Digital Commons Network^™

Innovative Financing Solutions For Community Support In The Context Of Land Investments, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Communities affected by agricultural, forestry, and other resource investments urgently need increased funding for legal and technical support. Without support, communities risk losing access to critical land and resources, suffering human rights violations, or missing opportunities to benefit from investments. A lack of community support can also lead to conflict and challenges that are damaging for companies and host governments.

Donors and support providers have found ways to finance support for communities, but such efforts can only extend so far. Promising new opportunities exist for filling the financing gap, yet they will require sustained efforts by a range of actors. …

The Time Has Come For A Universal Water Tribunal, Tarek Majzoub, Fabienne Quilleré-Majzoub

Pace Environmental Law Review

Since its inception in 1981, the International Water Tribunal has emerged as a non-governmental body with a multidisciplinary composition and a mandate based on conventional and customary international water law, which holds public hearings in order to address water-related complaints. This Article describes the historical background of the proposed Universal Water Tribunal (“UWT”) and significant difficulties on the horizon facing the proposed Tribunal (including political, practical, and legal-technical considerations). It then summarizes the key factors of such Tribunal and, finally, touches upon the proposed model based on an expanded concept of jurisdiction. The main underlying thesis is that, whereas the …

Recasting Intellectual Property In Light Of The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals: Toward Global Knowledge Governance, Margaret Chon

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Paris To Projects: Clarifying The Implications Of Canada’S Climate Change Mitigation Commitments For The Planning And Assessment Of Projects And Strategic Undertakings (Full Report), Robert B. Gibson, Karine Peloffy, Daniel Horen Greenford, Meinhard Doelle, H Damon Matthews, Christian Holz, Kiri Staples, Bradley Wiseman, Frédérique Grenier

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Canada has signed the Paris Agreement and made other international commitments to doing our fair share of what is needed to keep overall global warming to the Paris Agreement limit of well below 2ºC, and to aim for 1.5ºC, to avoid devastating climate change. However, we have not yet progressed far in translating these commitments into implications for decision making on proposed undertakings with significant implications for meeting those commitments.

Clarifying those implications and determining how best to incorporate them in deliberations and decision making is overdue and now imperative. The federal government’s new Impact Assessment Act, which is now …

Low Carbon Land Use: Paris, Pittsburgh, And The Ipcc, John R. Nolon

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Climate For Human Rights, Rebecca M. Bratspies

University of Miami Law Review

Climate change is the defining challenge of the 21st century. The United States government is currently ignoring the problem, but wishful thinking alone will not keep global mean temperature rise below 2ºC. This Article proposes a way forward. It advises environmental decision-makers to use human rights norms to guide them as they make decisions under United States law. By reframing their discretion through a human rights lens, decision-makers can use their existing authority to respond to the super-wicked problem of climate change

Cruelty To Human And Nonhuman Animals In The Wild-Caught Fishing Industry, Kathy Hessler, Rebecca Jenkins, Kelly Levenda

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The “Fowl” Practice Of Humane Labeling: Proposed Amendments To Federal Standards Governing Chicken Welfare And Poultry Labeling Practices, Latravia Smith

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Chickens raised specifically for meat production are the world’s most intensively farmed land animals. Yet, the existing legal frameworks that regulate the production and labeling of poultry products in the United States allow poultry producers to mistreat chickens, falsely distinguish poultry products, and defraud conscious consumers. This article proposes unique opportunities to improve poultry welfare in the United States’ agricultural industry and offers methods to ensure the accurate labeling of poultry products.

Cafos: Plaguing North Carolina Communities Of Color, Christine Ball-Blakely

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

About Sdlp

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Luke Trompeter, Ingrid Lesemann

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Gmos, International Law And Indigenous Peoples, Casandia Bellevue

Pace International Law Review

This Article sprung from a desire to discover why—despite scientific uncertainty and the oft-cited precautionary principle in international law—genetically modified organisms are still allowed to spread via international trade and natural ecological cycles. While exploring this topic, it did not take long to come across the environmental justice impacts of genetically modified crops, and their particularly disparate impact upon indigenous peoples across the globe. Not only are GMOs threatening biodiversity and our planet, but also the very existence and cultural foundations of many indigenous groups.

This Article seeks to answer the following questions: What are the international agreements that can …

Disproportionate Realities: The Climate Justice Implications Of Mitigation Policies Across Scales, Tinuviel Carlson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Global climate change will have disproportionate effects on low-income and minority communities around the world producing important justice challenges. As national governments increasingly rely on local governments, civil society, and private transnational actors to establish and implement climate actions policies, it is important to assess whether and how these newly emergent actors can address these justice challenges. First this thesis examines concepts of justice in relation to climate change across different scales in order to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework of climate justice. This conceptual framework expands the scale of the international climate justice movement address local concerns. Further, the …

Conclusions: The Value Of An Innovation Framework For International Law, Sara L. Seck, Alastair Neil Craik

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The concluding chapter to Global Environmental Change and Innovation in International Law provides an assessment of the value of an innovation framework for further scholarship in the field of international environmental law. The authors note that thinking more systematically about how international law structures innovation and how innovation within law arises has potential to generate new insights into the role of law in the development of sustainable transitions and may provoke greater attention to the sources and processes of legal transformations themselves. Identifying the constraints to legal innovation, particularly in the context of increasingly complex system demands, was identified as …

The Effect Of International Ngos On Influencing Domestic Policy And Law, Ashley Macarchuk

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis attempts to understand the impact of international human rights and environmental NGOs on affecting domestic policy and law. In particular, it looks at how State-NGO relations, civil society, and accountability affect the success of international NGOs in enacting change in domestic policy. The focus is on four countries with some of the largest human rights and environmental abuses: Argentina, China, India, and Russia. Through these countries, this thesis shows that NGOs have the most influence when State-NGO relations are strong, civil society is active, and NGOs are accountable to both the State and citizens. A key component to …

'Fraternité' In Echr Jurisprudence, Andrea Scoseria Katz, Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque

Scholarship@WashULaw

Solidarity rights can increasingly be found in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the preeminent rights-protecting body in the world. This article examples three specific spheres in which the ideal of solidarity has left its mark on the Court’s jurisprudence: (1) society’s obligation to its most vulnerable members; (2) the right to collective enjoyment of public goods like the environment; and (3) the rights of particular groups to self-development. It examines the manner and extent that such rights have been instantiated and the theoretical difficulties they pose to a human rights court.

Biased Damages Awards: Gender And Race Discrimination In Tort Trials, Goran Dominioni

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

Current U.S. tort law incentivizes potential tortfeasors to target members of underprivileged social groups by using gender and race-based statistical tables life expectancy; work-life expectancy and average wage) to award damages. Legal scholars have long criticized this practice from the point of view of distributive justice but supported it on welfarist grounds. Recent research in law and economics has however cast doubts on the efficiency of this practice. On this basis, some propose abandoning it in favor of gender and race neutral tables. In this article, I contribute to this debate by analyzing from a behavioral law and economics perspective …

The “Right” Right To Environmental Protection: What We Can Discern From The American And Indian Constitutional Experience, Deepa Badrinarayana

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Should there be a constitutional right to environmental protection? Arguments for and against are aplenty, but there is no consensus on this issue. Drawing on the experience within the U.S. and Indian Constitutions, this article posits that the right to environmental protection has normative and practical significance, because a constitutional right attaches to an individual and, hence, can protect an individual from environmental harms, whereas environmental laws, that focus primarily on reducing adverse environmental impact on a general population, may not. It further argues that, to be effective, three constitutionally-embedded rights that are central to preserving the right to environmental …

Where There's A Will, There's A Way: The Cause For A Cure And Remedial Prescriptions For Forum Non Conveniens As Applied In Latin American Plaintiffs' Actions Against U.S. Multinationals, E.E. Daschbach

Law and Business Review of the Americas

No abstract provided.

Case Global: Alumni, Faculty And Students Join Fight For Immigrant Rights In U.S., Case Western Reserve University School Of Law, The Frederick K. Cox International Law Center

Case Global Newsletter

Vol. 9, No. 1 (2017)

• Alumni, faculty and students join fight for immigrant rights in U.S. (cover)
• Special Report: Fighting for Immigrant Rights
• LLM Program Earns Top Ranking
• Jessup and Vis Teams Win Top Honors
• Journal of International Law Celebrates 50th Year
• Law School in Cutting Edge in Foreign Partnerships
• Foreign Policy Talk Radio Show Renewed for Fifth Year
• Law School Partners in Nation’s First Graduate Program in Military Ethics
• Financial Integrity Degree Expanding to D.C.
• Law School Receives Historic Grant for Human Trafficking Program
• Law Students Intern Around the World
• “How I Spent My Summer”
• 2017-18 Conferences and Lectures …

Address At The Lincoln Charter Of The Forest Conference, Bishop Grosseteste University: The Charter Of The Forest: Evolving Human Rights In Nature, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This conference is a singular event, long over due. It has been 258 years since William Blackstone celebrated “these two sacred charters,”1 Carta de Foresta and Magna Carta, with his celebrated publication of their authentic texts. In 2015, the Great Charter of Liberties enjoyed scholarly, political and popular focus. The companion Forest Charter was and is too much neglected.2 I salute the American Bar Association, and Dan Magraw, for the ABA’s educational focus of the Forest Charter, as well as Magna Carta. Today we restore some balance with this conference’s searching and insightful examination of the Forest Charter’s significance.

You Probably Shouldn’T Build There: Watershed-Based Land Use Strategies For Mitigating Global Climate Change In New Jersey’S Freshwater Systems, Matthew Knoblauch

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Conservation Of Marine Ecosystem From Trawl Usage By The Local Government Based On Sustainable Marine Preservation Principle, Waluyo Waluyo, Djoko W. Winarno, Ayub T. S. Kusumo, Rosita Candrakirana

Indonesian Journal of International Law

Fisheries practice using trawl and seine nets in Indonesia are still numerous since fishermen round that it will yield much more. However, the practice also threatens the life of small and young fishes as well as destroys the coral reef. The government then issued the regulation namely the Regulation of Minister on Marine Affairs and Fishery Number 2/Permen-KP/2015 about the Prohibition of Trawl and Seine Nets Usage which apply to the whole area of fisheries in Indonesia. It was one of the efforts by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia in conserving its marine ecosystem. The aim of this …

Regime Shifts And Panarchies In Regional Scale Social-Ecological Water Systems, Barbara Cosens

Articles

In this article we summarize histories of nonlinear, complex interactions among societal, legal, and ecosystem dynamics in six North American water basins, as they respond to changing climate. These case studies were chosen to explore the conditions for emergence of adaptive governance in heavily regulated and developed social-ecological systems nested within a hierarchical governmental system. We summarize resilience assessments conducted in each system to provide a synthesis and reference by the other articles in this special feature. We also present a general framework used to evaluate the interactions between society and ecosystem regimes and the governance regimes chosen to mediate …

Freedom Of Information Beyond The Freedom Of Information Act, David Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows any person to request any agency record for any reason. This model has been copied worldwide and celebrated as a structural necessity in a real democracy. Yet in practice, this Article argues, FOIA embodies a distinctively “reactionary” form of transparency. FOIA is reactionary in a straightforward, procedural sense in that disclosure responds to ad hoc demands for information. Partly because of this very feature, FOIA can also be seen as reactionary in a more substantive, political sense insofar as it saps regulatory capacity; distributes government goods in an inegalitarian fashion; and contributes …

Recent Developments In Climate Justice, Randall S. Abate, Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Maria Antonia Tigre, Patricia Ferreira, Wil Burns

Journal Publications

Climate justice can be defined generally as addressing the disproportionate burden of climate change impacts on poor and marginalized communities. It seeks to promote more equitable allocation of these burdens at the local, national, and global levels through proactive regulatory initiatives and reactive judicial remedies that draw on international human rights and domestic environmental justice theories. Yet, efforts to define climate justice as a field of inquiry remain elusive and underinclusive; a recent book, Climate Justice: Case Studies in Global and Regional Governance Challenges (ELI Press 2016), seeks to fill that void by providing an overview of the landscape of …

Un Environment Guide For Energy Efficiency And Renewable Energy Laws, Richard L. Ottinger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Guide is written as a sequel to the 2007 UN Environment Programme Handbook for Legal Draftsmen on Environmentally Sound Management of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Resources.

This Guide, as the Handbook, is written in response to needs expressed, particularly by energy efficiency and renewable energy project initiators, government officials, energy managers, project developers and particularly developing country energy legal draftsmen, asking for assistance in drafting legislative provisions for promotion and implementation of sound energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.

The Guide describes the key legal issues associated with efficiency and renewable energy resource development, and presents legislative options …

International Environmental Law And The Global South Edited By Shawket Alam, Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez, And Jona Razzaque, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Citizens Of Sinking Islands: Early Victims Of Climate Change, Erin Halstead

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This Note discusses the effects of climate change that threaten Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Specifically, with increasing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting in rising sea levels and higher frequency of extreme weather events, many citizens of SIDS are forced abandon their homelands, which are no longer livable. Although SIDS are some of the smallest contributors to GHG emissions, and therefore contribute the least to climate change, SIDS are some of the countries most heavily affected by the negative effects of climate change. The global community has an obligation to accommodate these displaced people, partially due to the significant …

Agenda: Coping With Water Scarcity In River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned From Shared Experiences, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)

Water scarcity is increasingly dominating headlines throughout the world. In the southwestern USA, the looming water shortages on the Colorado River system and the unprecedented drought in California are garnering the greatest attention. Similar stories of scarcity and crisis can be found across the globe, suggesting an opportunity for sharing lessons and innovations. For example, the Colorado River and Australia's Murray-Darling Basin likely can share many lessons, as both systems were over-allocated, feature multiple jurisdictions, face similar climatic risks and drought stresses, and struggle to balance human demands with environmental needs. In this conference we cast our net broadly, exploring …