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Full-Text Articles in Law

Whose Standards Control? Maine V. Mccanhy And The Federal, State, And Tribal Battle Over Water Quality Regulation, Joseph Paul Mortelliti Apr 2017

Whose Standards Control? Maine V. Mccanhy And The Federal, State, And Tribal Battle Over Water Quality Regulation, Joseph Paul Mortelliti

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

This Note considers the longstanding clash between the United States government and state governments over the management of intrastate waters through the lens of Maine v. McCarthy, an ongoing federal lawsuit. McCarthy confronts whether the United States Environmental Protection Agency can require state water quality standards to specifically safeguard the health and cultural practices of Maine’s Indian tribes, particularly sustenance fishing. A panoply of legal and political factors gave rise to and shaped the course of the litigation, ranging from tribal sovereignty to agency discretion and political gamesmanship. After evaluating the litigants’ arguments and examining previous regulatory collisions between …


We Need Protection From Our Protectors: The Nature, Issues, And Future Of The Federal Trust Responsibility To Indians, Daniel I.S.J. Rey-Bear, Matthew L.M. Fletcher Apr 2017

We Need Protection From Our Protectors: The Nature, Issues, And Future Of The Federal Trust Responsibility To Indians, Daniel I.S.J. Rey-Bear, Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The federal trust responsibility to Indians essentially entails duties of good faith, loyalty, and protection. While often thought of as unique to federal Indian policy, it developed from and reflects common law principles of contracts, property, trusts, foreign relations/international law, and constitutional law. However, several issues preclude a greater understanding and implementation of the federal trust responsibility. These include Executive Branch efforts to avoid liability, neocolonial judicial activism, and episodic congressional attention. Enactment of legislation to reaffirm and modernize the federal trust responsibility through greater self-determination, integration, elevation, oversight, and funding should help overcome these issues to improve federal Indian …


Returning To The Tribal Environmental "Laboratory": An Examination Of Environmental Enforcement Techniques In Indian Country, Elizabeth Ann Kronk Warner Apr 2017

Returning To The Tribal Environmental "Laboratory": An Examination Of Environmental Enforcement Techniques In Indian Country, Elizabeth Ann Kronk Warner

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Governments, including tribes, need to protect one of humankind’s most valuable resources: the environment. In addition to environmental regulations, effective enforcement mechanisms are key to successful efforts to protect the environment. While much has been written about the environmental enforcement mechanisms of states and the federal government, little scholarly attention has been paid to how tribal governments are working to protect their environments. Given that there are 567 federally recognized tribes and approximately 56.2 million acres held in trust for tribes in the United States, such oversight is significant. This Article fills a scholarly void with a description of environmental …


San Manuel'S Second Exception: Identifying Treaty Provisions That Support Tribal Labor Sovereignty, Briana Green Apr 2017

San Manuel'S Second Exception: Identifying Treaty Provisions That Support Tribal Labor Sovereignty, Briana Green

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Inspired by the holding in WinStar World Casino, this Note considers the potential for tribes to make treaty-based arguments when facing the threat of National Labor Relations Board jurisdiction. This Note presents the results of a survey of U.S. government treaties with Native Americans to identify those treaties with language similar to that interpreted by the Board in WinStar World Casino. The survey identified four treaties and four tribes that could make treaty-based arguments like those made in Winstar World Casino: the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the Seminole Nation of …


Exploring Alternatives To The "Consultation Or Consent" Paradigm, Jason Searle Apr 2017

Exploring Alternatives To The "Consultation Or Consent" Paradigm, Jason Searle

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The Dakota Access Pipeline brought the question of what adequate tribal consultation requires to the forefront. Some would argue that consultation is a weak standard and that only adopting a new standard of free, prior, and informed consent can guarantee tribes greater control and respect. However, the “consultation or consent” paradigm does not take into account important sources of law that do not fit under “consultation” or “consent” and yet could be valuable in strengthening tribes’ claims in the absence of a consent standard.