Law Commons^™

Precious, Worthless, Or Immeasurable: The Value And Ethic Of Water, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

This Article introduces and briefly explores some of the topics related to the value and ethics of water that were considered at the symposium, Precious, Worthless, or Immeasurable: The Value and Ethic of Water, which took place November 2-4, 2006, at the Texas Tech University School of Law. The purpose of the Symposium was to consider how this precious liquid is valued, assessed, and perceived with regard to law and regulations, economics and commerce, people and communities, culture and religion, and others aspects of society that are impacted by water. While far from a comprehensive analysis of the subject matter, …

The Legacy Of John Graham: Strait-Jacketing Risk Assessment, Rena I. Steinzor

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

International Decisions–Guatemala Genocide Case, Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Keep Your Money: Let The West Pay For Its Own Water Projects, Denise D. Fort

Faculty Scholarship

The question posed here is what role the federal government should play in responding to the western water crisis, in light of the changes in the social and political landscape that have occurred in the last decade. My thesis is that solutions to water needs that are funded locally are more likely to be sustainable than those produced through national appropriations. My thinking is affected by the work I did on a Presidential commission that recommended sustainability be the cornerstone of western water policy.

Deflating The Deference Myth: National Interests Vs. State Authority Under Federal Laws Affecting Water Use, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

This Article seeks to separate the myth from the reality of federal deference to state water allocation authority. Section I briefly addresses background principles of state water law and federal constitutional law, and Section II traces the early history of deference prior to 1910. Section III analyzes three federal statutory schemes and Supreme Court cases applying them, suggests that each represents a different level of federal deference, and distills a few principles for analyzing deference under federal statutes. Section IV addresses deference issues arising in the context of the CWA and the ESA, applying the principles identified in the previous …

Will Superfund Rise Again?, Rena I. Steinzor

Faculty Scholarship

The federal hazardous waste cleanup program and its state progency have been in decline for more than a decade, victims to a campaign of sabotage waged by industry and neglected by the Bush administration. Meanwhile, stakeholders do their best to ignore the program's sorry state. A sad story, but there may be a surprise ending in store.

Book Review: International Environmental Treaties And State Behavior: Factors Influencing Cooperation, Maxwell O. Chibundu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Buying The Way To A Better Gulf Fishery: Buybacks For Hurricane Relief And Fisheries Rationalization In The Gulf Of Mexico, Michael Pappas

Faculty Scholarship

Fishing stocks in the Gulf of Mexico have been dwindling for years, and in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the fishing industry has found itself in even deeper waters. But whle the two hurricanes caused massive damage to fishing fleets and infrastructrure, they may have also created an opporutnity for reform in the way Gulf fisheries are managed. In this Article Mike Pappas evaluates the use of a buyback program as a posssible solution. After examining the problmes of the Gulf fisheries both before and after the hurricanes, he looks at other buyback programs that have been successful …

The Complex Links Between Governance And Biodiversity, C. Barrett, C. Gibson, B. Hoffman, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

We argue that two problems weaken the claims of those who link corruption and the exploitation of natural resources. The first is conceptual. Studies that use national level indicators of corruption fail to note that corruption comes in many forms, at multiple levels, and may or may not affect resource use. Without a clear causal model of the mechanism by which corruption affects resources, one should treat with caution any estimated relationship between corruption and the state of natural resources. The second problem is methodological: Simple models linking corruption measures and natural resource use typically do not account for other …

Ecosystem Services And The Public Trust Doctrine: Working Change From Within, James Salzman, J.B. Ruhl

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Emergency Exemptions From Environmental Laws After Disasters, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Many environmental statutes had their origins in disasters. And when disasters strike, the environmental laws come into play in the response. Some have urged Congress to adopt emergency exemptions so that the environmental laws do not interfere with rescue and recovery.

This article explains how disasters helped create our current statutes, and then describes the role that environmental laws played in the immediate response to the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. It catalogs the multiple exemptions that already exist in the current environmental statutes and regulations and then summarizes the exemptions that were proposed after Hurricane Katrina.

Adequate Progress, Or Rivers Left Behind? Developments In Colorado And Wyoming Instream Flow Laws Since 2000, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

Colorado and Wyoming have much in common in regard to water supply and water use, and both states have followed the western states' traditional approach in their instream flow laws. This traditional approach, however, has serious practical shortcomings in restoring and protecting instream flows. This Article asks whether Colorado and Wyoming have made “adequate progress” since 2000 in addressing these shortcomings in their instream flow laws. For one of these states, the answer is clear Wyoming has made no progress on its instream flow laws in recent years. Colorado, by contrast, has clearly made progress in strengthening its laws-especially as …

A Few Ironies Of Western Water Law, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

We have a truly outstanding panel of speakers this morning to discuss issues and history relating to water resources in the American West. Water, of course, has always been scarce out here. Some nineteenth century maps of the United States had the words "Great American Desert" written broadly across the West, and that characterization reflected how many people viewed the West in that era. The story goes that President Grant sent a cabinet member to the West with orders to report back on "what it is they need out there." The secretary dutifully wrote back saying, "All this place needs …