Digital Commons Network^™

Land Without Legacy: The Case For Market-Based Appraisals On Hawaiian Home Lands, Alexis C. Owens

Seattle University Law Review

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 (HHCA) was enacted to restore Native Hawaiians to ancestral lands and promote long term economic self-sufficiency. More than a century later, that promise remains unfulfilled. This Note argues that a central but overlooked barrier lies in the HHCA’s mandated use of the replacement cost appraisal method, which systematically undervalues homestead properties by excluding market forces. In one of the most expensive housing markets in the United States, this approach suppresses home equity, the primary means of intergenerational wealth building, and restricts beneficiaries’ access to credit and financial stability. By severing the connection between …

Environmental Insurance And Esg: A Mismatch Or An Unlikely Pair?, Mycah Kindle

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Environmental insurance is something that is becoming increasingly important in the corporate sphere. Similarly, there has been an uproar in the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) movement. ESG ratings are becoming the norm in corporate America as a way to quickly assess a corporation through using a variety of factors. This Note will argue that a company’s ESG rating should be a main consideration when insurers are underwriting their environmental insurance policies. This Note will argue that by linking a company’s ESG ratings with their environmental insurance, it may lead to more sustainable practices and accountability from corporate America.

Part …

Powering The Machine, Draining The Planet: Whether U.S. Environmental Law Is Equipped To Regulate The Energy And Water Demands Of Ai Data Centers, Michael Marcu

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Artificial intelligence (AI) data centers have become one of the United States' fastest-growing and least-regulated sources of environmental stress. In 2024 alone, U.S. data centers consumed 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity more than the entire nation of Pakistan and consumed an estimated 17 billion gallons of water (IEA, 2025; Berkeley Lab, 2024). By 2030, electricity demand from these facilities is projected to reach 426 TWh, a 133% increase in six years (Pew Research Center, 2025). This paper examines whether the existing U.S. environmental regulatory framework put by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the …

The Networked City: City Climate Change Networks And U.S. Climate Governance, Caroline G. Cox

American University Law Review

City climate change networks complicate common narratives about the local role in environmental and climate change governance in the United States. These networks—organizations with three or more member cities or representative city staff that share information and resources—are crucial actors in supporting the increasing interest in local climate change mitigation. Building upon prior scholarship addressing mayor-led networks and municipal collaborations, this Article considers how city climate networks challenge notions of local parochialism and rebut some critiques of local climate action. The Article also evaluates the growing importance of these networks in light of changes in federal climate policy, including the …

The Inevitability Of Local Environmental Law, Keith H. Hirokawa, Cinnamon Carlarne Hirokawa, Lauren A. Vanwagoner

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The United States is entering a new era of environmental law. Within the first few months of President Trump’s second term in office, the administration issued a mass of executive orders, memoranda and policy changes that seek to peel back environmental protections, in many cases, to the point of erasure. The administration shuttered entire agencies, such as USAID, dissolved the Environmental Protection Agency’s research arm, terminated life-saving programs like the National Weather Service’s translation service, cut funding to housing and public health initiatives, and eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the country. Given the reality of these large-scale drawbacks, …

A Most Essential Power: The Case For Restoring Comprehensive Land Use Authority In Indian Country, Michelle Bryan

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Part I of this article provides a brief overview of allotment and its lingering jurisdictional quagmire on impacted reservations. Stepping outside of Indian Country, Part II then outlines the U.S. Supreme Court’s longstanding recognition of sweeping, area-wide government land use authority—authority it considers among the “most essential” and “least limitable.” The Court has never applied this established law when determining tribal sovereignty over land use. That application is long overdue.

Part III details how we arrived at this state of affairs—how tribes, despite starting with sovereign control over land use throughout their territories, experienced losses in that authority over time …

Living Heritage, Resilience And Ethically Informed Infrastructures In Malawi, Martha B. Lerski, Frank Puluputu Mwale

Publications and Research

Rooted in a rural community’s needs, this paper explores how historically, and ethically informed infrastructures can support community engagement towards identification, documentation, and dissemination of local, traditional, and indigenous knowledge relating to climate change. The paper examines climate adaptation and sustainability issues through the lenses of community organizing and Library & Information Science best practices. It draws on a growing body of literature identifying a role for expanded epistemological and subject discipline perspectives. While the impacts of climate on material culture are increasingly recognized, intangible, and biocultural heritage have not received as much attention. Living heritage traditions and knowledge systems …

From Choice To Justice: Examining The Intertwined Oppression Of Abortion Restriction And Family Policing, Casey Callahan

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Ski Resorts And Rural Energy Resiliency: How Colorado’S Ski Industry Could Help Reduce Energy Vulnerability In Rural Mountain Communities, Jonathan Skule

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Negara Hukum Kesejahteraan Di Batas Pantai: Paradoks Perlindungan Negara Terhadap Masyarakat Pesisir Di Tengah Perubahan Iklim, Aji Baskoro

Jurnal Ilmu Kesejahteraan Sosial

Climate change poses significant challenges to vulnerable coastal communities in Indonesia. As a welfare state, the Indonesian government is expected to safeguard these vulnerable groups through policies that promote their welfare and sustainable livelihoods. However, current policies create a paradox. This article explores this paradox: on the one hand, Indonesia adheres to the welfare state principle, which demands that all government actions be grounded in law, ensuring public safety and welfare. On the other hand, the policies focus on exploiting natural resources, exacerbating the vulnerabilities of coastal communities, particularly in the face of climate change. The article employs a normative …

Bridging Silos: Environmental And Reproductive Justice In The Climate Crisis, Sara A. Colangelo

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The climate crisis is a perilous yet underexamined example of the intersection of environmental injustice and reproductive injustice. The physical manifestations of the climate crisis affect key elements of reproductive justice: women’s rights to have children, to not have children, and to parent children in healthy, sustainable communities. Reams of studies document climate disaster-driven gender violence, loss of access to healthcare and reproductive services, as well as direct and deadly health effects of climate change on maternal health, fetal development, infants, and children. Despite these profound impacts, the environmental and reproductive justice movements remain largely siloed, particularly in the legal …

Military Climate Emissions, Nadia B. Ahmad

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Sacrifice Zones, Jonathan Rosenbloom

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

At The Intersection Of Environmental Justice And Sustainability Lies A More Equitable, Healthy Future For U.S. Communities, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn

UMKC Law Review

This Article offers a brief and recent history of the environmental justice and sustainability movements, with a decidedly U.S. focused approach necessary due to the breadth of the subject matter. This Article then offers examples of how the movements are coming together, in U.S. federal and state law and policy, judicial decisions, and in community applications. This Article then shows how the alignment of environmental justice and sustainability is serving to advance equity and a healthier future for many U.S. communities. This Article concludes that the continued intersection of these movements will serve to benefit our nation and its residents …

Sustainability: A Legal Value And A Legal Principle, Irma S. Russell

UMKC Law Review

Introduction to the symposium issue, Sustainability as a Legal Value and a Legal Principle. This issue explores the concept of sustainability as a legal principle, presents food for thought about sustainability development, and provides inspiration for climate action.

Protecting Water, Sustaining Communities: Transforming Groundwater Management Entities Into Sources Of Power During And After Environmental Crises, Sarah Matsumoto

UMKC Law Review

Groundwater serves as a vital, limited resource for people all over the world. The United States Geological Survey reports that about 140 million people in the United States rely on groundwater for drinking water, of those, almost 43 million people rely on groundwater from domestic (or private, non-public supply) wells. In rural areas, groundwater is often the only available source of drinking water, making protection of groundwater quality in these regions a paramount concern.

Mirroring the various state regulatory approaches to groundwater management and protection, much of the recent media coverage of groundwater in the West focuses on water allocation …

The Mysterious Case Of The Attacks Against The Halifax Public Gardens: The Enclosure Of "Common" Property , Public Access To Nature, And Sustainability In The City, Dr. Sara Gwendolyn Ross

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Climate Zoning, Christopher Serkin

Notre Dame Law Review

As the urgency of the climate crisis becomes increasingly apparent, many local governments are adopting land use regulations aimed at minimizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The emerging approaches call for loosening zoning restrictions to unlock greater density and for strict new green building codes. This Article argues that both approaches are appropriate in some places but not in others. Not all density is created equal, and compact multifamily housing at the urban fringe may actually in-crease GHG emissions. Moreover, where density is appropriate, deregulation will not necessarily produce it. And, finally, green building codes will increase housing costs and so …

Environmental Justice, Resilience Justice, And Watershed Planning, Craig Anthony (Tony) Arnold, Resilience Justice Project Researchers

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Watershed planning is an increasingly used governance tool for addressing environmental problems at ecosystem scales of watersheds, which are areas of land that drain to a common body of water. In recent years, watershed planning in the United States has been undergoing an “equity evolution”: watershed planners have begun integrating environmental justice considerations into their plans, often in response to demands by low-income communities of color. This Article explores a comprehensive set of principles, processes, analytical tools, and strategies for equitable watershed planning. It integrates a resilience justice perspective with environmental justice. Resilience justice is concerned with the systemically unequal …

Climate Zoning, Christopher Serkin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

As the urgency of the climate crisis becomes increasingly apparent, many local governments are adopting land use regulations aimed at minimizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The emerging approaches call for loosening zoning restrictions to unlock greater density and for strict new green building codes. This Article argues that both approaches are appropriate in some places but not in others. Not all density is created equal, and compact multifamily housing at the urban fringe may actually in- crease GHG emissions. Moreover, where density is appropriate, deregulation will not necessarily produce it. And, finally, green building codes will increase housing costs and …

Environmental Law For A Just Transition, Dayna Nadine Scott

Articles & Book Chapters

The environmental justice movement, which turns our attention to fairness in the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens and in the processes, biases and
structures that determine those distributions, is challenging the foundations of environmental law.
• ‘Extractivism’ – a mode of accumulation that necessitates both a high pace and a large scale of taking of natural resources such as fossil fuels – is deeply embedded in environmental law, producing uneven costs/benefits and intense, concentrated impacts on people and ecosystems. Even as we move towards a greener economy, environmental laws and regulations governing such areas as facility siting, pollution permitting, …

From Redlining To Greenlining, Danielle Stokes

Law Faculty Publications

For generations, marginalized communities have been impacted by discriminatory land use, zoning, and property valuation policies, from redlining in the 1930s to the siting of undesirable land uses that persists today. Because of these policies, marginalized communities are forced to contend with low property values, substandard infrastructure, and increased health risks. The very same mechanisms that created these injustices, however, may now be key to addressing them. This Article introduces “greenlining” as a land use planning mechanism that seeks to remediate historical housing, siting, and economic disparities while forging a path toward energy and environmental justice. Greenlining, the productive and …

Protecting Water, Sustaining Communities: Transforming Groundwater Management Entities Into Sources Of Power During And After Environmental Crises, Sarah Matsumoto

Publications

No abstract provided.

Prioritizing Proximity In Phasing Out Oil And Gas Extraction, Wyatt G. Sassman

Connecticut Law Review

To avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, most of the world’s oil and gas reserves must remain in the ground. In the United States, this would require a dramatic phaseout of oil and gas extraction nationwide over the coming decades. How could we accomplish this? While recent legal scholarship emphasizes the importance of a just transition away from oil and gas extraction, little work has been done to navigate the legal, political, and equity hurdles associated with phasing out oil and gas extraction.

This Article seeks to start this conversation by offering one way to approach phaseouts of …

Completing Streets: Improving America's "Complete Streets", William J. Zurborg

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Part I of this Note discusses the history of city planning in the United States, starting in the early twentieth century, as well as the rise of auto-centric cities. Part II examines how states and local governments across the United States are adopting policies called Complete Streets initiatives in order to create safer streets that accommodate pedestrians, cyclists, and public transportation users, as well as cars. Finally, Part III discusses the shortcomings of Complete Streets policies and argues that unless broader measures are taken to address failures in city and road design from a systems perspective, Complete Streets initiatives cannot …

Growth ≠ Density: Zoning Deregulation And The Enduring Problem Of Sprawl, Christopher Serkin, Kelsea Best

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

According to its many critics, zoning bears significant responsi- bility for the housing crisis in America andfor promoting unsustain- able development patterns. Reformers argue that zoning reduces the supply of new housing and therefore drives up prices in thriving communities. Zoning also increases carbon emissions by restricting density in the urban core and promoting carbon-intensive, land- consuming, automobile-dependent sprawl in single-family suburbs. A growing chorus calls for relaxing zoning limits in order to pro- mote growth in the urban core as a response to the twin crises of housing costs and climate change. Relaxing zoning limits will al- most certainly …

New York’S Professor John R. Nolon: A National Leader In Land Use Law With A Large Impact Across The Hudson Valley And The State Of New York, Patricia E. Salkin, Samuel Stewart

Scholarly Works

As Professor John R. Nolon steps down from active law teaching, this article reflects not only on his contributions as a national thought leader in the field, but also on how he has a hand in changing the land use and conservation patterns in New York while promoting affordable housing and combating discrimination.

Federal Historic Preservation's "Place" In Property Theory, Sam W. Gieryn

Pace Environmental Law Review

Progressive Property Theory scholars often point to historic preservation as an example of how property, itself, imposes an obligatory use. A historic structure’s public benefit justifies restrictions in available uses. To date, however, Progressive Property Theory has considered historic preservation only as it is applied in state and local regimes, forgoing an analysis of the federal structure under the National Historic Preservation Act. This article establishes a synergy between the underlying principles of Progressive Property Theory and federal historic preservation and suggests that federal historic preservation’s identification and incentivization structures model a process that could move Progressive Property Theory toward …

Environmental Justice Mapping In The U.S. Pacific Island Territory Of Guam, Ben Rocha

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Academics, regulators, and the public currently use geospatial analysis tools to identify locations that may be candidates for further environmental justice review in the continental United States (U.S.). However, current environmental justice geospatial analysis tools overlook a small but significant portion of the U.S. - the U.S. Pacific Islands. This study analyzes environmental justice within the U.S. Territory of Guam using existing geospatial analysis methods and publicly available environmental, climate, and socio-economic data to: (1) Spatially map relevant demographic and environmental data and (2) determine the correlation, if any, between the exposure to environmental hazards and the socio-economic status of …

Procedural Environmental Justice, Jonathan Skinner-Thompson

Washington Law Review

Achieving environmental justice—that is, the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies—requires providing impacted communities not just the formal right, but the substantive ability, to participate as equal partners at every level of environmental decision-making. While established administrative policy purports to provide all people with so-called meaningful involvement in the regulatory process, the public participation process often excludes marginalized community members from exerting meaningful influence on decision- making. Especially in the environmental arena, regulatory decisions are often …