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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Commons, Capitalism, And The Constitution, George Skouras
The Commons, Capitalism, And The Constitution, George Skouras
George Skouras
Thesis Summary: the erosion of the Commons in the United States has contributed to the deterioration of community and uprooting of people in order to meet the dynamic demands of capitalism. This article suggests countervailing measures to help remedy the situation.
How Environmental Review Can Generate Pollution: A Case Study, Michael Lewyn
How Environmental Review Can Generate Pollution: A Case Study, Michael Lewyn
Michael E Lewyn
State environmental review statutes often require state and local governments to draft an environmental impact statement for any project or permit that might have a substantial environmental impact. One such statute, New York's State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) defines “environmental impact” broadly to include not only traditionally environmental impacts such as pollution, but also social impacts such as increased neighborhood population. As a result, any large-scale development is likely to require environmental review under SEQRA.
In my article, I argue that such stringency harms air quality by discouraging infill development (that is, development in already-urbanized areas). Such development is …
State Fertilizer Bills: The Greenest Way To A More Natural Landscape?, Catherine M. Janasie
State Fertilizer Bills: The Greenest Way To A More Natural Landscape?, Catherine M. Janasie
Catherine M Janasie
Abstract: State Fertilizer Bills: The Greenest Way to a More Natural Landscape?
By: Catherine Janasie, J.D., LL.M.
Ocean and Coastal Law Fellow
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program at The University of Mississippi School of Law
Because the Federal Clean Water Act focuses mostly on point source pollution, states consider nonpoint source pollution to be the leading cause of water pollution in their waterways. Until recently, many thought that the regulation of fertilizer use by individual homeowners would invade too much on personal choice, which would make a fertilizer statute too unpopular for state legislators to pass. However, in an attempt …
The Birth, Death, And Afterlife Of The Wild Lands Policy: The Evolution Of The Bureau Of Land Management’S Authority To Protect Wilderness Values, Olivia Brumfield
The Birth, Death, And Afterlife Of The Wild Lands Policy: The Evolution Of The Bureau Of Land Management’S Authority To Protect Wilderness Values, Olivia Brumfield
Michael Blumm
Since the enactment of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) in 1976, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has had a troubled relationship with wild lands, the nation’s last remaining places with wilderness characteristics. Although for twenty-five years BLM recognized wilderness values as a resource it must balance and could protect consistent with the agency’s multiple use mandate, in 2003 BLM largely disclaimed that interpretation, potentially imperiling future protection of wild lands that were not designated as wilderness or wilderness study areas. Since then, the agency has made incremental – but potentially powerful – steps toward reclaiming a …
How Comprehensive Planning Makes Suburbia More Sprawling, Michael Lewyn
How Comprehensive Planning Makes Suburbia More Sprawling, Michael Lewyn
Michael E Lewyn
Many commentators associate comprehensive land use planning with smart growth- but in fact, municipal plans can be used to further sprawl as well as smart growth.
Something Rich And Strange: Progressive Land Use Regulation And The Takings Doctrine, Philip C. Dales
Something Rich And Strange: Progressive Land Use Regulation And The Takings Doctrine, Philip C. Dales
Philip C. Dales
ABSTRACT:
Something Rich and Strange: Progressive Zoning and the Takings Doctrine.
Philip Carter Dales
May, 2013
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
The list of municipalities adopting form-based codes continues to grow, with one study putting the number at over 250, including Miami, Denver, Cincinnati and other major cities around the United States. These codes represent land use regulation that is fundamentally different from traditional Euclidean zoning. Rather than prescribing allowable uses, FBCs focus on the governance of form, with the goal of ensuring predictable outcomes for the built environment and simplifying complex use-based zoning ordinances.
In …
Climate Change Adaptation And Coastal Property Rights: A Massachusetts Case Study, Lara D. Guercio
Climate Change Adaptation And Coastal Property Rights: A Massachusetts Case Study, Lara D. Guercio
Lara D. Guercio
This Article examines how existing state laws, including coastal property law and public trust doctrines, are likely to create challenges for the implementation of adaptation strategies proposed to address the effects of climate change—specifically, accelerated sea level rise, increased coastal flooding and storm-related erosion—on coastlines and connected natural resource areas, such as beaches, coastal wetlands, and tidelands. The Article uses Massachusetts, with its highly evolved body of coastal property law and public trust doctrine, as a case study. Mindful of U.S. Supreme Court takings doctrine, the Article analyzes the likely legal challenges to climate change adaptation strategies recently proposed for …
Conserving A Place For Renewable Power, Jacob P. Byl
Conserving A Place For Renewable Power, Jacob P. Byl
Jacob P. Byl
Promoting renewable power and conserving land are often conflicting goals because renewable power requires a lot of land. The conflict is becoming an important issue on lands encumbered by conservation easements. I argue that the current legal rule allowing oil and gas development, but not wind and solar development, on conserved land does not make sense in light of the threats of climate change. The best way to encourage renewable power while respecting the intent of landowners is to have the Internal Revenue Service promulgate rules that explicitly allow renewable power going forward and interpret existing easements with a set …
Regulatory Takings: Survey Of A Constitutional Culture, James Valvo
Regulatory Takings: Survey Of A Constitutional Culture, James Valvo
James Valvo
Fifth Amendment property protections under the Takings Clause have grown increasingly contentious as governing entities have used regulations to limit what property owners can do with their land. This paper profiles regulatory takings jurisprudence from Pennsylvania Coal, to Penn Central, to Nollan and Dolan, and Tahoe-Sierra. The paper also examines conceptual constructs that have shaped the field’s evolution, including: the doctrine’s origin, the nuisance exception, the changed circumstances argument, unconstitutional conditions, temporary takings and the denominator problem.
Plans Are Not Enough, Michael Lewyn
Plans Are Not Enough, Michael Lewyn
Michael E Lewyn
Some commentators see comprehensive municipal plans as a remedy for suburban sprawl. But in fact, a plan can be used to promote sprawl as well as to prevent sprawl.
Seqra And Infill, Michael Lewyn
Seqra And Infill, Michael Lewyn
Michael E Lewyn
New York's State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) is designed to protect the environment by requiring government to consider the harmful environmental impacts of its actions. However, SEQRA itself may create environmental harm by discouraging infill development.
Why (And How) Conservatives Should Support Smart Growth, Michael Lewyn
Why (And How) Conservatives Should Support Smart Growth, Michael Lewyn
Michael E Lewyn
Conservatives have generally been critical of the smart growth movement, because they often fear that smart growth is synonymous with overregulation of land use. This article explains why sprawl threatens conservative values, and suggests conservative-friendly smart growth policies that can both make government less intrusive and make America more walkable.