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Full-Text Articles in Law
Calming Troubled Waters: Local Solutions, Part I, John R. Nolon
Calming Troubled Waters: Local Solutions, Part I, John R. Nolon
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
In 1861, the Ohio Supreme Court adopted the Absolute Use Rule to govern groundwater, essentially allowing landowners its unencumbered use. The opinion noted that the behavior of subterranean water was “occult and mysterious” and that it was beyond the competence of judges to determine its appropriate use. The Ohio court reversed course in 1984 and adopted the Reasonable Use Rule. By then, scientific knowledge had advanced to the point that the interconnected movement of water was more readily discoverable. The court noted that a primary goal of water law should be to conform to hydrologic fact. This Article explores the …
Just Transitions, Ann M. Eisenberg
Just Transitions, Ann M. Eisenberg
Faculty Publications
The transition to a low-carbon society will have winners and losers as the costs and benefits of decarbonization fall unevenly on different communities. This potential collateral damage has prompted calls for a “just transition” to a green economy. While the term, “just transition,” is increasingly prevalent in the public discourse, it remains under-discussed and poorly defined in legal literature, preventing it from helping catalyze fair decarbonization. This Article seeks to define the term, test its validity, and articulate its relationship with law so the idea can meet its potential.
The Article is the first to disambiguate and assess two main …
The National Flood Insurance Program At Fifty: How The Fifth Amendment Takings Doctrine Skews Federal Flood Policy, Christine A. Klein
The National Flood Insurance Program At Fifty: How The Fifth Amendment Takings Doctrine Skews Federal Flood Policy, Christine A. Klein
UF Law Faculty Publications
The National Flood Insurance Program (“NFIP”) of 1968 marked its fiftieth anniversary in 2018. Despite the program’s long history, few appreciate that the NFIP was never intended as a permanent federal subsidy for flood-prone properties along rivers and coastlines abandoned as commercially unviable by the private insurance industry. Instead, Congress provided flood insurance at below-cost rates as only an interim solution until state and local governments enacted permanent self-help land-use regulations that would restrict development in risky areas. By encouraging local governments to enact floodplain regulations, Congress intended to shift the costs of development in known flood areas back to …