The Research On The Ripeness Doctrine About Litigation Of Urban Planning In The United States

The Ripeness Doctrine is a basic principle of American Administrative Law, which requires the property owner can not file a taking suit until the lawsuit case developed to be ripe, otherwise, the court shall not accept it. The Ripeness Doctrine is very important meaning to the trial, which is always called as the "threshold" of judicial review, it is widely applied in the case of Administrative Law.And with the urbanization process of the development of the United States after World War Ⅱ, the U.S. government had strengthened the regulation of land use, litigation cases of urban planning occurred more frequently. Courts are also busy looking for a effective rule that can be applied to the class in those cases. Then the courts found that the Ripeness Doctrine is more suitable for application in urban planning cases.As a result, after the first application of the Ripeness Doctrine in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York case in 1967, it was was more frequently used in the urban planning cases.But the research of the Ripeness Doctrine is still at the initial stage in our country, and there are little researchers devote themselves to this study. Professor Mingyang Wang introduced the Ripeness Doctrine in detail in his book "the American Administrative Law", Which is the earliest presentation to the Ripeness Doctrine, and is still the most authoritative interpretation of the principle. Domestic scholars’s study on the Ripeness Doctrine are more quoting from this book. But from the current treatises of the scholars, their researchs are also focused on the discussions which include the origin and meaning of the principle of maturity, the development and the establishment, the theoretical basis, practical application and so on from the aspects of the basic theories of Administrative Law, but no deeper research in the practices of United States administrative litigation. To make up the academic blank, this paper is ready to select urban planning litigation cases which the Ripeness Doctrine is the most widely applied to as the direction, to explore in-depth the uses of the Ripeness Doctrine in solving the urban planning development and application of litigation cases through the study on the Ripeness Doctrine in American in those cases for the future study of scholars.The first chapter is the origin of the Ripeness Doctrine. Mainly introduces the definition and functions of the Ripeness Doctrine and the rule of the Ripeness Doctrine planned in the litigation of urban planning in the United StatesThe second chapter mainly introduced the development of the Ripeness Doctrine. This part introduces the six cases in detail, which are divided into three parts according to the development process of the Ripeness Doctrine:The first part is the case of Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York in 1967and the case of Agins v. City of Tiburon in 1969,those two cases are the first application of the Ripeness Doctrine in urban planning cases which are the basis of the Ripeness Doctrine. Since then, the Ripeness Doctrine is widely used in urban planning cases. The second chapter is the case of Williamson County Regional Planning Commision v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City in 1985 and the case of Macdonald, Sommer & Frates v.Yolo County in 1986.Those two cases is important with landmark. They established and revised of the Ripeness Doctrine in urban planning of litigation cases which is widely quoted. The second chapter is the case of Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council in 1992 and the case of Macdonald, Suitum v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency in 1996.Those two cases loosen the requirements of the Ripeness Doctrine in urban planning cases initially which made the principle more suitable and more easily accepted by the developer. At this point, the Ripeness Doctrine developed into an independent system.The third chapter expounds the standards of the Ripeness Doctrine that are the conclusion of the six cases according to the last chapter mentioned and establishs the two independent standard:final decision and state compensation.The fourth chapter is the summary of the Ripeness Doctrin discussed in three directions:Firstly, the limit between the Ripeness Doctrin and other related principle is not clear; Secondly, the Ripeness Doctrin is easy to lead to the unfair on property owners; Thirdly, the application standard of the Ripeness Doctrin differ with each other, affect the legal authority.The last chapter is a summary of full text:the reference for Chinese law. The proceedings of the Ripeness Doctrin in the urban planning in the United States developed from the initial application to its eventually establishment has experienced 30 years. And it has been developing continuously in practice. Therefore, the introduction of the Ripeness Doctrin in the urban planning should also be a gradual process. We should have a choice to reference to the relevant legal system, and make appropriate changes according to our country’s specific national conditions, perfect the relevant supporting system, set up the Ripeness Doctrin suitable for the urban planning in our country as soon as possible.