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Environmental Law

Environmental policy

Seattle University School of Law

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Environmental Protection, The Military, And Preserving The Balance: “Why It Matters, In War And Peace”, Kurt Smith Dec 2020

Environmental Protection, The Military, And Preserving The Balance: “Why It Matters, In War And Peace”, Kurt Smith

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental & Innovation Law

International military operations around the world are major actors on the world stage of global pollution. The United States military remains subject to federal, state, and local environmental laws. However, many exemptions exist to assist the military despite its status as a global polluter. Many environmental policies have incrementally developed over the last one-hundred years largely as a reaction to the most extreme circumstances. Scientific knowledge continues to increase our awareness of the lasting impacts of policy decisions relating to the environment, giving rise to the precautionary principle, that notion that we should do no lasting harm, in our care …


The Human Right To Clean Air: A Case Study Of The Inter-American System, Varun K. Aery Jan 2016

The Human Right To Clean Air: A Case Study Of The Inter-American System, Varun K. Aery

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

Combatting environmental damage has become a primary goal of the international community. Unfortunately, international human rights law has not taken this aim seriously. Although the Inter-American regional human rights system, one of three regional human rights institutions, empathizes with protecting the environment, it enervates such goals by barring victims of air pollution and climate change from access to judicial remedies. Seeking to bridge the gap between human rights law and environmental protection, this article explains why clean air is a human right, develops the positive content for such a right, and evaluates the practical reasons that justify the right’s importance. …


Cultural Rights V. Species Protection: A Case Study Of Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtles, Mohit Khubchandani, Mehul Parti Jan 2016

Cultural Rights V. Species Protection: A Case Study Of Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtles, Mohit Khubchandani, Mehul Parti

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), sometimes called the lute turtle, is the largest of all living turtles. It is the fourth- heaviest modern reptile behind three crocodilians. These species are categorized as critically endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. These turtles avail pro- tection under the Convention on Illicit Trade in Endangered Species (CITES); a treaty enacted to protect wildlife against over-exploita- tion and with an aim to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. The said treaty is applicable to species in general …


Death By Sepa: Substantive Denials Under Washington's State Environmental Policy Act, Roger Pearce Jan 1990

Death By Sepa: Substantive Denials Under Washington's State Environmental Policy Act, Roger Pearce

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment seeks to answer the question raised by West Main II and Cougar Mountain of what procedural processes and substantive policies may be used in SEPA-based denials. After examining the nature of substantive SEPA authority and the relationship between substantive SEPA and Washington's vested rights doctrine, the Comment will discuss West Main II and Cougar Mountain and will argue that the two cases are consistent. It will then provide an informative assessment of the current limits of substantive SEPA authority. The Comment concludes by suggesting the following legislative or judicial changes in SEPA law: earlier vesting of SEPA policies, …