Part I of this article provides a brief background of the United States takings jurisprudence. It examines how the Fifth Amendment protects private property rights and when environmental regulation implicates the payment of just compensation. Part II reviews the methods by which the United States government seeks to protect the environment without infringing on private property rights, focusing on financial incentives and disincentives. Part III compares the many parallels between private property rights and national sovereignty. Part IV explores how lessons derived from the United States experience in balancing private property rights and environmental concerns are relevant to international environmental issues. It focuses on how the United States seeks to influence the environmental policy of other states through financial incentives and disincentives in multilateral and bilateral contexts. Concluding that such conditional assistance is consistent with the domestic principle of just compensation, the article offers a framework for when such assistance is justified.

Part I of this article provides a background on wetland mitigation requirements. It then examines the two prinicipal pressures on wetland regulatory programs: the failure of mitigation and the emergence of the private property rights movement. Part II analyzes the concept of wetland mitigation banking and considers the advantages of this type of system. The article further explains how wetland mitigation banking might alleviate concerns related to mitigation failure and takings. Part III explores specific provisions of current regulatory requirements for mitigation banks under federal and state programs. Part IV identifies reasons why the current programs do not encourage entrepeneurial banks and recommends ways to increase certainty, reduce excessive burdens, and eliminate unnecessary and unfair competition.