Law Commons^™

Slides: Water Footprints: Consciousness Raising Meets Risk Management, Steve Malloch

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Steve Malloch, Senior Western Water Program Manager, National Wildlife Federation, Seattle, WA

38 slides

Agenda: Western Water Law, Policy And Management: Ripples, Currents, And New Channels For Inquiry, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, Western Water Policy Program

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

In many pockets of the American West, stresses and demands on water resources are overwhelming our capacity to effectively manage change and accommodate the diversity of interests and values associated with our limited water resources.

This event will offer an opportunity for lawyers, policymakers, and water professionals to engage the experts on the challenges and emerging solutions to the most pressing water policy and management issues of the day.

Slides: Finding Flows: Fish Still Need Water Everyday, Melinda Kassen

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Melinda Kassen, Director of the Western Water Project, Trout Unlimited

12 slides

Slides: Rapanos And The Courts: Navigating Through The Fog, Jim Murphy

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Jim Murphy, Wetlands and Water Resources Counsel, National Wildlife Federation, VT

25 slides

Slides: Climate Change And The Death Of Stationarity: A New Era For Western Water?, Stephen T. Gray

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Steven T. Gray, Wyoming State Climatologist, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY

48 slides

Slides: Groundwater Declines, Climate Change And Approaches To Adaptation, Katharine Jacobs

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Katharine Jacobs, Director of the Arizona Water Institute, University of Arizona

37 slides

Slides: Integrated Policy, Planning, And Management Of Water Resources, Robert Wilkinson

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Robert Wilkinson, Ph.D., Director of the Water Policy Program, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California-- Santa Barbara

60 slides

Environmental Law And Global Climate Change., Howard Bromberg

Book Chapters

Contribution by Howard J. Bromberg to Encyclopedia of Global Warming

Carbon Forest Markets And The Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest: Can Market-Based Economic Incentives Save The Forest?, Romulo Silveira Da Rocha Sampaio

Dissertations & Theses

This study is divided into six main chapters. The first chapter is dedicated to situate forests in the global context and providing a detailed description of the Atlantic Rainforest's history, ecological features, geographical and demographical information and its potential contribution to emissions and removals of greenhouse gases. Considering the traditional trend of not valuing ecosystem services, this first chapter introduces the notion of economic incentives to promote forest conservation and regeneration policies highlighting existing market-based approaches. The goal is twofold: first, to compare the Atlantic forest's reality and characteristics with a worldwide deforestation trend; second to provide an understanding of …

Climate Change And Human Rights Law, John H. Knox

John H Knox

In recent years, it has become clear that climate change is an enormous threat to the human rights of people all over the planet, from Inuit in the Arctic forced to relocate homes built on melting permafrost, to residents of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean facing the prospect of losing their islands to rising sea levels. It is much less clear, however, what duties international human rights law places on states to address the effects of climate change on human rights. This article seeks to identify those duties and provide a framework for further clarification of them.

"Stationarity Is Dead" -- Long Live Transformation: Five Principles For Climate Change Adaptation Law, Robin K. Craig

Robin K. Craig

While there is no question that successful mitigation strategies remain critical in the quest to avoid worst-case climate change scenarios, we’ve passed the point where mitigation efforts alone can deal with the problems that climate change is creating. Because of “committed” warming – climate change that will occur regardless of mitigation measures, a result of the already-accumulated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – what happens to social-ecological systems over the next decades, and most likely over the next few centuries, will largely be beyond human control. The time to start preparing for these changes is now, by making adaptation part …

Water Scarcity, Conflict, And Security In A Climate Change World: Challenges And Opportunities For International Law And Policy, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Although climate change is expected to have major consequences that affect the global environment in its broadest sense, one of the earliest and most direct impacts will be on Earth’s fresh water systems. While some regions will experience increased precipitation, others will suffer serious scarcity. Among others, consequences are likely to include severe flooding, extreme droughts, and meandering border-rivers. This, in turn, will affect human migration patterns, population growths, agricultural activities, economic development, and the environment. This article explores the impact that climate change will have on regional and global freshwater resources and the resulting legal and policy implications that …

Flipping Daubert: Putting Climate Change Defendants In The Hot Seat, Ryan A. Hackney

Ryan A Hackney

Can climate change plaintiffs use Daubert challenges to exclude defense expert testimony? Although Daubert challenges have traditionally favored defendants, the strong evidence for climate change may allow plaintiffs to exclude or restrict defense testimony. My paper considers actual claims put forth by climate change skeptics to see how climate change plaintiffs can use Daubert challenges in four ways: challenge the witness, challenge reliability, challenge relevance, and challenge conclusions. The paper suggests that Daubert challenges can be an effective tool for plaintiffs in climate change litigation, and that challenges in this context may provide a blueprint for plaintiffs to follow in …

The Case For Climate Protection Authority, Nigel Purvis

Nigel Purvis

The United States should classify new international agreements to protect the Earth’s climate system as executive agreements rather than as treaties. Unlike treaties, which require the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate, executive agreements are entered into either solely by the President based on previously delegated constitutional, treaty, or statutory authorities, or by the President and Congress together pursuant to a new statute. Although limits exist on the types of climate agreements the President could enter into without the approval of Congress, the President’s authorities are broader than many legal scholars and policymakers realize, and could be relied …

Standing And Future Generations: Does Massachusetts V. Epa Open Standing For Generations To Come?, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Many issues, especially potential environmental catastrophes caused by climate change, affect not just the living, but also future generations. The bias in our political system against addressing the interests of future generations poses serious obstacles in solving long-term environmental problems such as global warming. Because future generations cannot vote, unelected federal judges are more suited to protect their interests than the political branches.

An important question is whether anyone has standing to sue on behalf of future generations in the federal courts. The Supreme Court's Article III standing test requires plaintiffs to demonstrate that they have personally suffered an injury …

Scaling "Local": The Implications Of Greenhouse Gas Regulation In San Bernardino County, Hari M. Osofsky

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay analyzes local climate regulation in San Bernardino County as a window into the complexities of defining a local scale in an interconnected world. In so doing, it aims to contribute to the Symposium's broader dialogue about "Territory Without Boundaries" and the Panel's more specific discussion of "Urban Territory in a Global World." As a purely territorial matter, U.S. cities and counties differ substantially in their sizes, the quantity and physical characteristics of their land, the size and density of their populations, and the needs of their citizens. Structurally, these localities remain administrative subunits of states, but they also …

Using Local Knowledge To Shrink The Individual Carbon Footprint, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Entire texts have been devoted to exploring the meaning of the term “lifestyle” and sociological understandings of lifestyle are complex and nuanced.For present purposes, however, a more simple articulation of the term will suffice. Lifestyle can mean “mode of living,” including “patterns of action” and “patterns of ways of living.” Without rendering judgment, one observation that can fairly be made about the current lifestyles and associated behaviors of Americans is that they indirectly and directly lead to the emission of a high volume of greenhouse gases (“GHGs”).⁷ Although an American diplomat is said to have remarked in preparing for …

Sustainable Tourism And The Law: Coping With Climate Change, Navamin Chatarayamontri

Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation addresses the critical relationship between the tourism sector and sustainable development, examining global trends and the problems they raise, exploring the current set of solutions being implemented, and offering some new ideas for better managing the relationship. Among these, the most important and comprehensive is the “Climate and Sustainable Tourism Model” a framework developed to encapsulate many of the issues explored in this dissertation and offering insights for policy makers seeking to develop better solutions. Moreover, this dissertation acknowledges the continuing importance of market-based solutions for harmonizing the development of the tourism sector with the demands of sustainability. …

Pursuing Environmental Justice: Obstacles And Opportunities - Lessons From The Field, Helen H. Kang

Publications

This article argues that the clinic‘s clients and similarly situated grassroots groups pursue litigation because the laws do not adequately protect them from pollution at the neighborhood level. Environmental lawsuits filed by such groups result from the conclusion that there is "too much" pollution in the neighborhood—there is elevated background pollution, violations of environmental laws contribute to excess pollution, and litigation is one of the few ways to redress the distributive injustice resulting from pollution created by multiple sources.

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Vehicle Miles Traveled: Integrating The California Environmental Quality Act With The California Global Warming Solutions Act

Timothy P Duane

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) commits California to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The transportation sector is the top GHG emitter in California, contributing roughly 40 percent of all California emissions. Poor fuel efficiency and high vehicle miles traveled (VMT) are primary contributors to transportation sector GHG emissions. Meeting California’s GHG emissions reduction goals requires reductions in both per-mile emissions and vehicle miles traveled. Fuel efficiency has been addressed historically by federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, and California has passed its own legislation regulating GHG emissions from …

What’S It To You?: The Difficulty Of Valuing The Benefits Of Climate- Change Mitigation And The Need For A Public-Goods Test Under Dormant Commerce Clause Analysis, Mary B. Russell

Mary B. Russell

ABSTRACT: In an effort to minimize its contribution to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, California enacted California Senate Bill 1368. The bill prohibits utilities from purchasing electrical power from plants that emit more greenhouse gases than natural-gas-fired power plants. This burdens interstate commerce by prohibiting power purchases from out- of-state coal-fired plants and is likely to lead to a constitutional challenge under the dormant Commerce Clause. To address the validity of California Senate Bill 1368 under traditional dormant Commerce Clause analysis, one necessary step is to answer a question that has troubled scientists and economists for decades: What …

Ecosystem Resilience To Disruptions Linked To Global Climate Change: An Adaptive Approach To Federal Land Management, Robert L. Glicksman

Robert L. Glicksman

Global climate change presents daunting challenges to the federal government’s ability to manage its lands and resources in ways that ensure that the priceless natural heritage that these land and resources comprise remains available in substantially unimpaired condition to both present and future generations of Americans. One of the challenges results from the fact that the laws governing the activities of federal land management agencies have outlasted the scientific assumptions on which those laws were based. In particular, Congress adopted many of those laws on the assumption that ecological systems tend toward a natural equilibrium. Subsequently, the science of ecology …

Adaptation, Economics, And Justice, Robert R.M. Verchick

Robert R.M. Verchick

No abstract provided.

The North American Great Lakes, Noah D. Hall

Noah D Hall

The Great Lakes are a vast resource shared by two countries, ten states and provinces, and hundreds of Indian tribes or First Nations. They are the quintessential commons that have seen their share of tragedies. Addressing competing pressures of economic development and environmental protection is only part of the challenge. The real struggle has been governance: How is management of an international transboundary resource best accomplished under the legal and political limitations of constitutional federalism? This chapter analyses the international agreements, court decisions, interstate compacts, and federal statutes that created a transboundary water regime, considering in detail the Great Lakes– …

Epa's Endangerment Finding For Greenhouse Gases And The Potential Duty To Adopt National Ambient Air Quality Standards To Address Global Climate Change, Patricia Ross Mccubbin

Patricia Ross McCubbin

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) recently announced its intention to make a finding under the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gases from new cars and light trucks endanger the public health and welfare by contributing to global climate change. That proposed endangerment finding and the vehicle emission standards that will follow are highly controversial, with industry representatives vigorously challenging EPA’s scientific conclusions. Of even greater controversy, however, is the possibility that issuance of the final endangerment finding will obligate EPA and the states to regulate greenhouse gases from nearly every sector of the economy with “national …

Carbon Regulation And Its Impact On The Appalachian Basin: Why The Coal-Fired Energy Industry In Appalachia Should Embrace, Prepare For, And Help Shape A Comprehensive Legislative Scheme That Limits Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Mark L. Belleville

Mark L. Belleville

The premise of this article – the coal-fired energy industry in Appalachia should embrace, prepare for, and help shape a comprehensive federal legislative scheme that limits carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions – may sound counterintuitive. Why would an industry that emits greenhouse gases (GHGs) get on board with a national plan to limit GHG emissions? The reason is threefold. First, some form of regulation limiting emissions is inevitable. Second, in many respects, a comprehensive federal scheme is preferable to the current patchwork that exists. Finally, a comprehensive federal scheme can be tailored to be advantageous (or at least …

Linkage And Multilevel Governance, David M. Driesen

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

Economic models of emissions trading implicitly assume a simple unitary governance structure, where a single regulator designs and enforces an emissions trading program. The Kyoto Protocol, however, employs a multilevel governance structure in which international, regional, national, sub-national, and even private actors have significant roles in designing and enforcing the trading program. Under this structure, international trading of credits requires complex linking of disparate regional, national, and subnational trading program. This paper describes the multilevel governance model employed in the Kyoto Protocol and then analyzes some of the problems this complexity creates for the project of creating an international market …

The Role Of International Forums In The Advancement Of Sustainable Development, Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Climate advocates are increasingly raising specific climate change concerns before domestic courts, human rights tribunals, international commissions and other national and international decisionmaking bodies. Win or lose, these litigation strategies are significantly changing and enhancing the public dialogue around climate change. This article discusses the awareness-building impacts of climate litigation as well as related impacts such strategies may have on the development of climate law and policy. The article argues that litigation's focus on specific victims facing immediate threats from climate change has increased the political will to address climate change both internationally and nationally. It has also shifted the …

Environmental Litigation Standing After Massachusetts V. Epa: Center For Biological Diversity V. Epa , Andy Hosaido

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Mongolia: A Case For Economic Diversification In The Face Of A Changing Climate, Nathan Borgford-Parnell

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.