Digital Commons Network^™

Muddying The Waters: The Need For More Clarity Under The Clean Water Act, Georgia D. Reid

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

One Man’S Trash: Constitutional Principles Of Federalism And Privacy Implicated In San Francisco’S Mandatory Recycling Ordinance And Future Similar Legislation, J. Tyler Smith

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice, Settler Colonialism, And More-Than-Humans In The Occupied West Bank: An Introduction, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

Our special issue provides a first-of-its kind attempt to examine environmental injustices in the occupied West Bank through interdisciplinary perspectives, pointing to the broader settler colonial and neoliberal contexts within which they occur and to their more-than-human implications. Specifically, we seek to understand what environmental justice—a movement originating from, and rooted in, the United States—means in the context of Palestine/Israel. Moving beyond the settler-native dialectic, we draw attention to the more-than-human flows that occur in the region—which include water, air, waste, cement, trees, donkeys, watermelons, and insects—to consider the dynamic, and often gradational, meanings of frontier, enclosure, and Indigeneity in …

Unforeseen Land Uses: The Effect Of Marijuana Legalization On Land Conservation Programs, Jessica Owley

Journal Articles

This Article explores the tension between land conservation and marijuana cultivation in the context of legalization. The legalization of marijuana has the potential to shift the locations of marijuana cultivation. Where cultivation need no longer be surreptitious and clandestine, growers may begin to explore sanctioned growing sites and methods. Thus, the shift to legalization may be accompanied by environmental and land-use implications. Investigating commercial-scale marijuana cultivation, this Article details how, in some ways, legalization can reduce environmental impacts of marijuana cultivation while also examining tricky issues regarding tensions between protected lands and marijuana cultivation. If we treat cultivation of marijuana …

Dethroning State Security: Introducing A Human Security Perspective To Absorb The Dangers Of Climate Change To The Self-Determination Of Island State Inhabitants, Anemoone Soete

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

One unmistakable and indisputable consequence of Climate Change is found in the realm of oceans. Sea-levels are currently rising at a pace unknown to mankind and as a consequence island states are destined to lose habitable land territory. Whereas some may lose parts, others will lose all of it in the current business as usual scenario. This reality first begs the question as to whether an island state will continue to be a state once bereft of a territorial basis. Secondly, it must be considered how islanders might retain legal personality should this is no longer be possible through the …

To Kill A Migratory Bird: How Incidental Takes By Commercial Industry Activity Should Be Regulated By A New Civil Penalty Regime, Not The Current Mbta, Brittany E. Barbee

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

Migratory birds are at odds with commercial industries in the United States. Industries are occasionally and accidentally killing migratory birds through their legal activity. Such actions against migratory birds are known as incidental takes. While the century-old Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) prohibits the taking of migratory birds, it is unclear as to whether it prohibits these modern-day incidental takes. The MBTA imposes criminal strict liability on those who violate its prohibitions, regardless of one's mental state at the time of the incident. Should the federal government hold commercial industries criminally liable for incidentally taking migratory birds through otherwise legal …

Do Good To Get Barred: The New Empire State Pro Bono Requirement’S Potential Impact On Environmental Law Practitioners, Kim Diana Connolly

Other Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Environments, Externalities And Ethics: Compulsory Multinational And Transnational Corporate Bonding To Promote Accountability For Externalization Of Environmental Harm, Matthew A. Susson

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

Developing nations often look to their bounty of natural resources or willing labor as a means of attracting international investors. While national and local governments frequently perceive the arrival of a multinational corporate presence as a boon to their economy, the potential for government instability ineffectiveness or corruption may facilitate environmentally exploitive corporate practices. Furthermore, residents of the subject nation may be left without proper legal recourse. Legislators have made various efforts in both the United States and abroad to propound Corporate Codes of Conduct to address such concerns, but despite laudable intentions, features of the increasingly global economy "accentuate …

Tribes As Conservation Easement Holders: Is A Partial Property Interest Better Than None?, Jessica Owley

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 8 in Tribes, Land, and the Environment, Sarah Krakoff & Ezra Rosser.

Leviathan Menacing The Gulf Coast: Catastrophic Consequences May Imperil The Rule Of Law, Beau James Brock

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Responsibility For Environmental Damage Under International Law: Can Mncs Bear The Burden? ... And How?, Miriam Mafessanti

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Navigating Tricky Ethical Shoals In Environmental Law: Parameters Of Counseling And Managing Clients, Kim Diana Connolly

Journal Articles

This article explores some of the ethical situations that environmental and natural resource lawyers can encounter when counseling clients. It begins by exploring the Model Rule of Professional Conduct (MRPC) 2.1, regarding counsel’s role as “advisor,” which provides that appropriate client counseling refers not only to law, but also to moral, economic, social, and political factors, when making decisions. It also explores the environmental lawyer’s ability to withdraw from representation pursuant to MRPC 1.16. It places the obligations and options under these rules and other mandates in the environmental and natural resource context, and encourages attorneys practicing in the area …

Meas With Trade Measures And The Wto: Aiming Toward Sustainable Development?, Miguel A. Elizalde Carranza

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Governing Certain Things: The Regulation Of Street Trees In Four North American Cities, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

Most sociolegal studies of the urban street focus on the human element. By focusing on the tree, my Article offers a unique perspective on the interrelations between various actors within the public spaces of modern North American cities. Situated at the intersection of legal geography, anthropology, and Science and Technology Studies, this Article demonstrates how natural artifacts function as technologies of governance, thereby masking crucial political interventions behind a natural facade. The tensions between nature and the city, as embedded in both the construction and the regulation of street trees, provide an unusual perspective on the management of urban populations …

Can Happy Subjects Have An Enlightened Despot? Customer Satisfaction Among Army Corps Permit Applicants, Kim Diana Connolly

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Survey Says: Army Corps No Scalian Despot, Kim Diana Connolly

Journal Articles

Justice Antonin Scalia and others have described the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ('the Corps') administration of the permitting process as burdensome and inefficient. Empirical data gathered from the Corps, however, do not bear out this assessment. In this Article, Kim Diana Connolly evaluates data collected from Corps Customer Service Surveys as well as the apparent disconnect between applicant experiences and the public's negative perception of the permitting process. She begins the Article with an overview of the Corps' regulatory permitting process, then lays out the history of and context for the Corps' Customer Service Surveys. Next, she summarizes available …

Can Happy Subjects Have An Enlightened Despot? Customer Satisfaction Among Army Corps Permit Applicants, Kim Diana Connolly

Other Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Animal Salvage: Cost-Effective Methods For The Preservation Of Marine Life, Jason Parent

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Not In Anybody's Backyard? The Non-Distributive Problem With Environmental Justice, Joshua Glasgow

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Ecology Of Breastfeeding, Kim Diana Connolly

Journal Articles

This essay reflects on the ecological advantages of breastfeeding, and argues that that laws promoting and supporting breastfeeding should be included among laws labeled as “environmental.”

Attacking Military Environmental Cleanup On Foreign Soil: Should Cercla Principles Apply?, Randon H. Draper

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The International Jurisprudence And Politics Of Hazardous Substances: Managing A Global Dilemma, Joseph F. St. Cyr

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Keeping Wetlands Wet: Are Existing Protections Enough?, Kim Diana Connolly

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Forest Certification As A Global Civil Society Regulatory Institution, Errol E. Meidinger

Contributions to Books

Published in Social and Political Dimensions of Forest Certification, Errol Meidinger, Christopher Elliott & Gerhard Oesten, eds.

The New Environmental Law: Forest Certification, Errol E. Meidinger

Journal Articles

This paper argues that the rapidly expanding practice of forest certification, together with similar developments in other sectors, is creating a new template for environmental law. Nongovernmental organizations and some industry actors are establishing binding regulatory standards, systems for monitoring compliance, sanctions for non-compliance, and, when things work well, methods for assessment and revision. It locates these developments as a part of “phase 3” of environmental law, which also involves a proliferation of other initiatives beyond traditional regulation. Finally, it offers a preliminary discussion of the efficacy, adaptability, coherence, and legitimacy of the emergent system.

Environmental Certification Systems And U.S. Environmental Law: Closer Than You May Think, Errol E. Meidinger

Journal Articles

Many industrial organizations are committing to achieve improved environmental performance through non-governmentally instituted environmental certification programs. Such programs typically define the environmental standards that firms must meet as well as the organizational mechanisms required to achieve and "certify" compliance. Well known examples include the chemical industry's "Responsible Care" program, the International Organization for Standardization's "ISO 14000" environmental management program, and the Forest Stewardship Council's well-managed forests program.

Because of their ostensibly private and voluntary nature, environmental certification programs are often presumed to be separate and distinct from law. In fact, however, they are deeply intertwined with law, and seem likely …

Cercla Retroactive Liability In The Aftermath Of Eastern Enterprises V. Apfel, Karen S. Danahy

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Linking Human Rights, Rights Of Indigenous People And The Environment, Sevine Ercmann

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Concepts Of Community In Environmental Disputes: Farmersville And Western New York's Garbage Wars, Gary Abraham

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fanning The Flames Of Nimby: A Book Review Of The Promise And Peril Of Environmental Justice, Gary A. Abraham

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.