Law Commons^™

Adaptive Management In The Courts, Robert L. Fischman, J. B. Ruhl

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Adaptive management has become the tonic of natural resources policy. With its core idea of “learning while doing,” adaptive management has infused the natural resources policy world to the point of ubiquity, surfacing in everything from mundane agency permits to grand presidential proclamations. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to suggest that these days adaptive management is natural resources policy. But is it working? Does appending “adaptive” in front of “management” somehow make natural resources policy, which has always been about balancing competing claims to nature’s bounty, something more and better? Many legal and policy scholars have asked that question, with …

Hicks V. Dowd, Conservation Easements, And The Charitable Trust Doctrine: Setting The Record Straight, W. William Weeks, Nancy A. Mclaughlin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This is the fourth in an exchange of articles published by the Wyoming Law Review discussing the application of charitable trust principles to conservation easements conveyed as charitable gifts. In 2002, Johnson County, Wyoming, attempted to terminate a conservation easement that had been conveyed to the County as a tax-deductible charitable gift. The County's actions were challenged, first in a suit brought by a resident of the County, Hicks v. Dowd, and then in a suit brought by the Wyoming Attorney General, Salzburg v. Dowd. The over six years of litigation associated with the easement's attempted termination has been the …

The Legal Challenge Of Protecting Animal Migrations As Phenomena Of Abundance, Robert L. Fischman, Jeffrey B. Hyman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Animal migrations are as familiar as geese in the sky on a fall afternoon and as mysterious as the peregrinations of sea turtles across thousands of miles of open ocean. This article discusses the distinguishing attributes of animal migrations, why they are important to biodiversity conservation, and the legal challenges posed by migration conservation. In particular, the article focuses on those aspects of migration conservation that existing law, dominated by imperiled species protection, fails to address. It consequently suggests law reforms that would better conserve animal migrations. A step toward serious legal efforts to protect the process and function of …

In Defense Of Conservation Easements: A Response To The End Of Perpetuity, W. William Weeks, Nancy A. Mclaughlin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming International Law From Extraterritoriality, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A fierce debate ensues among leading international law theorists that implicates the role of national courts in solving global challenges. On the one side are scholars who are critical of international law and its institutions. These scholars, often referred to as Sovereigntists, see international law as a threat to democratic sovereignty. On the other side are scholars who support international law as a key means of promoting human and environmental rights, as well as global peace and stability. These scholars are the 'new' Internationalists because they see non-traditional, non-state actors as appropriately enforcing international law at the sub-state level. The …

Bridging The Data Gap: Balancing The Supply And Demand For Chemical Information, John S. Applegate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Synthesizing Tsca And Reach: Practical Principles For Chemical Regulation Reform, John S. Applegate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The European Union's newly enacted comprehensive regulation for industrial chemicals, known as REACH, draws heavily on three decades of experience in the United States under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Much of that experience has been negative, inasmuch as TSCA is widely regarded as a disappointment among US environmental laws, and so REACH deliberately reverses many of the legislative choices that Congress made in TSCA. REACH also takes advantage of important new regulatory concepts that were not available to the framers of TSCA thirty years ago. The passage of REACH has sparked renewed interest in reforming TSCA, and the reformers …

The Temporal Dimension Of Land Pollution: Another Perspective On Applying The Breaking The Logjam Principles To Waste Management, John S. Applegate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Unlike air and water pollution, pollution from dangerous solid and liquid wastes on land remains a relatively concentrated, active hazard for long periods of time. Uncontrolled, land pollution moves through the environment slowly and often without significant diminution of toxicity. Persistence, in fact, is often regarded as the defining quality of dangerous land pollutants. Hazardous and nuclear waste regulation is very much concerned with the problem of maintaining the isolation of solid and liquid materials over decades, centuries, and even millennia, and, the author argues, there is good reason to believe that waste management practices and institutions are not well …

Judicial Review Of Agency Noncompliance With Public Land Manuals, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

From Words To Action: The Impact And Legal Status Of The 2006 National Wildlife Refuge System Management Policies, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

On June 26, 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued three new final policies governing the conservation of the national wildlife refuge system. These new agency manual provisions nearly complete an implementation project that began shortly after Congress enacted an organic statute in 1997 for management of the refuges. This article briefly reviews the significance of the 1997 legislation and places the new policies in the context of the statutory framework. It then discusses the most important aspects of the policies in terms of both practical refuge management and broader trends in natural resources law. The article evaluates …

What Is Natural Resources Law?, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A recent flurry of new natural resources law casebooks, coming a quarter-century since the publication of the last significant new teaching materials, is an occasion to revisit the boundaries that define the field. The similarities among the casebooks are stronger than their differences, and represent a consensus about what composes natural resources law. The published teaching materials as well as an informal poll of natural resources law professors show a substantial overlap between natural resources and environmental law course coverage. Administrative implementation of statutes dominates both subjects. Both courses typically cover environmental impact analysis and endangered species protection. The new …

Reflections On The Tenth Anniversary Of The Refuge Improvement Act, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Savings Clauses And Trends In Natural Resources Federalism, Robert L. Fischman, Angela King

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article considers recent trends in federalism, with particular attention to natural resource law's statutory savings clauses. It begins with a case study of elk management in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The elk controversy shows how a statutory savings clause can provide a state with traction to advance its interests, and demonstrates how the political winds of change can shift the balance of state-federal relations. The article then focuses on the common statutory savings clauses and their roles in circumscribing federal agency authority and establishing a basis for cooperation between federal and state governments. We analyze the interpretive approaches the judiciary …

Climate Change, Adaptation, And Development, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Since the signing the Kyoto Protocol, the international community has focused a great deal of attention on measures designed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Much less attention has been paid to climate change adaption. This is unfortunate because, even if the Kyoto Protocol is fully implemented, climate change will generate substantial costs requiring substantial adaptation efforts, especially in the less developed countries (LDCs) of the world's tropical regions.

This paper considers what those countries should be doing in preparation for the effects of climate change, and what the countries of the developed world, including the United States, can and …

Litigating Canada-U.S. Transboundary Harm: International Environmental Lawmaking And The Threat Of Extraterritorial Reciprocity, Austen L. Parrish, Shi-Ling Hsu

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article joins a spirited debate ongoing among international law scholars. Numerous articles have debated the changing nature of international law and relations: the impact of globalization, the decline of territorial-sovereignty, the ever important role that non-state actors play, and the growing use of domestic laws to solve transboundary problems. That scholarship, however, often speaks only in general theoretical terms, and has largely ignored how these changes are playing out in countries outside the United States in ways that impact American interests.

This Article picks up where that scholarship leaves off. It examines one of the perennial challenges for international …

New Directions In Conservation For The National Wildlife Refuge System, Robert L. Fischman, Vicky J. Meretsky, James R. Karr, Daniel M. Ashe, Michael Scott, Reed F. Noss, Richard L. Schroeder

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 includes the nation’s broadest statutory commitment to ecosystem protection: to “ensure that the biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health of the system are maintained.” The act also directs the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to expand the scope of conservation monitoring, assessment, and management beyond refuge boundaries to encompass surrounding landscapes. The act thus gives the FWS a leadership role in developing research and management partnerships with other agencies, organizations, and neighboring landowners. Increasing research capacity and scientific expertise, and strengthening institutional resolve to limit activities that impede the attainment …

Habitat Federalism, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

THE COMMON IMAGE OF COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM INVOLVES the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inducing states to adopt permit and other pollution abatement programs. States can tailor some standards, but public health benchmarks and end-of-the-pipe technologies are uniform across the nation. Inducements include both carrots, mostly in the form of federal funds and flexibility, and sticks, mostly in the form of penalties and loss of control.

This essay discusses cooperative federalism for habitat conservation. Habitat federalism focuses more on ecology than chemistry, more on cities and counties than states, and more on place-based variation than on uniform standards. It is about how …

The Perils Of Defensive Conservation, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Mixed Blessings: The Great Lakes Compact And Agreement, The Ijc, And International Dispute Resolution, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For scholars of international law and international dispute resolution, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact and Agreement may seem a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they promise environmental cooperation and management of the Great Lakes at an unprecedented scale. The agreements have been heralded as a tremendous advancement in state-provincial relations. On the other hand, international scholars should be nervous for what the agreements signify for international law and dispute resolution. The Compact and Agreement are remarkable for replacing an already functioning regulatory regime: the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty, administered by the International Joint Commission.

This …

Trail Smelter Déjà Vu: Extraterritoriality, International Environmental Law And The Search For Solutions To Canadian-U.S. Transboundary Water Pollution Disputes, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the 1930s, a privately owned smelting plant in Trail, Canada was the focus of the most famous case in international environmental law: the Trail Smelter Arbitration. But the subject of that landmark case has not gone away. Over the last seventy years, the Trail smelter dumped millions of tons of mercury, arsenic, and toxic waste into the Columbia River. The dumping's effects have been felt in neighboring Washington State, where the toxic discharges have caused environmental harm. In 2003, the EPA began investigating the Washington border area for designation as a Superfund (CERCLA) site, and controversially demanded that the …

The Law And Economics Of Development And Environment: An Introduction To The Symposium, Daniel H. Cole

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Significance Of National Wildlife Refuges In The Development Of U.S. Conservation Policy, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A retrospective of National Wildlife Refuge System conservation shows a promising trajectory. The system has overcome persistent neglect to contribute to conservation policy. Haltingly, it has kept pace with conservation science to remain the chief American contribution to large-scale wildlife protection. Early on, it pioneered the use of habitat acquisition to protect imperiled species. More recently, it has begun to implement the cutting-edge ecological mandate to maintain biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health. Perhaps the most meaningful feature of the history of the refuge system is how closely it mirrors the development of conservation policy in the twentieth century.

This …

Cooperative Federalism And Natural Resources Law, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Cooperative federalism describes an arrangement under which a national government induces coordination from subordinate jurisdictions, such as states and tribes, through incentives rather than requirements. In environmental law, cooperative federalism highlights the divide between pollution control and resource management. This article examines the divide from both sides.

Even though almost all of the environmental law commentary on cooperative federalism focuses exclusively on the pollution control side, the basic elements of cooperative federalism can be combined in a wider variety of forms than are recognized by most pollution control programs or scholarship. This article reviews the ways in which resource management …

Managing Biological Integrity, Diversity, And Environmental Health In The National Wildlife Refuges: An Introduction To The Symposium, Robert L. Fischman, Vicky J. Meretsky

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Predictions And Prescriptions For The Endangered Species Act, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The thirtieth anniversary of the enactment of the modern Endangered Species Act (ESA) offers an irresistible excuse to suggest changes that are needed to set the statute, and the larger project of environmental protection, on course for greater effectiveness. The 1973 ESA is novel in its approach and reach, in that it reflects both the resource management and pollution control traditions in environmental law. Its evolution indicates broader trends in the legal landscape of environmental law.

Making predictions about the future of the ESA is a daunting task. Most predictions made thirty years ago about the statute proved to be …

The Meanings Of Biological Integrity, Diversity, And Environmental Health, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article extracts from the legislative mandate to "ensure that the biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health of the [Refuge] System are maintained," a range of meanings that reflect scientific and legislative trends in conservation. The standard modes of statutory interpretation yield meanings that largely support the 2001 Fish and Wildlife Service policy delineating three distinct yet overlapping categories. The analysis reveals three insights applicable to other areas of environmental law. First, although diversity and health emphasize important aspects of nature protection, integrity is becoming the umbrella concept that encompasses the needs of well functioning landscapes. Second, the effectiveness of …

The National Wildlife Refuge System And The Hallmarks Of Modern Organic Legislation, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article explores the origins and precise meaning of the term "organic act," which is widely used in public land law. The evolution in the meaning of the term reflects larger shifts in the role of legislation in public resource management. The article illustrates this with an analysis of the 1997 Refuge Improvement Act, a substantial revision of the charter for the Refuge System and the first major statute governing public land management enacted since the 1970s.

The Refuge System's "dominant use" regime is an important model for sustainable resource management. The article describes this regime in the context of …

The Taming Of The Precautionary Principle, John S. Applegate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

A Lesson For Conservation From Pollution Control Law: Cooperative Federalism For Recovery Under The Endangered Species Act, Robert L. Fischman, Jaelith Hall-Rivera

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Stumbling To Johannesburg: The United States' Haphazard Progress Toward Sustainable Forestry Law, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article addresses how well forestry law in the United States promotes sustainable development, with special attention to the trends of the past decade. The role of law in shaping forest management decisions has been a contentious issue in this recent period, and forestry has been at the forefront of public concern about sustainability of natural resource management generally. Therefore, the problems and opportunities for forestry law to promote sustainable development are indications of the weaknesses and strengths of the overall U.S. legal regime.