Law Commons^™

From Smokes To Smokestacks: Lessons From Tobacco For The Future Of Climate Change Liability, Martin Zp Olszynski, Sharon Mascher, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this article, we imagine a future Canada (circa 2030) wherein the world has managed to avoid the worst climate change but nevertheless has begun to experience considerable warming. Governments of all levels, but especially provincial ones, are incurring unprecedented costs to mitigate the effects of climate change and to adapt to new and uncertain climatic regimes. We then consider how legislatures might respond to these challenges. In our view, the answer may lie in the unprecedented story of tobacco liability, and especially the promulgation in the late 1990s of provincial legislation specifically designed to enable provinces to recover the …

The Birth Of The Warsaw Loss & Damage Mechanism: Planting A Seed To Grow Ambition?, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article starts with an update on the UN climate negotiations with respect to loss & damage. It then explores two approaches to loss & damage that are substantially different form the current path of the negotiations. Both approaches seek to utilize the concern over loss & damage to improve motivation for an adequate and fair global effort to mitigation and adapt to climate change. The approaches differ mainly in the extent they can be integrated into the current UN climate regime. The first approach would create a loss & damage liability fund that seeks to ensure adequate resources to …

Recovery Planning For Pacific Marine Species At Risk In The Wake Of Climate Change And Ocean Acidification: Canadian Practice, Future Courses, Wesley Hartmann, David Vanderzwaag, Katja Fennel

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This article evaluates how Canadian recovery planning for Pacific marine species at risk incorporates two pressing 21st century concerns: global climate change and ocean acidification (OA). While many recovery strategies for Pacific species at risk show some understanding of climate change or OA, they generally fail to incorporate key climate and OA information or to consider how these two issues will actually affect the species in question. Two strategies for progress are suggested. First is an administrative strategy that includes the development of a national climate change adaptation strategy, which clarifies how projected climate and ocean acidification impacts should be …

The Icj, Itlos And The Precautionary Approach: Paltry Progressions, Jurisprudential Jousting, David Vanderzwaag

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The precautionary approach, although highly touted as a fundamental principle of international environmental law, has become well-known for the confusion surrounding its interpretation and practical implications. Confusion has emanated from definitional generalities and variations and even debates over appropriate terminology. A spectrum of precautionary measures exist and viewpoints on whether strong versions of precaution or weaker versions should prevail have differed.

A Comment On Watersheds: Runoff From The Tax Code, Kim Brooks

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The role of tax as an instrument of social and economic policy has recently come to the fore in debates about the environment. This paper provides a short comment on a paper authored by Janet Milne that explores the incentive effects of the tax code on watershed protection.

The Regulation Of Tidal Energy Development Off Nova Scotia: Navigating Foggy Waters, Meinhard Doelle, Dawn A. Russell, Phillip Saunders, David Vanderzwaag, David V. Wright

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The vast potential for tidal power development in the Bay of Fundy region of the Atlantic coast has been recognized for decades. At the same time, finding an effective way to harness this power in a cost effective, sustainable and environmentally responsible manner has been an ongoing challenge. In the 1980s, barrage based tidal power technology was piloted in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. It was found to be unsuitable from both environmental and cost perspectives.

More recently, pilot projects underway around the world are using new, open turbine technology that is expected to significantly reduce cost and environmental impact. This …

The Ocean And International Environmental Law: Swimming, Sinking, And Treading Water At The Millennium, Douglas M. Johnston, David Vanderzwaag

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Various images help capture the status and trends of international law and policy efforts to protect the ocean environment. While “treading water” and “sinking” partly describe legal conditions at the millennium, this paper examines seven challenges in the international environmental law field which at the very least promise to make for a “hard swim” in coming decades. Those challenges include: coping with the proliferation of negotiated instruments; overcoming political opposition to environmental commitments; clarifying the jurisprudential underpinnings of international environmental law; sorting out the relation of environmental ethics, science and the rule of law; fleshing out the principles of sustainable …