Law Commons^™

A Defense Of The Regulatory Takings Doctrine: A Historical Analysis Of This Conflict Between Property Rights And Public Good And A Prediction For Its Future, Andrew Parslow

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Since man first left the state of nature and formed property rights, there have been issues when states desire to use the property of another for what they consider to be the greater good. In their wisdom, the Founding Fathers of the United States built on centuries of historical principles ranging from the Romans to the English and enshrined in the Fifth Amendment the common law notion that “private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation.” The rise of environmentalism has brought a new frontier to the ancient struggle between the rights of individuals and the …

Environmental Federalism As Forum Shopping, Cale Jaffe

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Public policy advocates of all stripes—litigators, politicians, or newspaper columnists—invoke principles of federalism when they are imploring Congress to respect limits imposed by Article I, and when they are insisting that a state legislature accede to the supremacy of a duly enacted national law, invoking Article VI. Yet historically, application of the term, “federalism,” at least in the context of environmental law, has been driven far more by pragmatic considerations than constitutional ones.

This pragmatic approach should not be surprising because, at its core, federalism simply asks what is the right level of government to solve a given problem. After …

Two Popular Democracies' "Energy Independence" Initiatives Through The Lenses Of Constitutionalism, Environmentalism, And Judicial Activism Oeuvres--A Comparative Study Of The Trump And Modi Administrations, Vidhya V. Iyer

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The energy independence approaches by two popular democracies, the United States and India, have recently been the center of attention. This Article examines whether two Democratic leaders, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, have maintained constitutionalism in light of executive orders and ordinances that focus on energy independence by way of promoting coal-fired power plants rather than focusing on the environment and human health. Based on constitutional underpinnings, this Article concludes that although both leaders and their administrations may not have violated their respective constitutions, they have certainly violated notions of …