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Analysis Of Environmental Law Scholarship 2019-2020, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Stefan J. Berthelsen, Bryan Davidson, Linda K. Breggin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The goal of this Comment is to highlight the results of the ELPAR article selection process and to report on the environmental legal scholarship for the 2019-2020 academic year, including the number of environmental law articles published in general law reviews versus environmental law journals, and the topics covered in the articles. We also present the Top 20 articles that met ELPAR's criteria of persuasiveness, impact, feasibility, and creativity, from which four articles were selected to re-publish in condensed form with commentaries from leading practitioners and policymakers. Two additional articles received an honorable mention. Thus, this Comment provides an empirical …

An Agenda For Research And Action Toward Diverse And Just Futures For Life On Earth, Carina Wyborn, J. Montana, N. Kalas, S. Clement, F. Davila, N. Knowles, E. Louder, M. Balan, J. Chambers, L. Christel, T. Forsyth, G. Henderson, S. Izquierdo Tort, Michelle Mei Ling Lim, Et Al

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Decades of research and policy interventions on biodiversity have insufficiently addressed the dual issues of biodiversity degradation and social justice. New approaches are therefore needed. We devised a research and action agenda that calls for a collective task of revisiting biodiversity toward the goal of sustaining diverse and just futures for life on Earth. Revisiting biodiversity involves critically reflecting on past and present research, policy, and practice concerning biodiversity to inspire creative thinking about the future. The agenda was developed through a 2-year dialogue process that involved close to 300 experts from diverse disciplines and locations. This process was informed …

Front Matter And Table Of Contents

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pathways To Just, Equitable And Sustainable Trade And Investment Regimes, Tomaso Ferrando, Nicolas Perrone, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Kangping Du

Reports & Public Policy Documents

In this report we discuss what a Fair, Just and Equitable approach to the global, liberalized and hyper-competitive system of global trade and investments should be. The global market for goods and capital affect the life of producers and workers, stimulates the run towards cheaper products and puts farmers and workers against each other. The current vision of trade and investments is based on the silencing of gendered and reproductive labour and is responsible for the increase in inequality and relative poverty. Furthermore, it stimulates the extraction of commodities and contributes to the degradation of the planet, it has a …

Table Of Contents

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice And The Gullah Geechee: The National Environmental Policy Act's Potential In Protecting The Sea Islands, Paul N. Nybo

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bart: The Enron Of Public Transit The Need For Csr In U.S. Public Transportation, Nicole Mirkazemi

UC Law Business Journal

No abstract provided.

Black Transit: When Public Transportation Decision-Making Leads To Negative Economic Development, Audrey G. Mcfarlane

Articles

No abstract provided.

Science Under Assault - Reflections On "The War On The Epa: America's Endangered Environmental Protections", Sara A. Colangelo

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Public Trust Doctrine Fifty Years After Sax And Some Thoughts On Its Future, Michael C. Blumm, Zachary A. Schwartz

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems In Environmental Governance In Canada, Deborah Mcgregor

Articles & Book Chapters

This contribution addresses key issues around the application of Indigenous knowledge in contexts where such knowledge is neither generated nor held (academy, industry, governments, etc.). Effective models for the ethical incorporation of Indigenous knowledge into environmental governance in Canada have remained elusive despite decades of attempts. The predominant research paradigm of “incorporating” Indigenous knowledge into environmental governance is one of extraction by the external interests who seek to include specific aspects of such knowledge in their undertakings. This approach continues to fail because Indigenous knowledge exists as an integral component of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). It is often hollow and …

Executive Unilateralism And Individual Rights In A Federalist System, Meredith Mclain, Sharece Thrower

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Presidents have a wide array of tools at their disposal to unilaterally influence public policy, without the direct approval of Congress or the courts. These unilateral actions have the potential to affect a variety of individual rights, either profitably or adversely. Governors too can employ unilateral directives for similar purposes, often impacting an even wider range of rights. In this Article, we collect all executive orders and memoranda related to individual rights issued between 1981 and 2018 at the federal level, and across the U.S. states, to analyze their use over time. We find that chief executives of all kinds …

Not Approved For Human Consumption: A Study Of The Denmark Water Crisis, A Call For Reforming The Swda, And A Demand For Community Lawyering In Rural America, Matthew Woodward

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Over the past four decades, nine million Americans have ingested dangerous drinking water from a trusted source: their own taps. Each year, “an estimated 16.4 million cases of acute gastroenteritis” are linked to public drinking water. For many Americans, drinking water—perhaps the most important cornerstone of human health—has become cause for concern.

In Flint, Michigan, this concern turned to panic. In 2014, after toddlers began developing painful skin conditions, children fell seriously ill, and tap water emerged in the form of thick, orange-brown sludge, the people of Flint began to wonder: is there something in the water? What soon became …

Resilience Justice And Community-Based Green And Blue Infrastructure, Craig Anthony Arnold, Resilience Justice Project Researchers

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The environmental conditions of marginalized communities, particularly low-income communities of color, make those communities disproportionately more vulnerable to major disturbances and changes, such as climate change, health crises, pollution releases, disasters, economic shocks, and social and political upheaval. Many of the most important movements for justice with respect to environmental conditions, including environmental justice, disaster justice, and climate justice, are connected to broader movements for racial and social justice, asserting that Black and Brown lives matter. These movements seek to confront, dismantle, and reform systems of racism, colonialism, and structural inequality.

In particular, low-income communities of color have inequitably less …

Foreword: Sustainability In The City, Julia D. Mahoney

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

“Nature loves to hide,” observed ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus roughly 2,500 years ago, and the worldwide “COVID-19” pandemic that followed the emergence of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 at the end of 2019 has served as a bracing reminder of humanity’s incomplete understanding of the natural world. The COVID-19 crisis has turned out to be more than a public health emergency rooted in natural causes, for the pandemic has revealed significant weaknesses in humancreated institutions, including those that govern and influence the urban areas in which most Americans now live.

Of course, with crisis comes opportunity, and it seems highly plausible …

Holding Polluters Accountable In Times Of Climate And Covid Risk: The Problems With “Emergency” Enforcement Waivers, Victor B. Flatt

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

One of the first actions of the Environmental Protection Agency after the declaration of the COVID-19 crisis in mid-March 2020 was to announce that it would relax its enforcement policies with respect to environmental reporting and violations during the time of the pandemic. Ostensibly this was to ensure that regulated entities were not penalized by their inability to have inspectors on the front lines to ensure that substantive permit and monitoring requirements were followed. Taking their lead from the EPA, many states announced that they were following suit.

EPA always has discretion in terms of enforcement, but in making a …

From Covid-19 To Climate Change: Disaster & Inequality At The Crossroads, Cinnamon P. Carlarne

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This essay explores how the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic exposes and exacerbates structural inequalities in ways that are both obvious and alarming. It suggests that, even as the pandemic worsens inequality it forces us to confront it, and to see how the impacts of climate change will ripple unevenly across existing pathways of disparity.

The essay begins by examining how the COVID-19 pandemic is spotlighting and intensifying inequality and suggests that the vivid harms of the pandemic compel us to do more and do better to address structural inequality. The essay then provides an account of how climate change interacts with …

The World After Teitiota: What The Hrc Decision Means For The Future Of Climate Migration, Lucia Rose

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

The effects of global climate change is forecasted to cause millions of people to leave their homes and home countries over the next century. Until this point, the current legal framework for determining the fate and protection of people feeling their homes due to emergency was rooted in the United Nations (“UN”) Refugee Convention of 1951 and has been read to exclude those whose primary reason for migration is the effects or threat of climate change. However, the UN Human Rights Committee’s (HRC) January 2020 decision regarding Ioane Teitiota’s deportation to his home nation of the Republic of Kiribati suggests …

Replacement Of The Transfer Act: The Impact Of Connecticut's Effort To Expedite Contaminated Site Remediation, Avery Bikerman

Honors Scholar Theses

The scope of this thesis is to analyze the legal framework established by House Bill 7001 and Public Act 20-9, which revise provisions of the CT Transfer Act, and establish a release-based reporting program which will be administered upon the sunset of the original act. While any release that occurred prior to the Release Based Remediation Program adoption (regardless of discovery date) is still regulated by the original Transfer Act, any release that occurs subsequent to the adoption of the new program will be regulated by the Release Based Remediation Program. This study investigates the scope of the new release-reporting …

Law, Lawyers And Sustainable Development: Reflections Of A Fellow Traveler, Muna B. Ndulo

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

At the national level, the rule of law is necessary to create an environment for providing sustainable livelihoods and eradicating poverty. Poverty often stems from disempowerment, exclusion and discrimination. The rule of law fosters development through strengthening the voices of individuals and communities, by providing access to justice, ensuring due process and establishing remedies for the violation of rights. Security of livelihoods, shelter, tenure and contracts can enable and empower the poor to defend themselves against violations of their rights. Legal empowerment goes beyond the provision of legal remedies and supports better economic opportunities. In order for the rule of …

Environmental Law Disrupted By Covid-19, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Lissa Griffin, Rebecca Bratspies, Vanessa Casado Perez, Robin Kundis Craig, Keith Hirokawa, Sarah Krakoff, Jessica Owley, Melissa Powers, Shannon Roesler, Jonathan Rosenbloom, J.B. Ruhl, Erin Ryan, David Takacs

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

For over a year, the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns about systemic racial injustice have highlighted the conflicts and opportunities currently faced by environmental law. Scientists uniformly predict that environmental degradation, notably climate change, will cause a rise in diseases, disproportionate suffering among communities already facing discrimination, and significant economic losses. In this Article, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative examine the legal system’s responses to these crises, with the goal of framing opportunities to reimagine environmental law. The Article is excerpted from their book Environmental Law, Disrupted, to be published by ELI Press later this year.

Environmental Racism: Using Environmental Planning To Lift People Out Of Poverty, And Re-Shape The Effects Of Climate Change & Pollution In Communities Of Color,, William C.C. Kemp-Neal

Fordham Environmental Law Review

In the mid-1900s the United States began to see a rise in concern for environmental awareness issues. In the early days the movement focused on things like clean air, water and pollution but by the 1970s-1990s many prominent environmental awareness groups began to form focused on the idea that in order to avert climate change the principal goal needed to be to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. In 1987 a report was released called Toxic Waste and Race, which outlined an intimate link between the placement of environmental hazardous waste sites in communities of color, and greater instances of polluted …

(Re)Framing Race In Civil Rights Lawyering, Anthony V. Alfieri, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Articles

This Review examines the significance of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s new book, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, for the study of racism in our nation's legal system and for the regulation of race in the legal profession, especially in the everyday labor of civil-rights and poverty lawyers, prosecutors, and public defenders. Surprisingly, few have explored the relevance of the racial narratives distilled by Gates in Stony the Roa - the images, stereotypes, and tropes that Whites constructed of Blacks to deepen and ensure the life and legacy of white supremacy-to the practice …

The Trees Speak For Themselves: Nature’S Rights Under International Law, Samantha Franks

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note argues that the United Nations should center nature’s rights in the upcoming Global Pact on the Environment, solidifying the patchwork of international environmental law and encouraging domestic protection of the environment. Part II explores the current state of international environmental law, outlining the ways in which the doctrine remains incomplete. Part III establishes that Earth jurisprudence is an effective method to fill the gaps existing within traditional international environmental law. Part IV emphasizes the importance of soft law in international law. It draws a parallel between the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human’s Rights and a potential …

The Case For Environmental Human Rights: Recognition, Implementation, And Outcomes, James R. May

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Climate Change On Virginia's Coastal Areas, Jonathan L. Goodall, Antonio Elias, Elizabeth Andrews, Christopher "Kit" Chope, John Cosgrove, Jason El Koubi, Jennifer Irish, Lewis L. Lawrence Iii, Robert W. Lazaro Jr., William H. Leighty, Mark W. Luckenbach, Elise Miller-Hooks, Ann C. Phillips, Henry Pollard V, Emily Steinhilber, Charles Feigenoff, Jennifer Sayegh

Faculty Publications

As part of HJ47/SJ47 (2020), the Virginia General Assembly directed the Joint Commission on Technology and Science (JCOTS) to study the “safety, quality of life, and economic consequences of weather and climate-related events on coastal areas in Virginia.” In pursuit of this goal, the commission was to “accept any scientific and technical assistance provided by the nonpartisan, volunteer Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (VASEM). VASEM convened an expert study board with representation from the Office of the Governor, planning district commissions in coastal Virginia, The Port of Virginia, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, state universities, private industry, and …

(Re)Framing Race In Civil Rights Lawyering, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Anthony V. Alfieri

Faculty Scholarship

A review of Henry Louis Gates, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow (Penguin Press, 2019). The Review proceeds in four parts. Part I parses Gates’s analysis of the rise of white supremacist ideology and the accompanying concept of the “Old Negro” during the Redemption era and the countervailing emergence of the concept of a “New Negro” culminating in the Harlem Renaissance. Part II examines the lawyering process as a rhetorical site for constructing racialized narratives and racially subordinating visions of client, group, and community identity through acts of representing, prosecuting, and defending people of …

Systemic Inequality | Race, Place, And Pollution: The Deep Roots Of Environmental Racism, Robert L. Bentlyewski, Mina Juhn

Fordham Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Adverse Health Impacts Of Grandfathered Power Plants And The Clean Air Act: Time To Teach Old Power Plants New Technology, Rachel H. Cease

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Green Versus Green: When The Economic Needs Of Minority Communities Clash With Environmental Justice Concerns, Rhoda J. Yen

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.