Digital Commons Network^™

New York Falling Behind In Implementing Bold Climate Law, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

In July 2019, shortly after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), I wrote in an op-ed, “The champagne corks are still popping. But the realization is dawning that implementing the new law will be really, really hard. New York is boldly going where no state has gone before … It will take a great deal of sweat and treasure (no one knows just how much), as well as a continuation of the political will that brought us to this point.”

We still do not know how much sweat and treasure will be required, but …

Left In The Dust: The Decline In Coal Mining And The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act's Failure To Incorporate Just Transition Principles For Coal Communities, Gillian K. Joyce

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Gender Conscious Labor Environmentalism, Chaumtoli Huq

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

Drawing primarily from the internationally recognized human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, ("right to a healthy environment") as well as related international environmental and economic human rights laws, this Article makes three critical moves towards theorizing a gender conscious approach to labor environmentalism. First, this Article demonstrates through four cases studies from Bangladesh, that global and national labor movements can effectively address the root causes of labor rights violations, specifically around health and safety by deploying and mobilizing around the recently passed international right to a healthy environment. Second, the right to a healthy environment offers a …

Justifying Redistributive Regulations, Jack Lienke

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Conventional cost-benefit analysis asks whether a regulation’s total benefits exceed its total costs but not whether those benefits and costs are distributed fairly across society. The traditional justification for this indifference to equity is that distributional concerns are most efficiently addressed through the tax-and-transfer system. Agencies issuing regulations, the story goes, should focus on growing the pie (i.e., increasing aggregate welfare). If the regulation that yields the largest pie also yields inequitably apportioned slices, Congress can correct the problem with taxes and transfers.

But Congress often asks agencies to fill in the details of its transfer programs with regulations, such …

Legal Hurdles And Pathways: The Evolution (Progress?) Of Climate Change Adjudication In Canada, Camille Cameron, Riley Weyman, Claire Nicholson

Dalhousie Law Journal

Citizens, civil society, and environmental justice organizations are increasingly turning to courts to find solutions to climate change challenges. As of November 2022, the number of climate change litigation cases throughout the world was at least 2.5 times higher than in 2017. A dominant wave of this litigation is one in which claimants assert that governments’ failures to take appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures violate claimants’ rights. We analyze this jurisprudence in this article, with a focus on the recent Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision in Mathur v Ontario. While the claims in this case were dismissed, it is …

From Trade To Rights And Green Governance: Unveiling The East African Court Of Justice’S Jurisprudential Metamorphosis, Mihreteab Tsighe Taye

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Governing The Right To Water, Matthew P. Moschell

Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Tribal Law Journal

Tribal Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice Is A Civil Rights Issue, Secretary Deb Haaland

Tribal Law Journal

No abstract provided.

“The Winner Takes It All:” The Public Use Doctrine’S Disparate Impact On Impoverished Communities In Natural Gas Production, Alana Siock

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

The interpretation of the public use doctrine in Takings jurisprudence has evolved on both the federal and state level, and this evolution has had a disparate impact on impoverished communities. This note proposes that the persistent poverty and economic decline plaguing northeastern Pennsylvania on the microcosmic level are a product of distributive injustice, which is exacerbated and perpetuated by the expansion of the Takings Clause’s public use doctrine. This note links these exacerbations to the continuance of the boom-and-bust economies set up in regions like northeastern Pennsylvania, finding that the Takings Clause, which was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution as …

Toxic Discretion: Environmental Inequality And The Discretionary Function Exception, Sarah E. Barritt

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

Environmental racism is far reaching and insidious, and each of these devastating instances and the institutional factors that led to them could and should be the subject of entire books in their own right. The EPA and other agencies of the United States government are complicit in multiple ways, not least of all through their abject failures to properly regulate private industry pollution in BIPOC communities. However, this Note has cabined its analysis to the government’s failure to warn these communities of environmental contamination, and what happens when it hides behind the discretionary function exception in ensuing litigation. To provide …

Permit Proposals: Summary Of Recommendations, Luis Pablo Alvarez

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

All scenarios for meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets require faster deployment of renewable energy projects. However, the current permitting processes, while designed to ensure environmental and public safety as well as public participation, often delay progress. The challenge is to speed up renewable energy development without compromising environmental and community protections. This white paper by the Sabin Center reviews 15 reports from reputable institutions that identify steps to streamline the permitting process. These recommendations offer strategies to reduce time and costs in advancing renewable energy projects.

This report will be updated from time to time. Readers who identify errors in …

The Chronic Growing Problem: Environmental And Social Justice Concerns With Indoor Cannabis Grows, Gina S. Warren

Cardozo Law Review

The rapid legalization of recreational marijuana across states has created environmental and social justice issues, particularly with indoor cultivation. Despite its federal illegality, twenty-four states and various territories have legalized marijuana, igniting a surge in indoor cultivation that bears significant environmental and social consequences. Indoor cultivation facilities require massive energy inputs, resulting in grid strain, pollution, and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the placement of these facilities often occurs in historically marginalized low-income communities, furthering environmental injustice and social harms, as these areas are disproportionately affected by the pollutants emitted from the cultivation processes, such as molds, bacteria, …

Global Guidance For Just Transition Policy, Anna Dell'amico, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Lara Wallis, Alexandra A.K. Meisea

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

In 2015, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted Guidelines for a Just Transition Towards Environmentally Sustainable Economies and Societies for All, providing authoritative and valuable international guidance for just transitions. CCSI has conducted a comparative analysis of the application of the ILO Guidelines in South Africa and Germany and examined the extent to which the ILO Guidelines address energy transition challenges facing developing countries.

The CCSI report, Global Guidance for Just Transition Policy, provides detailed context on South Africa’s and Germany’s national socio-political and energy conditions and policies, and comprehensively examines the legal and policy instruments adopted by both countries …

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 …

Law School News: Mandell-Boisclair Justice Camp Prepares Young Scholars To Become Future Lawyers, Social Justice Advocates 7-26-2024, Jordan J. Phelan, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Rwu School Of Law Social Justice Camp, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

From Community Science To Community Justice: Protecting Data Usability In Community Air Quality Monitoring Networks, Marley Manjarrez

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Community science holds significant promise for empowering communities to address air quality disparities and advocate for policy change. However, the usability and legal defensibility of community-collected data pose significant challenges. This article argues that with the help of low-cost tools such as air quality monitors, community members can take an active role in combating the disproportionate distribution of air pollutants hidden by our current regulatory scheme. By examining the regulatory frameworks under the Clean Air Act and opportunities for procedural justice at federal, state, and local levels, the article identifies pathways for incorporating community-collected data into air quality regulation and …

Alternative Dispute Resolution In Agency Administrative Programs, Kristen Blankley, Kathleen Claussen, Judith Starr

Articles

This Article studies how federal agencies use and might better use different types of alternative dispute resolution (ADR)-including mediation, conciliation, facilitation, factfinding, minitrials, arbitration, and the use of ombuds-in the programs Congress has entrusted them to administer. The use of ADR by the executive branch of the federal government to resolve disputes with or among private actors has deep historical roots. ADR related to managerial agency matters such as employment or procurement is well-established across the government and performed under a uniform set of laws. Much less has been known, however, about the scope and reach of ADR in the …

Offsetting, Paul Govind, Donna Houston, Michelle Mei Ling Lim, Andrew Mcgregor, Emily O'Gormon, Sandie Suchet-Pearson, Jonathan Symons

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In Australia, the State of the Environment 2021 report (hereafter, SOE) revealed an unprecedented rate of biodiversity loss. 1 Yet development projects that will reduce biodiversity further continue to receive legal approval. Indeed, shortly after the release of the report, a new outer ring road was approved for construction in the state of Western Australia. 2 Land clearing undertaken as part of the project will result in significant loss of existing habitat for critically endangered western ringtail possums and endangered black cockatoos. This destruction was legitimized through the state government’s commitment to undertake “biodiversity offsetting,” whereby the loss of possum …

Alternative Dispute Resolution In Agency Administrative Programs, Kristen Blankley, Kathleen Claussen, Judith Starr

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This Article studies how federal agencies use and might better use different types of alternative dispute resolution (ADR)—including mediation, conciliation, facilitation, factfinding, minitrials, arbitration, and the use of ombuds—in the programs Congress has entrusted them to administer. The use of ADR by the executive branch of the federal government to resolve disputes with or among private actors has deep historical roots. ADR related to managerial agency matters such as employment or procurement is well-established across the government and performed under a uniform set of laws. Much less has been known, however, about the scope and reach of ADR in the …

Death, Taxes, And Clean Energy: How The Inflation Reduction Act Harnesses Tax Law To Revitalize American Clean Energy, James A. Ferguson

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This article explores the nature and impact of the IRA’s historic tax reform on U.S. clean energy markets, emphasizing its significance for businesses, American workers, the global community, and the climate. It begins with an overview of federal tax credits for clean energy, comparing German and American approaches to incentivizing clean energy investments. The article then details five key provisions of the IRA, including extensions of the ITC and PTC, creation of new credits, transferability of tax credits, prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements, and additional tax credits for domestic content and siting. It further analyzes the IRA’s practical implications for …

Empowering Family Forestland Owners To Reduce Wildfire Risk, Tom Lininger

Georgia Law Review

Wildfire risk is growing in the forested portion of the Wildland-Urban Interface, especially in the Western United States. Some commentators have suggested that the time has come for measures that would reduce the human presence in this area. In certain circumstances, however, family forestland owners have a salutary effect on forest resiliency. The attempt to exclude family forestland owners would create more problems than it would solve. A better strategy would be to assist family forestland owners in fireproofing their residences and improving the health of their forests.

Climate Risk, Insurance Retreat, And State Response, Mark Nevitt, Michael Pappas

Georgia Law Review

Climate change is fundamentally destabilizing the private insurance industry, with many high-profile insurance companies exiting states in the face of catastrophic, climateinduced risk. This rapid “insurance retreat” represents a major market signal in response to climate-exacerbated risks. Private businesses are making actuarial decisions, assessing that some locations are just too vulnerable to insure. At the same time, this insurance retreat also poses a policy challenge for states as they react to the mounting insurance gaps left by exiting private insurers. This Article analyzes insurance retreat, its attendant policy challenges, and the lessons that can be drawn from state responses. It …

The Role Of Clean Hydrogen In The U.S. Transition To A Net-Zero-Carbon Economy, Miranda Barfield

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

The goal of this Article is threefold: first, to explain why clean hydrogen has become a key part of the United States’ decarbonization plans in recent years; next, to describe the existing and forthcoming U.S. policies and programs designed to incentivize and enable the growth of the domestic clean hydrogen market; and finally, to examine whether the U.S. is deploying the correct legal tools to successfully unlock the decarbonization potential of the clean hydrogen industry.

Section II explains the decarbonization potential of hydrogen, including an overview of U.S. emissions today and a background discussion of what hydrogen is, how it …

Repurposing Fossil Infrastructure, Heather E. Payne

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

Our built environment includes infrastructure dedicated to fossil fuels: wells, pipelines, compressor stations, refineries, fossil gas storage caverns, gas stations. One challenge as we decarbonize is how we will repurpose these locations and networks as we move toward a decarbonized world.

This Article imagines the outcomes for three distinct pieces of our fossil fuel infrastructure and how each could be a part of our decarbonized future. First, given the challenges seen building long distance transmission, local sources of renewable electricity will become even more critical. In many places, the most plentiful of these is rooftop solar, but it faces a …

Natural Gas Or National Gas–Would A Statewide Natural Gas Ban In New Development Violate The Commerce Clause?, Madison D. Montague

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article analyzes: (1) the contours of a natural gas installation ban, how municipalities have incorporated these bans, and how the state government may pass a statewide ban; (2) the likelihood that these bans would place a substantial burden on interstate commerce; (3) who, if anyone, would have standing to sue to end these bans; and (4) whether anyone could prevail in an action against a ban on new gas development.

The Renewable Future: Protecting Workers In A Green Economy, Casey Mosley

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Untouchable Sovereign Debts: Towards A New Model Of Transitional Justice And Global Finance, Cosmas Emeziem

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

Who bears the cost of peace in societies transitioning from oppressive regimes? Who is responsible for paying back the debts incurred by dictators? These questions are crucial in transitional justice situations, yet the discipline discusses debts and transitional justice separately. While sovereign debts are viewed within markets and global economic frameworks, transitional justice is considered within citizens and human rights frameworks. This approach is flawed as it marginalizes human dignity and social justice considerations.

To rectify this schism, this Article brings these two legal spheres together in an epistemic dialogue using sovereign debt as the point of intersection. In transitional …

Front Matter And Table Of Contents

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.