Law Commons^™

Fears, Faith, And Facts In Environmental Law, William W. Buzbee

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Environmental law has long been shaped by both the particular nature of environmental harms and by the actors and institutions that cause such harms or can address them. This nation’s environmental statutes remain far from perfect, and a comprehensive law tailored to the challenges of climate change is still elusive. Nonetheless, America’s environmental laws provide lofty, express protective purposes and findings about reasons for their enactment. They also clearly state health and environmental goals, provide tailored criteria for action, and utilize procedures and diverse regulatory tools that reflect nuanced choices.

But the news is far from good. Despite the ambitious …

The Lawlessness Of Sackett V. Epa, William W. Buzbee

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

When the Supreme Court speaks on a disputed statutory interpretation question, its words and edicts undoubtedly are the final judicial word, binding lower courts and the executive branch. Its majority opinions are the law. But the Court’s opinions can nonetheless be assessed for how well they hew to fundamental elements of respect for the rule of law. In particular, law-respecting versus law-neglecting or lawless judicial work by the Court can be assessed in the statutory interpretation, regulatory, and separation of power realms against the following key criteria, which in turn are based on some basic rule of law tenets: analysis …

Jazz Improvisation And The Law: Constrained Choice, Sequence, And Strategic Movement Within Rules, William W. Buzbee

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article argues that a richer understanding of the nature of law is possible through comparative, analogical examination of legal work and the art of jazz improvisation. This exploration illuminates a middle ground between rule of law aspirations emphasizing stability and determinate meanings and contrasting claims that the untenable alternative is pervasive discretionary or politicized law. In both the law and jazz improvisation settings, the work involves constraining rules, others’ unpredictable actions, and strategic choosing with attention to where a collective creation is going. One expects change and creativity in improvisation, but the many analogous characteristics of law illuminate why …

Regulation Of Polyfluoroalkyl Chemicals In New York, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are two polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFAS) – a class of over 7,000 compounds with unique chemical structures that repel lipids and water. As a result, PFOA and PFOS have been used in numerous household products, such as nonstick cookware and stain-resistant carpets, and commercial applications such as firefighting foam. PFOS and PFOA are frequently referred to as “emerging contaminants,” a label with no precise regulatory definition but generally understood to refer to chemicals for which there are few published standards designed to protect human health and the environment from perceived hazards. Many PFAS compounds …

Escaping The Sporhase Maze: Protecting State Waters Within The Commerce Clause, Mark S. Davis, Michael Pappas

Faculty Scholarship

Eastern states, though they have enjoyed a history of relatively abundant water, increasingly face the need to conserve water, particularly to protect water-dependent ecosystems. At the same time, growing water demands, climate change, and an emerging water-oriented economy have intensified pressure for interstate water transfers. Thus, even traditionally wet states are seeking to protect or secure their water supplies. However, restrictions on water sales and exports risk running afoul of the Dormant Commerce Clause. This Article offers guidance for states, partciularly eastern states concerned with maintaining and improving water-dependent ecosystems, in seeking to restrict water exports while staying within the …

Takings, Water Rights, And Climate Change, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Legal-Political Barriers To Ramping Up Hydro (Symposium), A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Strategic Idealizations Of Science To Oppose Environmenal Regulation: A Case Study Of Five Tmdl Controversies, David S. Caudill, Donald E. Curley

Working Paper Series

Proponents of environmental regulation have catalogued various strategies used by takeholders to delay or weaken regulatory efforts, including (1) manufacturing or magnifying uncertainty; (2) demanding “sound science” (and thereby imposing unreasonable standards of evidence); and (3) data quality initiatives that permit deconstruction of credible studies by highlighting inevitable assumptions, funding sources, and areas for further research. Such strategies can be termed “idealizations” of science insofar as they rely on an unrealistic image of good science as somehow capable of avoiding tentative conclusions, institutional interests, consensual assumptions, and the need for further research.

The question remains, however, when does an argument …

International Law's Lessons For The Law Of The Lakes, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Working Paper Series

The eight Governors of the Great Lakes States signed a proposed new compact for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence basin on December 13, 2005, and they joined with the Premiers of Ontario and Québec in a parallel agreement on the same topic on the same day. Neither document is legally binding—the proposed new compact because it has not yet been ratified by any state nor consented to by Congress; the parallel agreement because it is not intended to be legally binding. Both documents are designed to preclude the export of water from the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin apart from …

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 …

Are Shared Benefits Of International Waters An Equitable Apportionment? (With P. Wouters), A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Great Lakes As An Environmental Heritage Of Humankind: An International Law Perspective, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Five Views Of The Great Lakes And Why They Might Matter, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Western Growth And Sustainable Water Use: If There Are No "Natural Limits" Should We Worry About Water Supplies? (With S. Van De Wetering), A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Law Of Later-Developing Riparian States: The Case Of Afghanistan, (With J. Mcmurray), A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court's Water Pollution Jurisprudence: Is The Court All Wet?, Jeffrey G. Miller

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this article sets the stage with a brief survey of federal water pollution control, focusing on the CWA. Part II examines statistical conclusions and inferences from a cursory review of the Court's CWA opinions. Part III examines some of the opinions in a more qualitative manner to determine whether the statistical conclusions withstand analysis and whether the Court understands the CWA. The latter determination requires examining the nature and severity of the Court's misinterpretations of the statute. Part IV examines the Court's decisions with anti-environmental results to determine whether they reflect an anti-environmental bias or the other …

Doing Water Quality Credit Trading Right, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Brief Examination Of The History Of The Persistent Debate About Limits To Western Growth, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A First Look At A Modern Legal Regime For A "Post-Modern" United States Army Corps Of Engineers, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Water Law Reform In West Virginia: The Broader Context, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Water Supply And Urban Growth In New Mexico: Same Old, Same Old Or A New Era?, (With L. Lucero), A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

New Mexico and other arid western states face the following dilemma: Rapid urban growth and the increasing demand for the dedication of water to aquatic ecosystem services are placing new stresses on the ability of available water supplies to support these new demands at a time when a coherent federal supply and water policy no longer exists and states have been slow to fill the vacuum. The answer to the increasing demand for water is no longer simply to augment supply through new diversions, high-capacity wells, or the construction of large storage reservoirs. Instead, in today's increasingly unmediated, competitive water …

Fish, Farms, And The Clash Of Cultures In The Klamath Basin, (With H. Doremus), A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Connecting Land, Water, And Growth (With L. Lucero), A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Prior Appropriation In The West, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Potential Role Of Local Governments In Watershed Management, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Water Quality Trading: Bringing Market Forces To Bear In Watersheds, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Myths And Truths That Ended The 2000 Tmdl Program, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reconnecting Property Rights To Watersheds, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Growth Management And Western Water Law: From Oases To Archipelagos, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Creation Of New Risk Sharing Water Entitlement Regimes: The Case Of The Truckee-Carson Basin, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.