Law Commons^™

Year In Review: 2007'S Most Significant Land Use Cases, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

New York courts busily decided a multitude of land use cases due to the increased growth in magnitude and complexity of land use issues. This year, as in the past, the authors provide a summary describing some of the most crucial New York land use cases. This year’s cases include the following topics: review of local board action, takings law, eminent domain, enforcement, jurisdiction, religious land uses, standing, moratoria, and New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).

A New Environmental Order: Laying The Legal And Administrative Foundation For Global Environmental Governance, Deepa Badrinarayana

Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation argues that global environmental governance can be strengthened by structuring legal and administrative mechanisms to meet the demands of the current world order. In particular, this dissertation provides a theoretical analysis of those legal and administrative mechanisms that can improve environmental governance in a globalizing world. However, since it is a theoretical analysis, this dissertation does not assert that the analysis in itself will simplify the process of strengthening the rule of law, resolve all environmental issues, or require every single environmental problem to be addressed through an international process. Rather, the objective of the analysis is to …

Municipal Lobbying: Regulations May Affect Land Use Practitioners, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Land use and real estate attorneys may find their practice areas impacted by recently passed lobbying legislation in both New York state, and New York City that require burdensome requirements for lawyers whose clients are seeking legislative action. This article explores the history of New York lobbying legislation, recent amendments to the lobbying laws, and the impact that lobbying legislation has on the practice of law. Notably, this review explores Article 1-A of the Legislative Law (known as the “Lobbying Act”) and the Public Employee Ethics Reform Act, both of which expanded the definition of lobbying, and significantly changed the …

Regulating The Poor And Encouraging Charity In Times Of Crisis: The Poor Laws And The Statute Of Charitable Uses, James J. Fishman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

National crises such as September 11th and Hurricane Katrina resulted in an unprecedented outpouring of charitable generosity by Americans, which was encouraged by the government through tax incentives. This paper examines an earlier period of crisis, Tudor England (1485-1603), where the state encouraged philanthropy as a tool of social and political policy. Certain charitable activities were favored and others disadvantaged to spur private sector resources to resolve public problems.

The article discusses the evolution of the laws regulating the poor, which culminated in the Poor Law Legislation of 1601, a process that developed attitudes toward the poor and concepts of …

Outsiders Looking In: The American Legal Discourse Of Exclusion, Luis E. Chiesa

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In the first part of the article it is pointed out that during the last two hundred years our government has frequently enacted measures that unfairly burden certain social groups during times of crisis. The historical analysis set forth in Part II of this article reveals that adoption of such measures is usually justified by an appeal to national security. Thus, we have been told that we need to exclude some groups from the full protection of our laws in order to guarantee the safety of the rest of the populace. The rest of the article is dedicated to explaining …

Can You Have Your Cake And Eat It Too? Achieving Capital Gain Treatment While Keeping The Property, Ronald H. Jensen

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

I will attempt to show in this article that the cases and rulings dispensing with the need for a sale or exchange are unjustified under the statutory scheme and prevailing capital gain jurisprudence, and further that such holdings constitute bad policy. Part II will set forth a number of examples, based largely on decided cases, where it has been held or contended that recoveries in excess of basis qualify for capital gain treatment even though the taxpayer did not sell or exchange the property. These cases will illustrate the contexts in which this issue arises and will provide a basis …

The Glass Half Full: Envisioning The Future Of Race Preference Policies, Leslie Yalof Garfield

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Justice Breyer's concern that the Court's June 2007 ruling in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District. No. 1 "is a decision the Court and nation will come to regret" is not well founded. Far from limiting the constitutionally permissible use of race in education from its present restriction to higher education, the case may allow governmental entities to consider race as a factor to achieve diversity in grades K-12. In Parents Involved, which the Court decided with its companion case, McFarland v. Jefferson County Public Schools four justices concluded that school boards may never consider race when …

Why Practice Management?, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Today, lawyers must regard the practice of law as a business, inasmuch as they earn their livelihood from the practice of law. The marketplace for legal services is a competitive one; not only has the size of the profession more than quadrupled in the past 50 years, but other professions and businesses have also begun to perform services traditionally restricted to lawyers. For example, accounting firms have encroached on tax litigation, banks in the trusts and estates area, and financial planners in estate planning. In a series of cases, the United States Supreme Court has made it clear that lawyers …

Advancing Environmental Law At Pace: A Personal Memoir, A Continuing Challenge, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

How did an unaccredited law school, admitting its first students in 1976, become renowned as a national and international leader in environmental education in less than three decades? What did Pace have to attract some of America’s brightest and best college graduates to pursue their careers in environmental law in White Plains? Why did Yale Law School’s Dean Anthony Kronman, in 1999, call Pace’s program one to which “other law schools look with admiration and envy…one of the best in the country, indeed the world…”

Each generation of alumni intimately knows the answer to these questions, but through the lenses …

Seeing The Forest For The Treaties - Evolving Debates On Cdm Forest And Forestry Project Activities 10 Years After The Kyoto Protocol, Romulo Sampaio

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Zoning, Transportation, And Climate Change, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

On February 2, 2006, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expressed the consensus of the scientific community that global warming is unequivocal and that its main driver is human activity. On April 7, 2007, the IPCC issued a second report detailing the likely consequences of climate change: widening droughts, more severe storm events, increased inland flooding, sea level rise, and consequent inundation of low lying lands. The Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University estimates that sea levels around New York City’s boroughs will increase by five inches by 2030, with some estimates predicting up to 12 inches …

Estate Planning For Persons With Less Than $5 Million, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Individuals of modest wealth may face significant estate taxes but do not have such a large base of wealth that they can 'afford' to make major lifetime gifts or other transfers to reduce estate taxes. But there are planning techniques that can help. Individuals in the ‘modest‘ wealth category face special hurdles in estate planning. This article will assume that the ‘modest‘ wealth category includes individuals whose net worth exceeds the amount of taxable gifts that may be protected by the unified credit (the equivalent of $1 million and herein referred to as the ‘gift tax exemption‘), but does not …

Head Of State Criminal Responsibility For Environmental War Crimes: Case Study: The Arabian Gulf Armed Conflict 1990-1991, Meshari K. Eifan

Dissertations & Theses

This paper aims to provide a comparative study of the existing international criminal law framework and its relation to environmental protection during armed conflict. To approach this objective, the study will review the environmental crisis that occurred during the armed conflict in the Arabian Gulf in 1990-1991 as a case study for determining whether the international community adequately responds to these events.

Thus, this study is divided into five main parts. Part I assesses the justifications for a remedy, the criminal remedy, that is more adequate than the United Nations remedy taken toward Saddam Hussein’s actions against the environment, a …

Following The Yellow Brick Road Of Evolving Standards Of Decency: The Ironic Consequences Of Death-Is-Different Jurisprudence, William W. Berry, Iii

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Square Peg And A Round Hole: The Application Of Weingarten Rights To Employee Drug And Alcohol And Alcohol Testing, Daniel V. Johns

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Standing To Sue In Another's Shoes: Can An Assignee Of An Accrued Copyright Infringement Claim With No Other Interest In The Copyright Itself Sue For The Infringement?, Wenjie Li

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Balancing Freedom Of Speech With The Right To Privacy: How To Legally Cope With The Funeral Protest Problem , Anna Zwierz Messar

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Taking Of America?, Stefanie Sovak

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002 On Small Firms, Elina Grinberg

Honors College Theses

In reaction to major corporate scandals that rocked the corporate world in 2001 and 2002, Congress passed financial reporting reforms encompassed in the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) on July 30, 2002. Shareholder/investor interests needed to be protected, and investor confidence in the public markets needed to be restored. Although the passage of Sarbanes Oxley has restored investor confidence in financial reporting, the high costs associated with SOX compliance has financially strained most small public companies and caused many of them to go into the private sector.

Farming The Ocean, Ann Powers

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Was that salmon you ate for lunch caught in the wild, chill waters of the North Atlantic? What about the mussels you had last night? Did they arrive on your table through traditional capture techniques, or were they a product of the fish-farming industry? And if so, does it matter? What else in your daily life might be a result of deliberate culture of once wild species? Protein in your pet's food, gel in your toothpaste and cosmetics, thickener in your pasta sauce, the seaweed in your sushi? For the most part we pay little attention to where our foods …

Disaster Mitigation Through Land Use Strategies, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina brought to public attention the role of land use planning in mitigating natural disasters and which level or levels of government should decide whether and how to undertake this planning. In the Upper Mississippi River Basin, 6 federal agencies, 23 state agencies in 5 states, and 233 local governments share jurisdiction over various areas of activity on the river; the complexity and disorganization of this legal framework stifles effective action. In this Article, John R. Nolon calls for cooperative federalism and a clarification of agency roles as a remedy for this complexity. Through case …

Convocation On The Face Of The Profession: Judicial Institute On Professionalism In The Law, Stephen J. Friedman

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Clustered Zoning Approaches Reduce Congestion, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The effect of local zoning on our lives usually goes unnoticed despite its profound influence on human behavior. Zoning controls where we live and work, how we get from point A to point B, and what sort of homes we live in. This article provides examples of successful transit-oriented development projects at the local level as well as how state and federal government can contribute to the clustering effort via financing and research programs as well as providing appropriate infrastructure.

Climate Change As A Global Challenge, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transit Orientation Reduces Car Dependency, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Urban dwellers emit less greenhouse gases per capita than their suburban or rural counterparts because urban environments are conducive to less automobile travel and require less energy to heat or cool their smaller urban living quarters. This article addresses the need for a more comprehensive transit oriented land use paradigm by taking the reader through a step-by-step approach to accomplishing this goal. The suggested model exemplifies the complexity of amending community planning and the importance of incorporating several different groups of people into the planning process. These groups include municipal, state, and federal governments, research groups, developers, and regional transportation …

Best Brief For Appellant (Province & Village): Nineteenth Annual Pace National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition, Bryce Baker, Corinne Fratini, Jeremy Syz

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Symposium On The Miller Commission On Matrimonial Law: Editor's Overview, Janet A. Johnson

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pace Law Review Symposium: New York Matrimonial Commission - Introduction, Judith S. Kaye

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Commission's Process And Recommendations, Sondra Miller

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Addicted To Fault: Why Divorce Reform Has Lagged In New York, J. Herbie Difonzo, Ruth C. Stern

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.