Cornell Professor Gregory Alexander's latest accomplishment is cause for celebration -- and debate -- at the Cornell Law School.

The publication of Alexander's new book, "The Global Debate Over Constitutional Property: Lessons for American Takings Jurisprudence" (University of Chicago Press), will be feted, appropriately, with a symposium Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 4:15 p.m. in the Stein Mancuso Amphitheater (G90) of Myron Taylor Hall. A reception will follow immediately in the law school foyer. The event is free and open to the public.

Alexander, the Robert A. Noll Professor of Law, will join in the discussion along with Hanoch Dagan, dean and professor of law at Tel Aviv University; Laura S. Underkuffler, professor of law, Duke University School of Law; and Eduardo Penalver, Cornell associate professor of law.

In keeping with the subject of Alexander's book, speakers will address various aspects of the international debate over constitutional property.

In his work, Alexander takes on what he calls "one of the most controversial questions confronting constitution makers around the world": Should property be recognized as a constitutional right rather than a legal right over which democratic majorities have greater control?

"An important part of the neoliberal agenda pushed by large international development institutions like the World Bank is to make property a matter of constitutional protection so that property holdings enjoy greater security, particularly in new democracies," Alexander said. "I argue that the actual status of property in any society, how much legal security property holdings have, is less a matter of what the text of the society's written constitution says or doesn't say than it is the society's background legal and political traditions and culture."

The author explains that in some societies -- Canada, for example -- property rights enjoy "considerable legal protection despite the fact that the right of property was deliberately omitted from Canada's 1982 Charter of Rights [and Freedoms]."

But in other societies, Alexander said, "property holdings are insecure despite the existence of constitutional provisions that seemingly guarantee a high degree of security for property rights.

"In some new democracies whose new constitutions include a property rights provision, it is unclear what actual effect the constitutional provision will have because background legal tradition threatens to undermine what the clause was designed to achieve. South Africa is an example. In other words, culture matters at least as much as text. But institutions like the World Bank have completely ignored the role of culture in pursuing their program of legal standardization in emerging democracies."

"The Global Debate Over Constitutional Property" is aimed primarily at a legal audience, but scholars and policy-makers from other fields "who are interested in the interaction between legal systems and economic development" will find it useful as well, Alexander said.