Digital Commons Network^™

Resistance, “Revolution,” And Reassessment 1981 - 1997, Richard J. Finkmoore

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Coasean Blindspots: Charting The Incomplete Institutionalism, Gregg P. Macey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Race Audits, Robin A. Lenhardt

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Supreme Court’s race jurisprudence suffers from a stunning lack of imagination where possibilities for meaningful local government involvement in combating structural racial inequality are concerned. Cases such as Parents. and Ricci limit dramatically the freedom that localities have to address racial inequity within their borders. Instead of constraints on local efforts in the race context, Professor Lenhardt argues that what we need, if persistent racial inequalities are ever to be eliminated, is greater innovation and experimentation. In this article, Professor Lenhardt thus introduces an extra-judicial tool called the race audit, which would permit individual cities or a regional …

Public Choice And Environmental Policy: A Review Of The Literature, Christopher H. Schroeder

Faculty Scholarship

This paper is a draft of a chapter for a forthcoming book, Research Handbook in Public Law and Public Choice, edited by Daniel Farber and Anne Joseph O'Connell, to be published by Elgar. It reviews the public choice literature on environmental policy making, first generally and then with respect to four fundamental environmental policy questions: (1) whether or not government action is warranted; (2) if it is, the scope and stringency of the government action, including the manner in which a bureaucracy will implement and enforce any statutory standards; (3) the level of government that assumes responsibility; and (4) the …

Designing Payments For Ecosystem Services, James Salzman

Faculty Scholarship

This Policy Series by James Salzman brings attention to a rapidly developing phenomenon—payments for ecosystem services (PES).

Salzman, the Samuel F. Mordecai Professor of Law and the Nicholas Institute Professor of Environmental Policy at Duke University, explains when and where ecosystem services can be provided by voluntary markets rather than government actions. The key to understanding how PES work is rooted in the basis of any voluntary market transaction—gains from trade. One party agrees to take action because another party offers an incentive. Both parties benefit. A beekeeper, for example, brings her hives to an orchard to provide pollination services …

Luke Cole, Brian E. Gray

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Forest Carbon Projects And International Law A Deep Equity Legal Analysis, David Takacs

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Organophosphates, Friend And Foe: The Promise Of Medical Monitoring For Farm Workers And Their Families, Adriane J. Busby, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Millions of farm workers nation-wide who load, mix and/or apply pesticides are exposed to incredible amounts of pesticides on a daily basis. Various inefficiencies and inconsistencies in the regulatory system - including insufficient illness reporting data systems, lack of regulatory compliance and enforcement, and inadequate data and information on the chronic effects of exposure and overexposure to various pesticides - increase the likelihood that these workers will continue to be exposed to dangerous amounts of pesticides.

This Article assesses the existing mechanisms designed to protect farm workers from occupational exposure to pesticides and identifies and analyzes some of the shortcomings …

Putting Community Equity In Community Development: Resident Equity Participation In Urban Redevelopment, Barbara Bezdek

Faculty Scholarship

The special concern of this paper is to recalibrate the benefits and burdens of public-private partnerships as they remake inner city neighborhoods, by braking the rate at which urban land is being reclaimed from low-wealth residents by local government practices to disperse occupants, sweeping aside their tangible and intangible capital. Public oversight requirements have not kept pace with the dispossession, yet the costs that these development decisions impose on the social fabric of communities rend the shared networks necessary to residents’ abilities to meet basic social needs. This destruction of low-wealth communities is a form of equity-stripping, produced by local …

Progress Toward Sustainability: A Report Card And A Recommended Agenda, John C. Dernbach

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Borders And The Environment, Andrew P. Morriss, Roger E. Meiners

Faculty Scholarship

Despite regular acknowledgement of the interconnectedness of global ecosystems, government policies at the national level focus on environmental problems within their borders. As a result, the level of public and private resources expended on environmental protection in rich and poor countries is dramatically different on both a per capita and an absolute basis. While this outcome is readily explained by the politics of environmental issues, in which voters reward governments for domestic expenditures but are skeptical of expenditures outside the jurisdiction, these differences mean that the total amount of environmental quality purchased across nations is lower than it could be. …

Disestablishing Environmentalism, Andrew P. Morriss, Benjamin D. Cramer

Faculty Scholarship

The debate over environmental policy is increasingly conducted in language with strong religious overtones. Both proponents and opponents of various environmental policies appeal to religious doctrine to support their positions: Those who question human-caused global warming are labeled "heretics, " while appeals for environmental "stewardship" echo Biblical texts. Religious groups play an important role in defining environmental policy issues, and both supporters and critics of specific environmental policy views have labeled particular sets of beliefs about the environment a "religion." In this Article we engage in a thought experiment, arguing that there are valuable lessons to be learned from treating …

Seven Things The New Epa Administrator Should Do, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

In view of the dramatic shift in the nation's environmental policy that is presaged by the ascension of Barack Obama, I have been asked to suggest several actions that should be undertaken by the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This article was written on Jan. 26, 2009, six days after the inauguration. It is to appear in March. Thus every reader will know something that, today, I don't – what long-pent-up actions were taken by President Obama shortly after he moved into the Oval Office. But I am guessing that by the time this article appears, Lisa …

Comment On Developing A Comprehensive Approach To Climate Change Mitigation Policy In The United States: Integrating Levels Of Government And Economic Sectors, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The article by Thomas D. Peterson, Robert B. McKinstry Jr., and John C. Dernbach (PM&D) has two central insights: (1) Any serious national effort to control emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) must continue to leave important roles to the states; and (2) It would be a mistake to put too many eggs in the cap-and-trade basket. A portfolio approach that utilizes many different regulatory techniques is important.

I certainly agree with PM&D about these insights, and they are correct that much of the current Congressional debate has given too little attention to these considerations. However, I have serious reservations about …

Policing, Place, And Race, Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Foreword: Entrepreneurism In A Flat, Green, Cash-Strapped World, Eric J. Gouvin

Faculty Scholarship

On October 17, 2008, the Western New England College School of Law and School of Business jointly hosted the third annual Conference on Entrepreneurship and Community Economic Development (Conference). The Conference was sponsored by the Western New England College Law and Business Center for Advancing Entrepreneurship (Law and Business Center or Center) as one of its many educational outreach efforts and service projects. This issue of the Western New England Law Review provides a record of the Articles that were presented at the Conference. The Law and Business Center offers students an outstanding opportunity to apply, expand, and refine their …

The Globalization Of Environmental Law, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

Legal systems across the globe are responding to environmental concerns in surprising new ways. As nations upgrade their environmental standards, some are transplanting law and regulatory policy innovations derived from the experience of other countries, including nations with very different legal and cultural traditions. New national, regional, and international initiatives have been undertaken both by governments and private organizations. Greater cross-border collaboration between government officials, nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations and other entities is shaping environmental policy in ways that blur traditional private/public/and domestic/international distinctions. The result has been the emergence of a kind of “global environmental law”-law that is neither …

The Challenge Of Democratic Lawyering, Ascanio Piomelli

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Protecting Public Health And The Environment By The Stroke Of A Presidential Pen: Seven Executive Orders For The President's First 100 Days, Eileen Gauna

Faculty Scholarship

This white paper recommends a series of seven Executive Orders to the new Administration, all in the areas of health, safety, and the environment. Each of the suggested Executive Orders directs agencies of the government to take specific steps that would make a realworld difference and simultaneously send a signal to the public, Congress, the business community, and others that a new course has been charted and that change has arrived.

El Dia De Los Muertos, The Death And Rebirth Of The Environment Movement, Eileen Gauna

Faculty Scholarship

In 2004, in response to an article titled Death of Environmentalism, many in the environmental community engaged in a debate about whether the environmental movement was capable of adequately inspiring the public to effectively respond to climate change. This Article examines the strand of this debate that centered upon responses from environmental justice actors to the larger environmental community. Specifically, the ensuing conversations raised questions about who, precisely, is the environmental community, what is its historical legacy, how should the environment be conceptualized to promote more effective climate policy, the role of technocratic solutions, and the need for transformative coalition …

The Nature Of Legal Education And Its Links To Water Management, Denise D. Fort

Faculty Scholarship

When water decisions are made, water lawyers are central fi gures, and decisions are made within the framework of the governing institutions. In this essay, I discuss legal education and the training of a water lawyer. Students from other disciplines may seek out legal education, so approaches to their education are considered.

The Necessity Of Economics: The Preferential Option For The Poor, Markets, And Environmental Law, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

Markets and economic theory are often cast as the enemies of both the poor and environmental quality. This paper, part of the Peace with Creation symposium held at the St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, argues that economics provides a necessary, but not sufficient, tool to address the problems of the poor and of improving environmental quality. The paper discusses ten propositions of economic theory and explains how each applying them results in both improvements in environmental quality and in the lot of the poor. The paper then briefly examines three examples of how applying the lessons of economics …

Survey Of Seqra Cases From 2007, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The courts issued 58 decisions under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) in 2007.

Typically, plaintiffs have a much greater chance of success in SEQRA cases when no environmental impact statement (EIS) has been prepared: on average, in the cases from 1990 (when this column’s annual survey began) through 2006, plaintiffs won 15.9 percent of the cases where there is an EIS, and 38.6 percent of the cases without an EIS.

But in 2007 the ratio was much different. In the 22 cases with an EIS, plaintiffs won seven, or 31.8 percent. In the 27 cases without …

Risk Equity: A New Proposal, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

El Surgimiento Del Derecho Ambiental Global, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

Legal systems across the globe are responding to environmental concerns in surprising new ways. As nations upgrade their environmental standards, some are transplanting law and regulatory policy innovations derived from the experience of other countries, including nations with very different legal and cultural traditions. New national, regional, and international initiatives have been undertaken both by governments and private organizations. Greater cross-border collaboration between government officials, nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations and other entities is shaping environmental policy in ways that blur traditional private/public land domestic/international distinctions. The result has been the emergence of a kind of “global environmental law” – law …

Dedication, Brian E. Gray

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tigers, Wolves, And Moose, Oh My: Challenges And Opportunities For Promoting Undergraduate Research In Environmental Studies With Gis, Philip J. Nyhus, F Russell Cole, David H. Firmage

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Extraordinary Crimes At Ordinary Times: International Justice Beyond Crisis Situations, Sonja Starr

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Risk: Pre-Litigation Site Assessment In Houston, Texas, Gregg P. Macey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Disparity Rules, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

In 1992, Congress required states receiving federal juvenile justice funds to reduce racial disparities in the confinement rates of minority juveniles. This provision, now known as the disproportionate minority contact standard (DMC), is potentially more far-reaching than traditional disparate impact standards: It requires the reduction of racial disparities regardless of whether those disparities were motivated by intentional discrimination orjustified by "legitimate" agency interests. Instead, the statute encourages states to address how their practices exacerbate racial disadvantage.

This Article casts the DMC standard as a partial response to the failure of constitutional and statutory standards to discourage actions that produce racial …