North Carolina Law
The authority, the unusual constitutional position, and the rules that decide what you are paid.
Eminent domain is the power of government, and of certain private bodies the legislature has authorised, to take private property for a public use on payment of compensation. Every state has it. North Carolina arrives at it by an unusual route.
The Constitution of North Carolina contains no express clause requiring just compensation for a taking. Article I runs to thirty eight sections and none of them is an eminent domain or takings provision. The protection is drawn instead from Section 19, the Law of the Land Clause, which provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property but by the law of the land.
This is not a technicality. Because the obligation to pay is derived rather than written, the detail of what North Carolina owes an owner sits largely in statute, in Chapter 40A and Chapter 136, and in the decisions of the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
The short answer
North Carolina has no express takings clause. Compensation is required through the Law of the Land Clause and is defined in detail by statute, with a partial taking measure that is unusually favourable to owners.
Section 40A-3 sorts condemnors into three classes, and the Department of Transportation sits under Chapter 136.
Read moreSection 40A-64 gives you the greater of two figures, not simply the value of the strip.
Read moreRecording a corridor map was held to be a taking requiring compensation.
Read moreNorth Carolina applies firm limits at several points.
Read moreArticle I Section 19, the Law of the Land Clause. There is no separate takings clause.
Article 1 general provisions, Article 2 private condemnors, Article 3 public condemnors, Article 4 just compensation, Article 5 return of condemned property, Article 6 conservation easements.
Section 40A-3 divides condemnors into private, local public and other public.
The separate condemnation procedure for the Department of Transportation.
Section 136-103 for the Department: complaint, declaration of taking and deposit.
Section 136-104 on filing for the Department. Section 40A-42 sets out the different Chapter 40A rules.
Section 40A-64 for the general partial taking measure, section 136-112 for Department takings, section 136-113 for interest.
North Carolina stands out for not writing a just compensation requirement into its constitution. The protection comes through the Law of the Land Clause instead, which places more weight on statute and case law than in states with an express clause.
Section 40A-64 does not simply compensate the land taken. For a partial taking it awards the greater of the before and after reduction in the value of the entire tract, or the fair market value of the part taken. Owners who only consider the strip are leaving the more valuable half of the test unused.
In Kirby v. NCDOT, decided on 10 June 2016, the Supreme Court of North Carolina held that recording a transportation corridor map under the Roadway Corridor Official Map Act restricted owners indefinitely and amounted to a taking requiring compensation.
In 2025 the Supreme Court confirmed that a corridor recording effects an indefinite taking at the moment of recording, that later rescission does not convert it into a temporary one, and that damages are measured by the difference in fair market value immediately before and immediately after the recording.
Not in express terms. Article I contains no eminent domain or takings section. The requirement is derived from Section 19, the Law of the Land Clause, and is set out in detail in Chapter 40A and Chapter 136 of the General Statutes.
The Roadway Corridor Official Map Act allowed the Department of Transportation to record maps designating corridors for future road projects. Recording restricted development on the affected land. In Kirby v. NCDOT the Supreme Court of North Carolina held in 2016 that this amounted to a taking requiring compensation.
Section 40A-64 gives the greater of the amount by which the fair market value of the entire tract before the taking exceeds the value of the remainder afterwards, or the fair market value of the property taken.
Where the parties cannot agree, the court determines compensation. In Department of Transportation cases section 136-109 provides for commissioners to be appointed.
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