Law Commons^™

Enforcing Higher Standards For Flood Hazard Mitigation In Vermont, Tamsin Flanders

Masters Theses

The state of Vermont faces increasing risk of costly damage from catastrophic flooding events as climate change increases the frequency of heavy rains and cumulative precipitation. In addition to increasing flood inundation risk, extreme precipitation events are leading to high rates damage from fluvial erosion—erosion caused by the force of floodwater and the materials it carries. As in all U.S. states, flood hazard governance in Vermont is shared by multiple levels of government and involves a complex compliance model that relies on local governments to regulate private property owners to achieve community, state, or federal goals.

To encourage municipalities to …

Paradise Found? Food Transportation Regulation: A Detour Through Regulatory Purgatory, William Nash

Journal of Food Law & Policy

On January 31, 2014, the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NPRM") that would set requirements for shippers, carriers and receivers of food transported in intrastate and interstate commerce. The NPRM marks a potentially important step in a long history of the (non-)regulation of food transportation. In Parts I and II, this paper will provide some context of the history of food transportation, as well as the major incidents that placed the food transportation industry on the regulatory map. In Parts III and IV, the paper will consider the history of food transportation regulation from …

Regulating Micromobility: Examining Transportation Equity And Access, Karen Johnston, Deirdre A. Oakley, Audra Durham, Claire Bass, Stacie Kershner

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

This paper evaluates the various ways cities have or are attempting to address e-scooter usage equity concerns, with a focus on Atlanta, Georgia as compared to Austin, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Los Angeles, California; and Portland, Oregon. The cities were evaluated by the laws in effect at the time of coding, which occurred during the project period of October through December 2019. To explore how existing laws and regulations affect access to e-scooters, this research was guided by the following overarching questions: How equitable is access to e-scooters? How can equitable access to e-scooters be improved? How can a data-driven …

The New Nuclear? Small Modular Reactors And The Future Of Nuclear, Bruce R. Huber

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

This article explores Small Modular Reactors, SMRs. It begins by explaining the regulatory and economic structure of the electricity sector in the United States. It then describes the current state of nuclear power before examining SMRs in particular—how they differ from conventional nuclear reactors, what regulatory issues they will confront, and what factors will most directly shape their long-term potential.

Deploying Machine Learning For A Sustainable Future, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

To meet the environmental challenges of a warming planet and an increasingly complex, high tech economy, government must become smarter about how it makes policies and deploys its limited resources. It specifically needs to build a robust capacity to analyze large volumes of environmental and economic data by using machine-learning algorithms to improve regulatory oversight, monitoring, and decision-making. Three challenges can be expected to drive the need for algorithmic environmental governance: more problems, less funding, and growing public demands. This paper explains why algorithmic governance will prove pivotal in meeting these challenges, but it also presents four likely obstacles that …

The Lasting Impacts Of Mass Consumerism And The Disposable Culture: A Proposition For The Development Of Plastic Shopping Bag Bans In Texas Law, David Brewster

St. Mary's Law Journal

This Article addresses the developing state of plastic bag bans in Texas municipal and state jurisprudence. The Article recites the history of plastic bag bans and their impacts on the environment, the issues pertinent to municipal powers as regulatory devices, and analyzes the most recent case regarding bag bans in Texas, which is the Texas Supreme Court’s opinion in City of Laredo v. Laredo Merchants Association. The Article makes suggestions about how to move forward in developing municipal plastic bag bans for the benefit of the environment, and addresses the immediate impacts of bag ban litigation and legislation in …

Reflections On The Effects Of Federalism On Opioid Policy, Matthew B. Lawrence

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.