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Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Law
Look To Windward: The Michigan Environmental Protection Act And The Case For Atmospheric Trust Litigation In The Mitten State, Jonathan M. Coumes
Look To Windward: The Michigan Environmental Protection Act And The Case For Atmospheric Trust Litigation In The Mitten State, Jonathan M. Coumes
Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
Failure to address climate change or even slow the growth of carbon emissions has led to innovation in the methods activists are using to push decisionmakers away from disaster. In the United States, climate activists frustrated by decades of legislative and executive inaction have turned to the courts to force the hand of the state. In their most recent iteration, climate cases have focused on the public trust doctrine, the notion that governments hold their jurisdictions’ natural resources in trust for the public. Plaintiffs have argued that the atmosphere is part of the public trust and that governments have a …
The Legacy Of Professor Joe Sax, Fred Krupp
The Legacy Of Professor Joe Sax, Fred Krupp
Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
I grew up as the environmental movement did, in the 1960s and 1970s. In college at Yale, engineering professor Charlie Walker became my mentor and taught me that there are practical solutions for almost all environmental problems. This hopeful point of view inspired me to devote myself to the subject, first as an academic pursuit. As I neared graduation and was trying to decide on a path, Professor Walker handed me a book: Defending the Environment by Joseph Sax.1 That book was visionary in its description of private citizens’ ability to protect and defend the environment through the legal system. …
Joseph Sax, A Human Kaleidoscope, Zygmunt Plater
Joseph Sax, A Human Kaleidoscope, Zygmunt Plater
Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
Probably more than any other person most of us will ever have the opportunity of knowing, Joe Sax was kaleidoscopic in the way he projected his mind and lived his life as a scholar, teacher, and citizen seer. Shifting his analytical gaze from challenging context to challenging context, he repeatedly threw rich new patterns of perceptive light, thoughts broad and deep, onto a remarkable range of puzzles. Joe’s ability to think broadly and deeply influenced and reshaped the way that his students, friends, colleagues, and readers understood the intricacies, beauty, and challenges of the world around them. Others in this …
Environmental Law, Rachael Anderson-Watts, Naeha Dixit, Christopher J. Dunsky
Environmental Law, Rachael Anderson-Watts, Naeha Dixit, Christopher J. Dunsky
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The decisions of the Michigan Supreme Court and the Michigan Court of Appeals during the Survey period, May 23, 2007 to July 30, 2008, did not dramatically change the course of environmental law in Michigan, nor did they contain any major surprises. The state Supreme Court's decision in Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation v. Nestl Waters North America, Inc. is the most significant decision in the Survey period because it held that plaintiffs in Michigan Environmental Protection Act (MEPA) cases must now satisfy federal standing requirements. Although the Nestl9 decision may make it more difficult for ordinary citizens to use …
Thresholds Of Harm In Environmental Litigation: The Michigan Environmental Protection Act As Model Of A Minimal Requirement, Robert H. Abrams
Thresholds Of Harm In Environmental Litigation: The Michigan Environmental Protection Act As Model Of A Minimal Requirement, Robert H. Abrams
Journal Publications
The Michigan Environmental Protection Act of 1970 (MEPA)I creates a broad private cause of action by which citizens and other entitiescan prevent environmental degradation. As with all statutes, the scope of MEPA's coverage is a critical issue in determining its effectiveness. The central argument of this article is that MEPA, in contrast to other environmental legislation, is intended to govern an extraordinarily wide variety of cases unfettered by a substantial threshold of harm requirement.
Michigan Environmental Protection Act Of 1970, Susan Pearce
Michigan Environmental Protection Act Of 1970, Susan Pearce
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Widespread public preoccupation with environmental quality is a recent development, and one that has provided the impetus for a thorough examination of existing governmental structures in order to establish a functional system for the environment's protection and improvement. Commenting on this development, a leading environmental lawyer recently noted: "[T]he explosion of concern for the environment, at every private and governmental level, is the great political phenomenon of the last twelve months." As concern has grown about the quality of the environment, so too has skepticism increased about the ability of present institutions to cope with the problem. A constitutional amendment …
Michigan Environmental Protection Act, Roger L. Conner
Michigan Environmental Protection Act, Roger L. Conner
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Each of the questions discussed in this note revolve around the same basic issue: the propriety of vesting broad power in the courts to prevent environmental destruction, and to develop an environmental common law. The need for the broad standard of the Act derives from the complexity of the problem. The clear authority of the courts to decide cases which have been, or should have been dealt with by an administrative agency is important both for the relationship it establishes between citizens and agencies, and to insure that the policies of the Act will be implemented. In responding to these …