Law Commons^™

From Schweizerhalle To Baia Mare: The Continuing Failure Of International Law To Protect Europe's Rivers, Aaron Schwabach

Faculty Scholarship

Beginning on January 31, 2000, at least 100,000 cubic meters of highly polluted water escaped from a tailings dam at the Aurul gold mine in Baia Mare, Romania. The water flowed into the Somes, Tisza, and Danube Rivers, causing enormous environmental damage. Most of the damage occurred in Hungary, downstream from Baia Mare. Hungarian politicians called the spill “the first, most serious environment[al] catastrophe in the 21st century,” and “the worst ecological disaster in central Europe since Chernobyl in 1986.”

More striking than the resemblance to the Chernobyl disaster, though, was the resemblance to another 1986 environmental catastrophe: the Sandoz …

Ecocide And Genocide In Iraq: International Law, The Marsh Arabs, And Environmental Damage In Non-International Conflicts, Aaron Schwabach

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Frictions Of Federalism: The Rise And Fall Of The Federal Common Law Of Interstate Nuisance, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

Prior to the erection in the 1970s of a comprehensive federal regulatory infrastructure to protect the environment, transboundary pollution disputes frequently were adjudicated by the U.S. Supreme Court, exercising its original jurisdiction over disputes between states. In a series of cases commencing at the dawn of the Twentieth Century, the Court served as a national arbiter of interstate pollution disputes. This paper reviews the history of the Supreme Court's use of these cases to develop a federal common law of interstate nuisance.

The paper argues that while federal common law initially performed a zoning function by encouraging polluters to relocate …

The Interior Department's Water 2025: Blueprint For Balance, Or Just Better Business As Usual?, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR or the Bureau) observed its centennial in 2002, and celebrated 100 years of building dams and supplying water for irrigation and other purposes in the western United States. In 2003, the U.S. Department of the Interior (the Interior) and the Bureau shifted their focus to the future of the West and its water supply needs, producing a document called Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West.

Environmental Justice: Stakes, Stakeholders, Strategies, Eileen Gauna, Shiela Foster

Faculty Scholarship

A quick review of the beginning prominence of and continued work for environmental justice.

Improving New Mexico's Water Management, Denise D. Fort, Tom Mcguckin

Faculty Scholarship

This paper reviews several measures that New Mexico should pursue to improve its management of water. The crisis in New Mexico’s water affects all of the citizens of the state, but hasty responses may promise more than they can deliver. In this paper we present several measures that will allow better use of the resources that the state has, and rectify imbalances in how water has been managed in the state.

Homeland Security, Pesticide Regulation And Common Household Chemicals: Are We Adequately Protecting All Our Sources, Leticia M. Diaz

Faculty Scholarship

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, legislators, business owners, consumers and everyday citizens, all with a view of how to protect our interests, voiced their opinions on how to improve national security with patriotic zest. FIFRA's main purpose is to ensure federal regulation of pesticide distribution and use. This power is of particular importance given the terroristic threat of possible chemical warfare. Chemical professionals were cognizant of the importance of site security even prior to the September 11th terrorist attacks. With respect to the risk of terrorist attacks using pesticides or other chemical agents, EPA …

Disasters First: Rethinking Environmental Law After September 11, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Many environmental statutes were enacted, or at least spurred along, in direct response to disasters. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 followed from the Santa Barbara Oil Spill; the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) resulted from the chemical gas disaster in Bhopal, India; the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) was sparked by the Love Canal incident; and the Oil Pollution Acte was a reaction to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 have led to the Homeland Security Act and to several other enactments. The collapse of the …

Harnessing Information Technology To Improve The Environmental Impact Review Process, Michael B. Gerrard, Michael Herz

Faculty Scholarship

In 1970, when the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was enacted, the new and exciting information management technologies were the handheld four-function calculator and the eight-track tape cassette. Three decades later, after the personal computer, the digital revolution, and the World Wide Web, the implementation of NEPA is still stuck in the world of 1970. Other aspects of the bureaucracy have seen reform-the E-Government Strategy, an E-Government Act, the creation of a new Office of Electronic Government within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and, to focus on the environmental arena, the breathtaking success of the web-based Toxic Release …

Priority, Probability, And Proximate Cause: Lessons From Tort Law About Imposing Esa Responsibility For Wildlife Harm On Water Users And Other Joint Habitat Modifiers, James R. Rasband

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reconstructing Climate Policy: Beyond Kyoto, Jonathan B. Wiener, Richard B. Stewart

Faculty Scholarship

In their comprehensive analysis of the Kyoto Protocol and climate policy, Richard B. Stewart and Jonathan B. Wiener examine the current impasse in climate policy and the potential steps nations can take to reduce greenhouse gases. They summarize the current state of information regarding the extent of global warming that would be caused by increasing uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions. They explain why participation by all major greenhouse gas-emitting countries is essential to curb future greenhouse gas emissions and also note the significant obstacles to obtaining such participation.

Stewart and Wiener argue it is in the national interest of the United …

Superfund Vs. Mega-Sites: The Coeur D'Alene River Basin Story, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

Stretching across the "panhandle" of northern Idaho, the Coeur d'Alene River Basin evokes a mixed sense of wonder. Within this vast region of mountains and marshes, forests and farmland, creeks and canyons, a vibrant mining industry emerged more than a century ago. Along with the mining industry came the mining towns-and the mining pollution. Over time, the volume of mining wastes discharged into waters of the Coeur d'Alene Basin reached Brobdingnagian proportions: enough waste to fill a football field with a pile four miles high.

Private Lawyers And Environmental Justice, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

A private lawyer representing a private client is seldom a crusader. When environmental justice is relevant to a particular matter – the client proposes to build a facility and engages the lawyer to help secure necessary governmental approvals, for example-the lawyer's primary duty must be to the client.

The client in such a case faces two primary types of questions: substantive, such as where and how to build the facility; and procedural, deciding what processes to follow and how much to involve the community in the planning. Typically, by the time the lawyer is brought in, the client already has …