Law Commons^™

Building An Environmental Ethic From The Ground Up, Alyson C. Flournoy

UF Law Faculty Publications

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 …

The Bush Record On The Environment: What A Difference Two Years Make, Clifford Rechtschaffen

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic

Although the Bush Administration has proposed a few environmentally positive initiatives . . . these initiatives have been far over-shadowed by the efforts to weaken or roll back environmental protections.

The Murky Future Of The Clean Water Act After Swancc: Using A Hydrological Connection Approach To Saving The Clean Water Act, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In 2001, the Supreme Court decided Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. United States Army Corps of Engineers (SWANCC). In this five-to-four decision, the Court held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) lacked the authority under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) to regulate isolated intrastate wetlands and waters that serve as habitat for migratory birds. The Court found the FWPCA's jurisdiction is limited to navigable waters and non-navigable waters that have a significant nexus to navigable waters, such as wetlands adjacent to navigable waters. However, the Court did not clearly define which adjacent wetlands …

Blame It On Rio: Biodiscovery, Native Title, And Traditional Knowledge, Matthew Rimmer

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

This article examines the legal responses to protect traditional knowledge of biodiversity in the wake of the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity. It considers the relative merits of the inter- locking regimes of contract law, environmental law, intellectual property law, and native title law. Part 1 considers the natural drug discovery industry in Australia. In particular , it looks at the operations of Amrad, Astra Zeneca R & D, and the Australian Institute of Marine Science. This section examines the key features of the draft regulations proposed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) - model contracts, …

Improving State Environmental Enforcement Performance Through Enhanced Government Accountability And Other Strategies, Clifford Rechtschaffen, David L. Markell

Publications

This Article discusses a number of options for EPA to strengthen state performance and bring it more in line with EPA's expectations. First, EPA must play a stricter gate-keeping function in initially authorizing state programs, and more regularly reassess and report the adequacy of state enforcement authorities and state capacity. Second, EPA must stop delivering a mixed message to the states about the enforcement practices it expects the states to follow. Instead, it must establish clear expectations for performance. Third, in terms of the substance of those expectations, EPA should revise its criteria for evaluating whether state enforcement programs work. …

Distributing The Costs Of Environmental, Health, And Safety Protection: The Feasability Principle, Cost-Benefit Analysis, And Regulatory Reform, David M. Driesen

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

This article offers a normative theory justifying the feasability principle found in many environmental statutes. It then uses this theory to shine light on the regulatory reform debate. The feasability principle precludes widespread plant shutdowns while maximizing the stringency of regulation that does not have this outcome. The feasability principle provides meaningful guidance regarding both maximum and minimum stringency and a reasonable democratically chosen response to distributional concerns. Pollution's tendency to concentrate severe harms upon randomly selected pollution victims justifies the stringency of this approach. Normally, cost concerns cannot justify failure to protect people from death, illness, and ecological destruction. …

Environmental Law At Maryland, No. 16, Winter-Spring 2003

Environmental Law at Maryland

No abstract provided.

Is The Endangered Species Act Ecopragmatic?, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Article evaluates the Endangered Species Act using Dan Farber's theory of eco-pragmatism. Eco-pragmatism employs environmental baselines, a moderated precautionary principle, and adaptive management to mediate environmental policy issues. I conclude that the ESA reflects some of these attributes, but does not coherently assemble a truly eco-pragmatic framework.

Shared Knowledge, Shared Jurisprudence: Learning To Speak Environmental Law Creole (Criollo), Thomas T. Ankersen

UF Law Faculty Publications

The character of the legal and judicial systems in Latin America and the Caribbean is undergoing fundamental change.' Traditionally weak judiciaries are emboldened, precedent as a jurisprudential decision-making tool has become increasingly important, the apparatus of administrative law has become more sophisticated and complex, and increasingly sophisticated reporting systems and the "globalization" of shared jurisprudence through contemporary communication media have all contributed to the development of law in the region. These broader systemic developments, though uneven and incomplete, have occurred in tandem with the emergence of environmental law as a unique and discrete body of law.

This Article traces several …

In Search Of An Environmental Ethic, Alyson C. Flournoy

UF Law Faculty Publications

A preliminary analysis of several core environmental provisions suggests that the mix of values embedded in our environmental statutes is substantially similar to the values found in the common law and non-environmental statutes. That is, the environmental statutes tend to reflect human concerns that predate any dawning of environmental awareness -- with only a modest introduction of new values or reasons for caring that are uniquely attributable to concern for the human relationship to the environment. If this is true, it seems to undermine a tenet of the public debate. It may call into question the very naming of these …

Minnesota Wild, Lisa Heinzerling

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In these remarks I am going to tell two stories and then add - to the growing list compiled so far in this Symposium - two new quasi-religious, metaphorical figures. In keeping with our overall theme of eco-pragmatism, my remarks will be experimental, contingent, even nonlinear. I hope you will indulge me.

A Different Kind Of "Republican Moment" In Environmental Law, Richard J. Lazarus

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The purpose of this Essay is to propose and discuss the possibility that the nation currently faces another, albeit very different, "republican moment" that may well test the future of environmental protection laws in the United States. This new "moment" has as its modifier an uppercase "Republican" rather than a lowercase "republican." While the latter "republican" invokes the political tradition referred to as "civic republicanism," the former "Republican" refers instead to the current National Republican Party. The "moment" facing environmental law is the virtually unprecedented ascendancy of the Republican Party in all three branches of the federal government.