Environmental Law Commons^™

South/North Exchange Of 2009 - The Challenges Of Climate Change Regulation For Governments On The Political Left: A Comparison Of Brazilian And United States Promises And Actions, Colin Crawford, Solange Teles Da Silva, Kevin Morris

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.

The Icj And The Future Of Transboundary Harm Disputes: A Preliminary Analysis Of The Case Concerning Aerial Herbicide Spraying (Ecuador V. Colombia), Robert Esposito

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

No abstract provided.

Peace Parks For Mountain Forests: The Law And Policy Of Transforming Conflict To Stewardship, Elaine C. Hsiao

Dissertations & Theses

Peace parks provide a land ethic that transcends borders and seeks to stabilize tensions between bordering States, honoring the unity of biosphere systems in its efforts to achieve peace, conservation and cooperation. In theory, peace parks recognize that humans and the biosphere are one and that natural resources, just as cultural resources, must be collaboratively protected. In the cases of inhabited border regions, peace park principles of holistic conservation, cooperation and peace require that local communities be incorporated into park management. I posit that this is all the more true for frontier communities in regions of conflict, weak governance or …

Siting Green Infrastructure: Legal And Policy Solutions To Alleviate Urban Poverty And Promote Healthy Communities, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Green infrastructure is an economically and environmentally viable approach for water management and natural resource protection in urban areas. This Article argues that green infrastructure has additional and exceptional benefits for the urban poor which are not frequently highlighted or discussed. When green infrastructure is concentrated in distressed neighborhoods—where it frequently is not—it can improve urban water quality, reduce urban air pollution, improve public health, enhance urban aesthetics and safety, generate green collar jobs, and facilitate urban food security. To make these quality of life and health benefits available to the urban poor, it is essential that urban leaders remove …

Public Trust Limits On Greenhouse Gas Trading Schemes: A Sustainable Middle Ground?, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

There is a some consensus among economists, environmentalists, and politicians that some form of “cap and trade’ program is the appropriate regulatory mechanism to achieve the greenhouse gas emissions reductions necessary to avoid disastrous global climate disruptions. “Cap and trade” programs necessarily incorporate tradable emissions rights – essentially tradable rights to pollute. As such, they run into principled objection by some environmentalists who oppose the notion of creating economic rights in the global commons – essentially the “right to pollute.” This principled objection derives doctrinal support from the public trust doctrine – the ancient notion rooted in common law and …

The Law Of Sustainable Development: Keeping Pace, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article describes the emerging field of sustainable development law and examines whether it is up to the challenge it faces. In a world of finite resources overrun by sprawl, threatened by climate change, short on fuel, and long on greenhouse gas emissions, the law must keep pace. After discussing what sustainable development law is, the article considers the relationship between change in society and the evolution of legal principles, strategies, and practices, particularly with respect to land use, property, and natural resources. Documented in this review is the steady change exhibited in the common law applicable to the ownership, …

Success Or Failure?, Richard L. Ottinger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Copenhagen Climate Conference and its Copenhagen Accord have generally been billed by the press as having been a failure. I think this is a very unfortunate mischaracterisation. The conference was a failure only in not achieving binding commitments to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission levels sufficiently to meet the requirements identified by the some 3,000 leading global scientists of the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to avoid disastrous consequences – such as sea-level rise leading to massive migration, food disruption, water shortages, tropical disease migration, biodiversity destruction, etc. But the conference didn’t expect that this could …

Investment In Water And Wastewater Infrastructure: An Environmental Justice Challenge, A Governance Solution, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article evaluates the impact of the growing presence of privatized water and wastewater infrastructure projects in some of the world’s most populous countries: China, India, the United States, Brazil, and Nigeria. Together, these nations account for nearly 50 percent of the world’s population. The article discusses environmental justice issues associated with contaminated drinking water and insufficient sanitation and explores the role that public versus private ownership of water infrastructure plays in ensuring access to clean water for the lower-income echelons of society. It articulates the importance of the rule of law and sound environmental governance in this arena and …

Climate Change Consensus: Emerging International Law, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

China In Context: Energy, Water, And Climate Cooperation, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Understanding Cercla Through Webster's New World Dictionary And State Common Law: Forestalling The Federalization Of Property Law, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act ("CERCLA") was hastily enacted in 1980 in the wake of the Love Canal disaster, where vast amounts of toxic wastes were found buried beneath a residential community. The contours of this legislation, though comprehensive in its outward scope, have been difficult to discern, largely as a consequence of vague and confusing expression. Though often the first tool resorted to for interpretation is the dictionary, the courts have looked beyond the literal terms, in an effort to determine the intended and sensible limits, consistent with both the congressional aim to reach broad categories …

Climate Change Displacement To Refuge, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vise versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water, energy and climate coordination can occur through international consensus building.

Non-State Actor Access And Influence In International Legal And Policy Negotiations, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

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.

Transcript of panel discussion at McGill University, March 26, 2010. This piece is based on the article Elizabeth Burleson & Diana Pei Wu, Non-State Actor Access and Influence in International Legal and Policy Negotiations, 21 Fordham Envtl. L. Rev. 193 (2010).

Bundling Public And Private Goods: The Market For Sustainable Organics, Margot J. Pollans

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Modern agriculture has vast environmental externalities. The pesticides, fertilizers, and sediments in irrigation runoff pollute surface and groundwater; single-crop farms destroy biodiversity; and massive amounts of fossil fuels are burned in agricultural production, post-harvest processing, and shipping. Nevertheless, farming operations have largely escaped the post-1970 expansion of federal environmental regulation. Compounding the problem, federal farm policy has encouraged the very farming practices that most cause this degradation.

In 1990, Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA), which created an organic food certification and labeling system. While OFPA's primary purposes are to facilitate the growth of the organic sector and …

Climate Change And Sustainable Development: The Quest For Green Communities, Part Ii, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This is the second part of Professor John R. Nolon’s two-part series on climate change mitigation through sustainable development law. Part I ran in October 2009 http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty/646/. In Part I, I argued that local governments should be partners with federal and state governments in managing climate change. This may sound incongruous to the ears of those listening to the debates over cap-and-trade legislation. In that context, state and local programs that cap, auction, tax, regulate, track, or otherwise attempt to manage greenhouse gas emissions are criticized on a number of grounds. The same can be said when the debate turns …

Climate Change And Sustainable Development: The Quest For Green Communities, Part I, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This is the first of two commentaries that explore the role of local governments in mitigating and adapting to climate change through sustainable development strategies. They focus on the significant authority to regulate land use and building construction that is delegated to local governments by their states, and how that authority can be coordinated with the roles and responsibilities of state and federal governments to manage climate change and achieve sustainable development.

An End To Grazing Lease Litigation: An Examination Of Alternative Dispute Resolution Schemes That Could Resolve The Overgrazing Dispute On State And Federally Owned Rangelands In The Western United States, Jamie Pool

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

2009 Judges' Edition Memorandum, Taryn L. Rucinski

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

2009 Moot Court Problem, Caroline Blanco, Sherry Hutt, Gary Nurkin, David Tarler, Ole Varmer

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Regulation Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions By New York State From A Legal Perspective: Is A Tax Or Market-Based System Optimal?, Christopher Aung

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

David Sive Award Best Brief Overall: Galleon Enterprises, Inc., Sarah Williams, Elizabeth Pletan, Matt Riley

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Best Brief: The Kingdom Of Spain, Joseph Mathews, Wei Xiang

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Best Brief: The United States Of America, Gabrielle Janssens, Michael Minkler, Monica Bauman

Pace Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

Petition Clause Interests And Standing For Judicial Review Of Administrative Lawmaking, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

One of the primary roles of agencies in the modern administrative state is the promulgation of rules and regulations governing primary conduct. Separation of powers and non-delegation concerns have evolved into very weak limits on the scope of agency lawmaking authority. Once the executive branch agencies have acted, Article III courts routinely step in to review the consistency of these regulations with congressional mandates. Particularly in the case of controversial regulations, the lawmaking process is not complete until judicial review. Entities burdened by such regulations--so called “regulatory objects”-- enjoy presumed standing to challenge the scope of agency regulations. Groups of …

Modernization Of New York's Land Use Laws Continues To Meet Growing Challenges Of Sustainability, Patricia E. Salkin, Jessica A. Bacher

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Being Green Doesn't Need To Be Taxing: How New York State Law Is A Vanguard For Using Green Infrastructure, Keith J. Jones

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Changing Times--Changing Practice: New Roles For Lawyers In Resolving Complex Land Use And Environmental Disputes, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Following this introduction is a discussion of the many excellent papers by academics, practitioners, and students contained in this themed Kheel edition of the Pace Environmental Law Review. The article continues with an analysis of the practice of law and how it is affected by the advent of environmental interest dispute resolution.

Ideological Plaintiffs, Administrative Lawmaking, Standing And The Petition Clause, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In the 1992 Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife decision, Justice Scalia declared that business interests subject to regulation had automatic standing to challenge regulations in court, but that where “the plaintiff is not himself the object of the government action or inaction he challenges, standing is not precluded, but it is ordinarily ‘substantially more difficult’ to establish.” This article explores the impact this differential standard for court access has on ideologically-motivated public interest plaintiffs, and suggest heightened scrutiny of standing rules under the Petition Clause of the First Amendment based on the viewpoint differential effect of current standing doctrine. This …