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Full-Text Articles in Law
Environmental Protection As A Learning Experience, Daniel A. Farber
Environmental Protection As A Learning Experience, Daniel A. Farber
Daniel A Farber
No abstract provided.
Millennial Pivot: Sustainability-Purposed Performance Zoning Guidelines In Urban Commercial Development, Michael Widener
Millennial Pivot: Sustainability-Purposed Performance Zoning Guidelines In Urban Commercial Development, Michael Widener
Michael N Widener
This paper argues that economic competitiveness requires cities and towns to reimagine their zoning regulations, leveraging technology advances to address challenges revealed by demands for sustainability in building urban projects. The optimal means to accomplish this is to use performance zoning, a method encouraging creative solutions to problems caused by increasing development densities. Performance zoning consists of a series of standards addressing specific sub-optimal neighborhood or community impacts of commercial development; these standards can be negative or positive expressions of municipal goals for sustainability and environmental justice. Pivoting to performance zoning is desirable because the development community has a firmer …
Agencies, Courts, And The Limits Of Balancing, Daniel A. Farber
Agencies, Courts, And The Limits Of Balancing, Daniel A. Farber
Daniel A Farber
Courts have struggled in several very different contexts to determine when a decision maker can consider costs that are not explicitly addressed in the governing statute. This issue arises when agencies decide whether to conduct a rulemaking or what rule to issue after a rulemaking. It also arises when courts decide whether to enjoin a violation of a statute or whether to vacate an administrative rule rather than simply remanding. Judicial opinions point in different directions and often ignore each other.
This Article contends that the same principles should govern judicial and agency discretion to consider costs across all these …
Bubbles (Or, Some Reflections On The Basic Laws Of Human Relations), Donald J. Kochan
Bubbles (Or, Some Reflections On The Basic Laws Of Human Relations), Donald J. Kochan
Donald J. Kochan
Applying Administrative Law Principles To Hydraulic Fracturing, Joel M. Pratt
Applying Administrative Law Principles To Hydraulic Fracturing, Joel M. Pratt
Joel M Pratt
Because fracking regulators and industry need both legal clarity and the ability to react to new information, courts should apply principles of administrative deference to resolve conflicts between state and local fracking regulations.Under these principles, courts weigh expert agency decision making more heavily when the agency has acted reasonably. When faced with a conflict between state and local fracking laws, courts should adopt administrative principles and privilege expert agency regulations rather than engage in an independent judicial inquiry. Part I provides background on fracking and argues that states are in the best position to regulate the practice. Part II then …
Sustaining An Unsustainable Fuel Source: How Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Limitations Can Improve The Sustainability Of The Tar Oil Industry, Brittany Debord
Sustaining An Unsustainable Fuel Source: How Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Limitations Can Improve The Sustainability Of The Tar Oil Industry, Brittany Debord
Brittany DeBord
The United States seeks to achieve energy security and self-sufficiency by acquiring energy from Canadian tar sands and promoting a domestic tar sands industry. However, support for this industry is inconsistent with the greenhouse gas reduction policies of the Energy Independence and Security Act and the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, since tar oil extraction creates three times more carbon emissions than conventional oil extraction. Legislation limiting lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions has already been implemented through the Renewable Fuel Standard Program in response to concerns that plant-based fuel production leads to greater carbon emissions than intended. Since the lifecycle …
Falling Behind: Processing And Enforcing Permits For Animal Agriculture Operations In Maryland Is Lagging, Rena I. Steinzor, Anne Havemann
Falling Behind: Processing And Enforcing Permits For Animal Agriculture Operations In Maryland Is Lagging, Rena I. Steinzor, Anne Havemann
Rena I. Steinzor
After decades of failed interstate agreements, the Chesapeake Bay is choking on too many nutrients. The estuary’s last, best chance of recovery is the Environmental Protection Agency's Total Maximum Daily Load (“TMDL”) program, also known as a pollution diet. To meet this deadline, all polluters, including large animal farms, will need to sharply reduce the pollutants they release into the Bay. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) must ensure that each Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (“CAFO”) has developed a facility-specific permit that details when and where manure is applied to fields and how waste is stored and handled. Then …
How Comprehensive Planning Makes Suburbia More Sprawling, Michael Lewyn
How Comprehensive Planning Makes Suburbia More Sprawling, Michael Lewyn
Michael E Lewyn
Many commentators associate comprehensive land use planning with smart growth- but in fact, municipal plans can be used to further sprawl as well as smart growth.
Climate Change And Water Transfers, Christine A. Klein
Climate Change And Water Transfers, Christine A. Klein
Christine A. Klein
Climate change adaption is all about water. Although some governments have begun to plan for severe water disruptions, many have not. The consequences of inaction, however, may be dire. As a report of the U.N. Environment Programme warns, “countries that adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach potentially risk the lives of their people, their ecosystems and their economies.” In the United States, according to one study, nearly 60% of the states are unprepared to deal with the impending crisis. Responding to this void, we offer what we believe is the first comprehensive, state-by-state survey of water allocation law and its …
Functional Government In 3-D, Robert L. Glicksman, Alejandro E. Camacho
Functional Government In 3-D, Robert L. Glicksman, Alejandro E. Camacho
Robert L. Glicksman
The creation of new administrative agencies and the realignment of existing governmental authority are commonplace and high-stakes events, as illustrated by the recent creation of the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11 and of new financial regulatory agencies after the global recession of 2009. Scholars and policymakers have not devoted sufficient attention to this subject, failing to clearly identify the different dimensions along which government authority may be structured or to consider the relationships among them. Analysis of these institutional design issues typically also gives short shrift to whether authority should be allocated differently based on agency function. These failures …
The End Game Of Deregulation: Myopic Risk Management And The Next Catastrophe, Thomas O. Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor
The End Game Of Deregulation: Myopic Risk Management And The Next Catastrophe, Thomas O. Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
On December 22, 2008, the contents of an enormous impoundment containing coal-ash slurry from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant poured into the Emory River. The proximate cause of the spill was the bursting of a poorly reinforced dike holding back a pit of sludge that towered 80 feet above the river and 40 feet above an adjacent road. The volume and force of the spill were so large that 1.1 billion gallons of the inky mess flowed across the river, inundating 300 acres of land in a layer four to five feet deep, uprooting trees, destroying …
The Case For Abolishing Centralized White House Regulatory Review, Rena I. Steinzor
The Case For Abolishing Centralized White House Regulatory Review, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
A series of catastrophic regulatory failures have focused attention on theweakened condition of regulatory agencies assigned to protect public health, worker and consumer safety, and the environment. The destructive convergence of funding shortfalls, political attacks, and outmoded legal authority have set the stage for ineffective enforcement, unsupervised industry self-regulation, and a slew of devastating and preventable catastrophes. From the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the worst mining disaster in forty years at the Big Branch mine in West Virginia, the signs of regulatory dysfunction abound. Many stakeholders expected that President Barack Obama would recognize and ameliorate …
A Functional Approach To Risks And Uncertainties Under Nepa, Todd Aagaard
A Functional Approach To Risks And Uncertainties Under Nepa, Todd Aagaard
Todd S Aagaard
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) mandates that federal agencies evaluate the environmental impacts of their proposed actions. This requires agencies to make ex ante predictions about environmental consequences that often involve a significant degree of factual risk or uncertainty. Considerable controversy exists regarding how agencies should address such risks and uncertainties. Current NEPA law adopts a largely ad hoc approach that lacks coherence and analytical rigor. Some environmentalists and legal scholars have called for a greater emphasis on worst-case analysis in environmental planning, especially after the recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the meltdowns …
Systems Thinking Applied To U.S. Federal Fisheries Management, Chad J. Mcguire, Bradley P. Harris
Systems Thinking Applied To U.S. Federal Fisheries Management, Chad J. Mcguire, Bradley P. Harris
Chad J McGuire
The International Organization For Standardization: Private Voluntary Standards As Swords And Shields, David A. Wirth
The International Organization For Standardization: Private Voluntary Standards As Swords And Shields, David A. Wirth
David A. Wirth
Private voluntary standards such as the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO’s) 14000 series have played an increasingly important role in encouraging corporations to adopt more sustainable business models on their own initiative and not in direct response to governmentally mandated requirements. ISO standards have a number of benefits, including promoting international uniformity; elevating environmental issues within an enterprise; promoting international trade; and providing a minimal level of environmental performance in countries with less than adequate regulatory infrastructure. Concerns about ISO standards include the relationship to public regulation; and ISO 14001’s essentially procedural, as opposed to performance-based, character. International trade agreements …
Globalizing The Environment, David A. Wirth
Environmental Law As A Mirror Of The Future: Civic Values Confronting Market Force Dynamics In A Time Of Counter-Revolution, Zygmunt J.B Plater
Environmental Law As A Mirror Of The Future: Civic Values Confronting Market Force Dynamics In A Time Of Counter-Revolution, Zygmunt J.B Plater
Zygmunt J.B. Plater
No abstract provided.
From The Beginning, A Fundamental Shift Of Paradigms: A Theory And Short History Of Environmental Law, Zygmunt J.B. Plater
From The Beginning, A Fundamental Shift Of Paradigms: A Theory And Short History Of Environmental Law, Zygmunt J.B. Plater
Zygmunt J.B. Plater
No abstract provided.
Regulatory Overlap, Overlapping Legal Fields, And Statutory Discontinuities, Todd S. Aagaard
Regulatory Overlap, Overlapping Legal Fields, And Statutory Discontinuities, Todd S. Aagaard
Todd S Aagaard
Lawmakers and scholars alike criticize regulatory overlap on the ground that giving administrative agencies overlapping jurisdiction leads to duplicative or conflicting regulation which is inefficient and unduly burdensome. This Article challenges this orthodox account of regulatory overlap through examination of six case studies in which the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have managed their jurisdictional overlap so as to create regulatory synergy rather than dysfunction. Although this Article is not the first to argue that regulatory overlap may improve the effectiveness of regulatory programs, the case studies examined here highlight two important aspects of regulatory …
One Year's Environmental Litigation: 1977-78, Oscar S. Gray
One Year's Environmental Litigation: 1977-78, Oscar S. Gray
Oscar S. Gray
No abstract provided.
Much Ado About Pluralities: Pride And Precedent Amidst The Cacophy Of Concurrences, And Re-Percolation After Rapanos, Donald J. Kochan, Melissa M. Berry, Matthew J. Parlow
Much Ado About Pluralities: Pride And Precedent Amidst The Cacophy Of Concurrences, And Re-Percolation After Rapanos, Donald J. Kochan, Melissa M. Berry, Matthew J. Parlow
Donald J. Kochan
Conflicts created by concurrences and pluralities in court decisions create confusion in law and lower court interpretation. Rule of law values require that individuals be able to identify controlling legal principles. That task is complicated when pluralities and concurrences contribute to the vagueness or uncertainty that leaves us wondering what the controlling rule is or attempting to predict what it will evolve to become. The rule of law is at least handicapped when continuity or confidence or confusion infuse our understanding of the applicable rules. This Article uses the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Rapanos v. United States to …
Runoff And Reality: Externalities, Economics, And Traceability Issues In Urban Runoff Regulation, Donald J. Kochan
Runoff And Reality: Externalities, Economics, And Traceability Issues In Urban Runoff Regulation, Donald J. Kochan
Donald J. Kochan
It has long eluded regulators and private enforcers how to control the imposition of negative externalities. This paper will examine: (1) Whether existing authorities (like the Clean Water Act) are capable of providing regulation of urban runoff; (2) Whether, in light of economic controls, regulation of these activities are necessary; (3) A summary of recent runoff litigation; and (4) What is next; what should be next? Although each of these questions form background, the primary emphasis currently anticipated for this presentation is on traceability, collective action, and free rider problems that motivate regulation in this area. Often runoff is described …
Polluting Environment, Polluted Constitution: Is A 'Polluted' Constitution Worse Than A Polluted Environment?, Shubhankar Dam (Co-Author)
Polluting Environment, Polluted Constitution: Is A 'Polluted' Constitution Worse Than A Polluted Environment?, Shubhankar Dam (Co-Author)
Shubhankar Dam
The Indian Supreme Court has been praised as one of the most socially active courts in the world, especially so in the environmental field. Yet it is arguable that many of the benefits claimed for judicial involvement are far from real. Three phases of activism are identified. In the 1970s, the Court developed the concept of environmental rights based on ensuring that the directive principles of state policy and the fundamental right to life contained the Constitution worked in mutual support. This was followed by a period when the Court extended liability principles. The most recent and most controversial phase …
Current Developments: The Sixth Session (Part Two) And Seventh Session Of The Conference Of The Parties To The Framework Convention On Climate Change, David A. Wirth
David A. Wirth
No abstract provided.
International Decisions. European Communities -- Measures Affecting Asbestos And Asbestos-Containing Products, David A. Wirth
International Decisions. European Communities -- Measures Affecting Asbestos And Asbestos-Containing Products, David A. Wirth
David A. Wirth
No abstract provided.
Teaching And Research In International Environmental Law, David A. Wirth
Teaching And Research In International Environmental Law, David A. Wirth
David A. Wirth
No abstract provided.
Trade Implications Of The Basel Convention Amendment Banning North-South Trade In Hazardous Wastes, David A. Wirth
Trade Implications Of The Basel Convention Amendment Banning North-South Trade In Hazardous Wastes, David A. Wirth
David A. Wirth
No abstract provided.
Public Participation In International Processes: Environmental Case Studies At The National And International Levels, David A. Wirth
Public Participation In International Processes: Environmental Case Studies At The National And International Levels, David A. Wirth
David A. Wirth
No abstract provided.
Trade And The Environment: Equilibrium Or Imbalance?, David A. Wirth, Douglas J. Caldwell
Trade And The Environment: Equilibrium Or Imbalance?, David A. Wirth, Douglas J. Caldwell
David A. Wirth
No abstract provided.
The Rio Declaration On Environment And Development: Two Steps Forward And One Back, Or Vice Versa, David A. Wirth
The Rio Declaration On Environment And Development: Two Steps Forward And One Back, Or Vice Versa, David A. Wirth
David A. Wirth
No abstract provided.