Law Commons^™

Who’S Going To Sue? A Look At Environmental Citizen Suits, Virginia C. Thomas

Library Scholarly Publications

The author reviews the history of citizen-plaintiff suit provisions embedded in federal and state environmental legislation.

Accumulating Risk: Environmental Justice And The History Of Capitalism In Detroit, 1880-2015, Josiah John Rector

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation is an environmental history of Detroit, Michigan from the 19th century to the present. Recent scholarship on the history of capitalism has largely ignored the problem of environmental inequality, and the negative externalities of economic growth. In contrast, studies of the environmental justice movement have richly documented race, class, and gender inequalities in environmental risk exposure. However, they have neglected the relationship between the development of the environmental justice movement and the restructuring of American capitalism since the 1970s, including deindustrialization and the shift to neoliberalism. Bringing these fields together, this dissertation connects Detroit’s long-term economic transformation to …

What Is A Pond? Michigan Court Of Appeals Interprets “Waters Of The State” Under Michigan Law, Nick Schroeck, Justin Serk

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Researching Environmental Justice: A Conversation, Virginia C. Thomas, William W. Lefevre

Library Scholarly Publications

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” The concerns that arise in this complex environmental context extend beyond the scope of traditional legal research resources to include historical, social, scientific, and governmental documents that reside in unique archival collections.

Through the conversation that follows, senior archivist William LeFevre of the Walter P. Reuther Library shares his experience and insights on how archival resources can provide essential support …

Law And Governance Of The Great Lakes, Noah D. Hall, Benjamin C. Houston

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Hydraulic Fracturing And Water Management In The Great Lakes, Nicholas Schroeck, Stephanie Karisny

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Asian Carp, Chicago Canal Litigation, And The Great Lakes And Mississippi River Inter‐Basin Study, Katherine Storch, Nick Schroeck

Law Faculty Research Publications

Over the past century the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins have been devastated economically and ecologically by the establishment of aquatic invasive species. In the Mississippi River basin, the most extensive damage has been attributed to the presence of large populations of Asian carp. These invasive species have developed large, self‐sustaining populations because of their ability to outcompete native fish for food and habitat, which in turn impacts the balance of the ecosystem. The term “Asian carp” collectively refers to multiple species, but for our purposes Big Head and Silver carps are of the greatest immediate concern because they …

Offshore Wind Energy Development In Michigan’S Great Lakes: Current Law And Proposed Legislation, Katherine Brady-Medley, Nick Schroeck

Law Faculty Research Publications

Michigan has over 38,000 square miles of state owned Great Lakes bottomlands. However, due to current limits with wind turbine technology, wind farms are restricted to areas on the Great Lakes where the water is less than 30 meters deep. For wind energy to be practicable, wind farms must be close to existing transmission facilities, so that energy generated from the turbines can be distributed to consumers. Construction of a wind energy facility requires heavy machinery and a wind farm site needs a transmission station nearby and underground lines for transmission of power.

For terrestrial wind farms, a developer typically …

Protecting Freshwater Resources In The Era Of Global Water Markets: Lessons Learned From Bottled Water, Noah D. Hall

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

The Centennial Of The Boundary Waters Treaty: A Century Of United States-Canadian Transboundary Water Management, Noah D. Hall

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Climate Change And Great Lakes Waters Resources: Avoiding Future Conflicts With Conservation, Noah D. Hall, Bret B. Stuntz

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Political Externalities, Federalism, And A Proposal For An Interstate Environmental Impact Assessment Policy, Noah D. Hall

Law Faculty Research Publications

Interstate environmental harms, which occur when decisions or actions in one state produce negative environmental impacts in another state, have challenged environmental law and American federalism for over a century. While even the strongest advocates of state primacy in environmental policy concede that interstate environmental harms necessitate federal governance, federal adjudication and regulation have had only modest success in addressing the problem. This is due, in part, to a failure to fully understand the causes of interstate environmental harms. This article provides a newframeworkfor understanding interstate environmental harms as political externalities caused by a combination of inadequate information, public process …

The Evolving Role Of Citizens In United States-Canadian International Environmental Law Compliance, Noah D. Hall

Law Faculty Research Publications

Citizen participation is critical in environmental law compliance. While citizens often have a major role in advancing compliance with domestic environmental law, citizens have historically had a much more limited role in international environmental law. However, a new model is emerging in North America. The role of citizens in United States-Canadian international environmental law compliance has expanded greatly over the past several decades. Beginning in the 1970s with increased public participation in binational governance agreements and expanding in the past two decades to formal roles in monitoring implementation of international environmental agreements, citizen participation is now central to the United …

Transboundary Pollution: Harmonizing International And Domestic Law, Noah D. Hall

Law Faculty Research Publications

Addressing transnational pollution requires both international and domestic law. Transnational pollution is an international problem that demands and deserves the attention of international legal mechanisms such as treaties, agreements, arbitration, and international management and governance. At the same time, transnational pollution problems can often be addressed more effectively and efficiently through the domestic legal system. An ideal approach is to harmonize transnational pollution management and dispute resolution under international and domestic law. This Article seeks to provide pragmatic, feasible, and politically realistic solutions to transnational pollution by harmonizing international and domestic law. However, given the diversity in geography, domestic legal …

Toward A New Horizontal Federalism: Interstate Water Management In The Great Lakes Region, Noah D. Hall

Law Faculty Research Publications

This article presents a new model for environmental policy, called cooperative horizontal federalism. The cooperative horizontal federalism approach utilizes a constitutional mechanism for states to bind themselves to common substantive and procedural environmental protection standards, implemented individually with regional resources and enforcement. Here, the concept of the cooperative horizontal federalism model is illustrated through the recently proposed Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. Under this proposed compact, the eight Great Lakes states would cooperatively manage the world's largest freshwater resource under common minimum standards, which are then incorporated into state law and implemented individually. This cooperative horizontal federalism …

Purpa And The Evolving Regulation Of Cogeneration--A Guide For Prospective Cogenerators Focusing On The Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Facility, John E. Mogk, Frederick J. Lepley Jr.

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.