Disaster Law Commons^™

Reimagining Exceptional Events: Regulating Wildfires Through The Clean Air Act, Emily Williams

Washington Law Review

Wildfires are increasing in both frequency and severity due to climate change. Smoke from these fires causes serious health problems. Land managers agree that prescribed burns help mitigate these negative consequences. Prescribed burns are lower-intensity fires that are intentionally ignited and managed for an ecological benefit. They reduce the amount of smoke produced and limit wildfire damage to natural systems and human property.

The Clean Air Act (CAA) is designed to regulate air pollution to protect public health, yet it exempts wildfire smoke through the exceptional events designation while imposing strict regulations on prescribed burns. Congress and the Environmental Protection …

Introductory Essay: Catastrophe Thinking, Fast And Slow, Todd A. Wildermuth

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

We know far more about certain catastrophic risks than we have been willing to do anything serious about. This was not always the case, of course. There was a time when we could have plausibly said we had no real knowledge of a problem and therefore no possible obligation to do anything different. For climate change, the nuances of the date can be endlessly debated; the possible window puts Americans knowing somewhere between 1896, with transatlantic arrival of scientific findings from Sweden, and no later than James Hansen’s testimony before Congress in 1988. For the threats posed by a Cascadia …

Insurance Against Catastrophe: Government Simulation Of Insurance Markets For Catastrophic Events, Véronique Bruggeman, Michael Faure, Tobias Heldt

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

As a result of climate change, technological development, and other variables, natural and technological catastrophes have increased dramatically. Moreover, due to infrastructural issues, such as building in floodplains, damages resulting from catastrophes have increased as well. The massive earthquake and tsunami that occurred in Japan on March 11, 2011 are still fresh in people's memories, providing sobering illustrations of the extensive reach of such catastrophes. After a catastrophe, which is defined for the purposes of this Article as an accident with large losses in either the number of victims or the amount of property damage, governments often intervene in the …

Invest To Withstand The Test Of Time: Capital Planning For High-Impact Earthquakes, Jan Whittington

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

Can people expect buildings and infrastructure to last, keeping their occupants sheltered from the elements, free to go about their business? The professionals who design facilities—as well as the taxpayers and entrepreneurs who fund them—make this assumption, but is this a safe assumption to make? Contemplate the effect of one extreme event—a magnitude 9.0 earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone of the Pacific coast—and it is easy to realize that this is not a safe assumption. Though seismic technology can be used to fortify structures against extreme events and land use plans can keep development out of harm’s way, the …

The Nature Of Extreme Natural Risks In The Natural Environment, Denis Binder

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

This paper suggests a paradigm change to recognize the uncontrollable risks of extreme natural hazards. All areas of the country face extreme geological and meteorological risks. This paper discusses the historic American approach to the natural environment, the underlying nature of extreme natural hazards in Washington State, California, and the New Orleans-Mississippi River, and proposals to address these hazards. It also lays out two historic limitations on action: the Fifth Amendment and human nature.

Introductory Essay: Catastrophe Thinking, Fast And Slow, Todd A. Wildermuth

Articles

No abstract provided.

Government Liability For Regulatory Failure In The Fukushima Disaster: A Common Law Comparison, Joel Rheuben

Washington International Law Journal

This article considers the Japanese government’s response to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power disaster, in assisting Tokyo Electric Power Company (“TEPCO”) with handling claims for compensation. It argues that in setting guidelines for claims, establishing a government alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) body to deal with disputes, and creating a convoluted funding structure that has led to the effective nationalization of TEPCO, the government has intervened significantly in what are essentially private disputes governed by the Nuclear Compensation Law. This is contrasted with the less interventionist response of the New South Wales government in Australia to mass tort claims for asbestos …

Introduction: The Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Disaster And The Future Of Nuclear Energy Programs In Japan And East Asia, Hiroshi Fukurai

Washington International Law Journal

On March 11, 2011, a massive 9.0 magnitude quake and powerful tsunami slammed the northeastern region of Japan. Huge seismic activities knocked out the power at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, and ensuing tidal waves disabled the backup generators for cooling systems to the active reactors. This triggered a series of hydrogen explosions and released dangerously high levels of radioactive particles into the atmosphere. The Japanese government declared a nuclear emergency, due to the worst nuclear crisis in Japanese history, and decided to evacuate 140,000 residents within twenty kilometers of the plant to various relocation centers

Corporate Liability, Government Liability, And The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Eri Osaka

Washington International Law Journal

This article focuses on the liability issues arising from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The radioactivity released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant inflicted catastrophic harm to people, industries, and the environment. Under Japanese law, a nuclear operator bears strict, channeling, and unlimited liability for nuclear damage unless the damage is caused by a grave natural disaster of an exceptional character. This article concludes the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that triggered this nuclear accident do not fall within this exemption because neither of them were unforeseeable nor far beyond the design basis for the reactors at the plant. …

Proving Corporate Criminal Liability For Negligence In Vessel Management And Operations: An Allision-Oil Spill Case Study, Craig H. Allen

Articles

Maritime policy analysts often invoke the "vessel safety net" metaphor to explain the independent, but overlapping, risk management roles and responsibilities of the vessel master and crew, owner and charterer, operating company, classification society, flag state and port states. Oil spills from the 2002 M/T Prestige break up off the coast of Galicia, Spain, the 2007 M/V Cosco Busan bridge allision in San Francisco Bay and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon debacle in the Gulf of Mexico, among others, demonstrate that any or all of the components of that safety net may come under scrutiny following a marine casualty, possibly leading …

Command Of The Commons Boasts: An Invitation To Lawfare?, Craig H. Allen

Articles

The first panel in this, the 2006 Naval War College, International Law Department conference on "Global Legal Challenges: Command of the Commons, Strategic Communications, and Natural Disasters," has been asked to offer a US perspective on current assertions regarding the US command of the commons. It is my privilege to moderate the discussion by a distinguished panel that includes Vice Admiral Lowell E. ("Jake") Jacoby, US Navy (retired) the immediate past director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Vice Admiral John G. Morgan, Jr., US Navy, deputy chief of naval operations for plans and strategy (N3/N5); and Rear Admiral Joseph L. …