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Full-Text Articles in Law
Soil Governance And Private Property, Sarah J. Fox
Soil Governance And Private Property, Sarah J. Fox
Utah Law Review
This is an Article about soil. In consequence, it is also an Article about our relationship to land, and about how that relationship can and must change to confront the many environmental crises facing the United States. Questions about our relationship with the physical environment around us necessarily come to the fore in conversations about soil because of its several identities. It is one of Earth’s most precious resources—the substance responsible for allowing plants to grow, filtering pollutants out of water, providing habitat to countless organisms, sequestering carbon, and providing many other valuable functions. Soil also, however, makes up the …
Emerging Best Practices In International Atmospheric Trust Case Law, Rachel M. Pemberton, Michael Blumm
Emerging Best Practices In International Atmospheric Trust Case Law, Rachel M. Pemberton, Michael Blumm
Utah Law Review
With climate change litigation proliferating throughout the world, a substantial body of case law is emerging. As part of a project of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law's Climate Change Specialist Group, this Article, a version of which will be included in a “Judicial Handbook on Climate Litigation,” explains the public trust doctrine’s influence on climate change litigation internationally. We select what we view as judicial “best practices” as a kind of restatement of international atmospheric trust law in 2022. International atmospheric trust law is at the forefront of many best practices, as state and federal courts in the …
Constitutional Authority, Common Resources, And The Climate, Anthony Moffa
Constitutional Authority, Common Resources, And The Climate, Anthony Moffa
Utah Law Review
History, text, and precedent reveal an understudied and underutilized source of constitutional authority for environmental protection—the Property Clause of Article IV, Section 3. The Clause vests Congress with the “Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.” This work re-examines these words, the context in which they were written, and the limited judicial decisions interpreting them with an eye towards increased congressional reliance on the Property Clause in the face of daunting threats to our natural environment. Much prior scholarly explanation of the Property Clause focused …
The Incidental Environmental Agency, Tara K. Righetti
The Incidental Environmental Agency, Tara K. Righetti
Utah Law Review
State oil and gas conservation agencies are the gatekeepers to oil and gas development: as the agencies charged with granting drilling permits, they decide if, when, where, and how oil and gas will be developed. As such, oil and gas conservation agencies sit on the front lines in the emerging, and increasingly irresolvable, struggle between fossil energy development and the environment. Current oil and gas conservation regulation is designed to promote development, maximize recovery of the resource, and protect the individual property rights of mineral owners. However, advocacy by environmental constituencies, including surface owners and local governments, has challenged the …
Myths Of Environmental Law, Albert C. Lin
Myths Of Environmental Law, Albert C. Lin
Utah Law Review
Environmental law is pervaded by myths—i.e., assumptions that are inaccurate, misleading, or false. These myths arise in various contexts, ranging from wetlands mitigation schemes and pollution credit trading programs to legal regimes premised on the concept of sustainability. This Article explores several myths of environmental law, their origins, and their roles. While political reasons explain in part the creation and prevalence of these myths, more is at work behind these myths than mere politics or failures to implement the law. The myths of environmental law facilitate the management of ecologically complex systems by providing a reductionist account of them. Beyond …