Law Commons^™

Can States Regulate Hydropower Dams As Dischargers Pursuant To Their Clean Water Certification Authority?, Robert H. Abrams

Journal Publications

Under §401 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C §13·n, to obtain a federal license for any activity that results in a "discharge into the navigable waters," the license applicant must obtain a certification from the state in which the activity takes place that the discharge complies with several aspects of state water-quality regulation under the Clean Water Act. A common setting in which this requirement has been applied is when a hydropower dam seeks to be relicensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Dawn Of A New Era In The Extraterritorial Application Of U.S. Environmental Statutes: A Proposal For An Integrated Judicial Standard Based On The Continuum Of Context, Randall S. Abate

Journal Publications

Congress has the authority to enact laws beyond the territorial boundaries of the United States. However, whether Congress intended to exercise extraterritorial authority in a given statute is a matter for the courts to ascertain through statutory interpretation. When considering the reach of federal legislation, courts are guided by a presumption against extraterritoriality. Part I of this Article discusses the origins and evolution of the presumption against extraterritoriality before and after the landmark decision in Aramco. Part II addresses the continuum of context paradigm from Massey and describes the extraterritorial application of U.S. environmental statutes. Part III of the Article …

Towards Equity And Efficiency In Partnership Allocations, Darryll K. Jones

Journal Publications

The primary goal of any tax system is to raise sufficient revenue for government. More precisely, taxation is the means by which government supplies necessary things not available from the private market. Taxation allows society to cure distributional imperfections in the market. It is appropriate, therefore, only to the extent that the market cannot provide goods and services for which there is public demand; if private markets equitably supplied food, shelter, health care, education, and common defense, taxes could be greatly reduced if not completely eliminated. The revenue raising goal is thwarted to the extent the taxing system is either …

Kyoto Or Not, Here We Come: The Promise And Perils Of The Piecemeal Approach To Climate Change Regulation In The United States, Randall S. Abate

Journal Publications

Climate change is a pervasive, yet controversial, problem. During the six months leading up to the Kyoto negotiations, President Clinton faced a major challenge when he tried to rally support at home for binding reductions on GHG emissions. Despite political and industry concerns about its potential economic impacts, the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol; however, the Bush administration withdrew from the Protocol in 2001. Part I of the Article analyzes the U.S. federal regulatory approach to climate change. Part II explores representative state, regional, and local attempts to combat climate change, whereas Part III describes voluntary compliance initiatives in …

Pro-Democratic Intervention In Africa, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

In the past twenty years the people of the African continent have experienced human suffering on a scale unparalleled in human history. For the past decade I have examined and documented the evolution of Africa's peacekeeping, peace enforcement, regional collective security, and conflict management landscape as well as Africa's contribution to international law, particularly as it relates to the jus ad bellum, "the law of the use of force". Although an abundance of scholarly work and official studies have examined the complexities of humanitarian intervention, only a select body of credible work has considered the phenomenon of pro-democratic intervention (PDI)--very …

Illegal Peace?: An Inquiry Into The Legality Of Power-Sharing With Warlords And Rebels In Africa, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

When warlords use violence to coerce democratically constituted governments to share power, does power-sharing simply become a euphemism for "guns for jobs"? Which legal rules, if any, govern peace agreements in internal conflicts? Specifically, which rules regulate power-sharing? Are the aims of peace, justice, and adherence to the rule of law attainable, let alone compatible, with coerced political transitions where warlords force democratically constituted or legitimate governments to share power?

This Article represents the first conscientious attempt to address these questions, present a conceptual framework for examining the legal and political efficacy of coercing democratically constituted governments into sharing power, …