Law Dictionary of Legal Terminology

EMINENT DOMAIN

EMINENT DOMAIN. The right which people or government retain over the estates of individuals, to resume the same for public use.

2. It belongs to the legislature to decide what improvements are of sufficient importance to justify the exercise of the right of eminent domain. See 2 Hill. Ab. 568 1 U. S. Dig. 560; 1 Am. Eq. Dig. 312 3 Toull. n. 30 p. 23; Ersk. hist. B. 2) tit. 1, s. 2; Grotius, h. t. See Dominium.