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Stein Center News - June 2015, Stein Center For Law And Ethics

Stein Center News

No abstract provided.

Fun With Administrative Law: A Game For Lawyers And Judges, Adam Babich

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The practice of law is not a game. Administrative law in particular can implicate important issues that impact people’s health, safety, and welfare and change business’ profitability or even viability. Nonetheless, it can seem like a game. This is because courts rarely explain administrative law rulings in terms of the public purposes and policies at issue in lawsuits. Instead, the courts’ administrative law opinions tend to turn on arcane interpretive doctrines with silly names, such as the “Chevron two-step” or “Chevron step zero.” To advance doctrinal arguments, advocates and courts engage in linguistic debates that resemble a smokescreen—tending to obscure …

The Ongoing Traumatic Experience Of Genocide For American Indians And Alaska Natives In The United States: The Call To Recognize Full Human Rights As Set Forth In The United Nations Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Angelique Townsend Eaglewoman

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fracking And The Rural Poor: Negative Externalities, Failing Remedies, And Federal Legislation, Matthew Castelli

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

This Note examines the relationship between the rural poor and the negative externalities of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). It asserts that the rural poor are disproportionately burdened with fracking’s negative externalities and that comprehensive, national regulation is needed because current legal methods are insufficient to internalize these costs. The argument is made in four parts: describing fracking’s externalities; assessing their impact on the rural poor; analyzing current legal regimes; and proposing an equitable regulatory framework based on cooperative federalism.

Fracking produces three main categories of negative externalities: water, air, and land contamination. Water contamination can be caused by migration of fracking …

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

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Teaching For Change: How The Legal Academy Can Prepare The Next Generation Of Social Justice Movement Lawyers, Alexi Freeman

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The call for “practice ready” lawyers has been heard loud and clear across the country. Legal education has overwhelmingly responded to that call, finding ways to help students gain more practical experience and better understand what it actually looks like to be a lawyer. Students intending to practice “social justice movement lawyering,” however, have been largely ignored, albeit with some notable exceptions. But, working in partnership to build the power of low-income communities of color and effect long-term social change requires distinct training and distinct framing.

This article proposes ways in which the legal academy can better prepare the next …

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.

Interim Payments And Economic Damages To Compensate Private-Party Victims Of Hazardous Releases, Julie E. Steiner

Marquette Law Review

There is a gap in tort recovery for many hazardous release victims. Hazardous spill victims receive different damage compensation based solely upon the type of hazardous substance released, with oil spill victims benefitting from a number of statutory damage recovery mechanisms that victims of other type of hazardous substance releases do not receive. Specifically, those injured by oil spills receive interim payments and recover for their economic loss. Yet, many victims injured by non-oil hazardous spills will incur economic harm but will not receive compensation because of a prohibition on recovery for economic loss absent accompanying physical injury or private …

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, …

Economic Hazards Of Environmental Justice For Lower-Income Housing Tenants, Anu Paulose

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Agenda: Seeds Of Change: Responding To Global Change In A Bottom-Up World, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment, University Of Colorado Boulder. School Of Law, Posner Center For International Development, Resolve (Firm), Newmont Mining Corporation

Seeds of Change: Responding to Global Change in a Bottom-Up World (Martz Winter Symposium, February 12-13)

Sponsors: Posner Center for International Development, RESOLVE, Inc., Newmont Mining Corporation, and Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment.

Conference moderators, panelists and speakers included University of Colorado Law School professors Phil Weiser, Sarah Krakoff, Britt Banks, and Lakshman Guruswamy.

This conference is made possible through the generous support of donors who sponsored this year’s Martz Sustainability Symposium (including Newmont Mining Corporation) and those who have invested in our Clyde O. Martz Endowed Fund for Natural Resources Management (including Brian Dolan and Davis Graham and Stubbs LLP). The Martz Natural Resources Management Fund was established in the memory …

World Poverty And Food Insecurity, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

The article draws upon the insights of Yale philosopher Thomas Pogge to suggest a way that we might think about the structural inequities in the global economic order that produce food insecurity. The article argues that chronic undernourishment is not a function of food scarcity, bad weather, or simply bad luck. Rather, it is a function of international political and economic arrangements that systematically benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor. The article concludes with several legal and policy reforms that the United States and the European Union can adopt to reduce the burdens that our societies place …

The Failure Of Environmental International Law During Times Of War, Blake Lara

University of Baltimore Journal of Land and Development

Throughout history, war and armed conflict have maintained a continuous presence around the world. Though the reasons for war change, various nations emerge and subside, and populations alter, one of the constant elements of war is its degrading effect on the environment. In addition to indirect effects on the environment that ultimately result from war, nations have used the environment as both a weapon and target of war. For example, during the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans salted Athenian lands to make them infertile. In the Franco-Dutch War from 1672 to 1678, dikes and damns were destroyed in order to create …

Public Hazard, Personal Peril: The Impact Of Non-Governmental Organizations In The Environmental Justice Movement, Andrea Y. Simpson

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This article argues that the local emphasis of what I call micromovements that form the larger Environmental Justice Movement could gain more traction from relationships with Non-Governmental Organizations. Such partnerships are emerging on a national level; however, since the localized movements communicate with, but are not partners with, national organizations such as the National Black Environmental Network, it is unclear how such partnerships add value to the activities of local groups. Moreover, some partnerships are forged for the organization of a specific event such as a conference or working group study Part II of this article discusses an overview of …

Environmental Law At Maryland: 2015 Year In Review

Environmental Law at Maryland

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of Renewables And Distributed Generation In Minnesota, Jacob B. Shoop

William Mitchell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice As Civil Rights, Wyatt G. Sassman

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Environmental justice litigation using the Equal Protection Clause and civil rights statutes has largely failed. This article explains that failure as a result of a general shift by federal courts to limit the scope of civil rights law rather than an improper characterization of environmental justice as a civil rights issue. This explanation is important to both encourage and caution environmental justice advocates and scholars as they approach claims under Title VIII. I suggest that Title VIII's ability to bridge property and dignity may still present a powerful and much-needed tool for bringing equality to environmental law, but that, based …

Re-Integrating Community Space: The Legal And Social Meanings Of Reclaiming Abandoned Space In New York's Lower East Side, Andrea Mcardle

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Development And Its Discontents, Federico Cheever, John C. Dernbach

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Sustainable development (or sustainability) is a decision-making framework for maintaining and achieving human well-being, both in the present and into the future. The framework requires both consideration and achievement of environmental protection, social justice and economic development. In that framework, environmental protection must be integrated into decisions about social and economic development, and social justice and economic viability must be integrated into decisions about environmental quality.

First endorsed by the world’s nations in 1992, this framework is intended to provide an effective response to the twin global challenges of growing environmental degradation and widespread extreme poverty. Sustainability provides a framework …

Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination And Segregation Through Physical Design Of The Built Environment, Sarah Schindler

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The built environment is characterized by man-made physical features that make it difficult for certain individuals—often poor people and people of color—to access certain places. Bridges were designed to be so low that buses could not pass under them in order to prevent people of color from accessing a public beach. Walls, fences, and highways separate historically white neighborhoods from historically black ones. Wealthy communities have declined to be served by public transit so as to make it difficult for individuals from poorer areas to access their neighborhoods.

Although the law has addressed the exclusionary impacts of racially restrictive covenants …

The Failure Of Washington's Fish Consumption Rate: How It Affects Residents, The Economy, And The Environmental Protection Agency, Jenna Zwang

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

Washington’s fish consumption rate has remained unchanged since the 1980s, and now environmental groups are calling foul. While abiding by the State’s current rate, which is one of the lowest consumption rates in the nation, Washington industries are able to dump higher levels of carcinogenic materials into local waterways. However, the health risks that these toxic chemicals pose to Washington residents may pose liability issues for the state if the rate is not effectively changed. Washington has begun looking towards neighboring Oregon as a model for reframing the fish consumption rate discussion, but their proposal does not go far enough.

Climate Change & The Public Trust Doctrine: An Analysis Of Atmospheric Trust Litigatin, Kassandra Castillo

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

As Professor Charles Wilkinson explains, “The public trust doctrine is rooted in the precept that some resources are so central to the well-being of the community that they must be protected by distinctive, judge-made principles.” Because a healthy and habitable atmosphere is essential to the survival of the human race, it is imperative that the public trust doctrine be interpreted in a way to include the atmosphere within its scope. Civil litigation is an effective legal mechanism to expand the public trust doctrine’s scope by way of the judiciary. Once a state judiciary can determine the applicability of the public …

Asking The Right Questions About The Future Of Shale Gas, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 377 (2015), John Dernbach

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.