AALS Workshop on Poverty, Immigration, and Property

The Association of American Law Schools has announced a workshop on Poverty, Immigration and Property, to be held June 10-12 in San Diego. From the AALS:

Why Attend? The recent Arizona SB 1070 decision, the pending Hazleton litigation, and the state bar licensing cases for undocumented applicants all implicate property rights. Since the infamous alien land laws, most immigration scholars have not addressed this historical issue. Related issues are surfacing again that affect property rights of non-citizens. These developments present a challenge to immigration scholars to examine the intersection between immigration and property. This new lens also can provide us with new insight on other issues of concern to immigrants and immigration policy, such as access to justice. The workshop brings together two communities of scholars: immigration and property. For immigration scholars, the workshop presents a special opportunity to interact with property law scholars around these intersections. For example, State v. Shack, 277 A.2d 369 (N.J. 1971), a forty-year old case, is enjoying a renaissance and spike in scholarly attention among property scholars. In Shack, perhaps the most progressive decision found in the property law canon, the New Jersey Supreme Court recognized the right of migrant workers to receive visitors over the objections of the property owner. The court’s expansive opinion declared, “Property rights serve human values. They are recognized to that end and are limited by it.” Though narrowly the holding in Shack relates to property owners’ right-to-exclude, the case invites consideration of the nature of property, the rights of immigrant/vulnerable workers, and how seemingly neutral legal principals impact the poor. In addition to exploring emerging themes in property law scholarship, this workshop offers an opportunity to interact with leading immigrant law scholars.

Legal historian Allison Brownell Tirres (DePaul) will be speaking at the opening plenary, entitled "What Lies at the Intersection of Poverty, Immigration and Property." The title of her talk is "Immigrants and Property Rights: Taking the Long View."

For more information, follow the link. You may register online here.