Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Environmental Law (9)
- Legislation (7)
- International Law (6)
- Rule of Law (5)
- Insurance Law (4)
-
- Science and Technology Law (4)
- Criminal Law (3)
- Human Rights Law (3)
- National Security Law (3)
- Constitutional Law (2)
- Energy and Utilities Law (2)
- Organizations Law (2)
- President/Executive Department (2)
- Business Organizations Law (1)
- Communications Law (1)
- Estates and Trusts (1)
- Evidence (1)
- Immigration Law (1)
- International Humanitarian Law (1)
- Internet Law (1)
- Jurisdiction (1)
- Law Enforcement and Corrections (1)
- Law and Economics (1)
- Law and Gender (1)
- Law and Society (1)
- Legal Remedies (1)
- Litigation (1)
- Military, War, and Peace (1)
- Keyword
-
- Emergencies (7)
- Climate change (4)
- Corporations (4)
- Disasters (4)
- Global warming (4)
-
- Regulation (4)
- Treaties (4)
- Authority (3)
- Criminal liability (3)
- Deepwater Horizon (3)
- Environmental protection (3)
- Federalism (3)
- Gulf of Mexico (3)
- Liability (3)
- Oil spills (3)
- Public health (3)
- Terrorism (3)
- United Nations (3)
- White collar crimes (3)
- Worker safety (3)
- Accidents (2)
- British Petroleum (2)
- Clean Water Act (2)
- Compliance (2)
- Corporate Crimes (2)
- Emergency response (2)
- Emissions (2)
- Environmental crimes (2)
- Flooding (2)
- Greenhouse gases (2)
- Publication Year
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 26 of 26
Full-Text Articles in Disaster Law
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Litigation: Proof Of Concept For The Manual For Complex Litigation And The 2015 Amendments To The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure, John C. Cruden, Steve O'Rourke, Sarah D. Himmelhoch
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Litigation: Proof Of Concept For The Manual For Complex Litigation And The 2015 Amendments To The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure, John C. Cruden, Steve O'Rourke, Sarah D. Himmelhoch
Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
On April 20, 2010, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven people and injuring seventeen more. Efforts to stop the spill failed. For the next eighty-seven days, hundreds of millions of barrels of oil poured into the Gulf. This catastrophe not only changed the lives of the families of the dead and injured and the communities who experienced the economic and social disruption of the spill – it challenged the survival of the ecosystem of the ninth largest water body in the world. The oil spill extended fifty miles offshore from Louisiana in the …
The Perverse Effects Of Subsidized Weather Insurance, Omri Ben-Shahar, Kyle D. Logue
The Perverse Effects Of Subsidized Weather Insurance, Omri Ben-Shahar, Kyle D. Logue
Articles
This Article explores the role of insurance as a substitute for direct regulation of risks posed by severe weather. In pricing the risk of human activity along the predicted path of storms, insurance can provide incentives for efficient location decisions as well as for cost-justified mitigation efforts in building construction and infrastructure. Currently, however, much insurance for severe-weather risks is provided and heavily subsidized by the government. This Article demonstrates two primary distortions arising from the government’s dominance in these insurance markets. First, existing government subsidies are allocated differentially across households, resulting in a significant regressive redistribution favoring affluent homeowners …
The Unintended Effects Of Government-Subsidized Weather Insurance, Omri Ben-Shahar, Kyle D. Logue
The Unintended Effects Of Government-Subsidized Weather Insurance, Omri Ben-Shahar, Kyle D. Logue
Articles
Catastrophes from severe weather are perhaps the costliest accidents humanity faces. While we are still a long way from technologies that would abate the destructive force of storms, there is much we can do to reduce their effect. True, we cannot regulate the weather, but through smart governance and correct incentives we can influence human exposure to the risk of bad weather. We may not be able to control wind or storm surge, but we can prompt people to build sturdier homes with stronger roofs far from floodplains. We call these catastrophes "natural disasters," but they are the result of …
Law Matters, Even To The Executive, Julian Davis Mortenson
Law Matters, Even To The Executive, Julian Davis Mortenson
Michigan Law Review
In both constitutional and international law, many legal rules cannot be implemented without what most people would describe as the voluntary compliance of their target. Is that really “law”? Or is rule compliance in such circumstances just an expression of “interests”? Forget jurisprudence for the moment. As a practical matter, what does it mean to work as a lawyer in a field where the rules are not coercively enforced against private parties by an independent judiciary whose orders are implemented by a cooperative executive? This question has particularly high stakes for national security policy, where we find judicial deference at …
Toward Comprehensive Reform Of America's Emergency Law Regime, Patrick A. Thronson
Toward Comprehensive Reform Of America's Emergency Law Regime, Patrick A. Thronson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Unbenownst to most Americans, the United States is presently under thirty presidentially declared states of emergency. They confer vast powers on the Executive Branch, including the ability to financially incapacitate any person or organization in the United States, seize control of the nation's communications infrastructure, mobilize military forces, expand the permissible size of the military without congressional authorization, and extend tours of duty without consent from service personnel. Declared states of emergency may also activate Presidential Emergency Action Documents and other continuity-of-government procedures, which confer powers on the President-such as the unilateral suspension of habeas corpus-that appear fundamentally opposed to …
Reconceptualizing States Of Emergency Under International Human Rights Law: Theory, Legal Doctrine, And Politics, Scott P. Sheeran
Reconceptualizing States Of Emergency Under International Human Rights Law: Theory, Legal Doctrine, And Politics, Scott P. Sheeran
Michigan Journal of International Law
States of emergency are today one of the most serious challenges to the implementation of international human rights law (IHRL). They have become common practice and are associated with severe human rights violations as evidenced by the Arab Spring. The international jurisprudence on states of emergency is inconsistent and divergent, and what now constitutes a public emergency is ubiquitous. This trend is underpinned by excessive judicial deference and abdication of the legal review of states' often dubious claims of a state of emergency. The legal regime, as positively expressed in international human rights treaties, does not adequately reflect the underlying …
Deferred Prosecution And Non-Prosecution Agreements And The Erosion Of Corporate Criminal Liability, David M. Uhlmann
Deferred Prosecution And Non-Prosecution Agreements And The Erosion Of Corporate Criminal Liability, David M. Uhlmann
Articles
On April 5, 2010, a massive explosion killed twenty-nine miners at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal, West Virginia. Following the explosion, President Barack Obama vowed that the U.S. Department of Labor would conduct "the most thorough and comprehensive investigation possible" and work with the U.S. Department of Justice ("Justice Department" or the "Department") to address any criminal violations. Later in the month, the President and Vice President flew to West Virginia to eulogize the victims and comfort their families. It was the nation's worst coal mining disaster in forty years. The tragic loss of life at the …
Viewer Discretion Is Advised: Disconnects Between The Marketplace Of Ideas And Social Media Used To Communicate Information During Emergencies And Public Health Crises, Peter Maggiore
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
In a sense, social media has become the ideal manifestation of the "Marketplace of Ideas" (hereinafter "Marketplace") that Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes articulated. The Marketplace concept will be discussed in greater detail below, but in brief, it is the theory that truth will surface over falsehoods when all opinions and ideas are freely expressed, because the value or worth of that opinion or idea will be determined on the market of public opinion. Part I of this Note will examine the Marketplace concept through the works of various legal and philosophical theorists. Chief among them is Frederick Schauer's work …
A Global Panopticon - The Changing Role Of International Organizations In The Information Age, Jennifer Shkabatur
A Global Panopticon - The Changing Role Of International Organizations In The Information Age, Jennifer Shkabatur
Michigan Journal of International Law
The outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003 and Swine Flu (H1N1) in 2009 captured a great deal of global attention. The swift spread of these diseases wreaked havoc, generated public hysteria, disrupted global trade and travel, and inflicted severe economic losses to countries, corporations, and individuals. Although affected states were required to report to the World Health Organization (WHO) events that may have constituted a public health emergency, many failed to do so. The WHO and the rest of the international community were therefore desperate for accurate, up-to-date information as to the nature of the pandemics, their …
Women, Vulnerability, And Humanitarian Emergencies, Fionnuala Ni Aolain
Women, Vulnerability, And Humanitarian Emergencies, Fionnuala Ni Aolain
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
The catastrophic dimensions of humanitarian emergencies are increasingly understood and more visible to states and international institutions. There is greater appreciation for the social, economic and political effects that follow in the short to long term from the devastating consequences of humanitarian emergencies. There is also recognition of the gendered dimensions of humanitarian emergencies in policy and institutional contexts. It is generally acknowledged that women are overrepresented in the refugee and internally displaced communities that typically result from many humanitarian crises. Women bear acute care responsibilities in most societies and also disproportionately bear familial and communal care responsibilities in communities …
After The Spill Is Gone: The Gulf Of Mexico, Environmental Crime, And Criminal Law, David M. Uhlmann
After The Spill Is Gone: The Gulf Of Mexico, Environmental Crime, And Criminal Law, David M. Uhlmann
Articles
The Gulf oil spill was the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, and will be the most significant criminal case ever prosecuted under U.S. environmental laws. The Justice Department is likely to prosecute BP, Transocean, and Halliburton for criminal violations of the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which will result in the largest fines ever imposed in the United States for any form of corporate crime. The Justice Department also may decide to pursue charges for manslaughter, false statements, and obstruction of justice. The prosecution will shape public perceptions about environmental crime, for reasons that are …
Katrina, Federalism, And Military Law Enforcement: A New Exception To The Posse Comitatus Act, Sean Mcgrane
Katrina, Federalism, And Military Law Enforcement: A New Exception To The Posse Comitatus Act, Sean Mcgrane
Michigan Law Review
In the days following Hurricane Katrina, as lawlessness and violence spread throughout New Orleans, the White House considered invoking the Insurrection Act so that members of the U.S. military could legally perform law enforcement functions inside the flooded city. This Note contends that the White House's decision not to invoke the Act was substantially driven by federalism concerns-in particular, concerns about intruding on Louisiana's sovereignty. But, this Note further contends, in focusing so heavily on these state sovereignty concerns, the White House largely ignored the other side of the 'federalism coin "-namely, enabling the federal government to act where national …
Crimes On The Gulf, David M. Uhlmann
Crimes On The Gulf, David M. Uhlmann
Articles
The explosion that rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010, killed 11 workers and triggered the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. After six weeks of failed efforts to stop the gushing oil and protect the fragile ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico and the communities along its shores, President Obama pledged on June 1 that “if our laws were broken . . . we will bring those responsible to justice.”
Lessons From Hurricane Katrina: Prison Emergency Preparedness As A Constitutional Imperative, Ira P. Robbins
Lessons From Hurricane Katrina: Prison Emergency Preparedness As A Constitutional Imperative, Ira P. Robbins
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters ever to strike the United States, in terms of casualties, suffering, and financial cost. Often overlooked among Katrina s victims are the 8,000 inmates who were incarcerated at Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) when Katrina struck. Despite a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, these men and women, some of whom had been held on charges as insignificant as public intoxication, remained in the jail as the hurricane hit, and endured days of rising, toxic waters, a lack of food and drinking water, and a complete breakdown of order within OPP Wien the …
Emergency Federalism: Calling On The States In Perilous Times, Adam M. Giuliano
Emergency Federalism: Calling On The States In Perilous Times, Adam M. Giuliano
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The attacks of September 11 prompted a historic debate concerning terrorism and domestic emergency response. This ongoing dialogue has driven policy decisions touching upon both liberty and security concerns. Yet despite the enormous effort that has gone into the national response, the role of the sovereign states, and with it federalism, has received comparatively little attention. This Article explores the relevance of federalism within the context of the "War on Terror" and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Acknowledging that theories of federalism developed elsewhere are insufficient, he outlines a doctrine of 'emergency federalism.' The author argues that the Framers …
Prescriptive Treaties In Global Warming: Applying The Factors Leading To The Montreal Protocol, Jasmine Abdel-Khalik
Prescriptive Treaties In Global Warming: Applying The Factors Leading To The Montreal Protocol, Jasmine Abdel-Khalik
Michigan Journal of International Law
In order to combat the ever-increasing problem of global warming, developing nations need technology that will limit emissions while allowing for economic growth. This paper will first examine the problem of global warming. In Part II, the paper will explore the reasons developing nations currently are unable to reduce their emissions. In Part III, the paper will look at the factors leading to the success of the Montreal Protocol and examine the global warming debate in light of these factors.
Racing The Rising Tide: Legal Options For The Marshall Islands, J. Chris Larson
Racing The Rising Tide: Legal Options For The Marshall Islands, J. Chris Larson
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Note first describes the threat posed by accelerated sea-level rise. A review of scientific data shows that global warming causes ocean levels to rise and that RMI may need to be evacuated. The current diplomatic efforts to decrease global warming offer few assurances to RMI. In fact, the countries that have obligated themselves to reduce global warming are actually increasing emissions of gases that cause global warming.
"Green Helmets": A Conceptual Framework For Security Council Authority In Environmental Emergencies, Linda A. Malone
"Green Helmets": A Conceptual Framework For Security Council Authority In Environmental Emergencies, Linda A. Malone
Michigan Journal of International Law
Although 1995 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the United Nations, the year also marks the fifth anniversary of a newly revitalized Security Council. In this period of five years, scholarly debate on the Security Council has shifted from what it might do if it could act to what substantive limits, if any, exist on the Security Council's authority to act under the Charter. The legitimacy of the Security Council's authority under the Charter arises both in its initial determination of when it can act and in its determination of the appropriate scope of its actions once it …
Multidisciplinary Perspectives On The Improvement Of International Environmental Law And Institutions, Linda C. Reif
Multidisciplinary Perspectives On The Improvement Of International Environmental Law And Institutions, Linda C. Reif
Michigan Journal of International Law
Review of Environmental Change and International Law: New Challenges and Dimensions (Edith Brown Weiss ed.), Institutions for the Earth: Sources of Effective International Environmental Protection (Peter M. Haas, Robert O. Keohane, & Marc A. Levy eds.), and The Uncertain Promise of Law: Lessons from Bhopal. by Jamie Cassels
The Role Of Risk Analysis In The 1992 Framework Convention On Climate Change, Martin J. Lalonde
The Role Of Risk Analysis In The 1992 Framework Convention On Climate Change, Martin J. Lalonde
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Note examines the role that risk analysis played in fashioning the Framework Convention on Climate Change and argues that risk analysis should play a significant part in implementing the Convention.
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: A Challenge For International Environmental Law And Policy, Ved P. Nanda
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: A Challenge For International Environmental Law And Policy, Ved P. Nanda
Michigan Journal of International Law
The first part of the article addresses the phenomenon of stratospheric ozone depletion, noting significant recent developments, and discussing their ramifications. This is followed by an inquiry into pertinent international and U.S. responses to ozone depletion. Recent developments in international environmental law provide an appropriate context for this inquiry. The adequacy of these responses is assessed in the next section. Recommendations follow in the concluding section.
Cherobyl: Its Implications For International Aromic Energy Regulation, Diana K. Brown
Cherobyl: Its Implications For International Aromic Energy Regulation, Diana K. Brown
Michigan Journal of International Law
The first section of this note focuses on the IAEA's role in the existing network of international organizations designed to improve nuclear power plant safety. The second section examines the implications of the Chernobyl accident for international cooperation in the nuclear field. The final section proposes several improvements for nuclear safety management, and is subdivided accordingly. The first subsection analyzes the incident reporting systems of the IAEA and the Nuclear Energy Agency and recommends amending the IAEA Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident to ensure that all nuclear incidents, as well as accidents, are covered by its terms. …
Victims Of Natural Disasters In U.S. Refugee Law And Policy, Janet L. Parker
Victims Of Natural Disasters In U.S. Refugee Law And Policy, Janet L. Parker
Michigan Journal of International Law
This note reviews the history and antecedents of subsection 203(a)(7)(B), suggests explanations for its repeal, and explores alternative relief for the individuals who might formerly have benefited from it. It is presumed that some victims of natural disasters have a need for refuge equal to that of the refugee fleeing persecution. This is not to say that every "catastrophic natural calamity," as the now defunct statutory formulation put it, produces victims requiring the extraordinary relief of asylum. Yet, when the disaster constitutes a continuing threat to human life, and aid to the stricken area cannot restore an acceptable standard of …
Abolishing The "Extraordinary Nuclear Occurrence" Threshold Of The Price-Anderson Act, Dean R. Tousley
Abolishing The "Extraordinary Nuclear Occurrence" Threshold Of The Price-Anderson Act, Dean R. Tousley
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This article critically examines the extraordinary nuclear occurrence threshold in light of its congressional purpose. Part I surveys the Price-Anderson Act's nuclear liability scheme. Part II focuses on the extraordinary nuclear occurrence threshold, scrutinizing its content and its application to the Three Mile Island accident. Part III discusses the need for reform of the nuclear liability waiver of defenses scheme, concluding that the threshold should be abolished.
Atomic Energy - Indemnity Legislation - Anderson Amendments To The Atomic Energy Act Of 1954, Dudley H. Chapman S.Ed.
Atomic Energy - Indemnity Legislation - Anderson Amendments To The Atomic Energy Act Of 1954, Dudley H. Chapman S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
The Anderson Amendments were enacted to encourage private industry to enter the atomic energy field by removing the risk of excessive liability for a major nuclear reactor disaster. Such a disaster could result in liability far in excess of available insurance coverage. The solution provided by the new legislation has three aspects: (1) After private financial protection, geared to the amount of available insurance, is obtained by a person licensed by the Atomic Energy Commission, (2) the Commission will execute an agreement to indemnify (not insure) the licensee and "any other person who may be liable for public liability" to …
Evidence Of Survivorship In Common Disaster Cases, John E. Tracy, John J. Adams
Evidence Of Survivorship In Common Disaster Cases, John E. Tracy, John J. Adams
Michigan Law Review
Almost daily, newspapers recount the details of another automobile accident or airplane crash in which numerous persons are killed--a common disaster. And determination of survivorship in common disaster cases presents some of the most vexing problems that lawyers and judges meet. Lawyers must search for evidence, frequently hard to obtain, and then must face difficult questions of relevancy, materiality, and probative value, since in almost all cases where any evidence is available it is wholly circumstantial. Judges must decide preliminary disputes over who shall bear the burden of proof, and then must rule on the sufficiency of evidence, which is …