Conservation Easements Analyzed

Nancy A. McLaughlin (Robert W. Swenson Professor of Law, Univ. of Utah College of Law) and W. William Weeks (Adjunct Professor of Law and Director, Conservation Law Clinic, Indiana Univ. Bloomington School of Law) have posted on SSRN their article entitled In Defense of Conservation Easements: A Response to ‘The End of Perpetuity’, 9 Wyoming L. Rev. (2009).

This article critiques the arguments offered in favor of treating donated conservation easements as unrestricted charitable gifts (that is, as fungible or liquid assets in the hands of their government or land trust holders). It also discusses the practical and potential constitutional problems associated with proposals to change state law to permit government entities and land trusts to sell, trade, release, extinguish or otherwise terminate the conservation easements they hold outside of judicial cy pres proceedings.