Law Commons^™

Regulatory Improvement Legislation: Risk Assessment, Cost-Benefit Analysis, And Judicial Review, Fred Anderson, Mary Chirba-Martin, E. Donald Elliott, Cynthia Farina

Cynthia R. Farina

No abstract provided.

Harnessing The Power Of Information To Protect Our Public Natural Resource Legacy, Alyson Flournoy, Heather Halter, Christina Storz

Alyson Flournoy

In practice, our laws have proven unequal to the lofty objectives of preserving a legacy of public natural resources for our children or achieving sustainable use of these resources. There are many factors that contribute to this shortfall, but inherent inadequacies in the design of these statutes cannot be overlooked as an important determinant. Despite the statutes' broadly stated aspirations toward sustainability and protection of the interests of future generations, only a handful of these statutes include strong and enforceable mandates for sustainable resource use. Many of these statutes accord natural resource-management agencies broad discretion to balance and permit a …

Building An Environmental Ethic From The Ground Up, Alyson Flournoy

Alyson Flournoy

Over the last twenty years there has been a remarkable theoretical flourishing in the field of environmental philosophy, with the development of biocentric ethics, animal rights theories, deep ecology, ecofeminism, modified utilitarianism, moral pluralism and theories drawing on numerous religious and cultural traditions. These theories explore the intellectual and moral causes for the environmentally destructive practices of the dominant western industrial and economic culture, and propose alternatives that might avoid these consequences. This symposium raises a worthy question: to what extent have these theories had practical impact on environmental law and policy. I come to this question as a lawyer …

Charitable Deductions For Rail-Trail Conversions: Reconciling The Partial Interest Rule And The National Trails System Act, Scott Bowman, Danaya Wright

Danaya C. Wright

This Article examines an undeveloped legal topic at the intersection of tax law and real property law: charitable deductions from income tax liability for donations of railroad corridors that are to be converted into recreational trails. The very popular rails-to-trails program assists in the conversion of abandoned railroad corridors into hiking and biking trails. However, the legal questions surrounding the property rights of these corridors have been complex and highly litigated. In 1983, Congress amended the National Trails System Act to provide a mechanism for facilitating these conversions, a process called railbanking. In essence, a railroad transfers its real property …

Ten Good Practices In Environmental Constitutionalism: Structure, Text And Justiciability, James May, Erin Daly

Erin Daly

Environmental constitutionalism is a relatively recent phenomenon at the confluence of constitutional law, international law, human rights, and environmental law. It embodies the recognition that the environment is a proper subject for protection in constitutional texts and for vindication by constitutional courts worldwide. This White Paper posits ten “good practices” – those attributes that make effective outcomes more likely, but not assured – in environmental constitutionalism for advancing positive environmental outcomes considering energy, and governance and sustainability. Good practices in environmental constitutionalism can serve as a useful construct for considering the relationship between sustainability, energy and governance. Accordingly, Section A …

Dynamic Federalism And Wind Farm Siting, Brendan Burke

Brendan Burke

An “all-of-the-above” energy policy has led to the emergence of wind power as an energy resource of choice. But despite their considerable environmental and economic advantages, wind energy systems do have drawbacks. Among these, the mechanical and electromagnetic properties of wind turbines encroach on U.S. Department of Defense (“DoD”) military installations and activities. These encroachment concerns, including interference with air traffic control and other radar systems, create tension between national security and the development of renewable energy sources. Because utility siting decisions are made at the state and local level, the federal government’s ability to guard against encroachment by wind …

Constitutional Limitations On Sovereignty, 2014 Edition, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Constitutional Law, Land Use Control, and Environmental Law. It consists of 130 odd judicial opinions (most rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court) carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. The text considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property.

The …

Sustainable Development, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

Controlling Power Plants: The Co-Pollutant Implications Of Epa's Clean Air Act § 111(D) Options For Greenhouse Gases, Alice Kaswan

Alice Kaswan

Existing power plants are the nation’s largest single source of carbon emissions. In the absence of comprehensive federal climate change, EPA is forging ahead with power plant controls through § 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. This article focuses on one critical consideration: the ancillary impacts of carbon controls on associated co-pollutants, like sulfur oxides, particulates, nitrogen oxides, and mercury. The article focuses on an array of regulatory options, including both “inside-the-fence” reductions at power plants and “outside-the-fence” measures that reduce power sector emissions, like renewable energy and consumer energy efficiency. The article then evaluates the co-pollutant consequences of several …

Assessing The Legal Toolbox For Sea Level Rise Adaptation In Delaware: Options And Challenges For Regulators, Policymakers, Property Owners, And The Public, Kenneth Kristl

Kenneth T Kristl

Sea level rise is a real and growing issue in the State of Delaware. Over the next 90 years, a significant percentage—between 8 and 11 percent—of Delaware is at risk of being inundated. The threat of inundation has the potential to trigger reactions from some property owners that will seek to protect their interests. Thousands of these resulting individual, ad hoc decisions and non-decisions will make it difficult to carry out a unified strategy to adapt to the massive economic and geographic impacts sea level rise will likely cause in the State. It therefore behooves regulators, policy makers, property owners, …

Deep Dive: Greenhouse Implications Of Energy Policies Of International Financial Institutions, David Wirth

David A. Wirth

No abstract provided.

Subsidiarity As A Procedural Safeguard Of Federalism, Xavier Groussot, Sanja Bogojevic

Sanja Bogojević

The subsidiarity principle is of obvious importance in a federal legal order built on conferred competences. Here, the federal order refers to a dual-levelled form of governance, that is the central and the national that operate in constitutional plurality, or, in other words, the legal order of the European Union (the Union). In such mode of organization, the key issue is establishing and enforcing mechanisms whereby the efficiency of the federal structure is ensured while avoiding excessive centralization of regulatory power. The core ethos of the subsidiarity principle is thus to deal with the division of fields of competences between …

Climate Change And Environmental Justice: Lessons From The California Lawsuits, Alice Kaswan

Alice Kaswan

Beginning in June 2009, environmental justice groups brought several controversial lawsuits against California’s climate change program, sparking concern in the mainstream environmental community that the actions would frustrate the state’s climate progress and discourage other states from taking action. This essay, prepared for the University of San Diego’s symposium on “California in the Spotlight: Successes and Challenges in Climate Change Law,” does not pass judgment on the decision to sue. Instead, it uses the lawsuits as a jumping off point for understanding the environmental justice critique of California’s cap-and-trade program, a key feature of the state’s implementation of its climate …

Essential Reading On Sustainable Development Law, Andrea Ross, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

This short bibliography identifies and describes twelve key readings in the law of sustainable development.

Rising Sea Levels: A Tidal Wave Of Legal Issues, Kenneth Kristl

Kenneth T Kristl

No abstract provided.

Creating Property Rights: Law And Regulation Of Secondary Trading In The European Union (Book Review), Sanja Bogojevic

Sanja Bogojević

No abstract provided.

Evolution Of U.S. Climate Policy, John Dernbach, Robert Altenburg

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

Governance Approaches That Can Be Used To Implement Sustainability Criteria, Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Implementation of sustainability criteria, both in legal frameworks and voluntary sustainability standards, is an urgent and important issue. In the article, three less state-centric governance approaches and their capacity to be used to implement sustainability criteria have been investigated. The chosen approaches are good governance, multi-level governance and selfgovernance. Their potential strengths and weaknesses have been pointed out. The research indicates that sustainability criteria can be implemented in different ways, which have the potential to highlight, strengthen or weaken different aspects of their function. The use of different governance approaches, or their combinations, can lead to different implementation results for …

Eu:S Handel Med Utsläppsrättigheter Och De Globala Obalanserna I Klimatskyddet, Sanja Bogojevic

Sanja Bogojević

No abstract provided.

State Initiatives, David Hodas

David R. Hodas

Every state in the United States has adopted laws or policies to address climate change, either explicitly or indirectly through energy regulation, transportation-related initiatives, or energy building codes. Innovative state laws and policies have proven remarkably effective in reducing GHG emissions both quantitatively and as a percentage of state GDP. Broadly speaking, states understand that climate change is a global phenomenon that must be addressed nationally and internationally. Inevitably much GHG emission reduction and adaptation to the adverse consequences of climate change falls on states to implement because of their local powers to regulate utilities, land use, building codes, transportation, …

Analysis Of The Mechanisms To Control The Fulfillment Of The Eu Sustainability Criteria For Biofuels In Directive 2009/28/Ec, (Part Ii), Evgenia Pavlovskaia

Evgenia Pavlovskaia

The article analyzes mechanisms established to control the fulfillment of the EU sustainability criteria for biofuels that were presented in Directive 2009/28/EC. The article is the continuation of the research started in the work Pavlovskaia, E. (2013) “Controlling the Fulfillment of the EU Sustainability Criteria for Transport Biofuels”, which was published in RELP 4/2013. The conducted analysis is grounded in the opinions of the leading researchers in the environmental energy studies. The results of the article highlight that there are difficulties to achieve the desirable quality of control when the EU sustainability criteria are implemented. It is pointed out that …