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Student Thesis Honors (1996-2008)

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New Mexico

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Law

Weighing And Balancing Social And Economic Considerations Of Siting Landfills To Address Environmental Justice Concerns, Sharon Shaheen Jun 2005

Weighing And Balancing Social And Economic Considerations Of Siting Landfills To Address Environmental Justice Concerns, Sharon Shaheen

Student Thesis Honors (1996-2008)

Environmental justice in permitting new landfills is best addressed as one element of many weighed in an agency discretionary decision-making process. Siting landfills necessarily includes consideration of technical, social, economic and political issues. Currently, the landfill permitting process in New Mexico examines only technical, scientific, and geological factors. In effect, a permit must be granted if all of the technical specifications and notice requirements are met. To adequately address all of the impacts on a community when a landfill is sited nearby, an agency should have both the discretion to weigh and balance all relevant factors and the authority to …


The Disenfranchisement Of The American Indian, Brenna Clani Jun 2005

The Disenfranchisement Of The American Indian, Brenna Clani

Student Thesis Honors (1996-2008)

The history of the enfranchisement of the American Indian is complicated and complex. This paper will sort through this complicated and complex history. The paper will first analyze the unique status of Indians and how it excluded them from the meaning of "citizen," as interpreted by the United State Supreme Court. It is against this backdrop that the way in which states denied American Indians the right to vote after the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 will then be analyzed.


When Estates Collide: A Student's Exploration Of The Law Of Conflicts In Mineral Development, Jason Marks Jun 2004

When Estates Collide: A Student's Exploration Of The Law Of Conflicts In Mineral Development, Jason Marks

Student Thesis Honors (1996-2008)

The separation of estates can and does result in situations in which the interests of the possessors are in conflict. Volume 1 of this paper explores the substantial body of common law pertaining to conflicts between mineral production and surface use. Traditionally, this law has unabashedly recognized the dominance of mineral interests over the surface estate. While some jurisdictions have adopted ameliorating doctrines through common law or by statute in recent decades, this unequal relationship still holds fast. In many respects and many situations, the dominance of mineral interests is justified by the reasonable construction of leases and other conveyances. …


Interstate Management Of The High Plains Aquifer: A Case Study Of Western Texas And Eastern New Mexico, Kim Bannerman Jun 2004

Interstate Management Of The High Plains Aquifer: A Case Study Of Western Texas And Eastern New Mexico, Kim Bannerman

Student Thesis Honors (1996-2008)

This paper attempts to address this increasingly volatile issue by suggesting a form of interstate groundwater management through focus on one geographical area, the Llano Estacado region of Eastern New Mexico and Western Texas. This region shares a common groundwater source that is quickly being depleted, the High Plains Aquifer (the Aquifer). Up to the present the management of the Aquifer has remained localized under each state's water law. A new management mechanism is needed because often state water laws are inapt for promoting efficient use of groundwater and are also extremely inflexible in allowing for the change of use …


Turning Blood Into Whine--"Fear Of Aids" As A Cognizable Cause Of Action In New Mexico, Eric J. Knapp May 1998

Turning Blood Into Whine--"Fear Of Aids" As A Cognizable Cause Of Action In New Mexico, Eric J. Knapp

Student Thesis Honors (1996-2008)

Madrid v. Lincoln County Medical Center is the first New Mexico case to recognize a cause of action for the negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED) arising from possible exposure to the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The court in Madrid held that recognition of emotional distress claims arising out of a negligently created fear of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through a medically sound channel of transmission does not require proof of actual exposure to the virus. In arriving at its decision, the Madrid court rejected the tort-recovery principles formulated in the "fear of future disease" …


New Mexico Bad Faith, Cheryl Thompson Apr 1998

New Mexico Bad Faith, Cheryl Thompson

Student Thesis Honors (1996-2008)

With the introduction of the automobile came a marked increase in complaints and tension between insureds and their insurance companies. As a result, a significant development in insurance law is that insurers may be held liable in tort for bad faith performance of their duties to insureds. The law of bad faith contemplates that a special relationship exists between insurance companies and their insureds. Recognizing the unique peculiarities of the insurance environment, courts have fashioned the tort of bad faith as a way of regulating the insurer-insured relationship. The underlying premise of the law of bad faith is that insurers …


The Forest Service, Water Yield, And Community Stability: Defining The Contours Of An Agency Commitment To Include Land Grant Communities In The Timber Management Process, Brett Olsen Apr 1998

The Forest Service, Water Yield, And Community Stability: Defining The Contours Of An Agency Commitment To Include Land Grant Communities In The Timber Management Process, Brett Olsen

Student Thesis Honors (1996-2008)

John Wesley Powell\'s 1878 Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States and later Irrigation Surveys proposed a settlement pattern based upon watersheds or "hydrographic basins." Powell\'s plan died ingloriously in the Senate Committee on Irrigation. Profligate overgrazing and logging in the West\'s forested uplands would force the federal reservation of the National Forests under the Organic Administrative Act of 1897. The Act directed the management of reserved, upland watersheds for the twin purposes of "securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the ... citizens of the United …


In Search Of The Deliberative Initiative: A Proposal For A New Method Of Constitutional Change, Arne R. Leonard Apr 1996

In Search Of The Deliberative Initiative: A Proposal For A New Method Of Constitutional Change, Arne R. Leonard

Student Thesis Honors (1996-2008)

The use of citizen's initiatives to amend state constitutions reached record high levels in the 1992-93 biennium. Proponents of the initiative argue that it provides a healthy means of turning a voter's distrust into much-needed governmental reform. Yet critics are quick to point out that correcting the abuses of representative government is not the only objective of the initiative campaigns of the 1990s. The initiative also has been used to denigrate the rights of minorities. In addition to threatening the rights of minorities, some critics argue this weapon may undermine the federal guarantee that each state shall have a republican …