Law Commons^™

The Legitimacy Of Judicial Climate Engagement, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Courts in key climate change cases have abdicated their constitutional responsibility to protect a prejudiced and disenfranchised group (nonvoting minors and future generations) and remedy an insidious pathology in public discourse and the political process: the industry-funded climate disinformation campaign. This Article posits that this abdication results from courts' uneasiness about displacing the prerogatives of democratically elected bodies. This uneasiness is misplaced. Court engagement with climate cases would strengthen democracy in accord with widely accepted justifications for countermajoritarian judicial review. This Article first describes in detail how courts exhibit a frustrating reticence to accept jurisdiction over cases that present questions …

When All Else Fails, Look To The Courts: Using Hybrid Tribunals To Build Judicial Capacity And End Environmental Destruction In Post-Conflict Countries, Reeana Keenen

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

A news report from April 2017 that compiled data from South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen stated that each country is either experiencing famine or on the brink. These countries and their link to famine is not coincidental: each country is either in the midst of current armed conflict or trying to piece itself back together following an armed conflict. For example, in South Sudan, violent clashes between South Sudan’s army and a rebel militia resulted in the “razing and burning [of] entire villages.”

Famine and other environmental harms are common in pre- and post-conflict countries, often worsened by the …

Specialization Trend: Water Courts, Vanessa Casado-Pérez

Faculty Scholarship

Definition of property rights is not useful unless there is an enforcement system, either public or private, that backs it up. While the definition of property rights as a solution to the tragedy of the commons has been carefully analyzed in the literature, the enforcement piece has been somewhat overlooked. Water is becoming scarcer and conflict is rising. As a result, the need for an efficient and fair enforcement system is more necessary than ever due to climate change.

Given the complexity of water law and the backlog in the judicial system, introducing specialization in the resolution of water cases …