Law Commons^™

Tarnished Gold: The Endangered Species Act At 50, Jonathan H. Adler

FIU Law Review

The ESA is arguably the most powerful and stringent federal environmental law on the books. Yet for all of the Act’s force and ambition, it is unclear how much the law has done much to achieve its central purpose: the conservation of endangered species. The law has been slow to recover listed species and has fostered conflict over land use and scientific determinations that frustrate cooperative conservation efforts. The Article aims to take stock of the ESA’s success and failures during its first fifty years, particularly with regard the conservation of species habitat on private land. While the Act authorizes …

Using Federal Public Lands To Model A New Energy Future: Why The Biden Administration Should Prioritize Renewable Energy Development On Public Lands, Meghen Sullivan

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Oil and gas extraction on public lands and waters is responsible for twenty percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. If American public lands were their own country, they would be the fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. As of 2020, only twenty percent of total U.S. electricity generation came from renewable energy sources. While renewable energy development on public lands has increased, most renewable energy comes from private lands. However, public lands contain immense renewable energy potential; for example, it is estimated that half of this country’s geothermal resources are found on public lands. Despite underutilized renewable energy potential …

Risk Regulation And Management Against Illegal Wildlife Trade: Europe And America, Olonyi Bosire

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Introduction

The source or initial crime in the illegal wildlife trade chain is mostly committed beyond the shores of North America and Europe. However, the two regions continue to be massive destination markets and key transit hubs for illegal wildlife products. Illegal trade networks are shadowy and therefore problematic to study. This helps explain the wide valuation of illegal wildlife trade currently estimated by the Global Environment Facility (“GEF”) as ranging between 7 and 23 billion dollars per annum.

Policies and strategies to pre-empt or respond to illegal wildlife trade keep evolving as appreciation grows for the previously underestimated complexities, …

More Than A Rake: Toward A Statutory Solution For Wildfire Threats To Department Of Defense Installations, Steven L. Spencer Ii Major

Natural Resources Journal

Over the past four decades, the average area annually burned in wildfires in the United States has roughly quadrupled. Larger, more powerful wildfires increasingly threaten inhabited areas as well as vital infrastructure, including many installations of the United States Armed Forces. This article first introduces readers to what wildfire is and the unique challenges it creates to the environment, health and, specifically, to the Department of Defense (DoD). Next, it discusses the dominant approaches to addressing the wildfire threat, prescribed fire and mechanical treatment. It then summarizes the primary laws, policies and partners involved in wildfire policy in the United …

The Illegally Traded Elephant In The Room: Species Terrorism & Combating Illegal Wildlife Trade, Áine Dillon

Pace International Law Review

The illegal wildlife trade has been a dilemma for decades

and remains prevalent globally – international intervention is

required now. While most countries participate in the Convention

on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild

Fauna and Flora (“CITES”), not all countries have the same approaches

to combating the illegal wildlife trade. Unique approaches

can be beneficial because each illegally traded species

requires a different response, and countries with limited resources

can also participate. However, the lack of a unified response

hinders the global fight against the illegal wildlife trade.

While traditional methods to combat crime, such as passing

laws, …

Legal Protection For Wildlife And Their Natural Habitat In The States Of The Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council - Dr. Maryam Bint Hasan Al-Khalifa

UAEU Law Journal

The concern of the states of the Arabian Cooperation Council to protect the environment in general and the conservation of wild life and their natural habitat in particular stems from the great significance of the need to protect the environment and human life. This attempt is a substantial part of environmental protection since man is the first beneficiary to sustain and continue the well being of the environment for eco balance through the activation of its major components in a natural and continuous manner.

The States of the Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council made individual efforts in the field of protecting …

Natural Resources And Natural Law Part Ii: The Public Trust Doctrine, Robert W. Adler

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Natural Resources and Natural Law Part I: Prior Appropriation analyzed claims by some western ranchers, grounded in natural law, that they have property rights in grazing resources on federal public lands through prior appropriation. Those individuals advocated their position in part through civil disobedience and armed standoffs with federal officials. They also asserted that their duty to obey theistic natural law overrode any duty to obey the Nation’s positive law. Similar claims that individual religious beliefs override positive law have been made recently regarding a range of other controversial issues, such as same-sex marriage, public insurance for birth control, and …

Rethinking Global Governance To Address Zoonotic Disease Risks: Connecting The Dots, Kelley Lee

Animal Sentience

Large-scale changes in human behaviour are urgently needed to prevent future pandemics involving zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19. However, this will not happen to the required degree, and with sufficient speed, without a major shift in how humanity collectively governs itself. Alongside a shift in focus from individual behaviours to the structural conditions underpinning the world economy that shape human behaviours, effective global governance presses us to connect more dots than ever before. The One Health approach is an important starting point but we need to go much further.

Golf Course Land Positive Effects On The Environment, Lauren Sewell

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

This article evaluates both the positive and negative environmental aspects of golf course. This is a detailed analysis of mitigation efforts to limit harm of the courses and improvements golf course should pursue.

More Than Birds: Developing A New Environmental Jurisprudence Through The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Patrick G. Maroun

Michigan Law Review

This year marks the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, one of the oldest environmental regulatory statutes in the United States. It is illegal to “take” or “kill” any migratory bird covered by the Act. But many of the economic and industrial assumptions that undergirded the Act in 1918 have changed dramatically. Although it is undisputed that hunting protected birds is prohibited, circuit courts split on whether so-called “incidental takings” fall within the scope of the Act. The uncertainty inherent in this disagreement harms public and private interests alike—not to mention migratory birds. Many of the most important environmental …

Public-Private Conservation Agreements And The Greater Sage-Grouse, Justin R. Pidot

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In 2015, the Obama Administration announced its conservation plans for the greater sage-grouse, an iconic bird of the intermountain west.Political leadership at the time described those plans as the “largest landscape-level conservation effort in U.S. history,”and they served as the foundation for a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) that a listing of the bird was not warranted under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The Trump Administration appears poised to substantially amend the plans, although an array of interested parties have urged that the plans be left intact. Regardless of the outcome of this debate, conservation of …

Avian Jurisprudence And The Protection Of Migratory Birds In North America, Marshall A. Bowen

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

A Review Of Contemporary U.S. Wild Horse And Burro Management Policies Relative To Desired Management Outcomes, Keith A. Norris

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Legally defined “wild” horse (Equus ferus caballus ) and burro (E. asinus ; WHB) populations in the United States exceed established population objectives. The context of WHB policy and management can be categorized into ecological, geographical, legal, social, and political perspectives. Ecologically, all WHB populations in the United States are considered feral animals, but certain populations are afforded protection and management by the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WFRHBA) of 1971. The current policy and management paradigms under which the WFRHBA is being implemented has contributed to rangeland degradation, poor WHB health, and impacts to native wildlife. This …

The Comparative Institutions Approach To Wildlife Governance, Dean Lueck

Texas A&M Law Review

This Article develops a comparative institutions approach to wildlife governance by examining the property rights to the habitat and the stocks of wild populations. The approach is based on the transaction cost and property rights approach and lies primarily in the traditions of Coase, Barzel, Ostrom, and Williamson. The approach recognizes the often-extreme costs of delineation and enforcement of property rights to wild populations and their habitats; thus, all systems are notably imperfect compared to the typical neoclassical economics approach. These costs arise because wildlife habitat and wildlife populations are part of the land which has many attributes and uses—most …

The Constitutionality Of Fish And Wildlife Related Searches And Seizures Conducted By Conservation Agents In Missouri, Travis R. Mclain

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cascadia Wildlands V. Woodruff, Erick A. Valencia

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Predator management has long been a source of contention among the general public, and few predators have had a more polarizing effect on the public than wolves. Cascadia Wildlands v. Woodruff is yet another example of the tension between conservationists and private interests. In this case, Wildlands opposed the federal government’s FONSI and EA regarding Wildlife Services’s involvement in assisting the WDFW to implement its Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. The district court determined that Wildlife Services had acted arbitrarily and vacated Wildlife Services’s FONSI and EA.

Take It To The Limit: The Illegal Regulation Prohibiting The Take Of Any Threatened Species Under The Endangered Species Act, Jonathan Wood

Pace Environmental Law Review

Following the introduction, part II of this article will provide a brief background on the adoption of the Endangered Species Act. Part III will explain that the statute does not authorize the agencies to extend the take prohibition to all threatened species. Part IV will argue that returning to the statutory scheme would result in a fairer distribution of the costs of species protection by imposing the costs of prophylactic protection on agencies and the public generally. Burdening individuals would be a last resort, as Congress intended. Finally, Part V will identify how Congress’ policy is a reasonable way to …

Public Trust Doctrine Implications Of Electricity Production, Lance Noel, Jeremy Firestone

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The public trust doctrine is a powerful legal tool in property law that requires the sovereign, as a trustee, to protect and manage natural resources. Historically, the public trust doctrine has been used in relationship to navigable waterways and wildlife management. Despite electricity production’s impact on those two areas and the comparatively smaller impacts of renewable energy, electricity production has garnered very little public trust doctrine attention. This Article examines how electricity production implicates the public trust doctrine, primarily through the lens of four states—California, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and New Jersey—and how it would potentially apply to each state’s electricity planning …

Uncertainty, Precaution, And Adaptive Management In Wildlife Trade, Annecoos Wiersema

Michigan Journal of International Law

Wildlife trade is big business. Legal international trade in just some of the wild animals and plants traded worldwide is estimated at $350 to $530 million per year. The United States is the primary importer of virtually every major taxon of these species, including mammals, reptiles, fish, and plants. When it comes to illegal trade, estimates of its value range from $7 to $23 billion annually, covering wild animals, fish, and timber. This illegal trade fuels organized crime and militia and terrorist groups. In the face of all this pressure, some wild species appear to be traded in sustainable amounts. …

For Trinkets, Tonics, And Terrorism: International Wildlife Poaching In The Twenty-First Century, Ranee Khooshie Lal Panjabi

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Hunting & Fishing: The Implications Of Kentucky's "Right To Hunt" Constitutional Amendment, Young-Eun Park

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Establishing A "Due Care" Standard Under The Lacey Act Amendments Of 2008, Rachel Saltzman

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

The Lacey Act was first enacted in 1900 as a narrow measure for domestic bird preservation and agriculture protection. It was significantly amended in 1981 and 1988 to prohibit trafficking in fish and wildlife "taken, possessed, transported, or sold" in violation of state and foreign laws. For the past three decades, the amended statute has provided the federal government with a powerful tool for regulating imports of fish and wildlife. In 2008 Congress expanded its reach still further, responding to widespread concern about the effects of illegal logging on local governance, the environment, and American business by extending the Act's …

Liberating Animal Law: Breaking Free From Human-Use Typologies, Jessica Eisen

Animal Law Review

Animal protection laws have traditionally categorized animals according to the manner in which humans use them. Animals have been categorized as companion animals, animals used in medical testing, animals raised for slaughter, and wildlife, and the protection afforded to animals has been ostensibly commensurate to their use categorization.

This Article focuses on two alternative strategies that provide legal protection for animals without relying on human use as their primary mode of categorization. First, the Article looks at protecting animals as a single category, in particular through the use of constitutional provisions. The Article then looks at a species-based model that …

Canada-United States Cooperative Approaches To Shared Marine Fishery Resources: Territorial Subversion?, Ted L. Mcdorman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay will focus on how Canada and the United States have both succeeded and failed in adopting cooperative approaches to managing ocean fishery resources. A critical factor that has influenced these efforts is the introduction of an international legal construct dictating that States have exclusive sovereign rights respecting all marine living resources within 200 nautical miles of their shores. Cooperative approaches to managing transboundary marine living resources between Canada and the United States are necessary for two reasons. First, in the case of marine living resources, the resource pays scant attention to human-constructed national boundaries. Put another way, marine …

Conserving Marine Wildlife Through World Trade Law, Eric A. Bilsky

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this Essay marshals the evidence that fisheries around the world are in peril from destructive fishing practices. Part II argues that most fisheries management regimes are ineffective at counteracting the political pressures and economic incentives that lead to unsustainable fishing. Part III makes the case that government subsidies are major enablers of overfishing. The fourth and final Part discusses the continuing efforts to use international trade regulation to eliminate overfishing subsidies and halt the collapse of the world's marine fish populations.

Assemblage-Oriented Ocean Resource Management: How The Marine Environment Washes Over Traditional Territorial Lines, John A. Duff

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay assesses challenges that arise when marine territorial boundaries do not encompass the appropriate assemblage of resources and relationships necessary for effective authority and management. It reviews the manner in which certain offshore resource uses have been "quasi-territorialized" by the application of other forms of jurisdiction. It also highlights regime-jurisdiction-private interest-oriented responses to territory-oriented challenges in the form of assemblages of authority, interests, space, and time. Given the scalar progression of the links in the discussion, the assessment moves from international principles to exercises of national sovereignty to domestic administration of space and resources to private legal interests.

2006 Animal-Law Related Articles, Brett Cattani

Animal Law Review

Animal Law is pleased to introduce as a new annual feature a bibliography of animal law-related articles published in law reviews and law journals during the previous year. For ease of reference, each article has been placed into a relevant category and each category provides a non-exhaustive list of potential topic examples. Some articles may appear in more than one category. Although we have made every effort to be as comprehensive as possible and present a complete listing of 2006 articles, this list may not be all-inclusive. We hope this compilation will serve as a useful resource in exploring contemporary …

Constitution Of The State Of Georgia A Resolution: Amend The Constitution So As To Provide That The Tradition Of Fishing And Hunting And The Taking Of Fish And Wildlife Shall Be Preserved For The People And Shall Be Managed By Law And Regulation For The Public Good; Provide For Submission Of This Amendment For Ratification Or Rejection; And For Other Purposes, Clay S. O'Daniel

Georgia State University Law Review

The resolution sanctioned a state-wide referendum to amend the Georgia Constitution. The referendum will appear on the general election ballot in November 2006. Although Georgia Code section 27-1-3 recognizes the right to hunt and fish and the importance of the tradition of hunting and fishing to the State of Georgia, proponents contend that the resolution is a necessary step given the potential future threat. The proposed amendment preserves the tradition of hunting and fishing for the people of Georgia and provides management by law and regulation for the public good.

The Challenges Of Integrating Tourism Into Canadian And Australian Coastal Zone Management, Alison Gill, Lorne K. Kriwoken, Suzanne Dobson, Liza D. Fallon

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article discusses the challenges of integrating tourism into Canadian and Australian coastal zone management. Comparisons are drawn between coastal and marine tounsm resources in Australia and Canada. The resources considered include the cruise ship industry, recreational boating, fishing, sea kayaking, SCUBA diving and marine wildlife tourism. In the introduction, some of the problems of definition and data are addressed. Tourism is described as an industry, but unlike many traditional industries, the tourism arena consists of a myriad of players and sectors. After the comparison of tourism resources in both countries, the power and politics associated with managing user conflicts …

The Role Of Animals In Livable Communities, Earl Blumenauer

Animal Law Review

No abstract provided.