Law Commons^™

Thinking Ahead: Protecting The Environment In The 21st Century, Thomas L. Eggert

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The United States has made notable progress in cleaning up the environment over the last 30 years. Our nation's air, land and water are, in almost all cases, significantly cleaner than they were only a few decades ago.' Before declaring victory though, we must acknowledge that some environmental problems are getting worse, and the nature of our environmental problems has changed. Many environmental problems are now global problems, as opposed to problems that could be dealt with at the national or state level. Problems have become diffuse, with no clearly identifiable source and with a lengthy delay between cause and …

North American Environment And Its Linkages To Trade, Nicole A. Kleman

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This article will follow a deductive approach in order to comprehend the intricacies involved in the NAFTA and NAAEC's environmental provisions. It will also contextualize the inseparable relationship between environmental protection and trade which is depicted in these agreements. Part I will review and analyze the NAFTA's environmental provisions, focusing on their relevant mechanisms, nexus to trade, and shortcomings. In Part II, the uniqueness and effectiveness of the formula developed to reconcile trade and the environment in the form of the NAAEC will be introduced. Part III is divided into three categories: the Commission for Environmental Cooperation ("CEC"), Dispute Resolution …

Establishing An Environmental Audit Privilege To Promote Implementation Of The Iso 14000 Standards, James E. Plumhoff

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This comment will attempt to address some of the issues surrounding the ISO 14000 standards and also the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme or EMAS standards. Part II of the comment will discuss the evolution and need for international standards such as ISO 14000 and EMAS. Part III will analyze the challenges to successful implementation of ISO and EMAS, particularly concentrating on the problems which may arise from the proliferation of information due to increased EMS audits. Part IV suggests that ISO audit privilege legislation be adopted by the U.S. Congress and that an ISO audit policy be adopted by the …

Thinking Ahead: Protecting The Environment In The 21st Century, Thomas L. Eggert

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

The United States has made notable progress in cleaning up the environment over the last 30 years. Our nation's air, land and water are, in almost all cases, significantly cleaner than they were only a few decades ago.' Before declaring victory though, we must acknowledge that some environmental problems are getting worse, and the nature of our environmental problems has changed. Many environmental problems are now global problems, as opposed to problems that could be dealt with at the national or state level. Problems have become diffuse, with no clearly identifiable source and with a lengthy delay between cause and …

Establishing An Environmental Audit Privilege To Promote Implementation Of The Iso 14000 Standards, James E. Plumhoff

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This comment will attempt to address some of the issues surrounding the ISO 14000 standards and also the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme or EMAS standards. Part II of the comment will discuss the evolution and need for international standards such as ISO 14000 and EMAS. Part III will analyze the challenges to successful implementation of ISO and EMAS, particularly concentrating on the problems which may arise from the proliferation of information due to increased EMS audits. Part IV suggests that ISO audit privilege legislation be adopted by the U.S. Congress and that an ISO audit policy be adopted by the …

North American Environment And Its Linkages To Trade, Nicole A. Kleman

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This article will follow a deductive approach in order to comprehend the intricacies involved in the NAFTA and NAAEC's environmental provisions. It will also contextualize the inseparable relationship between environmental protection and trade which is depicted in these agreements. Part I will review and analyze the NAFTA's environmental provisions, focusing on their relevant mechanisms, nexus to trade, and shortcomings. In Part II, the uniqueness and effectiveness of the formula developed to reconcile trade and the environment in the form of the NAAEC will be introduced. Part III is divided into three categories: the Commission for Environmental Cooperation ("CEC"), Dispute Resolution …

Blocked Pathways: Potential Legal Responses To Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, Noah M. Sachs

Law Faculty Publications

Over fifty different chemicals may have endocrine disrupting effects, and these chemicals permeate our environment. We may be exposed to them through the products we use, the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breath. Although there is a clear need for further research into EDCs, the legal and regulatory communities should begin to consider the types of responses that may be appropriate if the scientific evidence grows stronger.

This article describes and assesses potential legal responses to EDCs, focusing on regulation and litigation, and concludes that existing legal tools will probably be inadequate to respond …

From Stockholm To Kyoto And Back To The United States: International Environmental Law's Effect On Domestic Law, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

In Part I, I begin my discussion of the relationship between the two legal regimes with a brief introduction to modern international environmental law to assist those whose knowledge is as limited as mine was not too long ago. I also describe how the Allen Chair Symposium and seminar series was designed to facilitate exploration of major trends in international environmental law. Part II provides a more in-depth look at the specific relationship between domestic and international environmental law. I conclude that international environmental law informs domestic law as a wellspring of law leading to domestic innovation, a complement to …

International Environmental Litigation And Its Future, Philippe Sands

University of Richmond Law Review

The subject of international environmental law is relatively new. The subject was certainly not taught when the University of Richmond School of Law was established in 1870, even if early international law texts before that period did indicate a nascent concern for the issues of fisheries conservation and the use of international rivers. The late part of the last century and the early part of this one recognized a world in which international law could be divided, rather simply, between the law of peace and the law of war. It was a world with few international courts and tribunals in …

Is Nafta Up To Its Green Expectations? Effective Law Enforcement Under The North American Agreement On Environmental Cooperation, Beatriz Bugeda

University of Richmond Law Review

On January 1, 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the governments of Mexico, Canada and the United States went into effect. Together with this trade agreement, the governments of the three countries entered into a side agreement on the environment: the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). This agreement, also known as the Environmental Side Agreement, responded to some of the concerns of NAFTA critics. Some environmentalists believed NAFTA would promote environmentally insensitive and uncontrolled growth, and others thought the liberalization of trade would be used as a means to preempt stringent domestic environmental regulations.

Treaty Congestion In International Environmental Law: The Need For Greater International Coordination, Bethany Lukitsch Hicks

University of Richmond Law Review

The number of multilateral environmental agreements in the international community has proliferated greatly since the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, Sweden. When the conference was held in 1972, there were approximately three dozen multilateral environmental agreements in existence. In 1989, the United Nations' Environmental Programme (UNEP) Register of Environmental Agreements listed a total of 139 treaties. Today, there are more than 900 international legal instruments, including treaties and binding or non-binding agreements that "are either focused on [the] environment or contain one or more important provisions concerned with the environment." This growth and success …

Environmental Impact Assessment Laws In The Nineties: Can The United States And Mexico Learn From Each Other?, Heather N. Stevenson

University of Richmond Law Review

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) was the first major environmental law in the United States. The statute "was devised to establish a comprehensive national policy which would ... guid[e] federal activity and provid[e] for a coordinated, informed approach toward dealing with environmental problems." Since NEPA's enactment, agencies have been "required to prepare environmental analyses, with input from the state and local governments, Indian tribes, the public, and other federal agencies, when considering a proposal for a major federal action." Although most of the environmental impact assessment law in the world is modeled on NEPA and the impact …

Brownfields Policies For Sustainable Cities, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

My analysis begins in Part I with a short summary of brownfields law and policy, and a description of our current understanding of "sustainable development." There is no hard and fast definition of the term, but it is increasingly more clear that a body of sustainable development "law" will take shape as the product of a host of decisions made now and in the near future. The optimal way to ensure that brownfields programs mesh with this body of law-whatever it turns out to be-is to incorporate basic norms of sustainable development about which there is widespread agreement. Those agreed-upon …