Law Commons^™

Southern Harm: Analyzing The Criminal Enforcement Of Environmental Law In The Southern United States, 1983-2019, Joshua Ozymy, Melissa L. Jarrell

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

When violations of environmental laws involve significant harm or culpable conduct, the application of criminal enforcement tools is required. Yet, our understanding of how environmental laws have been criminally enforced historically in the Southern United States remains poor. Our goal is to analyze historical charging and sentencing patterns and show the broader themes that emerge in environmental crime prosecutions over time in the region. Through content analysis of all 2,588 criminal prosecutions resulting from U.S. EPA criminal investigations, 1983–2019, we select all 799 prosecutions occurring in the Southern United States. Results show that 44% of prosecutions focus on water pollution, …

Keeping Nutrient Pollution At Bay: An Analysis Of Efforts To Mitigate Non-Point Source Pollution In The Chesapeake Bay, Madison Hinkle

West Virginia Law Review

The Chesapeake Bay is one of the most important estuaries in the United States, adding to the region’s ecological, economic, recreational, historic, and cultural value. In 1982, a study was conducted that determined that a rapid loss of aquatic life in the Bay was due to nutrient pollution, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, the majority of which is associated with the agricultural industry. A number of the jurisdictions2 within the Bay Watershed established the first Chesapeake Bay Agreement in 1983, aimed at abating the issues. Over the next four decades, the Agreement was then modified and resigned, additional jurisdictions have signed …

Interstate Pollution And The Quandary Of Personal Jurisdiction, Cedar H. Hobbs

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Current Supreme Court personal jurisdiction analysis does not clearly support a finding of personal jurisdiction for out of state polluters in an interstate toxic tort. Still, some courts, including the Ninth Circuit, have attempted to find personal jurisdiction in these cases, but in doing so have employed tenuous analysis that can result in inconsistent case law. This Note argues that there is a better analytical framework which reemphasizes the role played by territorial borders in personal jurisdictional analysis. Through employing this framework, courts can find personal jurisdiction in interstate toxic torts while also preserving analytically consistent case law.

"All I Do Is Win": The No-Lose Strategy Of Cafo Regulation Under The Caa, Karl J. Worsham

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Corporate farms, often known as concentrated animial feeding operations ("CAFO'), provide inexpensive animal products but do so by externalizing the cost of their operation in the form of environmental harms and risks to human health. This article explores one possible approach to mitigating CAFO-caused harms. It argues that CAFO regulation under any one of three Clean Air Act ("CAA ") programs will result in net benefits, not just for air quality, but also for other CAFO-caused harms and thus, that CAA regulation of CAFOs is a no-lose strategy. The article then goes further to conclude that, while regulation under any …

Law Library Blog (March 2021): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Too Little, Too Late: Congress's Attempt To Regulate Forever Chemicals Through Military Appropriations, Michael Heard Snow

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, shortened to “PFAS,” are a broad class of approximately 4,000 to 6,000 industrial chemicals characterized by a carbon chain saturated with fluorine molecules. This structure, dominated by carbon-fluorine bonds, is one of the most stable known chemical structures—and it is this stability that lies at the core of both the usefulness and the greatest issues surrounding PFAS. They are generally non-reactive except at tailored “active sites” and they never break down naturally—leading to the nickname “forever chemicals.” The persistence of their structures creates a plethora of desirable characteristics: PFAS are grease-resistant, waterproof, fireproof, stain-proof, and chemically …

Consumer Perceptions Of The Right To Repair, Aaron Perzanowski

Indiana Law Journal

Part I of this Article details the strategies upon which device makers rely to frustrate repair. Part II considers legislative interventions intended to push back on existing barriers to repair, with a particular focus on the set of bills introduced in state legislatures across the United States. Part III describes the results of a survey of more than 800 U.S. consumers, focusing on their expectations of and experiences with the repair of electronic devices. The legal and policy implications of those results are discussed in Part IV.

Keeping Up: Walking With Justice Douglas, Charles A. Reich

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Principles Of International Law And The Adoption Of A Market-Based Mechanism For Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Shipping, Hillary Aidun, Daniel J. Metzger, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Emissions from shipping are a significant driver of human-induced climate change. International action to date has not succeeded in setting those emissions on a sustainable trajectory. The International Maritime Organization has committed to implementing an effective, international approach to tackle international shipping’s contribution to climate change.

This paper considers international law principles, exploring whether and how these principles may provide a basis for the IMO to address those contributions. The polluter pays principle, which counsels that whoever produces pollution should cover the costs their pollution imposes on others, is a doctrine of international law that offers strong support for the …