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Full-Text Articles in Law
Reconciling Police Power Prerogatives, Public Trust Interests, And Private Property Rights Along Laurentian Great Lakes Shores, Richard K. Norton, Nancy H. Welsh
Reconciling Police Power Prerogatives, Public Trust Interests, And Private Property Rights Along Laurentian Great Lakes Shores, Richard K. Norton, Nancy H. Welsh
Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
The United States has a north coast along its ‘inland seas’—the Laurentian Great Lakes. The country enjoys more than 4,500 miles of Great Lakes coastal shoreline, almost as much as its ocean coastal shorelines combined, excluding Alaska. The Great Lakes states are experiencing continued shorefront development and redevelopment, and there are growing calls to better manage shorelands for enhanced resiliency in the face of global climate change. The problem is that the most pleasant, fragile, and dangerous places are in high demand among coastal property owners, such that coastal development often yields the most tenacious of conflicts between public interests …
Cooperative Mineral Interest Development In The Lone Star State: It's Time To Mess With Texas, Matthew K. Trawick
Cooperative Mineral Interest Development In The Lone Star State: It's Time To Mess With Texas, Matthew K. Trawick
Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
Since the early discoveries of the Spindletop, King Ranch, and East Texas oil fields, the oil and gas industry has dominated the Texas economy. The industry has also played an important role in shaping state politics and culture. The oil boom of the early 1900s created thousands of jobs for ordinary workers and immense wealth for a select few. Early Texas oil barons made headlines because of their lavish lifestyles and often extreme political beliefs. Legendary wildcatter H.L. Hunt typified this oil-fueled exuberance. Hunt became one of the eight richest individuals in the United States after securing mineral rights to …
Legal Protection For Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystems, Collin Gannon
Legal Protection For Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystems, Collin Gannon
Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
This Note concerns the legal protection of groundwater-dependent ecosystems in the United States and abroad. By first describing the science and ecology of ecosystems that are dependent on groundwater and then surveying the current American legal system that fails to adequately protect groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs), this Note proposes legal reforms that could vastly improve groundwater management systems. State protection of GDEs is sparse and often only operates indirectly as a result of states’ water policies focused on water quantity upkeep for consumptive purposes. Part I provides an overview of GDEs. Part II discusses state legal protection, including indirect state protection …
Closing The Regulatory Gap In Michigan's Public Trust Doctrine: Saving Michigan Millions With Statutory Reform, Kelsey Breck
Closing The Regulatory Gap In Michigan's Public Trust Doctrine: Saving Michigan Millions With Statutory Reform, Kelsey Breck
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The Great Lakes are some of Michigan's most valuable and important environmental resources. The public trust doctrine requires Michigan to protect and preserve the lands along the shores of the Great Lakes for the use of future generations. Unfortunately, the public trust doctrine in Michigan is in disarray and as a result, public and private rights to the lands along the Great Lakes are poorly delineated. This Note presents an economic argument for why the public trust doctrine should be reformed to better define public and private rights to the land along Michigan's Great Lakes. It also suggests a statutory …
The Role Of Local Governments In Great Lakes Environmental Governance: A Canadian Perspective, Marcia Valiante
The Role Of Local Governments In Great Lakes Environmental Governance: A Canadian Perspective, Marcia Valiante
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Restoration of environmental integrity in the Great Lakes Basin has been only a qualified success after thirty-five years of efforts pursuant to policies developed by federal, state, and provincial governments. Many unresolved problems stem from activities under local government control, yet in the past local governments were excluded from Great Lakes policy-making. By looking at recent changes in the powers, interests, experience, and influence of local governments in Ontario, this Essay concludes that local governments now have the ability to participate meaningfully in Great Lakes policy formation and implementation. To include local governments would improve the chances of successful restoration …
The Public Trust In Surface Waterways And Submerged Lands Of The Great Lakes States, Bertram C. Frey, Andrew Mutz
The Public Trust In Surface Waterways And Submerged Lands Of The Great Lakes States, Bertram C. Frey, Andrew Mutz
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The modern public trust doctrine compels each Great Lakes state to protect the sustainable future of the Lakes and to preserve traditional public uses. At the same time, the doctrine constrains the states' powers to allow exploitation of trust resources. This Article provides a brief historical overview of the public trust doctrine in waterways and their submerged lands. It next explores how the eight Great Lakes states have applied the doctrine, discusses the surprising number of differences in the doctrine's development from state to state, and provides comparison charts. After analyzing the variety of approaches used by the eight states …
State Management Of The Environment Part One: An Evaluation Of The Michigan Experience, Geoffrey J. Lanning
State Management Of The Environment Part One: An Evaluation Of The Michigan Experience, Geoffrey J. Lanning
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Michigan's citizens, as well as its government, seem but dimly aware of the fact that Michigan-the home of America's most growth-centered industry, the automobile-lies at the very eye of the environmental storm. This article seeks to take a broad look at the shortcomings of Michigan's environmental protection in recent years. In so doing, it groups many of Michigan's recent environmental failings into broad categories which will both clarify the status of Michigan's environmental law climate and provide a basis for its reform. Parts One and Two consist of this analysis and evaluation. Part Three will examine possible solutions and offer …
State Management Of The Environment Part Two: A Continuing Evaluation Of The Michigan Experience, Geoffrey J. Lanning
State Management Of The Environment Part Two: A Continuing Evaluation Of The Michigan Experience, Geoffrey J. Lanning
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In Part One of this article, the author outlined the scope and character of Michigan's environmental problems and suggested some of the factors underlying the state's weak and bureaucratic decisionmaking process. Part Two concludes the author's analysis of the fundamental obstacles to effective environmental decisionmaking in Michigan, and Part Three will contain recommendations for reform.
The Role Of The Michigan Attorney General In Consumer And Environmental Protection, Michigan Law Review
The Role Of The Michigan Attorney General In Consumer And Environmental Protection, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
In an effort to clarify the role of the attorney general as public representative, this Note will examine the functioning of the office of the Michigan attorney general. After an analysis of the nature and extent of the attorney general's powers and of his current utilization of those powers, several proposals to increase his effectiveness will be discussed.
Michigan Environmental Protection Act, Roger L. Conner
Michigan Environmental Protection Act, Roger L. Conner
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Each of the questions discussed in this note revolve around the same basic issue: the propriety of vesting broad power in the courts to prevent environmental destruction, and to develop an environmental common law. The need for the broad standard of the Act derives from the complexity of the problem. The clear authority of the courts to decide cases which have been, or should have been dealt with by an administrative agency is important both for the relationship it establishes between citizens and agencies, and to insure that the policies of the Act will be implemented. In responding to these …