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2008 Winter Class Schedule, University Of Michigan Law School

Class Schedules

Class schedule for the 2008 Winter semester at the University of Michigan Law School

Geography: 1983-2007, Paul E. Todhunter

UND Departmental Histories

This departmental history was written on the occasion of the UND Quasquicentennial in 2008.

Review Of Half-Lives & Half-Truths: Confronting The Radioactive Legacies Of The Cold War By Barbara Rose Johnson, Amber Huff

Ecological and Environmental Anthropology (University of Georgia)

Conventional wisdom holds that the twentieth century nuclear arms race effectively avoided global nuclear war and its consequences through the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. In reality, the cold war was not “cold” at all, but characterized by a series conflicts and crises with political, economic and sociocultural legacies that continue to structure world politics into the 21st century. Possibly the most profound but often overlooked consequences of this period are the long-term effects of nuclear militarism on human and environmental health. In Half-Lives & Half-Truths: Confronting the Radioactive Legacies of the Cold War, edited by Barbara Rose Johnson, …

Fighting Back Against A Power Plant: Some Lessons From The Legal And Organizing Efforts Of The Bayview-Hunters Point Community, Clifford Rechtschaffen

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice And The Three Great Myths Of White Americana, Luke W. Cole

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

Litigation's Bounded Effectiveness And The Real Public Trust Doctrine: The Aftermath Of The Mono Lake Case, Craig Anthony Arnold, Leigh A. Jewel

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

Dedication, Brian E. Gray

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

The Us Social Forum: Building From The Bottom Up, Guerrero

Societies Without Borders

The article deals with the 2007 U.S. Social Forum (USSF). It particularly looks at the historical significance of the USSF. It argues that the USSF signified a turning point in both the emerging social movements within the U.S. and perhaps the global social forum process as well. It then discusses the salient characteristics of the USSF. It also traces how the USSF was organized by a sector of grassroots organizations largely overlooked in national politics.

Linking Planning Theories With Factors Influencing Local Environmental-Plan Quality, Zhenghong Tang

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

The major planning theories provide a theoretical foundation for environmental planning. This study extends the major planning theories and develops a robust conceptual framework to measure the key factors influencing local environmental-plan quality. A random sample of forty Californian local comprehensive land-use plans and associated planning processes is analyzed to identify the critical factors influencing environmental-plan quality. Results from multiple regression analysis indicate that regular updating, environmental-information management and sharing, and planners contribute significantly to local environmental-plan quality. The findings expand established planning theories and practice by suggesting ways to improve local environmental-plan quality.

Good Planning, Good Health: An Interview With Rajiv Bhatia, Vivek Shandas

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH, is the Director of Occupational and Environmental Health for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. He is also a faculty member at both the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine and the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. He is a founding member of the Health and Social Justice Committee for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Nationally recognized for leadership in developing the health impact assessment tool, Bhatia thinks poor health resulting from social factors can be combatted by cooperation among health officials, policy makers, and …

Caution Ahead: Changing Laws To Accommodate Public-Private Partnerships In Transportation , Ellen M. Erhardt

Valparaiso University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Power, Justice, And The Environment: A Critical Appraisal Of The Environmental Justice Movement, Edited By David N. Pellow & Robert J. Brulle, David M. Ostergren

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Environmental Protection And The Social Responsibility Of Firms: Perspectives From Law, Economics, And Business, Edited By Bruce L. Hay, Robert N. Stavins & Richard H.K. Vietor, Adam Rankin

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Books Received, Natural Resources Journal

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

The Science And Art Of A Community Development Short Course: An Approach To Design, Teaching, And Evaluation, Michael Louis Geneve

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Community developers are often solicited to teach essential core concepts and strategies in the field but lack the consensus among their peers on which theories constitute the fundamentals. This study examines leading community development theories, concepts and approaches to establish the essential elements for a weeklong short course. In addition to content research, leading teaching theories were also explored to establish the core methods for teaching such a course. Active learning techniques were utilized to increase student participation in the learning process while building solidarity and capacity in the class. Finally, the short course was taught to a group in …

Exploring The Limits Of Executive Civil Rights Policymaking, Stephen Plass

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Panel: Ethics-Based Decision-Making In Societal Water Management, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

There is an ethical overlay to water-related decision-making and management, frequently drawing on personal experiences with water and the ubiquitous need for water. The modern South African Bill of Rights, ensuring its people’s access to water; the movement towards recognizing water as a basic human right; and even occurrences in Texas, including the passage of “environmental flows legislation” and the efforts to preserve and protect the Edwards Aquifer, reflect the presence of ethics in decision-making with respect to water management. Ethics are a part of water management decision-making.

Fema Trailers, Jae Rhim Lee

SWITCH

This article introduces an art and research project centered on a surplus FEMA travel trailer delivered to MIT which is used as a focal point of a course taught by Jae Rhim Lee. Lee uses the trailer to explore broader issues of environmental justice, government failure, and the health effects of disaster response. The project connects to another one of her projects, N=1=0=Infinity, a proposal for eco-friendly burial methods using mushrooms to return the body’s nutrients to the Earth.

Towards A Land Conservation Ethic In Zimbabwe: An Ethical And Religio-Cultural Analysis Of Land Conservation Policies And Practices In Communal Areas, Maaraidzo Elizabeth Mutambara

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study I analyze the problem of land degradation in Zimbabwe's Communal Areas (CAs) from the viewpoint of the Shona of Zimbabwe with the aim to formulate a land conservation ethic that motivates people in CAs to promote ecological stability. The Shona in CAs are proximate agents as well as victims of environmental degradation. The imperative to survive in a situation characterized by drastic inequalities in the allocation of land and an exploitative global economic system, forces them to engage in unsustainable land use practices. Land conservation policies in Zimbabwe marginalize Shona values and norms, especially as they relate …

Political Externalities, Federalism, And A Proposal For An Interstate Environmental Impact Assessment Policy, Noah D. Hall

Law Faculty Research Publications

Interstate environmental harms, which occur when decisions or actions in one state produce negative environmental impacts in another state, have challenged environmental law and American federalism for over a century. While even the strongest advocates of state primacy in environmental policy concede that interstate environmental harms necessitate federal governance, federal adjudication and regulation have had only modest success in addressing the problem. This is due, in part, to a failure to fully understand the causes of interstate environmental harms. This article provides a newframeworkfor understanding interstate environmental harms as political externalities caused by a combination of inadequate information, public process …

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 …

Critical Third World Approaches To International Law (Twail): Theory, Methodology, Or Both?, Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Articles & Book Chapters

This paper engages with the question of whether TWAIL is a theory, a methodology, or both. It takes the mainstream positivist understandings of the concepts of "theory" and "methodology" seriously in order to assess TWAIL scholarship against those (admittedly contingent) measures. It argues that TWAIL offers both theories of, and methodologies for, analysing international law and institutions, before concluding that TWAIL can be usefully thought of in the way suggested by its very appellation: as a broad approach.

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 …

Squatters, Pirates, And Entrepreneurs: Is Informality The Solution To The Urban Housing Crisis?, Carmen Gonzalez

Faculty Articles

Giving the poor legal title to the lands they occupy extra-legally (informally) has been widely promoted by the World Bank and by best-selling author Hernando de Soto as a means of addressing both poverty and the scarcity of affordable housing in the urban centers of the global South. Using Bogota, Colombia, as a case study, this article interrogates de Soto's claims about the causes of informality and the benefits of formal title. The article concludes that de Soto's analysis is problematic in three distinct respects. First, de Soto exaggerates the benefits of formal title and fails to consider its risks. …

Cox, Halprin, And Discriminatory Municipal Services Under The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article deals with Cox v. City of Dallas, Halprin v. Prairie Single Family Homes of Dearborn Park Ass’n, and the issue of whether the Federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) should be interpreted to outlaw discrimination in the provision of services by local governments. Part I describes the Cox litigation and its connection with Halprin. Part II surveys the pre-Cox cases that have dealt with discriminatory municipal services. Part III analyzes the FHA's relevant provisions and their legislative history and concludes that Cox and Halprin were wrong to deny FHA protection to current residents. Part IV …

Collaborative Dispute Resolution In Superfund Enforcement:Does The Resolution Approach Vary By Community-Level Sociodemographic, Mary Collins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines environmental dispute resolution as applied to Superfund site cleanup and how the use of collaborative dispute resolution approaches, in particular Alternative Dispute Resolution and Community Involvement, are related to a community's socioeconomic and demographic profile. It examines the sociodemographic characteristics of residents living in census tracts containing Superfund sites in relation to the type of dispute resolution technique used. I hypothesize that collaborative dispute resolution techniques, as opposed to traditional settlement and/or litigation, are less likely to occur in Superfund communities with high poverty levels and high minority populations than in those with low poverty levels and …

Framework For The Next Civil Rights Act: What Tort Concepts Reveal About Goals, Results, And Standards, Derek W. Black

Faculty Publications

This article anticipates that the next president and the current Congress will likely pursue civil rights legislation for the first time since 1991. Their most significant and difficult task will be determining whether to retain the Supreme Court’s intentional discrimination standard. Because this issue has so often led to polemic debates and court decisions in the past, this article attempts to provide a neutral framework for that discussion. Relying on tort concepts and their longstanding connection to constitutional torts, it demonstrates that the attempt to create a standard to prohibit immoral or “wrongful” conduct is both misguided and will prove …

Shalom And The Character Of Earthkeeping, Steven C. Bouma-Prediger

Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.

Toward A New Consciousness: Values To Sustain Human And Natural Communities, Anthony A. Leiserowitz, Lisa O. Fernandez

Yale School of the Environment Publications Series

A Synthesis of Insights and Recommendations from the 2007 Yale F&ES Conference

The Role Of Brownfields Redevelopment In The Rejuvenation Of An Older Industrial City: A Case Study Of Two Successful Brownfields Reuse Projects In Baltimore, Maryland, Gregory William Lewis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The industrialized world is littered with tens of thousands of acres of vacant, decaying, and often contaminated industrial and commercial sites. These sites, commonly referred to as “brownfields,” scar the landscape of communities, expose citizens to possible health risks, deteriorate surrounding land values, and erode the tax base of municipalities. Vacant and abandoned industrial sites are present in every state, but the blight associated with brownfields is worst in America’s “rustbelt,” the chain of once great industrial cites and towns stretching along historic canals and rail lines from Baltimore to Boston, and west to Milwaukee. This thesis investigates federal and …