Ben Davy
Former Chair
Ben Davy is a former Chair of Land Policy, Land Management, and Municipal Geoinformation (TU Dortmund University) and from 2019 to 2025 Visiting Professor of Law (University of Johannesburg). Ben Davy passed away in January 2025 at the age of 68.
Obituary by Stefan Griller, Juristische Blätter 2025
He was President of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law and Property Rights (PLPR) and of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). He was Essay Editor of Planning Theory, co-editor of the Town Planning Review, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the American Planning Association. He was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the American Planning Association and Planning Theory and Practice.
Ben Davy was a co-founder of the AESOP Thematic Group Planning, Law, and Property Rights and a co-founder and co-coordinator of the AESOP Thematic Group Planning Theories (plural).
Davy published on planning theories, property, border studies, and spatial justice. His main scientific contribution is the theory of polyrationality, first presented in the 1997 book Essential Injustice, later refined in the 2008 article Plan it without a condom!
Recent publications
Benjamin Davy (2024) Animal personhood, property, and compensation. Symposium: Animals in constitutional law (International Association of Constitutional Law). Online: https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/2024-posts/2024/2/22/animal-personhood-property-and-compensation
Benjamin Davy (2024) The German Verkehrswert (market value) of land: Statutory land valuation, spatial planning, and land policy. Land Use Policy 136, 106974 (Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106975)
