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Full-Text Articles in Law

Prohibiting Conduct, Not Consequences: The Limited Reach Of The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Benjamin Means Dec 1998

Prohibiting Conduct, Not Consequences: The Limited Reach Of The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Benjamin Means

Michigan Law Review

Dissatisfied with the protection afforded wildlife by more recent environmental laws, some environmentalists seek to reinterpret one of the oldest federal environmental laws, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). Long understood simply to regulate hunting, the MBTA makes it illegal to "take" or "kill" migratory birds without a permit. The MBTA imposes strict liability for a violation. A heady combination of strict liability, criminal penalty provisions, and vague language, the MBTA appeals to those seeking to control land use activity. Some environmentalists advocate an interpretation of the MBTA that, contrary to legislative intent and 80 years of enforcement practice, would …


Lawyers, Judges, And The Public Interest, John M. Payne May 1998

Lawyers, Judges, And The Public Interest, John M. Payne

Michigan Law Review

Chares Haar, the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law Emeritus at the Harvard Law School and a certified elder statesman of the housing and land-use community, was one of those scholar-politicians of the 1960s who spun out innovative theories in law reviews and then moved into government to see them applied. His generation inspired mine to pursue law as a means to serve the public interest. But the days of the Kennedy brothers' Camelot are long past. Today, big government and "big courts" alike are seen as parts of the problem. In the more austere political climate of the 1990s, …