Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Environmental Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 15 of 15

Full-Text Articles in Environmental Law

Can He Do That?: A Constitutional Analysis Of President Trump’S Withdrawal From The Paris Agreement, David Hubinger Dec 2018

Can He Do That?: A Constitutional Analysis Of President Trump’S Withdrawal From The Paris Agreement, David Hubinger

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article is structured to give context as to the history of United Nations-sponsored, climate change centered, international agreements from the early 1990s to the present. The Article also shows how the goals and responsibilities placed on the United States as a part of the Paris Agreement may still be realized even without full party membership. Additionally, the Article discusses the structural framework of the Paris Agreement and the significance of its legal classification when deciding how President Trump can leave the agreement in accordance with international law. The Article will also discuss how President Trump’s actions regarding the Paris …


Moving Beyond The Wto: A Proposal To Adjudicate Gmo Disputes In An International Environmental Court, Marguerite A. Hutchinson Sep 2018

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 …


The Vulnerability Of Subsea Infrastructure To Underwater Attack: Legal Shortcomings And The Way Forward, Laurence Reza Wrathall Oct 2010

The Vulnerability Of Subsea Infrastructure To Underwater Attack: Legal Shortcomings And The Way Forward, Laurence Reza Wrathall

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article explores the vulnerability of submarine pipelines and cables to underwater subterfuge beyond territorial waters, particularly with regards to the emerging threat posed by unmanned vehicles in executing such mal intent. Next, it describes the legal status of this critical infrastructure before identifying shortcomings in legal protection from underwater attack. Finally, potential solutions are offered for the way forward.


Carbon Down Under - Lessons From Australia: Two Recommendations For Clarifying Subsurface Property Rights To Facilitate Onshore Geologic Carbon Sequestration In The United States, Tracy J. Logan Mar 2010

Carbon Down Under - Lessons From Australia: Two Recommendations For Clarifying Subsurface Property Rights To Facilitate Onshore Geologic Carbon Sequestration In The United States, Tracy J. Logan

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment’s analysis requires a few necessary assumptions. First, the feasibility of large-scale deployment of geologic CCS technology for the purposes of permanently storing CO2 is assumed. Second, the establishment of a regulatory framework with incentives to mitigate or offset GHGs is assumed. Third, the carbon-capture technology retrofitting of point-source emitters is assumed. And finally, the existence of infrastructure to transport supercritical CO2 to a storage site is assumed. This Comment contains five parts: Part I provides an introduction and overview to contextualize the need for CCS; Part II details the technology of GS; Part III is an overview of …


Making Transfer Of Clean Technology Work: Lessons Of The Clean Development Mechanism, Mei Gechlik Oct 2009

Making Transfer Of Clean Technology Work: Lessons Of The Clean Development Mechanism, Mei Gechlik

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article takes a closer look at the case of China to fill the gap. It draws on numerous sources including Chinese laws and regulations, the country's policies on climate change, the country's technological capabilities and business environment, observations made by CDM specialists, and other studies of CDM projects. Such a comprehensive discussion, together with Dechezleprete et al.'s findings, will present a more complete picture of what actually drives the transfer of clean technologies to China and will, therefore, help design an effective post-Kyoto framework to facilitate international diffusion of clean technologies.


Revisiting The Thames Formula: The Evolving Role Of The International Maritime Organization And Its Member States In Implementing The 1982 Law Of The Sea Convention, Craig H. Allen Mar 2009

Revisiting The Thames Formula: The Evolving Role Of The International Maritime Organization And Its Member States In Implementing The 1982 Law Of The Sea Convention, Craig H. Allen

San Diego International Law Journal

Despite the findings that marine casualty rates have "plummeted" and the safety record of the oil transport industry has "significantly improved," high visibility pollution incidents in the last decade like those involving the tankers Erika and Prestige off the coast of Europe, together with the chronic problems of illegal and unregulated fishing and dismal labor conditions for many seafarers led a United Nations-chartered consultative group of leading international organization representatives to conclude that there is an "urgent" need to improve State performance in the implementation and enforcement of the international maritime legal regime. There is less agreement, however, in how …


Linking Global Warming To Inuit Human Rights, Marguerite E. Middaugh Nov 2006

Linking Global Warming To Inuit Human Rights, Marguerite E. Middaugh

San Diego International Law Journal

Under international law, the United States government has violated the Inuit's human rights by failing to take action against climate change. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights should find that the allegations of human rights violations by the Inuit are justified and rule in their favor. This Article first explores the impacts of climate change on the Inuit and each of the Inuit's basic human rights, which are implicated by the environmental changes. Next, the role and responsibility of the U.S. with respect to climate change is examined. This section discusses the current attitude and actions of the U.S. government, …


Saving Salvage: Avoiding Misguided Changes To Salvage And Finds Law, Christopher Z. Bordelon Nov 2005

Saving Salvage: Avoiding Misguided Changes To Salvage And Finds Law, Christopher Z. Bordelon

San Diego International Law Journal

In recent years, as technology permitting previously impossible underwater salvage operations has become available, ancient principles of the laws of salvage and of finds as applied to sunken ships have come under attack. Those who would limit or preclude the application of salvage and finds principles and the conduct of salvage operations in the context of shipwrecks have advocated changes in both the common law of admiralty and in related statutory law. They have also supported an international convention on the subject. Academic commentary favoring heightened preservation praises these developments and promotes further initiatives to protect the "underwater cultural heritage" …


Sand Mining In Baja And Alta California, Harold Magistrale May 2005

Sand Mining In Baja And Alta California, Harold Magistrale

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment will examine some geologic, environmental, and legal aspects of the international sand trade. Looking at the state of sand mining in both countries will demonstrate that the United States and Mexico have parallel regulatory structures and similar environmental concerns and will show how municipal and state officials in Baja California are ale to piggyback their economic concerns onto environmental regulations. This Comment will also examine the sand trade issue for lessons applicable to cross border trade and suggest a certification mechanism that would allow continued sand exports while preserving environmental safeguards.


Marine Ecosystem Management & (And) A Post-Sovereign Transboundary Governance, Bradley Karkkainen Nov 2004

Marine Ecosystem Management & (And) A Post-Sovereign Transboundary Governance, Bradley Karkkainen

San Diego International Law Journal

This paper argues that for purposes of managing transboundary environment problems in general, and marine ecosystems in particular, the role of international law as traditionally understood is somewhat overrated. Binding international legal obligations owed by states to other states often turn out to be a good deal less important in environmental problem solving than is commonly supposed by many international lawyers, legal scholars, and environmental NGOs (non-governmental organizations). Specifically, this paper argues that emphasis on binding multilateral environmental agreements among sovereign states is often misplaced and possibly even counterproductive, insofar as it threatens to divert attention from more promising strategies …


Regionalism, Fisheries, And Environmental Challenges In The Pacific, Jon M. Van Dyke Nov 2004

Regionalism, Fisheries, And Environmental Challenges In The Pacific, Jon M. Van Dyke

San Diego International Law Journal

The Pacific, the world's largest ocean, contains many of the world's smallest countries. Most of these isolated islands were under colonial domination from the mid-19th century (or earlier) until about the 1970s, when they became independent. New Zealand (Aotearoa) and Australia participate in many Pacific regional organizations and activities. They are viewed as partners but play separate and different, while still important, roles because of their larger size and differences in culture and history.


Soldiers Of Semipalatinsk: Seeking A Theory And Forum For Legal Remedy, Anne Miers Kammer May 2004

Soldiers Of Semipalatinsk: Seeking A Theory And Forum For Legal Remedy, Anne Miers Kammer

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment will address the unique dilemma of individuals in Kazakhstan whose health has been compromised by the former Soviet Union's 40-year period of nuclear testing on what is now Kazakhstan soil. The principal legal analysis of this Comment will focus on the availability of remedies (in the form of monetary damages available through legal resolution) to the citizens and/or state of Kazakhstan, and potential judicial forums in which to seek those remedies. Particular attention will be paid to the comparative likelihood of successful remedial legal action if pursued by a private class of Kazakhstan citizens versus action pursued by …


The Race To The Bottom: The United States' Influence On Mexican Labor Law Enforcement, Jenna L. Acuff May 2004

The Race To The Bottom: The United States' Influence On Mexican Labor Law Enforcement, Jenna L. Acuff

San Diego International Law Journal

There are several theories why the Mexican government has refused to enforce the stringent laws enumerated in the Mexican Constitution. For example, the North American Social Dumping Theory and Mexico's desire to retain foreign direct investment from foreign countries as a source of revenue and employment. This Comment seeks to analyze and expound on these theories and to develop two additional theories that have only been discussed in passing. Part II begins with a brief look at the history of Mexican labor, including pre- and post-Revolution working conditions. Part III discusses Mexico's encouragement and protection of foreign direct investment and …


Towards A Solution To The Problem Of The Common Anadromous Stocks Of The North Pacific, Christian C. Polychron May 2003

Towards A Solution To The Problem Of The Common Anadromous Stocks Of The North Pacific, Christian C. Polychron

San Diego International Law Journal

The problem of the common anadromous stocks of the North Pacific is currently addressed through a legal regime operating within the framework established by the UNCLOS. This legal regime operates on two distinct fronts, but the externalities and incentives that define a problem of the commons continue to exist on both fronts. On the high seas, inadequate enforcement enables vessels and nations to violate the ban against high seas salmon harvests and to externalize the costs of doing so. Within EEZs, ineffectual bi-national treaties enable nations to which salmon stocks migrate to over exploit salmon stocks that originate in other …


Regulating Foreign Vessels Under The Clean Air Act: The Case For A Permissible Administrative Interpretation, Dan Lickel May 2002

Regulating Foreign Vessels Under The Clean Air Act: The Case For A Permissible Administrative Interpretation, Dan Lickel

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment will argue that the EPA may regulate the emissions of large sea-going vessels flying foreign flags that enter the territorial sea, contiguous zone, or Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the United States, under Section 213 of the CAA, notwithstanding conventional and customary Law of the Sea and other international treaties governing vessel source pollution. Part II of the comment presents background material that explains the provisions of the CAA, which mandate the EPA to regulate international shipping vessels. This section also presents the regulatory schemes developed by the IMO and the EPA. Part III evaluates whether the EPA …