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just compensation

Just compensation is the payment the government must provide under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause when it takes private property for public use through eminent domain . The amount is generally the property’s fair market value , determined by what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller . The purpose of just compensation is to place the property owner in as good a financial position as if the property had not been taken.

[Last reviewed in September of 2025 by the Wex Definitions Team
] 

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