Dear friend,

Welcome to Frontier, the monthly newsletter from the Future of Property Rights Program at New America. The team is busy preparing for the 2019 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, and is also increasingly thinking about property rights issues in the United States. Here's what else we're up to:

What We're Doing

Property and Politics in Today's America

FPR is hosting an event on March 25th about property rights in the United States. From Trump's wall in Texas and civil asset forfeiture in Indiana, to the fight over public lands in Utah and post-hurricane housing in Puerto, Americans are facing new property rights challenges today.

Trump's Emergency Makes it Harder to Build the Wall

Yuliya Panfil wrote for CNN about the intersection of eminent domain and Trump's emergency declaration to build his wall along the southern border.

FPR to Present Reports at 

2019 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty

Chris Mellon and Tim Robustelli will present reports next week at the 2019 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty. Chris will speak on the use of digital identity to help alleviate the housing crisis in post-hurricane Puerto Rico, while Tim will discuss the current potential of blockchain-for-land. Both presentations are scheduled for 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM on Tuesday, March 26 in Room MC 2-800 of the World Bank. The reports will be published on the FPR website in the coming weeks.

The Three Legged Stool:

A Paradigm for Property Rights Innovation

FPR is pleased to introduce The Three Legged Stool, a blog series on the pillars of property rights innovation: technology, people, and processes. Please check out our introductory post framing the issue, as well as a guest post from scholar Chandan Deuskar on the subject of land corruption as a particularly thorny barrier to property rights innovation.

What We're Reading

"Supreme Court Limits Police Powers to Seize Private Property" - The New York Times

Adam Liptak and Shaila Dewan report on the recent Supreme Court ruling on civil asset forfeiture, a controversial practice that allows police to seize property they believe is connected to a crime. It has us thinking about the evolution of property rights in the United States.

"Guns, religion and climate change intensify Nigeria's deadly farmer-herder clashes" - Los Angeles Times

Krista Mahr writes that the degradation of grasslands is contributing to land disputes and increased violence throughout Nigeria's Middle Belt. We've seen this dynamic before in East Africa, and the bloodshed in Nigeria has us thinking about how climate change is wreaking havoc on common property, and instigating conflict in the scramble for resources.

Thoughts on our work or where we're headed? Feel free to reach out to us at FPR@NewAmerica.org.

Until next month, the FPR Team.

About New America

New America is dedicated to renewing America by continuing the quest to realize our nation's highest ideals. Read the rest of our story, or see what we've been doing recently in our latest Annual Report. 

The Future of Property Rights Program at New America focuses on bringing together technologists and policymakers to help solve land and property rights challenges around the world.

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