Law Commons^™

Preserving The Chesapeake: Law, Ecology, And The Bay, Heather N. Stevenson, Noah M. Sachs, Rodney A. Smolla, Gerald L. Baliles, Gerald Mccarthy, Russell W. Baxter, Jonathan Z. Cannon, Erin Ryan, Richard Batiuk, L. Preston Bryant, Kathy R. Frahm, Joseph J. Tannery, David E. Evans, Mark Smith, Nikki Rovner, Timothy G. Hayes, Alexandra Dunn

University of Richmond Law Review Symposium

This event was co-sponsored by the Merhige Center for Environmental Studies, the Allen Chair of Law, the Virginia State Bar, and the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

The “Historical Background” session, held from 9:30 - 10:30 a.m., was presented by the Hon. Governor Gerald L. Baliles, Director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs and 65th Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Gerald McCarthy, Executive Director of the Virginia Environmental Endowment; and Russell W. Baxter, Deputy Director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. Rodney A. Smolla, Dean of the University of Richmond School of Law, served as moderator. …

Why Does The Chesapeake Bay Need Litigators?, Jon A. Mueller, Joseph Tannery

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

New Orleans, The Chesapeake, And The Future Of Environmental Assessment: Overcoming The Natural Resources Law Of Unintended Consequences, Eric Ryan

University of Richmond Law Review

This article tells the stories of the disappearing wetlands ringing the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and the Chesapeake Bay of Virginia and Maryland, which are vanishing under different circumstances but bear the same message for environmental policy makers: more sophisticated natural resource planning is required to avoid the unanticipated consequences that can cause even wellintended policies to backfire. The stories suggest that a model of environmental assessment that better tracks the complex network characteristics of regional ecosystems would yield better long-term results, and this article proposes a network-based model that expands the lateral, temporal, and causal analysis of conventional environmental …

Amending Perpetual Conservation Easements: A Case Study Of The Myrtle Grove Controversy, Nancy A. Mclaughlin

University of Richmond Law Review

This article explores the issue of amending perpetual conservation easements by examining the Myrtle Grove controversy, in which the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States (the "National Trust")" "conceptually approved" a request made by a successor owner of land encumbered by a perpetual conservation easement to substantially amend the easement. Several months later, as a result of public opposition to the amendments and a reassessment of its position, the National Trust withdrew that approval. The owner of the encumbered land subsequently filed a suit for breach of contract, and the National Trust and the Attorney General of …

Rapanos, Carabell, And The Isolated Man, Joel B. Eisen

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Checking In On The Chesapeake: Some Questions Of Design, Jonathan Cannon

University of Richmond Law Review

The Chesapeake Bay Program ("the CBP" or "Program") has been widely celebrated as a model of collaborative management for large multijurisdictional watersheds and for ecosystem management more generally.' In an article published six years ago, I joined in the celebration.2 But recent events warrant consideration of whether restructuring of the program is called for. In this essay, I consider whether greater centralization of decisionmaking for the Bay would address recent criticisms of the Program and better protect the public interest. After evaluating two alternative forms for the Program involving greater centralization, I conclude that major restructuring is not in order. …

Book Review- Turning The Tide: Saving The Chesapeake Bay, Carl W. Tobias

University of Richmond Law Review

Nearly a quarter century ago, the states of the Chesapeake Bay region entered a compact by which they meant to improve the declining environmental quality of this national treasure. Concerned about the Bay's accelerating degradation, these jurisdictions hoped that the agreement would enhance the situation or at least stop the deterioration. Ten years after that accord's consummation, Tom Horton evaluated whether progress had been achieved in improving the Bay's environmental health. The writer determined that the answer was inconclusive. When a second decade had passed since the compact's adoption, Horton decided that he would conduct another examination to determine what …

Planning The Funeral At The Birth: Extended Producer Responsibility In The European Union And The United States, Noah M. Sachs

Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines how governments in the world's two largest economies are diverging in their approaches to regulating hazardous products and packaging, with major ramifications for manufacturing, waste management, and trade. The European Union is implementing product-oriented environmental regulation based on the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility ("EPR"), which assigns responsibility to manufacturers to take back their products after consumers discard them. In theory, EPR could dramatically alter production practices by internalizing externalities from products and providing incentives for environmentally friendly design. However, practical problems of implementation raise questions about the effectiveness of EPR as a policy tool.

This Article …

Rapanos, Carabell, And The Isolated Man, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

We gather yet again this year at the University of Richmond to discuss the deplorable state of the Chesapeake Bay and the concerted effort needed to bring it back from the brink of death. The state of the Bay seems not much better than it did eleven years ago, when a group of wise souls who cared deeply about the Bay assembled at this law school to revisit the Kepone incident and call for more action to stem pollution in the Bay. To no one's surprise, unfortunately, that august group assembled in our Moot Court Room did not solve the …