Prof. Eran Kaplinsky contributes to recent book examining how rights impact urban development

Professor Eran Kaplinsky of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law has contributed to a book examining different concepts of rights as they relate to cities and urban development. 

Rights and the City: Problems, Progress and Practice is a recent release from the University of Alberta Press. It brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines to examine the legal, conceptual and philosophical aspects of rights, and the ways in which struggles over rights influence progress in cities.

Kaplinsky, whose research focus includes property law and municipal law, authored a chapter entitled “Property Rights and the Canadian City” for the collection. The chapter situates property rights within the Canadian legal framework and reviews the principles that govern interferences with property  (such as expropriation and land use regulation) as well as the manner in which property issues are handled by the courts.

Kaplinsky is also co-author of the chapter “Group Rights and Collective Rights: What Are They and How Do They Affect Urban Issues?” with Sandeep Agrawal, the volume’s editor and associate chair of the U of A’s School of Urban and Regional Planning. 

In this chapter, Kaplinsky and Agrawal look at group and collective forms of human rights and the role they play at the city level. While they argue that the Canadian Charter and Constitution guarantee group or collective rights to Canadians, they also highlight the ways in which municipalities are still grappling with the application of these rights. 

For more information or to purchase Rights and the City, click here.