托马斯-威尔逊-米切尔 财产法学者

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Thomas Wilson Mitchell
Property Law Scholar | Class of 2020
Reforming laws and developing policy solutions addressing mechanisms by which Black and other disadvantaged American families have been deprived of their land, homes, and real estate wealth.


Portrait of Thomas Wilson Mitchell

Title
Property Law Scholar
Affiliation
Texas A&M University School of Law
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
Age
55 at time of award
Area of Focus
Legal Studies
Website
Texas A&M University: Thomas Mitchell
Social
Twitter
LinkedIn
Published October 6, 2020
ABOUT THOMAS'S WORK
Thomas Wilson Mitchell is a property law scholar reforming longstanding legal doctrines that deprive Black and other disadvantaged American families of their property and real estate wealth. Heirs’ property, a subset of tenancy-in-common property, tends to be created in the absence of a will or estate plan and results in “undivided ownership,” which means each of the legally defined heirs own a fractional interest in the property (rather than a specific piece or portion of the property). After several generations, ownership of land and other property, including single-family homes, may be fragmented among many heirs, any one of whom can sell their fractional ownership or seek to force a sale of the land, with or without the agreement of all owners.

Property transfer via state intestacy laws, rather than under the terms of a will or estate plan, has long been prevalent among Black Americans due to lack of access to affordable legal services and distrust of the legal system. By some estimates, more than 75 percent of Black Americans (compared to only 35 percent of White Americans) die without a will, and heirs’ property in Southern states—where many Black families can trace pre-Civil War ancestral ties—has been valued by some scholars at an estimated $28 billion. In a series of articles examining Black landownership and land loss in America over the past two centuries, Mitchell documented various facets and consequences of involuntary land loss that occur when outside third parties purchase a fractional interest in the property and then force a sale of the land with court intervention. A court-ordered sale usually results in a hasty public auction and sale of the property for a price well below market value. In addition, unclear title prevents heirs from using ancestral property as collateral and from participating in local, state, and federal land, housing, and environmental programs, such as federal assistance to rebuild homes destroyed by a natural disaster. Working collaboratively with community stakeholders, expert attorneys, and academics, Mitchell served as the principal drafter of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA) of 2010. The UPHPA’s three principal reforms—a co-owner buyout provision, guidance for courts to apply both economic and non-economic considerations in their deliberations about how to resolve a partition action, and an innovative sales procedure designed to produce prices approximating a property’s fair market value—will enable more families to avoid involuntary and predatory disposition of their real estate.

The UPHPA has been enacted into law in many states, including several in the past two years due to provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill. Through his continuing advocacy to enact the UPHPA into law in several additional states and his other state and national law reform and policy work, Mitchell is remedying a major factor in the racial wealth gap and creating mechanisms for many more disadvantaged property owners and communities throughout the country to secure their land and preserve their wealth.

BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Wilson Mitchell received a BA (1987) from Amherst College, a JD (1993) from Howard University School of Law, and an LLM (1999) from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he served as a William H. Hastie Fellow. From 2000 to 2016, Mitchell served as a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. He joined the faculty of Texas A&M University in 2016, where he is currently a professor in the School of Law and co-director of the Program in Real Estate and Community Development Law. Mitchell’s articles have appeared in journals such as Northwestern University Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Wisconsin Law Review, Florida State University Law Review, and in American Bar Association and USDA publications, among others. He has also served as an editor and contributor to the first volume of The New Legal Realism: Translating Law-and-Society for Today’s Legal Practice (2016).

IN THOMAS'S WORDS
ThomasWilsonMitchell:“Asalawyer,IrealizedthatcertainpropertylawsneededtobechangedandbetterpoliciesneededtobedevelopedtogiveurbanandruralAfricanAmericans,andothervulnerablepeople,strongerpropertyrightsthatcouldenablethemtobuildwealthandpreserveimportantaspectsoftheirhistoryandculture.”
  

Individuals with stable property rights are better able to participate in meaningful ways in our society. Growing up in San Francisco, I witnessed with much sadness the dramatic displacement of African American residents and businesses that occurred in part because the people affected lacked secure property rights. As a lawyer, I realized that certain property laws needed to be changed and better policies needed to be developed to give urban and rural African Americans, and other vulnerable people, stronger property rights that could enable them to build wealth and preserve important aspects of their history and culture. Because the age-old property laws I have helped change in states in every region of the country were widely considered impossible to reform, I hope my work inspires others to engage in law and policy work to address injustices, no matter how resistant to change these injustices may appear to be.



托马斯-威尔逊-米切尔
财产法学者 | 2020级
改革法律和制定政策解决方案，解决美国黑人和其他弱势家庭被剥夺土地、房屋和房地产财富的机制。


托马斯-威尔逊-米切尔的画像

标题
财产法学者
所属机构
德克萨斯A&M大学法学院
工作地点
沃思堡，德克萨斯州
年龄
获奖时55岁
重点领域
法律研究
网站
德克萨斯A&M大学。托马斯-米切尔
社会
推特
LinkedIn
发表于2020年10月6日
关于托马斯的工作
托马斯-威尔逊-米切尔是一位财产法学者，他正在改革长期以来剥夺黑人和其他弱势美国家庭的财产和房地产财富的法律理论。继承人财产是共有财产的一个分支，往往是在没有遗嘱或遗产计划的情况下产生的，并导致 "不可分割的所有权"，这意味着每个法律规定的继承人都拥有财产的部分利益（而不是财产的具体部分）。几代人之后，土地和其他财产的所有权，包括单户住宅，可能被分割给许多继承人，其中任何一个人都可以出售他们的零星所有权，或寻求强制出售土地，无论是否得到所有业主的同意。

由于缺乏负担得起的法律服务和对法律制度的不信任，通过州无遗嘱法，而不是根据遗嘱或遗产计划的条款进行财产转移，长期以来在美国黑人中很普遍。根据一些估计，超过75%的美国黑人（相比之下，只有35%的美国白人）在死亡时没有留下遗嘱，而继承人在南方各州的财产--许多黑人家庭可以追溯到内战前的祖先关系--被一些学者估价为280亿美元。在一系列研究过去两个世纪美国黑人土地所有权和土地损失的文章中，米切尔记录了非自愿土地损失的各个方面和后果，这些损失发生在外部第三方购买财产的部分权益，然后在法院干预下强制出售土地。法院命令的出售通常会导致匆忙的公开拍卖，并以远低于市场价值的价格出售该财产。此外，不明确的所有权使继承人无法使用祖传财产作为抵押品，也无法参与地方、州和联邦的土地、住房和环境计划，如联邦援助重建被自然灾害摧毁的房屋。米切尔与社区利益相关者、专家律师和学者合作，担任2010年《继承人财产统一分割法》（UPHPA）的主要起草人。UPHPA的三项主要改革--共同所有人买断条款、指导法院在审议如何解决分割诉讼时应用经济和非经济因素，以及旨在产生接近财产公平市场价值的创新销售程序--将使更多家庭避免非自愿和掠夺性地处置其房地产。

UPHPA已在许多州颁布为法律，包括在过去两年中由于2018年农业法案的规定而颁布的一些法律。通过他继续倡导在其他几个州颁布UPHPA成为法律，以及他的其他州和国家法律改革和政策工作，米切尔正在补救种族财富差距的一个主要因素，并为全国各地更多的弱势财产所有者和社区创造机制，以确保他们的土地和保存他们的财富。

个人简历
托马斯-威尔逊-米切尔从阿默斯特学院获得学士学位（1987年），从霍华德大学法学院获得法学博士学位（1993年），从威斯康星大学法学院获得法学硕士学位（1999年），在那里他曾是威廉-哈斯蒂研究员。从2000年到2016年，米切尔在威斯康星大学法学院担任教授。他于2016年加入德克萨斯A&M大学的教师队伍，目前是法学院的教授和房地产和社区发展法项目的联合主任。米切尔的文章曾出现在《西北大学法律评论》、《阿拉巴马法律评论》、《威斯康星法律评论》、《佛罗里达州立大学法律评论》等杂志上，以及美国律师协会和美国农业部的出版物上，等等。他还担任了《新法律现实主义》第一卷的编辑和撰稿人。将法律与社会转化为今天的法律实践（2016年）。

托马斯的话
托马斯-威尔逊-米切尔："作为一名律师，我意识到某些财产法需要改变，需要制定更好的政策，以使城市和农村的非洲裔美国人以及其他弱势人群拥有更强的财产权，使他们能够创造财富并保留他们历史和文化的重要方面。"
  

拥有稳定产权的个人能够更好地以有意义的方式参与我们的社会。在旧金山长大的我，非常悲伤地目睹了非裔美国人居民和企业的急剧迁移，部分原因是受影响的人缺乏安全的产权。作为一名律师，我意识到，某些财产法需要改变，需要制定更好的政策，给予城市和农村的非裔美国人以及其他弱势人群更强大的财产权，使他们能够创造财富并保护其历史和文化的重要方面。由于我在全国各州帮助改变的古老的财产法被广泛认为是不可能改革的，我希望我的工作能激励其他人参与法律和政策工作，以解决不公正问题，无论这些不公正现象看起来有多大的阻力。