What Climate Change Can Do About Property Law* *With Apologies
to Professor Doug Kysar Harvey and Phyllis Karan are lucky that
their beachfront home on the Jersey shore suffered little damage
from Hurricane Sandy. Not long before Sandy hit, the Army Corps
of Engineers completed a dune replenishment project, raising a
dune in front of their home and providing protection from the
storm surges that devastated much of the coast only one month
ago. In its aftermath, Sandy has sparked discussions about how
communities along the Atlantic coast can prepare for the more
frequent and more intense storms that may result from climate
change. Experts have recommended constructing a sea wall to
protect New York City at a cost of perhaps $6 billion, for
example. Dune replenishment is a more modest effort to reduce
the impacts of major storms. But, the Karans’ situation
demonstrates that even modest efforts to prepare for climate
change may be no match for the nuances of property law. When the
Army Corps raised the dunes in