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Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Environmental Commerce Clause, Christine A. Klein Nov 2014

The Environmental Commerce Clause, Christine A. Klein

Christine A. Klein

This Article studies every commerce clause decision of the modem Supreme Court that involves the scope of governmental authority to regulate the use of natural resources. These decisions comprise what I will call the environmental commerce clause -- the Court's interpretation of the limits mandated by the commerce clause upon federal and state legislation protecting natural resources. Overall, the Court has been limiting the scope of the affirmative commerce clause while simultaneously expanding the reach of the dormant commerce clause. As a result, both federal and state efforts to protect the natural environment have been rendered constitutionally suspect. This study …


Water Transfers: The Case Against Transbasin Diversions In The Eastern States, Christine A. Klein Nov 2014

Water Transfers: The Case Against Transbasin Diversions In The Eastern States, Christine A. Klein

Christine A. Klein

Water policy in the western states consistently has embraced a nineteenth century, supply-side mentality, requiring cities and other water providers to satisfy an ever-growing demand for water at virtually any cost. As a result, the western states rely upon thousands of engineered water transfers-even siphoning water from one side of mountain ranges to the other-in an un-sustainable attempt to support growth. This article challenges the conventional reliance upon transbasin diversions as a response to shortage. It argues that importing water from distant watersheds lulls growing communities into a false sense of security, subsidizes unsustainable growth, and exacts significant social, economic, …


The Law Of The Lakes: From Protectionism To Sustainability, Christine A. Klein Nov 2014

The Law Of The Lakes: From Protectionism To Sustainability, Christine A. Klein

Christine A. Klein

This Article has a practical goal: to convince state lawmakers of the need to regulate in a comprehensive and evenhanded manner, avoiding short-sighted fixes or politically appealing shortcuts. To accomplish that goal, Part I focuses upon another region of the country-the Colorado River Basin-where residents have also undertaken the task of managing a water system that includes two nations(The United States and Mexico) and numerous states. Learning from the successes and failures of the resultant Law of the River, this Article derives guiding principles for the emerging Law of the Lakes. Part II makes a crucial distinction between protectionism and …


Water Bankruptcy, Christine A. Klein Nov 2014

Water Bankruptcy, Christine A. Klein

Christine A. Klein

Many western states are on the verge of bankruptcy, with debts exceeding assets. And yet, they continue to take on additional debt through contracts and other commitments. Although this distress sounds like an outgrowth of the 2008 recession, this crisis involves water, not money. In particular, the problem concerns the western prior appropriation system of water law, which allocates the right to use water under the priority principle of “first in time, first in right.” In many states, the system is so “over-allocated” that it promises to deliver annually much more water than nature provides. The crisis will deepen as …


On Integrity: Some Considerations For Water Law, Christine A. Klein Nov 2014

On Integrity: Some Considerations For Water Law, Christine A. Klein

Christine A. Klein

Expanding upon the aspects of integrity protected under the Clean Water Act, this Article will explore the relevance to water law of chemical,physical, ecosystem, social, and ethical integrity. Just as the Clean Water Act intended to prevent unacceptable "perturbations" of ecosystems, so also this Article will consider the extent to which the law itself may work an unacceptable perturbation of fundamental hydrologic and social principles. In many instances, water policy compartmentalizes the law in ways that have little to do with hydrologic reality and in ways that are antithetical to wholeness and integrity. Examples include the legal bifurcation of surface …


Modernizing Water Law: The Example Of Florida, Christine A. Klein, Mary Jane Angelo, Richard Hamann Nov 2014

Modernizing Water Law: The Example Of Florida, Christine A. Klein, Mary Jane Angelo, Richard Hamann

Christine A. Klein

This Article takes a national view of the modernization of water law. Using Florida as an example, it identifies some of the most important and controversial challenges faced by states. Part II provides an overview of the process of water law reform. As states attempt to improve water management, they have modified their common law water allocation systems with an overlay of statutory law. Often, the process occurs in a piecemeal fashion, resulting in a patchwork of rules -- common law and statutory, old and new. In rare cases -- including that of Florida -- the process may be more …


Compartmentalized Thinking And The Clean Water Act, Christine A. Klein Nov 2014

Compartmentalized Thinking And The Clean Water Act, Christine A. Klein

Christine A. Klein

Modern water pollution control traces back to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 (Clean Water Act or CWA). Like other statutes of its period, the CWA addresses pollution of a single medium, water. Despite its goal of achieving aquatic integrity, the CWA succumbs to what this article refers to as “compartmentalized thinking.” That is, in drafting the CWA, Congress created a series of regulatory boxes that separate water into constituent parts recognized by law, but not by nature. Undertaking a deeper examination of the fragmentation instinct, this article turns to political theory and cognitive psychology for explanations. In …


Preserving Monumental Landscapes Under The Antiquities Act, Christine A. Klein Nov 2014

Preserving Monumental Landscapes Under The Antiquities Act, Christine A. Klein

Christine A. Klein

This Article examines the Antiquities Act, a 1906 statute that delegates authority to the President to establish national monuments on federal lands for the protection of prehistoric structures and relics. This modest statute, originally a scant one page in length, has set off a century of intermittent controversy that its drafters could not have anticipated. Although Congress probably intended that the statute merely protect archaeological ruins from looting by treasure hunters, presidents quickly began to utilize the statute to preserve large natural landscapes -- ranging from President Theodore Roosevelt's establishment of the 800,000-acre Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908 to …