Track 01 Planning and Law

Track chairs: Thomas Hartmann, Sina Shahab, Maya Moussallieh

Planning operates through laws, regulations, and institutional rules that govern how land is used and developed. These laws and rules shape property rights, housing, development, environmental protection, and the distribution of costs and benefits, influencing both what planning can regulate and how rights and responsibilities are allocated.

The transition from grey to green raises important questions about whether existing planning laws, property regimes, and land policies are equipped to respond to contemporary environmental, social, and economic changes and support more sustainable forms of urban development.

Planning is often criticised for being ‘property blind’, paying insufficient attention to how property rights, ownership structures, and land institutions shape what can be planned and implemented. This track seeks to address this gap by bringing questions of property, law, and land policy more centrally into planning debates.

The track welcomes theoretical, empirical, comparative, and practice-oriented research on various topics such as planning law, property rights, land policy, land governance, development rights, land value capture, policy implementation, and institutional change.

Keywords: Planning law; property rights; land policy; land governance; development rights; legal and institutional change; planning implementation; decarbonisation; climate transition; land value capture