| United States v. Willow River Power Co. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued February 8–9, 1945 Decided March 26, 1945 | |
| Full case name | United States v. Willow River Power Co. |
| Citations | 324 U.S. 499 (more) 65 S. Ct. 761; 89 L. Ed.r 1101 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | 101 Ct. Cls. 222 (reversed) |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Jackson, joined by Black, Reed, Frankfurter, Douglas, Murphy, Rutledge |
| Dissent | Roberts, joined by Stone |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. V | |
United States v. Willow River Power Co., 324 U.S. 499 (1945), is a 1945 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court involving the question whether the United States was liable under the Fifth Amendment for a "taking" of private property for a public purpose when it built a dam on navigable waters that raised the water level upstream to lessen the head of water at a power company’s dam, thereby decreasing the production of power by the company’s hydroelectric turbines. The Court’s opinion is notable because it considers whether the courts will provide a remedy because a property right has been invaded, or whether a property right exists because the courts will enforce it.[1] This question has been compared with the dilemma found in Plato's dialogue Euthyphro.[2]
- ^ The initial use of this question in property law analysis has been attributed to Professor Myres S. McDougal of the Yale Law School. See Richard H. Stern, Scope-of-Protection Problems With Patents and Copyrights on Methods of Doing Business Archived 2016-05-18 at the Wayback Machine, 10 Fordham Intell. Prop., Media & Ent. L.J. 105, 128 n.100 (1999) (referring to "Professor Myres McDougal’s famous question, 'Do we protect it because it’s a property right, or is it a property right because we protect it?'").
- ^ Hodgson, Geoffrey M. (2015). "Much of the 'economics of property rights' devalues property and legal rights". Journal of Institutional Economics. 11 (4): 686. doi:10.1017/S1744137414000630. hdl:2299/18849.
In Plato's dialogue Euthyphro, Socrates asks Euthyphro: 'Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?' ... This dilemma can be converted into matters of state and law: 'Does a state make a law because it is a customary rule, or does law become a customary rule because it is approved by the state?'