Law Commons^™

Soaps And Shampoos: Proposals To Reform Regulation In The United States Personal Care Market To Decrease Deforestation From Palm Oil Imports, Kelsey Weston

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

Palm oil is the world's most highly sought-after vegetable oil due to its multifaceted uses and cheap cost of production. However, producing this versatile oil comes at a high cost to one of the largest biodiversity on the planet. Over the last two centuries, Indonesia and Malaysia have become the main producers and exporters of palm oil but they are also home to the largest number of mammal species in the world that have seen a staggering decline in populations. Furthermore, palm oil production has caused excessive release of greenhouse gases, increased disruption of forestland, and economic poverty for smallholders …

Organic Waste Bans: Beyond The Compost Heap, David Lee

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Food waste and food insecurity are strange bedfellows, but in the United States they shamelessly walk hand-in-hand. The USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (“TEFAP”) are two federal programs that provide for large numbers of people in the United States. Local food recovery and donation programs serve their communities as the “backbone of the America hunger response" efforts. While many American households continue to report their struggles with food insecurity, heaping piles of good food go to waste. The repercussions of wasted food are vast, taxing American wallets, wasting our resources with every bit …

The Right To Live: How North Atlantic Right Whales Are Going Extinct Despite Environmental Protections, Justin Weatherwax

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Legal Mechanisms To Provide For Affordable Housing In England And The United States, Edward Sullivan, Robert Williams

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Municipal Bonds In Three Countries: India, South Africa And The United States, Matt Glasser

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

The Deceptive Allure Of Singapore's Urban Planning To Urban Planners In America, Denis Binder

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

This article explores Singapore's history, urban planning history, and present day urban planning strategies as compared to the United States.

Coastal Cultural Heritage Protection In The United States, France And The United Kingdom, Ryan Rowberry, Ismat Hanano, Sutton M. Freedman, Michelle Wilco, Cameron Kline

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Exacerbated by climate change, sea levels are rising rapidly. This poses a significant, immediate threat to coastal or riverine urban areas and the tangible cultural heritage (e.g. artifacts, buildings, monuments, archaeological sites) that makes them unique. Protecting coastal cultural resources from climate change is quickly becoming a global priority, and comparing cultural heritage laws designed to protect historic resources in coastal areas from several countries may illuminate potential paths forward. Following a brief discussion of the economic and public health benefits arising from the protection of cultural heritage, this article describes, examines, and compares the legal frameworks through which the …

A Wall Runs Through It: Comparing Mexican And Californian Legal Regimes In The California Floristic Province, Joseph E. Farewell

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

Habitats are often divided by international borders, leaving ecosystems in varying states of protection, development, and danger. The California Floristic Province, which traverses the United States-Mexico border, is one such example. This border, which divides a once-continuous ecological region, not only represents an international crossing, but also a shift in legal, land, and conservation regimes. These differences reveal particular vulnerabilities for California Floristic Province habitat on the Mexican side of the border region, showing that the ecosystem is in danger because of rapid real estate development pressures and unfavorable environmental laws. Accordingly, this note recommends three main changes to Mexican …

Venezuela Undermines Gold Miner Crystallex's Attempts To Recover On Its Icsid Award, Sam Wesson

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Crow Indian Tribe V. United States, Hallee Kansman

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The protection status of the Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear continues to elicit debate and find its way into the courtroom. In Crow Indian Tribe v. United States, for the second time in the last decade, a court held the Service’s attempt to delist the Yellowstone Grizzly arbitrary and capricious. Specifically, the court found the Service’s evaluation of remnant populations, recalibration, and genetic health deficient. This case demonstrates the importance in and the resilient motivation behind preserving grizzly bear populations and genetics. As the practice of delisting a species under the Endangered Species Act continues, this case will provide important …

Moving Beyond The Wto: A Proposal To Adjudicate Gmo Disputes In An International Environmental Court, Marguerite A. Hutchinson

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article begins with a brief summary of the scientific basis of creating GMOs and its historic precursors. The second section provides an overview of risks to humans and the environment. The third part of this Article analyzes the arguments put forward by both the United States and the E.U., which have defined the conflict between blocs of countries pushing GMOs abroad and those who persistently reject them. The fourth section evaluates the respective regulatory schemes imposed on GMOs by the United States and Europe, domestically and by international treaty. The success of these systems is evaluated in the fifth …

Avian Jurisprudence And The Protection Of Migratory Birds In North America, Marshall A. Bowen

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

A View From American Courts: The Year In Indian Law 2017, Grant Christensen

Seattle University Law Review

This Article provides a comprehensive review of Indian law for 2017. It does not include a citation to every case related to Indian law issued by the courts but tries to incorporate the majority of opinions into its catalog to provide a robust discussion of the changes in Indian law over the course of 2017. Part I of this Article provides some general statistics about Indian law in 2017. Part II focuses on activity at the U.S. Supreme Court, which is the most watched forum for Indian law cases for obvious reasons. Part III groups cases by subject area and …

The Battle Over Scientific Whaling: A New Proposal To Stop Japan’S Lethal Research And Reform The International Whaling Commission, Laura Hoey

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

United States V. Washington, Kirsa Shelkey

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Pacific Northwest Treaties, now known as the Stevens Treaties, were negotiated in the 1850’s between the U.S. and Indian tribes, including the Suquamish Indian Tribe, Jamestown S'Klallam, Lower Elwha Band of Klallams, Port Gamble Clallam, Nisqually Indian Tribe, Nooksack Tribe, Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, Skokomish Indian Tribe, Squaxin Island Tribe, Stillaguamish Tribe, Upper Skagit Tribe, Tulalip Tribes, Lummi Indian Nation, Quinault Indian Nation, Puyallup Tribe, Hoh Tribe, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian Nation, Quileute Indian Tribe, Makah Indian Tribe, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe (“Tribes”). The Stevens Treaties stated that “the right of taking fish, …

The Snakehead War: Administrative Rule-Making And Legislative Strategies To Minimize Destruction By The Northern Snakehead, Joshua Rice

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

The Grass Is Not Always Greener: Congressional Dysfunction, Executive Action, And Climate Change In Comparative Perspective, Hari M. Osofsky, Jacqueline Peel

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Partisan climate change politics, paired with a legislative branch that is often deeply divided between two parties, has led to congressional gridlock in the United States. Numerous efforts at passing comprehensive climate change legislation have failed, and little prospect exists for such legislation in the foreseeable future. As a result, executive action under existing federal environmental statutes—often in interaction with litigation—has become the primary mechanism for national-level regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles and power plants.

Although many observers critique this state of affairs and wish for a legislature more able to act, this essay argues that more …

The Role Of Brazil And The United States In The International Promotion Of The Right To A Healthy Environment, José Adércio Leite Sampaio, Beatriz Souza Costa

University of Baltimore Journal of International Law

This article has the objective of analyzing the role played by Brazil and the United States in protecting the right to a healthy environment at an international level, especially at the World Trade Organization level. First, we must try to identify the fundamental right to a healthy environment, in its internal dimension and as a human right, at the international level. We used the bibliographic technique and deductive methodology to develop the research. The results at the conclusion evidence that the behavior of political and economic agents has a direct impact on the level of environmental protection. In the United …

Actions And Reactions: The Evolution Of Environmental Common Law And Judicial Activism In India And The United States, Elizabeth B. Fata

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Water, Water, Everywhere: Surface Water Liability, Jill M. Fraley

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

By 2030 the U.S. will lose around $520 billion annually from its gross domestic product due to flooding. New risks resulting from climate change arise not only from swelling rivers and lakes, but also from stormwater runoff. According to the World Bank, coastal cities risk flooding more from their poor management of surface water than they do from rising sea levels. Surface water liability governs when a landowner is responsible for diverting the flow of water to a neighboring parcel of land. Steep increases in urban flooding will make surface water an enormous source of litigation in the coming decades. …

What's Worse, Nuclear Waste Or The United States' Failed Policy For Its Disposal?, Christopher M. Keegan

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lessons From China’S Carbon Markets For U.S. Climate Change Policy, Susan Vermillion

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Animal Agriculture Laws On The Chopping Block: Comparing United States And Brazil, Elizabeth Bennett

Pace Environmental Law Review

Brazil and the United States are among the largest producers and exporters of livestock in the world. This raises important animal rights and environmental concerns. While many of the impacts of industrial animal agriculture are similar in Brazil and the United States, there are key differences in the effects on animals and the environment. The variations between Brazil and the United States are due to ecological, production method, and regulatory differences between the countries. Despite their dissimilarities, however, Brazil and the United States both largely fail to adequately protect farm animals and the environment from the impacts of large-scale animal …

Enforcement Activism Of The Eu’S Renewable Energy Directive During The Global Financial Crisis, Jon Truby

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

The Collective Origins Of Toxic Air Pollution: Implications For Greenhouse Gas Trading And Toxic Hotspots, David E. Adelman

Indiana Law Journal

This Article presents the first synthesis of geospatial data on toxic air pollution in the United States. Contrary to conventional views, the data show that vehicles and small stationary sources emit a majority of the air toxics nationally. Industrial sources, by contrast, rarely account for more than ten percent of cumulative cancer risks from all outdoor sources of air toxics. This pattern spans multiple spatial scales, ranging from census tracts to the nation as a whole. However, it is most pronounced in metropolitan areas, which have the lowest air quality and are home to eighty percent of the U.S. population. …

Epa Shoots Down Lead Shot Regulation: Lead Ammo's Unreasonable Risk To Human Health And The Environment, And The Special Situation Of The California Condor, Rachel Hawkins

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This Comment argues that the EPA has the authority to ban lead ammunition nationwide under The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), because lead ammunition poses an unreasonable risk to human health and the environment that is not adequately addressed by other laws. Further, the EPA retains the authority to ban lead ammunition nationwide under TSCA because a national ban would not be preempted by other federal laws. Part II of this Comment explores the problematic history of lead regulation as well as the devastating effects of lead poisoning on humans. Part III begins with an in-depth explanation of the harmful …

Farallon Poison Paradox: The U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service's Attempt At Saving One Species While Subjecting Others To Probable Death, Vadim Sidelnikov

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This Comment examines the failure of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) to adequately protect this country’s unique wildlife from highly toxic rodenticides like brodifacoum, and particularly the EPA’s broad exemption for the FWS’s use of brodifacoum in island conservation. Part II explains the problem of non-native mice at the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge and the FWS’s proposed plan to eradicate the mice. Additionally, this Part describes the federal legal framework that governs pesticide application and use within the United States.

Part III evaluates the EPA’s narrow scope in determining to reregister brodifacoum, focusing on the EPA’s decision to allow …

Climate Change Litigation In The Wake Of Aep V. Connecticut And Aes V. Steadfast: Out To Pasture, But Not Out Of Steam, Cecilia O'Connell Miller

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

On April 19, 2011, two courts heard oral arguments in cases that will define the future of climate change litigation for decades to come. In American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut (hereinafter AEP), the United States Supreme Court considered whether environmental advocates can use a federal common-law nuisance claim as a vehicle for seeking redress for climate change accruing from greenhouse gas (hereinafter GHG) emissions. Just a hundred miles south that same day, the Virginia Supreme Court heard oral arguments in AES Corporation v. Steadfast (hereinafter Steadfast), in which Virginia’s highest court considered whether a commercial general liability …

Montana V. Wyoming: An Opportunity To Right The Course For Coalbed Methane Development And Prior Appropriation, Michelle Bryan Mudd

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Part I of this Article provides a brief background on the Yellowstone River Compact and the Montana v. Wyoming litigation. This part further explains the Special Master’s analysis of the CBM issue, as well as the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on improved irrigation efficiency. When viewed together, these decisions provide an important framework for determining how the parties’ regulation of CBM development should proceed. Part II then describes the magnitude of the CBM groundwater pumping issue and asserts that the posture of the Montana v. Wyoming case provides a unique opportunity not only to set Powder River Basin CBM development …

A Water Story With Original Jurisdiction And A Doctrine For Changing Uses, Melosa Granda

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This is a story of how two rivers in the remote reaches of Wyoming and Montana, and the underlying water, became a federal case before the United States Supreme Court. It is an account of a local water dispute whose resolution will likely impact the course of water law, and more importantly, water throughout the entire country.