Digital Commons Network^™

Engines Of Environmental Innovation: Reflections On The Role Of States In The U.S. Regulatory System, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, Chandos Culleen

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article focuses on the role that states play in environmental regulation. Specifically, this article offers examples of the central part in the evolution of United States environmental regulation states played in the past, continue to play today, and will play in the future. First, this article explores the history of state environmental regulation, demonstrating that despite a lack of resources, states were actively engaged in environmental regulation before the advent of the modern era of federal environmental regulation in the 1970s. This article relates not only the regulatory efforts of states, but also the practical benefits of state regulation. …

Bridging The North-South Divide: International Environmental Law In The Anthropocene, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article calls for a fundamental reorientation of international environmental law to bridge the North-South divide and respond to the ecological crises of the Anthropocene. Such a reconceptualization of international environmental law must be normatively grounded in respect for nature and in the quest for environmental justice within, as well as between, countries.

International environmental law must directly challenge the relentless drive toward economic expansion and unbridled exploitation of people and nature rather than merely attempt to mitigate its excesses. An essential step toward such a reconceptualization is to examine the ways in which international law has historically engaged with …

Pace Environmental Law Review 2015 Symposium: Reconceptualizing The Future Of Environmental Law, Cayleigh S. Eckhardt

Pace Environmental Law Review

Pace Environmental Law Review's 2015 Symposium, entitled Reconceptualizing the Future of Environmental Law, can be traced back to over a year ago when a few Pace Environmental Law faculty members approached me and Katie Hatt, the Managing Editor of the law review, with an idea.1 No, not an idea, rather a question. They simply asked us, “what do you think the future holds for environmental law?” This question transformed into an extensive conversation about the past, the present, and the future of environmental law.

Eyes On Bangladesh's Disappearing Coasts: Proposed Constitutional Protections For Coastal Communities Particularly Vulnerable To Climate Change, Sabrina Persaud

Student Works

Climate change, a phenomenon caused by global warming, has impacted just about every part of the earth. As polar ice caps continue to melt, people across the world are experiencing record-breaking heat waves and warmer winters. These erratic weather patterns are just one of the many impacts of climate change. Changes in temperature have altered ecosystems and habitats for terrestrial and marine wildlife, and caused human health to deteriorate. Larger, more industrialized countries are the major contributors to climate change; however, smaller countries, such as Bangladesh, suffer the consequences. This article analyses the negative effects that climate change has had …

Getches-Wilkinson Center Newsletter, Fall 2015, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment Newsletter (2013-)

No abstract provided.

Boundary Work In Environmental Law, Gregg P. Macey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Use, Impact, And Ban Of Coal Tar- Based Sealants, Hannah Needleman

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Pope Francis, Environmental Anthropologist, John Copeland Nagle

Journal Articles

In June 2015, after much anticipation and a few leaks, Pope Francis released his encyclical entitled “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. “Laudato si’” means “praise be to you,” a phrase that appears repeatedly in Saint Francis’ Canticle of the Sun poem. The encyclical itself has been widely praised and widely reported, far more than one would expect from an explicitly religious document. The encyclical is breathtakingly ambitious. Much of it is addressed to “every person living on this planet,” while specific parts speak to Catholics and others to religious believers generally. It surveys a sweeping range of …

Narrating Climate Change At The San Juan National Historic Site At The Community Level, Leslie Paul Walker Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the National Park Service is charged with interpreting and preserving areas designated as park resources, they must also manage environmental issues such as erosion resulting from climate change. This research sets out to narrate how Palo Seco, Puerto Rico, a neighboring community of the San Juan National Historic Site, perceives similar environmental conditions and motivations for addressing these issues. My research sits at the intersection between the park’s charter and understanding community implications of environmental changes that affect local heritage. Using Authorized Heritage Discourse and environmental justice as theoretical frameworks, I suggest that the National Park Service should include …

Environmental Justice In Maryland, Environmental Law Clinic, Jane F. Barrett, Matthew Peters, Hilary Jacobs, Jason Rubinstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Florida's Downtowns Are Free To Grow Local Broccoli…And Chickens (Sometimes), Sidney F. Ansbacher, Michael T. Olexa, Kathleen Maurer

Florida A & M University Law Review

The United States Supreme Court in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (Sebelius), famously invoked broccoli to limit the scope of Commerce Clause. All of the Justices used broccoli as a plot device to further their respective arguments answering whether the individual mandate to buy health insurance was constitutional. This article discusses the other end of the economic spectrum – local. We explicate Florida’s local government regulations of urban planting, growing, and selling of broccoli, as well as other fruits, vegetables, and animals. This requires a history of urban agriculture and local zoning laws before we discuss current laws …

Cultural Heritage Conservation Easements: The Problem Of Using Property Law Tools For Heritage Protection, Jessica Owley

Journal Articles

Conservation easements are quickly becoming a favored tool for protection of cultural heritage. Perpetual encumbrances on the use of private land, most cultural heritage conservation easements are held by private conservation organizations known as land trusts. With minimal public oversight, land trusts decide which lands to protect in perpetuity and what the rules regarding use of those lands should be. A variety of concerns arise when protection of cultural heritage resides with private organizations. First, as governments abdicate cultural heritage protection to private organizations, the public’s role in site protection shifts. When private organizations and landowners negotiate which properties to …

In Defense Of Ecosystem Services, J.B. Ruhl

Pace Environmental Law Review

It is a great honor and pleasure to deliver the Garrison lecture at the Pace University Law School, especially on an evening during which we have paid fitting tribute to the lives of two giants of environmental law and policy, Joe Sax, and David Sive. I chose the topic of ecosystem services for this auspicious occasion for three reasons and to answer three questions.

First, the path of ecosystem services as a theme in environmental law and policy spans my practice (1982-1994) and academic (1994-present) careers. The importance of nature to human well-being seems so obvious one would think it …

Arguments In Support Of A Constitutional Right To Atmospheric Integrity, Elizabeth Fuller Valentine

Pace Environmental Law Review

As used in this paper, “atmospheric integrity” refers to the interrelated physical, chemical, and biological processes on planet Earth that enable human and non-human life now and in the future and recognizes that modern civilization has developed within the relatively stable, current geologic period known as the Holocene. I chose to focus on atmospheric integrity, rather than more broadly on environmental integrity, because the health of terrestrial and aquatic habitats is inextricably tied to atmospheric stability. This assertion is not meant to minimize the multitude of harms impacting land and water. It is just that the magnitude of the climate …

Trends In Environmental Law Scholarship 2008-2014, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Linda K. Breggin, Jamieson Brock, Clarke Agre

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) is published by the Environmental Law Institute's (ELI's) Environmental Law Reporter in partnership with Vanderbilt University Law School. ELPAR provides a forum for the presentation and discussion of the best ideas about environmental law and policy from the legal academic literature. As part of the article selection process each year, Vanderbilt University Law School students assemble and review the environmental law articles published during the previous academic year. In this Comment, we draw on the results of the ELPAR article selection process to report on trends in environmental legal scholarship for academic …

Ohio's Brownfield Problem And Possible Solutions: What Is Required For A Successful Brownfield Initiative?, Faith R. Dylewski

Akron Law Review

This Comment intends to survey the current state of Ohio’s brownfield redevelopment programs. It also examines the successes and failures of other states’ brownfield redevelopment efforts in order to uncover the elements of success common to a comprehensive brownfield redevelopment plan. Part II discusses the environmental, economic, and social problems that are associated with brownfield sites. Part III examines the impediments to brownfield redevelopment. Part IV illuminates the federal government’s efforts aimed at the brownfield problem. Part V provides an overview of Ohio’s current brownfield redevelopment programs. Part VI discusses the ingredients of a successful state brownfield redevelopment initiative through …

Power To The People: Restoring The Public Voice In Environmental Law, Albert C. Lin

Akron Law Review

Although the last forty years of environmental law have witnessed some successes, they have also increasingly revealed the limitations of existing laws and regulatory structures. Congress has been unable to pass substantial environmental legislation in recent years, notwithstanding widespread recognition of the need for better tools for responding to climate change, toxic chemicals, non-point source water pollution, and other problems. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has struggled in the wake of limited resources and politicization to effectively use the tools it has, and its rulemaking processes are often dominated by industry and other repeat players. To deal with …

Recovering From The Recovery Narrative: On Globalism, Green Jobs And Cyborg Civilization, Michael Burger

Akron Law Review

In this Essay, I make a preliminary foray into this new narrative terrain, identifying several emerging legal storylines that have arisen in the wake of climate change disruptions and that I predict will prove influential in the coming years. In Part I, I discuss the ways in which new perceptions of scale are re-defining human beings’ attachments to a sense of “place” or “dwelling” and are shaping new attitudes about what constitutes the local, posing potential problems for existing federalism schemes. In Part II, I discuss the ways in which America’s long history of nationalizing nature manifests in the discourse …

Agenda: Innovations In Managing Western Water: New Approaches For Balancing Environmental, Social, And Economic Outcomes, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Many aspects of western water allocation and management are the product of independent and uncoordinated actions, several occurring a century or more ago. However, in this modern era of water scarcity, it is increasingly acknowledged that more coordinated and deliberate decision-making is necessary for effectively balancing environmental, social, and economic objectives. In recent years, a variety of forums, processes, and tools have emerged to better manage the connections between regions, sectors, and publics linked by shared water systems. In this event, we explore the cutting edge efforts, the latest points of contention, and the opportunities for further progress.

The Case For The Creation Of An International Environmental Court: Non-State Actors And International Environmental Dispute Resolution, Alessandra Lehman

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Va Coastlines (End Of 2014-2015 Term), Virginia Coastal Policy Center

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Adaptive Law In The Anthropocene, Shalanda H. Baker

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The sky has fallen. We are now firmly rooted in a new epoch scientists have named the Anthropocene, where the activities of humans will most certainly negatively impact the trajectory of Earth and its inhabitants. What the Anthropocene fully holds is uncertain, but there are a few clues. The global ecology is shifting. The oceans are dying. The planet is getting hotter and drier, and its storms increasingly volatile.

Amidst this changing climate is evidence of a failed approach to economic development in the Global South. Globally, the poor are becoming poorer. Inequality reigns as the global economy shrinks. This …

The Dialects And Dimensions Of Sustainability, Nancy D. Perkins

Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Law

No abstract provided.

Getches-Wilkinson Center Newsletter, Spring 2015, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment Newsletter (2013-)

No abstract provided.

Mapping Coastal Risks And Social Vulnerability: Principles And Considerations, Shana Jones

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Mapping Coastal Risks And Social Vulnerability: Current Tools And Legal Risks, Lisa Schiavinato, Heather Payne

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of The Eu Directive On Environmental Impact Assessment In The Czech Republic: How Long Can The Wolf Be Tricked?, Veronika Tomoszkova

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the former Czechoslovakia experienced the most enthusiastic wave of environmental law drafting in its history. The Czech Act on Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA Act”) was among the first new environmental statutes adopted already in 1992 with the intention to harmonize Czechoslovakian law with European Union (“EU”) law and to prevent exploitation and pollution of the environment in Czechoslovakia, which in the early 1990s counted for one of the worst in the world. The hardship of transition process that hit Czechoslovakia in 1992 caused a shift from enthusiastic pro-active environmental movement towards more pragmatic approach …

Masthead And Front Matter

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

No abstract provided.

The Production Of Pollution And Consumption Of Chemicals In Canada, Dayna Nadine Scott, Lauren Rakowski, Laila Zahra Harris, Troy Dixon

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Damage Control: Adapting Transportation To A Changing Climate, Trip Pollard

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Sea level rise, extreme weather events, and other problems caused or exacerbated by a changing climate present the most serious long-term threats to transportation worldwide. Recent disasters have carried a hefty price tag, and forecasts call for more frequent and more costly damage to infrastructure and disruptions of services that are central to trade, jobs, food access, national security, health, and personal mobility. It is essential to reduce greenhouse gas pollution to lessen future damage to transportation; however, even if emissions are cut drastically at this point, the impacts of a changing climate will continue for decades. As a result, …