Law Commons^™

Environmental Law In The Supreme Court: Highlights From The Marshall Papers, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

Justice Marshall served on the Court from 1967 until 1991. During that period, Congress passed all of the major federal environmental statutes and environmental regulation mushroomed. As a result, the Marshall papers reveal how the Court reached decisions that have shaped modern environmental law. The author, a former law clerk to former Justice Byron White and an associate professor of law at the University of Maryland, begins by describing the history of the Court's treatment of environmental disputes. He then discusses the steps the Justices take in deciding whether to accept cases for review; in reaching decisions on the merits …

Environmental Law In The Twenty-First Century, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

No abstract provided.

Water Pollution Control: Lessons From Transnational Experience, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

Water is fundamental to life, as reflected in space scientists' compulsive search for signs of its presence when scrutinizing other planets for possible life forms. Fortunately for our species, more than two-thirds of our planet is covered with water, creating an environment richly conducive to life. Humans have just begun to appreciate how precious earth's water resources are and how vulnerable they are to damage from human activity. Efforts to protect earth's water resources from contamination have been among the most prominent catalysts for the development of environmental law thoroughout the world. After surveying this experience, this paper finds that …

El Surgimiento Del Derecho Ambiental Global, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

Legal systems across the globe are responding to environmental concerns in surprising new ways. As nations upgrade their environmental standards, some are transplanting law and regulatory policy innovations derived from the experience of other countries, including nations with very different legal and cultural traditions. New national, regional, and international initiatives have been undertaken both by governments and private organizations. Greater cross-border collaboration between government officials, nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations and other entities is shaping environmental policy in ways that blur traditional private/public land domestic/international distinctions. The result has been the emergence of a kind of “global environmental law” – law …

21世纪环境法展望 (Environmental Law In The 21st Century), Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

After reviewing the history of environmental law, this article discusses some important lessons that can be learned from its successes and failures. It discusses the continued influence of common law notions of causal injury on the administrative state and how the globalization of environmental concerns is affecting environmental law throughout the world. It concludes by venturing some predictions concerning the future of environmental law.

Climate Change Litigation – Power Point Slides, Chapter Three, David Hodas, Kenneth Kristl, James May

Kenneth T Kristl

No abstract provided.

Oversight Hearing On The Federal Superfund Program's Activities To Protect Public Health, Rena Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Testimony Before The U.S. House Of Representatives, Committee On Science And Technology, Subcommittee On Investigations And Oversight. 111th Congress, 1st Session (2009)., Rena I. Steinzor

Rena I. Steinzor

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions, 2007, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

Constitutional Limitations on Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations and Governmental Exactions (2007) is electronically published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in Land Use Control and Environmental Law courses. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and professors and students are free to use it in whole or part. The author requests …

Debunking The "Divine Conception" Myth: Environmental Law Before Nepa, Michael C. Blumm

Michael Blumm

This is a review of Karl Brooks' book, "Before Earth Day: The Origins of American Environmental Law, 1945-70." Brooks challenges the standard account given in most America law school classes that has environmental law bursting onto the legal scene in the "environmental decade" of the 1970's. Like the "miracle in Philadelphia" in the summer of 1787, this "divine conception" theory of the genesis of environmental law is a myth, as Brooks ably demonstrates. He discusses the struggle to pass environmental statutes in the late 1940's like the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, as well as successful block developments like Idaho …

U.S. Supreme Court Environmental Cases 2008-2009: A Year Like No Other, James R. May

James R. May

The author of this article says the last term of the U.S. Supreme Court was in many respects like no other in modern environmental law. During the 2008-2009 term, the Supreme Court ruled on novel and important questions concerning preliminary injunctions under the National Environmental Policy Act; cost-benefit analyses and permitting under the Clean Water Act; arranger and joint and several liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act; and environmental standing. At no turn, says the author, did the court favor the environment over other interests. He says the court even reached down to reverse decisions in …

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions. 2008 Edition., Garrett Power

Garrett Power

Constitutional Limitations on Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations and Governmental Exactions (2008) is electronically published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in Land Use Control and Environmental Law courses. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and professors and students are free to use it in whole or part. The author requests …

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions. 2009 Edition., Garrett Power

Garrett Power

Constitutional Limitations on Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations and Governmental Exactions (2009) is electronically published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in Land Use Control and Environmental Law courses. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and professors and students are free to use it in whole or part. The author requests …

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions, 2007, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

Constitutional Limitations on Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations and Governmental Exactions (2007) is electronically published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in Land Use Control and Environmental Law courses. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and professors and students are free to use it in whole or part. The author requests …

The Evolution And Anatomy Of Recent Climate Change Bills In The U.S. Senate: Critque Ad Recommendations, Kenneth R. Richards

Kenneth R. Richards

The United States' current financial conditions notwithstanding, climate change remains at the forefront of our national policy agenda. Congress has already considered comprehensive climate legislation in the recent past; during the 110th Congress, three climate change bills were considered in the U.S. Senate: the Bingaman-Specter bill (S. 1766), the Lieberman-Warner bill (S. 2191), and the Manager's Amendment to the Lieberman-Warner bill (S. 3036). In the midst of partisan disagreements and the urgency of the U.S. economic crisis, the Senate was unable to pass a climate change bill during the 110th Congress.

This analysis compares the three bills to derive insights …

Testimony Before The U.S. House Of Representatives, Committee On Science And Technology, Subcommittee On Investigations And Oversight. 111th Congress, 1st Session (2009)., Rena I. Steinzor

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Trends Offer Reason For Hope In Pennsylvania And Nation, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

Sustainable America Is Achievable In Our Lifetime, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

Smart Use Of Resources Makes Good Economic Sense, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

Probabilities, Planning Failures, And Environmental Law, David R. Owen

David R Owen

Environmental laws often mandate specific environmental outcomes and require agencies to adopt plans designed to achieve those outcomes. But because of pervasive uncertainties, agencies are often unsure whether their plans will succeed. That uncertainty creates important dilemmas; decision-makers must decide how to balance risks of plan failure against the costs of possible over-regulation. This article explores and evaluates legal responses to those dilemmas. I find that planning uncertainties recur throughout existing environmental laws and will likely have important consequences for legal responses to climate change. I also find that environmental statutes and regulations use a patchwork of measures to manage …

V.1, 2009 Mastead

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

No abstract provided.

Energy Efficiency And Federalism, Ann E. Carlson

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

Everyone loves energy efficiency. Among an array of carbon-reducing strategies, energy efficiency surely ranks as the least controversial. Indeed increasing energy efficiency is frequently lauded as having "net negative costs"-to use the terminology of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-meaning that the benefits outweigh the costs, even excluding benefits from avoided climate change.
Yet the U.S. system for regulating appliances, which account for a huge percentage of the nation's carbon emissions, is a mess. Since the federal government began regulating appliance efficiency in the 1970s, the process has been characterized by frequent delays and foot-dragging, followed by lawsuits and legislative …

Climate Adaptation And Federalism: Mapping The Issues, Daniel F. Farber

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

There is a vigorous debate about the appropriate roles of the state and federal governments in reducing greenhouse gases and mitigating climate change. ...
...
This Article is a first step in mapping this new terrain. Part I provides a short introduction to climate adaptation. The United States will face significant climate impacts in the next few decades, and governmental responses will be required. Part II discusses the role of the federal government in setting adaptation standards, while Part III analyzes the appropriateness of state versus federal funding for adaptation. States are likely to play the leading role in funding …

Climate Law And Policy In North America: Prospects For Regionalism, Neil Craik, Joseph Dimento

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article surveys the current bilateral and trilateral initiatives aimed at GHG emission reductions in North America with a view to assessing the nature and potential role of regional climate change law and policy within a broader global framework. In this context, by regional cooperation, we mean cooperation organized on a North American scale. In pursuit of this objective, this Article seeks to identify, first, how climate change mitigation may be regulated usefully on a regional scale, and second, the governance structures and institutions that may be drawn upon to create and implement regional cooperation on climate change. Particular consideration …

State Greenhouse Gas Regulation, Federal Climate Change Legislation, And The Preemption Sword, William W. Buzbee

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article starts in Part II by reviewing the basic anticipated design elements of federal climate legislation, then it reviews the substantial regulatory failure risks inherent in such climate change legislation. It then turns in Part III to analysis of preemption choices. The Article follows in Part IV by examining preemption jurisprudence, especially the growing risk of broad preemptive reads of federal law, and demonstrating how statutory uncertainties regarding preemption could result in subsequent interpretations substantially expanding the law's preemptive impact. ... Furthermore, as discussed in Part V, overlap and interaction of concurrent federal, state, and local climate change laws …

Valuing Foreign Lives And Civilizations In Cost-Benefit Analysis: The Case Of The United States And Climate Change Policy, David A. Dana

Faculty Working Papers

This Article explores the case for including losses of foreign (non-U.S.) lives and settlements in the estimated cost to the United States of unmitigated climate change in the future. The inclusion of losses of such foreign lives and settlements in cost benefit analysis (CBA) could have large implications not only for U.S. climate change policy but also for policies adopted by other nations and the practice of CBA generally. One difficult problem is how to assess U.S. residents' willingness to pay to prevent the losses of foreign lives and settlements. This Article discusses internet-based surveys that are a first step …

The Globalization Of Environmental Law, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

Legal systems across the globe are responding to environmental concerns in surprising new ways. As nations upgrade their environmental standards, some are transplanting law and regulatory policy innovations derived from the experience of other countries, including nations with very different legal and cultural traditions. New national, regional, and international initiatives have been undertaken both by governments and private organizations. Greater cross-border collaboration between government officials, nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations and other entities is shaping environmental policy in ways that blur traditional private/public/and domestic/international distinctions. The result has been the emergence of a kind of “global environmental law”-law that is neither …

Changing Times--Changing Practice: New Roles For Lawyers In Resolving Complex Land Use And Environmental Disputes, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Following this introduction is a discussion of the many excellent papers by academics, practitioners, and students contained in this themed Kheel edition of the Pace Environmental Law Review. The article continues with an analysis of the practice of law and how it is affected by the advent of environmental interest dispute resolution.

Symposium Introduction: Contemporary Issues At The Intersection Of Public Health And Environmental Law, Patricia Ross Mccubbin

Patricia Ross McCubbin

This article serves as an introduction to the forthcoming symposium in the Southern Illinois University Law Journal, which presents the proceedings of a conference held at the SIU School of Law on February 27, 2009, on “Contemporary Issues at the Intersection of Public Health and Environmental Law.”

Epa's Endangerment Finding For Greenhouse Gases And The Potential Duty To Adopt National Ambient Air Quality Standards To Address Global Climate Change, Patricia Ross Mccubbin

Patricia Ross McCubbin

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) recently announced its intention to make a finding under the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gases from new cars and light trucks endanger the public health and welfare by contributing to global climate change. That proposed endangerment finding and the vehicle emission standards that will follow are highly controversial, with industry representatives vigorously challenging EPA’s scientific conclusions. Of even greater controversy, however, is the possibility that issuance of the final endangerment finding will obligate EPA and the states to regulate greenhouse gases from nearly every sector of the economy with “national …