Law Commons^™

Public Participation In Brownfield Redevelopment: A Framework For Community Empowerment In Zoning Practices, Jenny J. Tang

Jenny J. Tang

This paper discusses the importance of brownfield redevelopment in the context of the environmental justice movement. It emphasizes that the goals of environmental justice advocates and attorneys should include promoting the interests of the community in order to achieve environmental and procedural equity. This paper argues that the only way to adequately promote these goals is to allow for maximum public participation, which would include community empowerment practices and an eye towards the problems inherent in public participation. Because brownfield remediation provisions and programs rarely provide for adequate public participation, this paper argues that zoning practices can be employed as …

Ten Years Of The Aarhus Convention: How Procedural Democracy Is Paving The Way For Substantive Change In National And International Environmental Law, Marianne Dellinger

Myanna Dellinger

Arab Spring. Occupy Wall Street. Protests against austerity measures in Europe. Around the world, people are dissatisfied with traditional top-down style governance. The call for change sounds especially loud and clear in the environmental arena where legislative and law enforcement status quo imperils the future of our natural surroundings.

This article adds new value to international environmental and democratic discourse by being the first major work to examine the first ten years of case law under the UNECE Aarhus Convention, a groundbreaking multilateral environmental agreement that promotes public participation in government environmental decision-making and -enforcement through procedural requirements. The objective …

Ten Years Of The Aarhus Convention: How Procedural Democracy Is Paving The Way For Substantive Change In National And International Environmental Law, Marianne Dellinger

Myanna Dellinger

Arab Spring. Occupy Wall Street. Protests against austerity measures in Europe. Around the world, people are dissatisfied with traditional top-down style governance. The call for change sounds especially loud and clear in the environmental arena where legislative and law enforcement status quo imperils the future of our natural surroundings.

This article adds new value to international environmental and democratic discourse by being the first major work to examine the first ten years of case law under the UNECE Aarhus Convention, a groundbreaking multilateral environmental agreement that promotes public participation in government environmental decision-making and -enforcement through procedural requirements. The objective …

Ten Years Of The Aarhus Convention: How Procedural Democracy Is Paving The Way For Substantive Change In National And International Environmental Law, Marianne Dellinger

Myanna Dellinger

Arab Spring. Occupy Wall Street. Protests against austerity measures in Europe. Around the world, people are dissatisfied with traditional top-down style governance. The call for change sounds especially loud and clear in the environmental arena where legislative and law enforcement status quo imperils the future of our natural surroundings.

This article adds new value to international environmental and democratic discourse by being the first major work to examine the first ten years of case law under the UNECE Aarhus Convention, a groundbreaking multilateral environmental agreement that promotes public participation in government environmental decision-making and -enforcement through procedural requirements. The objective …

Ten Years Of The Aarhus Convention: How Procedural Democracy Is Paving The Way For Substantive Change In National And International Environmental Law, Marianne Dellinger

Myanna Dellinger

Arab Spring. Occupy Wall Street. Protests against austerity measures in Europe. Around the world, people are dissatisfied with traditional top-down style governance. The call for change sounds especially loud and clear in the environmental arena where legislative and law enforcement status quo imperils the future of our natural surroundings.

This article adds new value to international environmental and democratic discourse by being the first major work to examine the first ten years of case law under the UNECE Aarhus Convention, a groundbreaking multilateral environmental agreement that promotes public participation in government environmental decision-making and -enforcement through procedural requirements. The objective …

Ten Years Of The Aarhus Convention: How Procedural Democracy Is Paving The Way For Substantive Change In National And International Environmental Law, Marianne Dellinger

Myanna Dellinger

Arab Spring. Occupy Wall Street. Protests against austerity measures in Europe. Around the world, people are dissatisfied with traditional top-down style governance. The call for change sounds especially loud and clear in the environmental arena where legislative and law enforcement status quo imperils the future of our natural surroundings.

This article adds new value to international environmental and democratic discourse by being the first major work to examine the first ten years of case law under the UNECE Aarhus Convention, a groundbreaking multilateral environmental agreement that promotes public participation in government environmental decision-making and -enforcement through procedural requirements. The objective …

Ten Years Of The Aarhus Convention: How Procedural Democracy Is Paving The Way For Substantive Change In National And International Environmental Law, Marianne Dellinger

Myanna Dellinger

Arab Spring. Occupy Wall Street. Protests against austerity measures in Europe. Around the world, people are dissatisfied with traditional top-down style governance. The call for change sounds especially loud and clear in the environmental arena where legislative and law enforcement status quo imperils the future of our natural surroundings.

This article adds new value to international environmental and democratic discourse by being the first major work to examine the first ten years of case law under the UNECE Aarhus Convention, a groundbreaking multilateral environmental agreement that promotes public participation in government environmental decision-making and -enforcement through procedural requirements. The objective …

Ten Years Of The Aarhus Convention: How Procedural Democracy Is Paving The Way For Substantive Change In National And International Environmental Law, Marianne Dellinger

Myanna Dellinger

Arab Spring. Occupy Wall Street. Protests against austerity measures in Europe. Around the world, people are dissatisfied with traditional top-down style governance. The call for change sounds especially loud and clear in the environmental arena where legislative and law enforcement status quo imperils the future of our natural surroundings.

This article adds new value to international environmental and democratic discourse by being the first major work to examine the first ten years of case law under the UNECE Aarhus Convention, a groundbreaking multilateral environmental agreement that promotes public participation in government environmental decision-making and -enforcement through procedural requirements. The objective …

Ten Years Of The Aarhus Convention: How Procedural Democracy Is Paving The Way For Substantive Change In National And International Environmental Law, Marianne Dellinger

Myanna Dellinger

Arab Spring. Occupy Wall Street. Protests against austerity measures in Europe. Around the world, people are dissatisfied with traditional top-down style governance. The call for change sounds especially loud and clear in the environmental arena where legislative and law enforcement status quo imperils the future of our natural surroundings.

This article examines the first ten years of case law under the UNECE Aarhus Convention, a groundbreaking multilateral environmental agreement that promotes public participation in government environmental decision-making and -enforcement through procedural requirements. The objective of the article is to verify whether such requirements are mere “toothless” procedural devices or if …

Arctic Justice: Addressing Persistent Organic Pollutants, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This article recommends enhanced governance of persistent organic pollutants through incentives to develop environmentally sound, climate friendly technologies as well as caution in developing the Arctic. It highlights the toxicity challenges presented by POPs to Arctic people and ecosystems.

Energy Revolution And Disaster Response In The Face Of Climate Change, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Nuclear meltdown in Japan and civil society strife across the Middle East highlight the degree to which resilience is core to international peace and security. This article considers the means by which communities can become increasingly resilient through shared best practices across a range of climate change measures.

Collaborative Community-Based Natural Resource Management, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This article analyzes the importance of increasing civil society actor access to and influence in international legal and policy negotiations, drawing from academic scholarship on governance, conservation and environmental sustainability, natural resource management, observations of civil society actors, and the authors’ experiences as participants in international environmental negotiations.

Symposium Introduction: Contemporary Issues At The Intersection Of Public Health And Environmental Law, Patricia Ross Mccubbin

Patricia Ross McCubbin

This article serves as an introduction to the forthcoming symposium in the Southern Illinois University Law Journal, which presents the proceedings of a conference held at the SIU School of Law on February 27, 2009, on “Contemporary Issues at the Intersection of Public Health and Environmental Law.”

Abandon All Hope Ye That Enter: Title Vi, Equal Protection, And The Divine Comedy Of Environmental Justice, Carlton Waterhouse

Carlton Waterhouse

Dante’s Alighieri’s epic poem the Divine Comedy begins with the journey of the author and his guide Virgil down through the depths of Hell. Early in their trek, Dante finds the phrase “Abandon All Hope Ye That Enter” inscribed above the gates of Hell. Drawing on this classic work, the article analogizes Dante’s passage through Hell with the experience of communities relying on civil rights law to address the disparate racial effects of environmental decisions. The article begins with an examination of the first administrative complaint filed with the Environmental Protection Agency alleging racial discrimination in environmental permitting in 1992 …

Abandon All Hope Ye That Enter: Title Vi, Equal Protection, And The Divine Comedy Of Environmental Justice, Carlton Waterhouse

Carlton Waterhouse

Dante’s Alighieri’s epic poem the Divine Comedy begins with the journey of the author and his guide Virgil down through the depths of Hell. Early in their trek, Dante finds the phrase “Abandon All Hope Ye That Enter” inscribed above the gates of Hell. Drawing on this classic work, the article analogizes Dante’s passage through Hell with the experience of communities relying on civil rights law to address the disparate racial effects of environmental decisions. The article begins with an examination of the first administrative complaint filed with the Environmental Protection Agency alleging racial discrimination in environmental permitting in 1992 …

On Notions Of Fairness In Environmental Justice, Dennis C. Cory

Dennis C Cory

Environmental justice (EJ) is concerned with the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. An especially contentious issue in the EJ arena of concerns is the siting of potentially polluting activities, particularly activities that increase environmental risks while providing economic development benefits. It is argued that conventional notions of fairness, frequently advanced in EJ settings, offer little, if any, guidance on how siting proposals should be evaluated. By advocating the deontological pursuit of a right, equality, or …

The Commerce Clause, Environmental Justice, And The Interstate Garbage Wars, Robert R.M. Verchick

Robert R.M. Verchick

This Article critically examines the Court's garbage cases in conjunction with traditional principles of Commerce Clause jurisprudence for the purpose of constructing a doctrine that is at once constitutionally and ecologically sound. The Article is divided into five parts. Part I briefly describes the current state of the garbage wars, both in terms of environmental effects and in terms of constitutional developments. Parts II and III critically examine the Court's garbage cases from the perspectives of two traditional justifications for the negative Commerce Clause: encouraging fair representation of residents across state lines and discouraging economic protectionism. Here I conclude that …

In A Greener Voice: Feminist Theory And Environmental Justice, Robert R.M. Verchick

Robert R.M. Verchick

This Article explores the way in which women activists--and the feminist strategies they contribute--help shape the meaning and pursuit of environmental justice. [FN8] It shows how methods associated with feminism have contributed to the movement's premier concerns for family safety and social equality and have prompted creative ways to identify and attack a broad range of environmental threats. The Article is divided into four parts. Part I briefly surveys the participation of women in the environmental justice movement and examines the reasons why so many women become involved in grassroots environmental struggles. Part II shows how the strategies and goals …