979. An LL.M. program was established in 1998. Cardozo is nondenominational and has a secular curriculum, in contrast to some of YU's undergraduate programs. Around 320 students begin the J.D. program per year, of whom about 57% are women. In addition, there are about 60-70 LL.M. students each year. Cardozo is ranked 52nd in the nation by U.S. News & World Report 2023.

Steven J. Eagle

Steven J. Eagle

Steven J. Eagle is Professor of Law Emeritus at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, where he teaches Constitutional Law, Land Use Planning, and Property amongst other subjects, and was formerly a professor of law at George Washington University Law School, Vanderbilt University, the University of Toledo College of Law, and Pace University Law School. Eagle graduated from City College of New York with a B.A. (1965) and received a J.D. from the Yale Law School (1970).