Disaster Law Commons^™

Global Health Security Agenda Legal Landscape Assessment, Natasha M. Nussbaum

Master's Projects and Capstones

The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) was created on February 13, 2014, to improve country's ability to detect, prevent and respond to emerging health threats. Eleven action packages were created. The detection action package included antimicrobial resistance, zoonotic diseases, national biosafety/biosecurity and immunization. The prevention action package included establishing a national laboratory system, strengthening real-time biosurveillance, advancing timely and accurate disease reporting and establishing a trained global health security workforce.The response action package focused on establishing emergency operation centers, linking public health and law enforcement and enhancing medical countermeasures/personnel deployment.

The following paper summarizes the components performed for the GHSA …

Snapshots From New Orleans' Long-Term Recovery-- Katrina At 9, John T. Marshall

John Travis Marshall

No abstract provided.

Blizzard Alert!: How Do U.S. Cities Compared In Dealing With Major Snowstorms?, John T. Marshall, Rebecca Burns

John Travis Marshall

No abstract provided.

Forging Successful Non-Profit Partnerships Following Crisis And Disaster: O.C. Haley Boulevard's Story, John T. Marshall

John Travis Marshall

No abstract provided.

Atlanta Relief Officials Cite Lessons Learned After Hurricane Katrina, John T. Marshall, Jeremy Redmon, Craig Schneider

John Travis Marshall

No abstract provided.

Submerging Islands: Tuvalu And Kiribati As Case Studies Illustrating The Need For A Climate Refugee Treaty, Rana Balesh

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

Climate change will significantly impact vulnerable populations. Included in those populations are island indigenous peoples. Small island developing states are particularly vulnerable to the rise in seal level. Loss of territory due to rising sea levels is not the only problem however, infrastructure and food supplies are also at risk. As such, this article addresses the need for a comprehensive climate change refugee treaty using Tuvalu and Kiribati's circumstances to illustrate the situation.

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 …

Natural Hazards, Human Actors, Serious Harm: Refugee Protection Through Understanding The Social Construction Of Disasters, Matthew Scott

Matthew Scott

The occurrence of a natural hazard event is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for the unfolding of a ‘natural’ disaster. Disasters result when individuals and communities are exposed and vulnerable to natural hazards, such as droughts, floods and earthquakes. In their turn, exposure and vulnerability are social facts that are often closely correlated with discrimination, for example against women, children, older people, persons with disabilities, as well as for reasons of race, religion, nationality or political opinion. Adopting the perspective that sees disasters as socially constructed in this way, the scope of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status …

Beyond Voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility: Corporate Human Rights Obligations To Prevent Disasters And To Provide Temporary Emergency Relief, Anastasia Telesetsky

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Much of the focus of the emerging field of International Disaster Law is on state responsibility. Yet the source of some disasters is the failure of corporations to address known risks created by a company or located on company property. This Article queries whether there are obligations for corporations to act under international human rights law to prevent disasters where corporations have control over known hazards such as tailings dams or chemical dumps. This Article concludes that corporations have a legal duty to act in order to support and protect human rights whenever there is corporate knowledge of hazards that …

Challenges For "Affected States" In Accepting International Disaster Aid: Lessons From Hurricane Katrina, E. Katchka

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The International Law Commission (ILC) draft articles on the protection of persons in the event of disasters purport to "facilitate an adequate and effective response to disasters that meets the essential needs of the persons concerned, with respect to their full rights" by setting forth complementary principles governing both individual state responsibilities and international cooperation in disaster response. The principles presented in the draft articles reflect an application of established international law principles as well as current, practical challenges to coordinating international disaster cooperation. This article applies specific ILC draft articles targeting the role of the state impacted by a …

Professional Standards And Legal Standard Setting, Kirsten N. Bookmiller

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article draws attention to the nascent efforts of emergency medical personnel, convened under World Health Organization auspices, to improve humanitarian health responses following catastrophic natural disasters. The Foreign Medical Team Working Group (FMT-WG) is pursuing new professional standards related to sectoral coordination, classification and registration. As its approach has been significantly influenced by the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group's (INSARAG) prior advances in these areas, INSARAG's contributions will first be highlighted. While more atypical contributors to international lawmaking than traditionally studied, the efforts by both groups shed significant light into the burgeoning International Disaster Response Law field. Two …

Imagery And Expectations For International Disaster Response, Nathan E. Clark

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article examines the development and contributions of the Charter on Cooperation to Achieve the Coordinated Use of Space Facilities in the Event of Natural or Technological Disasters (Charter). As a voluntary mechanism among spacefaring nations and transnational entities, the Charter provides remote sensing data and information for international disaster response efforts. Over the past fifteen years, the Charter members have continued to contribute and cooperate in an effective manner, in spite of increasing legislative and economic controls over the access and distribution of data at the State level. This Article finds that the behaviors of Charter members largely fall …

Attribution Of Conduct And Liability Issues Arising From International Disaster Relief Missions: Theoretical And Pragmatic Approaches To Guaranteeing Accountability, Giulio Bartolini

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article analyzes legal issues related to harmful activities of international disaster relief personnel, focusing on two distinct issues. On the one hand, the analysis centers on internationally wrongful acts carried out by relief personnel and uncertainties related to the attribution of conduct, due to the array of actors involved in such missions. Such an examination will be carried out through the lens of draft articles adopted by the International Law Commission on the responsibility of states and international organizations where some non-exhaustive references are made to such scenarios. On the other hand, the Article focuses on liability issues that …

Trial By Water: Reflections On Superstorm Sandy, Thomas Maligno, Benjamin R. Rajotte

Scholarly Works

Superstorm Sandy devastated thousands of homes in some of the most densely populated areas of the country. It created extensive and diverse property losses in the Northeast, resulting in an unprecedented need for disaster recovery assistance in affected communities. As we pass the storm's two-and-a-half year anniversary, complex challenges remain for many of these households. This article documents how one law school has responded. It reflects on how we have approached our educational and public interest missions throughout the recovery process, and how these experiences have shaped our views of the future. Disasters know no boundaries, and coastal floods are …

Under Containment: Preempting State Ebola Quarantine Regulations, Eang L. Ngov

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Compensating The Victims Of Japan’S 3-11 Fukushima Disaster, Eric A. Feldman

All Faculty Scholarship

Japan’s March 2011 triple disaster—first a large earthquake, followed by a massive tsunami and a nuclear meltdown—caused a devastating loss of life, damaged and destroyed property, and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, hurt, and in need. This article looks at the effort to address the financial needs of the victims of the 3/11 disaster by examining the role of public and private actors in providing compensation, describing the types of groups and individuals for whom compensation is available, and analyzing the range of institutions through which compensation has been allocated. The story is in some ways cause for …

Droughts, Floods, And Wildfires: Paleo Perspectives On Disaster Law In The Anthropocene, Ryan Stoa

Faculty Publications

Humanity’s impact on the earth has become so pronounced that momentum is building toward adopting a new term for the modern geological age — the “Anthropocene.” The term signifies that human activity has reached a scale that it is now a planetary force capable of shaping ecosystems and natural processes. And yet, anthropocentric natural resources management and environmental lawmaking in the United States reveals a lack of control in managing natural systems and fostering resilience to extreme events. These systems do not easily conform to the whims of reactionary environmental policies. Droughts, floods, and wildfires, in particular, are often conceptualized …