Law Commons^™

Wading Through Troubled Waters: Inequities & Improprieties Of Stream Access Laws In The American West, Alexander Johnson

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Emerging Best Practices In International Atmospheric Trust Case Law, Rachel M. Pemberton, Michael Blumm

Utah Law Review

With climate change litigation proliferating throughout the world, a substantial body of case law is emerging. As part of a project of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law's Climate Change Specialist Group, this Article, a version of which will be included in a “Judicial Handbook on Climate Litigation,” explains the public trust doctrine’s influence on climate change litigation internationally. We select what we view as judicial “best practices” as a kind of restatement of international atmospheric trust law in 2022. International atmospheric trust law is at the forefront of many best practices, as state and federal courts in the …

The Public Trust Doctrine And The Chicago Lakefront, Michael Blumm

Faculty Articles

Lakefront: Public Trust and Private Rights in Chicago is Joseph Kearney and Thomas Merrill’s engaging account of how public law affected the development of the Chicago lakefront, is a meticulously detailed history of a century-and-a-half of law and urban affairs. The authors center the book around what they call the Great Lake Front Case, otherwise known as Illinois Central Railroad v. Illinois, a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1892. They claim that case created the American public trust doctrine, but in fact the Court endorsed public ownership of streambeds a half-century earlier. What the 1892 decision did was to extend …

Constitutionalizing The Public Trust Doctrine In Chile, Michael Blumm, Matthew Hebert

Faculty Articles

Chile, whose public has experienced widespread dissatisfaction with Chilean environmental policies, seems poised to use the ongoing redrafting of its constitution to entrench the public trust doctrine in its fundamental charter. The ancient doctrine, emanating from Roman law and reflected in the 13th century Spanish treatise, Las Siete Partidas, offers the promise of making publicly enforceable commitments to environmental protection that under current Chilean law have been discretionary, and therefore unfulfilled. This paper explains what the public trust doctrine would mean to Chileans if the constitutional drafting process, scheduled for completion in 2022, includes the public trust doctrine, as advocated …

Emerging Best Practices In International Atmospheric Trust Case Law, Rachel Pemberton, Michael Blumm

Faculty Articles

As climate-change cases proliferate throughout the world, a substantial body of case law is emerging. As a part of a project of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, this paper, which will included a "Judicial Handbook on Climate Litigation," explains the public trust doctrine's influence internationally. We select what we view as judicial "best practices" as a kind of restatement of international public trust law in 2022. International public trust law is emerging as the forefront of public trust law as United States federal courts have fettered its development by erecting procedural hurdles like standing and political question doctrines. …

Michigan's Groundwater And The Public Trust Doctrine, Shay Elbaum

Law Librarian Scholarship

In March, legislators introduced a package of bills in the Michigan House of Representatives that would apply the public trust doctrine to the state’s groundwater. But what is the public trust doctrine and why does it matter if it applies to Michigan groundwater? This column provides an overview of the public trust doctrine and its application to groundwater, a summary of the bills now being considered, and resources for tracking their progress.

Held V. State, Alec D. Skuntz

Public Land & Resources Law Review

On March 13, 2020, a group of 16 Montana children and teenagers filed a complaint in the First Judicial District, Lewis and Clark County against the State of Montana and several state agencies. These young Plaintiffs sought injunctive and declaratory relief against Defendants for their complicity in continuing to extract and release harmful amounts of greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change. Plaintiffs premised their argument on the Montana Constitution’s robust environmental rights and protections. The Defendants filed a motion to dismiss which the District Court granted in-part and denied in-part. Held provides a roadmap for future litigation by elucidating …

The Public Trust Doctrine Fifty Years After Sax And Some Thoughts On Its Future, Michael Blumm, Zach Schwartz

Faculty Articles

The public trust doctrine was resurrected by Professor Joe Sax in a famous article a half-century ago. Sax explored the doctrine's history and maintained that it had contemporary significance at the time of the dawn of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Sax thought that the historic use of the doctrine to prevent monopoly use of important waterways could be expanded to meet the felt necessities of the times by protecting important natural resources from unwise or unsustainable depletion for public use, including use by future generations. Sax's vision ignited a substantial expansion in the scope and purposes of the …

Natural Resources And Natural Law Part Ii: The Public Trust Doctrine, Robert W. Adler

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Natural Resources and Natural Law Part I: Prior Appropriation analyzed claims by some western ranchers, grounded in natural law, that they have property rights in grazing resources on federal public lands through prior appropriation. Those advocates asserted their position in part through civil disobedience, sometimes including armed standoffs with federal officials. They also asserted that their duty to obey theistic natural law overrode any duty to obey the Nation’s positive law. Similar claims that individual religious beliefs override positive law have been made recently regarding a range of other controversial issues, such as same-sex marriage, public insurance for birth control, …

Adding Confusion To The Muddy Waters Of The Oswego Lake Decision: A Response To Dean Huffman, Michael Blumm, Ryan J. Roberts

Faculty Articles

Dean Jim Huffman’s recent article in Environmental Law on the Oswego Lake decision claims that the Oregon Supreme Court’s opinion is a “confused treatise on the public trust doctrine.” Objecting to the court’s decision on a number of grounds, Dean Huffman took issue with the court’s recognition of public access rights, its creation of a so-called “public use” doctrine, its use of the law of private trusts, and its recognition of the state’s claim of ownership of water within its jurisdiction. Moreover, and somewhat astonishingly, Huffman claims that the rights of the people cannot be violated by the representatives of …

After Juliana: A Proposal For The Next Atmospheric Trust Litigation Strategy, Kacie Couch

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The cliffs of California are dissolving.2 Glaciers in Colorado and Montana are dissolving.3 Islands in Louisiana and Alaska are dissolving.4 America as we know it is dissolving; twenty-one youth plaintiffs that face a future with less liberty and independence than generations before them claim that federal government inaction in the face of climate change is to blame.5 Those plaintiffs, in the landmark case Juliana v. United States, sought judicial declaration of a federal public trust and substantive due process right to a stable climate system.6 In proceedings, Judge Anne Aiken of the District Court of Oregon declared a newly …

The Public Trust Doctrine In The 21st Century, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In this Symposium's initial lecture, I will (a) provide a glimpse into life in Medieval England to explain the context from which Magna Carta arose, (b) describe the evolution of environmental rights from Magna Carta to the Forest Carter, (c) explore in a case study how “liberties of the forest” functioned for 800 years in England's Royal Forest of Dean, ultimately sustaining the ecological systems of Dean, (d) discuss the “liberties of the forest” in light of Elinor Ostom's common pool analyses, and (e) offer some views on the question just posed. I shall start by describing the English environment …

Defining Fishing, The Slippery Seaweed Slope, Ross V. Acadian Seaplants Ltd., Rebecca P. Totten

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

In Maine, the intertidal zone has seen many disputes over its use, access, and property rights. Recently, in Ross v. Acadian Seaplants, Ltd., the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, held that rockweed seaweed in the intertidal zone is owned by the upland landowner and is not part of a public easement under the public trust doctrine. The Court held harvesting rockweed is not fishing. This case will impact private and public rights and also the balance between the State's environmental and economic interests. This Comment addresses the following points: first, the characteristics of rockweed and the …

Pure As Running Water: A Constitutional Argument For Utah’S Public Trust Doctrine, Brandon S. Fuller

Utah Law Review

Water rights in America, particularly in western states, have been a pervasive source of legal contention. The histories of these water rights, and the public trust doctrine more broadly, have created a tremendously complex area of law. This field of law is very old and draws on policy concerns stretching back to 100 B.C., overlapping federal and state powers and precedents, and what can only be described as one of the longest games of jurisprudential telephone in existence. As a result, anyone seeking to challenge a state statute, court opinion, or regulation, which they believe impermissibly restricts the public’s right …

The Public Trust Doctrine, Outer Space, And The Global Commons: Time To Call Home Et, Hope M. Babcock

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Space exploration is heating up. Governments and private interests are on a fast track to develop technologies to send people and equipment to celestial bodies, like the moon and asteroids, to extract their untapped resources. Near-space is rapidly filling up with public and private satellites, causing electromagnetic interference problems and dangerous space debris from collisions and earlier launches. The absence of a global management system for the private commercial development of outer space resources will allow these near space problems to be exported further into the galaxy. Moreover, without a governing authority or rules controlling entry or limiting despoliation, outer …

Natural Resources And Natural Law Part I: Prior Appropriation, Robert W. Adler

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In recent years there has been a resurgence of civil disobedience over public land policy in the West, sometimes characterized by armed confrontations between ranchers and federal officials. This trend reflects renewed assertions that applicable positive law violates the natural rights (sometimes of purportedly divine origin) of ranchers and other land users, particularly under the prior appropriation doctrine and grounded in Lockean theories of property. At the same time, Native Americans and environmental activists on the opposite side of the political-environmental spectrum have also relied on civil disobedience to assert natural rights to a healthy environment, based on public trust …

The Semicommons And Wisconsin Water Quality, David A. Strifling

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

From the Great Lakes to pristine northern streams, Wisconsin boasts a plentiful and valuable array of water resources. Yet water stress analyses show that this natural capital is deeply threatened in a variety of ways. The pressure results primarily from human activity, ranging from general overuse to colonization by anthropogenically introduced non-native species. Some of the greatest water quality problems, however, are caused by land use practices that lead to polluted runoff from farm fields and urban settings. The onset of climate change has the potential to further exacerbate all of this. These issues, coupled with the failure of existing …

Public Resource Ownership And Community Engagement In A Modern Energy Landscape, Samantha Hepburn

Pace Environmental Law Review

The onshore resource conflicts that have erupted in the Eastern states of Australia highlight the deep need for axiomatic structural change in public resource ownership frameworks. Much of the conflict that has arisen stems from the failure of the state, as owner, to give proper regard to the social and environmental concerns relevant to the expansion of onshore resource development. The underlying rationale for vesting resources in the state is to ensure they are managed for the benefit of the community as a whole. The implied sumption is that public benefit obligations are met through state administration because this is …

The Public Trust As An Antimonopoly Doctrine, Michael Blumm, Aurora Paulsen

Faculty Articles

The public trust doctrine originated — and has persisted in American law — as antimonopoly protection. From the time of its recognition by American courts in the early nineteenth century, the doctrine has protected the public against private monopolization of natural resources, beginning with tidal waters and wild animals. Ensuing public trust case law has extended the scope of trust protection to other important natural resources, including non-tidal and non-navigable waters and land-based resources like parks. Courts are now considering the trust doctrine’s application to the atmosphere. Although there is a considerable body of legal scholarship on the public trust, …

Public Trust Doctrine Implications Of Electricity Production, Lance Noel, Jeremy Firestone

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The public trust doctrine is a powerful legal tool in property law that requires the sovereign, as a trustee, to protect and manage natural resources. Historically, the public trust doctrine has been used in relationship to navigable waterways and wildlife management. Despite electricity production’s impact on those two areas and the comparatively smaller impacts of renewable energy, electricity production has garnered very little public trust doctrine attention. This Article examines how electricity production implicates the public trust doctrine, primarily through the lens of four states—California, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and New Jersey—and how it would potentially apply to each state’s electricity planning …

Slides: Practicing Sustainability In Natural Resource Industries, Gary D. Libecap

Natural Resource Industries and the Sustainability Challenge (Martz Winter Symposium, February 27-28)

Presenter: Gary D. Libecap, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and Economics Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

10 slides

The Public Trust: The Law's Dna, Gerald Torres, Nathan Bellinger

Gerald Torres

No abstract provided.

The Public Trust Doctrine, Private Water Allocation, And Mono Lake: The Historic Saga Of National Audubon Society V. Superior Ct., Erin Ryan

Erin Ryan

This article tells the epic tale of the fall and rise of Mono Lake—the strange and beautiful Dead Sea of California—which fostered some of the most important environmental law developments of the last century, and which has become a platform for some of the most potentially important developments in the new century. It shares the backstory and legacy of the California Supreme Court’s famous decision in National Audubon Society v. Superior Court, 658 P.2d 709 (Cal. 1983), known more widely as “the Mono Lake case.” Inspired by innovative legal scholarship and advocacy, the decision spawned a quiet legal revolution in …

Natural Resources Law: Private Rights And The Public Interest, Eric Freyfogle, Michael Blumm, Blake Hudson

Contributions to Books

This casebook offers a view of natural resources law rich in history, yet exposing students to the complexities of practicing natural resources law in the 21st century. Given that the focus of most Natural Resources Law casebooks is public lands and public law (often at the federal level), this casebook is unique in its primary focus on natural resource conflicts on private lands and its significant focus on private law (though public law is also a focus). While we include chapters on federal public lands and areas of federal primacy like wetlands regulation and endangered species protection, our focus is …

The Public Trust: The Law's Dna, Gerald Torres, Nathan Bellinger

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Shifting Sands: A Meta-Theory For Public Access And Private Property Along The Coast, Melissa K. Scanlan

Melissa K. Scanlan

Over half the United States population currently lives near a coast. As shorelines are used by more people, developed by private owners, and altered by extreme weather, competition over access to water and beaches will intensify, as will the need for a clearer legal theory capable of accommodating competing private and public interests. One such public interest is to walk along the beach, which seems simple enough. However, beach walking often occurs on this ambulatory shoreline where public rights grounded in the public trust doctrine and private rights grounded in property ownership intersect. To varying degrees, each state has a …

Closing The Regulatory Gap In Michigan's Public Trust Doctrine: Saving Michigan Millions With Statutory Reform, Kelsey Breck

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Great Lakes are some of Michigan's most valuable and important environmental resources. The public trust doctrine requires Michigan to protect and preserve the lands along the shores of the Great Lakes for the use of future generations. Unfortunately, the public trust doctrine in Michigan is in disarray and as a result, public and private rights to the lands along the Great Lakes are poorly delineated. This Note presents an economic argument for why the public trust doctrine should be reformed to better define public and private rights to the land along Michigan's Great Lakes. It also suggests a statutory …

The Use Of The Public Trust Doctrine As A Management Tool Over Public And Private Lands, Patricia E. Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin

No abstract provided.

Internationalizing The Public Trust Doctrine: Natural Law And Constitutional And Statutory Approaches To Fulfilling The Saxion Vision, Michael Blumm, Rachel D. Guthrie

Faculty Articles

The public trust doctrine, an ancient doctrine emanating from Roman law and inherited from England by the American states, has been extended in recent years beyond its traditional role in protecting public uses of navigable waters to include new resources like groundwater and for new purposes like preserving ecological function. But those state-law developments, coming slowly and haphazardly, have failed to fulfill the vision that Professor Joseph Sax sketched in his landmark article of forty years ago. However, in the last two decades, several countries in South Asia, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere have discovered that the public trust doctrine …

Oregon's Public Trust Doctrine: Public Rights In Waters, Wildlife, And Beaches, Michael Blumm, Erica A. Doot

Faculty Articles

Oregon’s public trust doctrine has been misunderstood. The doctrine has not been judicially interpreted in over thirty years but was the subject of an Oregon Attorney General’s opinion in 2005. That opinion interpreted the scope of the doctrine to be limited to the beds of tidelands and navigable-for-title waters and erected a separate “public use” doctrine protecting public rights in other waters, including recreational waters. However, since Oregon courts have never limited public rights in the state’s waters to those with publicly owned bedlands, the opinion should have recognized that the public trust doctrine provides broad public recreational rights in …