Digital Commons Network^™

Changing Consultation, Elizabeth Kronk Warner, Kathy Lynn, Kyle Whyte

Tribal Consultation Project Work

Examples abound of both historic and modern situations where the federal government and tribes failed to engage in effective consultation. Yet, numerous reasons exist—such as effective management of natural resources and the negative impacts of climate change—for tribes and the federal government to engage in effective consultation. Effective consultation can be met through strong government-to-government relationships between Indian tribes and federal agencies and should be based on respect, mutual understanding, and common goals. This can be accomplished through interactions that will enhance consultation and provide other pathways to achieving a strong government-to-government relationship. To date, however, many within Indian country …

Breaking Up With Dillion: A Practical Call For Virginia State & Local Government Law Reform, Karly Newcomb

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

States’ long-standing allegiance to the Dillon Rule stems from the theory that it prevents localities from passing unequal and corrupt laws. However, states with strict adherence to the Dillon Rule have stifled localities from addressing their own issues and priorities. Though the debates surrounding the Dillon Rule’s strengths and weaknesses have existed since its inception, the burdensome effects on a locality’s ability to serve and protect its citizens are constantly evolving. In particular, localities in Dillon Rule states have been unable to enact laws that directly address environmental issues, citing the Dillon Rule as their main obstacle.

Although lobbying Virginia …

Special State Standing Is Environmental: Clarifying Massachusetts V. Epa, Dorothea Allocca

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

When the Court granted states “special solicitude in [its] standing analysis” in Massachusetts v. EPA, it left lower courts with more questions than answers. While legal scholars continue to debate these questions thirteen years later, the practical impacts of Massachusetts v. EPA are coming into focus. Today states are suing the federal government, often in multistate coalitions, to enforce or challenge federal administrative policies. This intergovernmental, public-law litigation increased dramatically during the Obama administration and has further skyrocketed since January 2017. States do not exclusively rely upon special state solicitude in suing the federal government. However, this lowered procedural bar …

A Bibliometric Analysis Of Human Trafficking In The Wake Of Natural Disasters, Shashikala Gurpur Dr, Manika Kamthan Dr, Vartika Tiwari Ms.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study is based on the bibliometric analysis of research publications that focus on highlighting the interlinkages between natural disasters and human trafficking as its aftermath. The main objectives of the study are to determine the frequency of such publications and also to establish that the problem of trafficking as a result of natural disasters has not received enough attention from the researchers. The data was collected from the Scopus database using VOSviewer software. Literature written from 2000 to October 2020 were perused. The study consisted of a total of 66 documents which are classified into articles, letters, editorials conference …

Indigenizing Grand Canyon, Jason Anthony Robison

Utah Law Review

The magical place commonly called the “Grand Canyon” is Native space. Eleven tribes hold traditional connections to the canyon according to the National Park Service. This Article is about relationships between these tribes and the agency—past, present, and future. Grand Canyon National Park’s 2019 centennial afforded a valuable opportunity to reflect on these relationships and to envision what they might become. A reconception of the relationships has begun in recent decades that evidences a shift across the National Park System as a whole. This reconception should continue. Drawing on the tribal vision for Bears Ears National Monument, this Article advocates …

Treading Water: How Citizens, States, And The Environmental Protection Agency Can Restore Proper Criminal Enforcement Of The Clean Water Act's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, Marley Kimelman

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

Upon the passage of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) in 1972, primary responsibility for protecting the United States' water quality and preventing water pollution shifted from the states to the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). The program at the heart of the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”), requires anyone who discharges pollutants into the waters of the United States to abide by the terms of a permit issued under the program. If a discharge occurs in violation of the permit or without a permit, and prosecutors are able to prove the responsible party acted with ordinary …

How The Safe Drinking Water Act & The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, And Liability Act Fail Emerging Contaminants: A Per- And Polyfluoralkyl Substances (Pfas) Case Study, Carly Johnson

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Strategies And Techniques For Teaching Environmental Law, Heidi Gorovitz Robertson

Law Faculty Books

Teaching law students is an enormous privilege and an immense responsibility. Teaching Environmental Law, in particular, gives the professor an opportunity to help future lawyers understand some important lessons. First, contrary to the belief of many first-year law students, the legal system is not made up entirely of courts. It’s not all judicial and it’s not all adversarial. The statutes Congress creates need implementation and that’s the role of agencies. Lawyers can do a world of good by working in and around legislatures and agencies and with the people who staff them. Environmental lawyers can help shape legislation, the resulting …

Intersections Of Environmental Justice And Sustainable Development: Framing The Issues, Sumudu A. Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sara L. Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This chapter proceeds as follows. Section 1.2 describes the evolution of the concept of sustainable development from the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It discusses contem- porary degrowth and green growth movements, before introducing the relatively novel concept of just sustainabilities, a synthesis of environmental justice and sustainable development. Section 1.3 de!nes environmental justice and discusses its relationship to human rights and the social pillar of sustainable development, reflecting on which dimensions of environmental justice are well reflected in this book and which proved more dif!cult to address. …

Is Climate Change A Threat To International Peace And Security?, Mark P. Nevitt

Faculty Articles

This article argues that climate change’s destabilizing impacts require us to look at existing international governance tools at our disposal with fresh eyes. As such, Council climate action cannot and should not be dismissed out-of-hand. As conflicts rise, migration explodes, and nations are extinguished, how long can the Council remain on the climate sidelines? Hence, my call for a re-conceptualized “Council 3.0” to meet the climate security challenges this century.

This article proceeds as follows. In Part II, I describe and analyze the current state of climate science and the climate-security threats facing the world. This includes an analysis of …

The $2 Billion-Plus Price Of Injustice: A Methodological Map For Police Reform In The George Floyd Era, David Schultz

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Politicization And Polarization Of Climate Change, Williamson Grassle

CMC Senior Theses

In the mid to late 20th-century, climate change and other environmental issues were addressed on a bipartisan basis, with Republican politicians like President Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush supporting and advancing measures to combat climate change. However, since the 1990s, climate change has become increasingly polarized, with significant polarization in the last decade. This paper dives into the causes behind climate change's politicization and polarization and what the future holds for bipartisan agreement by analyzing peer-reviewed articles, campaign contributions, news stories, political archives, and past interviews with climate experts. The analysis finds that the polarization has been driven by …

Regulatory Agency Capture: How The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Approved The Mountain Valley Pipeline, Aakshi Agarwal

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

The FERC’s history of approving nearly 100% of pipelines and divisive pipeline cases like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley Pipeline have driven landowners’ long-standing claims of regulatory agency capture of the FERC. The present research substantiates the claim of capture with a case study of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and uncovers that the FERC is both culturally and corrosively captured. This research also suggests that the capture of the FERC began at its conception during the natural gas crisis and subsequent natural gas bubble, which caused the FERC to follow the industry’s lead. These findings indicate that the …

Nation’S Business And The Environment: The U.S. Chamber’S Changing Relationships With Ddt, “Ecologists,” Regulations, And Renewable Energy, Adam D. Orford

Scholarly Works

Nation’s Business was a monthly business magazine published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with a subscription list larger than Business Week, Forbes, or Fortune. This study explores how the magazine responded and adapted to the rise of environmentalism, and environmental regulation of business, by exploring its treatment of four topics: DDT, environmentalists, government regulation, and renewable energy. It is built on a full-text review of all issues of Nation’s Business published between 1945 and 1981. It reveals the development of a variety of anti-environmental logics and discourses, including the delegitimization of environmentalism as emotional and irrational, the undermining …

“The Desert Is Our Home”, Kayla Molina

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Global Civil Society At The Local Level In Climate Change Mitigation: A Case Study Of Earth Hour’S Activities In Malang, Najamuddin Khairur Rijal

Global: Jurnal Politik Internasional

This study examines the role of global civil society at the local level in climate change mitigation. Climate change issue is one of the global issues that is responded at the local level, as the impact of the problem concerns the universal livelihood of the world’s population. This study focuses on Earth Hour’s activities in the Malang region as a part of a global civil society. This research uses global civil society and its role in environmental governance as the analytical framework. The data are collected through documentation studies and interviews. The results show that Earth Hour Malang’s activities have …

The Clean Air Act: How It Can Be Localized To Promote Both Environmental And Social Justice, Tate Kirk

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

Legislators attempt to achieve intended goals by enacting laws that provide for regulatory enforcement. However, many times laws are unable to achieve their stated goals and in some ways may create new or exacerbate existing issues. Luckily, upon review, many of these issues can be fixed with quick modifications to either their implementation or enforcement mechanisms. In its current form, the Clean Air Act does not effectively account for differences in regional climate patterns, and, moreover, it perpetuates environmental injustice. If local governments were given more autonomy to enforce the Clean Air Act, they could shape its enforcement to more …

Governing Wicked Problems, Jb Ruhl, James Salzman

Vanderbilt Law Review

"Wicked problems." It just says it all. Persistent social problems-poverty, food insecurity, climate change, drug addiction, pollution, and the list goes on-seem aptly condemned as wicked. But what makes them wicked, and what are we to do about them?

The concept of wicked problems as something more than a generic description has its origins in the late 1960s. Professor Horst Rittel of the University of California, Berkeley, Architecture Department posed the term in a seminar to describe "that class of social system problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with …

Introduction: Governing Wicked Problems, J. B. Ruhl, J. Salzman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

“Wicked problems.” It just says it all. Persistent social problems—poverty, food insecurity, climate change, drug addiction, pollution, and the list goes on—seem aptly condemned as wicked. But what makes them wicked, and what are we to do about them? The concept of wicked problems as something more than a generic description has its origins in the late 1960s. Professor Horst Rittel of the University of California, Berkeley, Architecture Department posed the term in a seminar to describe “that class of social system problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with …

A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of Biofuels, Teresa Cristina Garcia

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Brazil has the largest sugarcane acreage in the world (FAOSTAT, 2020) and is the world leader in the production of sugarcane-based ethanol (Sousa Junior et al., 2017). Due to the technical experience in the production of biofuels and the availability of sugarcane straw and bagasse, the country has a great potential to commercially produce second-generation ethanol (E2G) (Nyko et. al., 2010). In 2017, Brazil enacted a new National Biofuels Policy, called RenovaBio, to expand the production and use of biofuels in the country. This dissertation combines three essays that explore biofuels law and policy with a special focus on Brazil. …

Extending Nepa To Disaster Mitigation, Kevin Alden

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

A Shift In Environmental Accountability, Nicholas Wolf

Fordham Undergraduate Law Review

When counties and cities across the United States have sought compensation for environmental damages, they have taken legal action against large oil companies and other corporations. The courts have almost exclusively ruled in favor of the defendants. Plaintiffs have often accused the defendants of deliberately spreading inaccurate information regarding climate change. Additionally, plaintiffs have asserted that a variety of infrastructural damages have been directly caused by environmental malpractice from energy corporations.

The expansive legal power that companies such as BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and ConocoPhillips possess have allowed them to dodge allegations of primordial environmental conduct. These companies’ extensive …

Ocean Law In Times Of Health Emergency: Deep Seabed Mining Contributions And Its Fear Of Overexploitation, Laisa Branco De Almeida

Indonesian Journal of International Law

The deep seabed has one of the most enriched biodiverse places on Earth. Scientists have found some essential biomedical breakthroughs derived from hydrothermal vents involved in treating disease outbreaks among seabed minerals. Futuristic as it may sound, new pharmaceutical discoveries pressure the International Seabed Authority (ISA) into strengthening its global rules on mining exploitation beyond areas of national jurisdiction (ABNJ). This paper presents a general evaluation of the existing legal system of deep seabed mining. It highlights that, increasingly, pharmaceutical companies are shifting to ABNJ seabed areas for exploitation, pressuring the international order for a more coherent and effective mining …

The Future Of The Public Trust: The Muddied Waters Of Rockweed Management In Maine, Sarah M. Reiter, Dillon Post, Lisa Wedding, Aaron L. Strong

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

Seaweeds, or more properly, intertidal macroalgae have never been easy to classify—by law or by science: they are not part of the animal kingdom, nor part of the plant kingdom (and scientific controversies about their phylogenetic placement abound), they are not completely on terra firma, nor completely submerged in ocean water. One such organism that exists at the space in between land and sea—the brown alga commonly known as Rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) presents an intriguing legal question with implications that extend far beyond the shoreline. Recently, in Ross v. Acadian Seaplants Ltd. , the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (Court) …

Sovereign Lands, Brent D. Chicken, Amanda J. Dick

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Exposing The Myths Of Household Water Insecurity In The Global North: A Critical Review, Katie Meehan, Wendy Jepson, Leila M. Harris, Amber Wutich, Melissa Beresford, Amanda Fencl, Jonathan London, Gregory Pierce, Lucero Radonic, Christian Wells, Nicole J. Wilson, Ellis Adjei Adams, Rachel Arsenault, Alexandra Brewis, Victoria Harrington, Yanna Lambrinidou, Deborah Mcgregor

Articles & Book Chapters

Safe and secure water is a cornerstone of modern life in the global North. This article critically examines a set of prevalent myths about household water in high-income countries, with a focus on Canada and the United States. Taking a relational approach, we argue that household water insecurity is a product of institutionalized structures and power, manifests unevenly through space and time, and is reproduced in places we tend to assume are the most water-secure in the world. We first briefly introduce “modern water” and the modern infrastructural ideal, a highly influential set of ideas that have shaped household water …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 61 Number 3, Fall 2020 [Print Issue V.61:2], Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

16 - THE GIFT Is sacrifice, given willingly and with love, what makes us human? Leslie Griffy.

20 - NOT A MOMENT, BUT A MOVEMENT From protests in Benson in 1969 to a multi-decade movement called Unity, students of color have consistently pushed SCU to progress. Matt Morgan.

28 - ON BEING BETTER Discover the ways we can better support each other, particularly as white people seek to become allies to people of color. Lauren Loftus.

32 - THE SACRIFICIAL TWEET Social media missteps are costly, perhaps now more than ever. Just what are we willing to give up to …

Climate Change Action And Adaptation In Tokyo, Yuichiro Tsuji Prof.

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

This paper reviews an adaptation plan for the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The Japanese Government decided to remain in the Paris Agreement and began trying to reduce CO2 with technology after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. Nuclear power plants were closed, and some are still under safety review. Newly built thermal power plants will increase CO2 emissions, and the battle among the ministries hinders effective adaptation planning.

In 2012, the central government announced three basic approaches: risk management, comprehensive and general planning, and cooperating with local governments. However, the central government’s tactics still fall behind other countries’, and local …

Economic Analysis Of Vessel Sox Emission Reduction Measures In The Context Of China, Peng Guan

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Paradox In The Bayou: Development And Displacement In America’S Wetlands, Allison Oliver Haertling

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The bayou communities situated at the southern ends of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana possess a rich and uniquely diverse cultural heritage. However, economic factors, combined with environmental issues such as land loss from oil and gas dredging, subsidence, and rising seas, have spurred significant migration “up the bayou” in recent decades, threatening the loss of these cultures and leaving behind a population that is growing increasingly more vulnerable. This study investigates the current and anticipated social, physical and fiscal impacts of persistent land loss and population decline on lower Terrebonne Parish, as well as planning strategies for maintaining existing infrastructure and …