Law Commons^™

Finding The Adequate Legal Framework For The Deployment Of Ocean Renewable Energy Through Area-Based Management, Xiao Recio-Blanco

Xiao Recio-Blanco

The world runs on electricity, but its global distribution is uneven and incomplete. The lack of access to electricity denies some people the most basic benefits, from healthcare and sanitation to security and economic development.

To increase access to electricity, most developing nations have relied on traditional sources of energy, namely fossil fuels, and the extension of a central electrical grid. Scholars and specialized International Organizations suggest that the implementation of renewable energy technologies through small-to-mid scale grid projects could be a reliable alternative. However, renewable energy technologies must overcome three formidable hurdles: low reliability, uneven availability, and the high …

Shared Sovereignty: The Role Of Expert Agencies In Environmental Law, Michael Blumm, Andrea Lang

Michael Blumm

Environmental law usually features statutory interpretation or administrative interpretation by a single agency. Less frequent is a close look at the mechanics of implementing environmental policy across agency lines. In this article, we offer such a look: a comparative analysis of five statutes and their approaches to sharing decision-making authority among more than one federal agency. We call this pluralistic approach to administrative decisionmaking “shared sovereignty.”

In this analysis, we compare implementation of the National Environmental Policy, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Federal Power Act. All of these statutes incorporate …

Features Of Forestry In Bangladesh And Available Legal Protections And Implications, Mahmudul Hasan

Mahmudul Hasan

Due to climate change as well as rise of global temperature Bangladesh is going to face a massive environmental challenge. Being an environmentally vulnerable country Bangladesh needs to step immediately to take all sort of measures to prevent the growing environmental threats. Forestry plays a pivotal role to protect environment as well as biodiversity of a particular region. Being agriculture based country and a coastal region Bangladesh already has been facing the adverse effect of decrease of forest lands. For some decades desertification has been taking place in many arena of the country. And due to the large amount of …

Encouraging Cooperation: Harmonizing The Battle Of Association And Mortgagee Lien Priority In America’S Common Interest Communities, Christian J. Bromley

Christian J Bromley

As the United States grappled with millions of foreclosures in recent years, the delinquency of mortgage and community association payments threatened the sustainability of over 300,000 common interest communities that house 63.4 million Americans. When owners of residential property fall behind on mortgage and association assessments, a battle for lien priority emerges between the associations and mortgagees. Each respectively holds a lien on the property to secure the debt owed to them, but it is the priority of these liens that determines the amount the lienholder recovers from a foreclosure sale. There is no uniform approach to priority in the …

Preventing Cold War: Militarization In The Southernmost Continent And The Antarctic Treaty System's Fading Effectiveness, Dillon A. Redding

Dillon A Redding

This note argues that the preservation of Antarctica for peaceful research and internationally cooperative activity as envisioned originally by the Antarctic Treaty in 1961 has gone unrealized amid growing international interest in the strategic advantages offered by Antarctica, including the possibility of large swathes of mineral deposits and optimal locations for satellite stations. Part 1 describes the motivations behind the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) and outlines the relevant provisions of the Antarctic Treaty. Part 2 examines the military advantages to a state presence in Antarctica and the ways in which the ATS allows for such a presence to be carried …

Let Educators Educate, Let Builders Build: Making A Case For School Facility Privatization, John Pizzo

John Pizzo

No abstract provided.

Demanding Supply: The Bioenergy Farm Lease’S Critical Role In Biomass Supply Chain Optimization, A. Bryan Endres, Elise C. Scott

A. Bryan Endres

As the bioenergy industry in the U.S. expands to meet increased demands for transportation fuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard and electrical power under state Renewable Portfolio Standards, farmers will seek the ability to grow dedicated, high-yielding energy crops of a perennial nature on leased property. Given the large amount of farmland in the U.S. that is leased, such contributions will represent a significant, though currently not well understood, portion of the biofuel industry supply chain. Through the use of contracts as governance schemes, the parties to a bioenergy farm lease can navigate three key areas of such a lease: …

C(R)Ap And Trade: The Brave New World Of Non-Point Source Nutrient Trading And Using Lessons From Greenhouse Gas Markets To Make It Work, Victor B. Flatt

Victor B Flatt

After several decades of improvement, water quality in the United States is getting worse, and the problem is primarily caused by run-off from non-point sources, such as farms and urban development. These non-point sources have never had regulatory mandates in the Clean Water Act, and have proven very difficult to control. With little likelihood of comprehensive statutory changes, the EPA and the states that administer the Clean Water Act have looked to other regulatory means to address this problem. One of the most prominent has been the use of markets in pollution (particularly for nutrient pollution from run-off) to provide …

The Commons, Capitalism, And The Constitution, George Skouras

George Skouras

Thesis Summary: the erosion of the Commons in the United States has contributed to the deterioration of community and uprooting of people in order to meet the dynamic demands of capitalism. This article suggests countervailing measures to help remedy the situation.

State Fertilizer Bills: The Greenest Way To A More Natural Landscape?, Catherine M. Janasie

Catherine M Janasie

Abstract: State Fertilizer Bills: The Greenest Way to a More Natural Landscape?

By: Catherine Janasie, J.D., LL.M.

Ocean and Coastal Law Fellow

Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program at The University of Mississippi School of Law

Because the Federal Clean Water Act focuses mostly on point source pollution, states consider nonpoint source pollution to be the leading cause of water pollution in their waterways. Until recently, many thought that the regulation of fertilizer use by individual homeowners would invade too much on personal choice, which would make a fertilizer statute too unpopular for state legislators to pass. However, in an attempt …

Conserving A Place For Renewable Power, Jacob P. Byl

Jacob P. Byl

Promoting renewable power and conserving land are often conflicting goals because renewable power requires a lot of land. The conflict is becoming an important issue on lands encumbered by conservation easements. I argue that the current legal rule allowing oil and gas development, but not wind and solar development, on conserved land does not make sense in light of the threats of climate change. The best way to encourage renewable power while respecting the intent of landowners is to have the Internal Revenue Service promulgate rules that explicitly allow renewable power going forward and interpret existing easements with a set …

Regulatory Takings: Survey Of A Constitutional Culture, James Valvo

James Valvo

Fifth Amendment property protections under the Takings Clause have grown increasingly contentious as governing entities have used regulations to limit what property owners can do with their land. This paper profiles regulatory takings jurisprudence from Pennsylvania Coal, to Penn Central, to Nollan and Dolan, and Tahoe-Sierra. The paper also examines conceptual constructs that have shaped the field’s evolution, including: the doctrine’s origin, the nuisance exception, the changed circumstances argument, unconstitutional conditions, temporary takings and the denominator problem.

‘Peter Pan’ As Public Policy: Should Fifty-Five-Plus Age- Restricted Communities Continue To Be Exempt From Civil Rights Laws And Substantive Federal Regulation?, Mark D. Bauer

Mark D Bauer

Although millions of Americans live in 55-plus age-restricted housing, little research has been done to determine whether these communities benefit their residents, or the nation as a whole. This is particularly ironic because these communities exist in contravention to anti-discrimination laws by virtue of a specific exemption granted to real estate developers by an Act of Congress. Ordinarily age discrimination is prohibited by the Fair Housing Act, Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Successful lobbying by special interest groups carved out an exemption for 55-plus housing.

The original exemption required developers to offer elders special services and …