Environmental Law Commons^™

Free And Green: A New Approach To Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Most Americans consider themselves environmentalists, yet most experts are dissatisfied with existing environmental regulations, which are both inefficient and inequitable. Worse, many don't serve environmental goals. This article outlines an alternative approach to environmental policy based on market institutions and property rights rather than central-planning and bureaucratic control. The aim is both to improve environmental protection and lessen the costs ? Economic and otherwise ? Of achieving environmental goals. It seeks to ensure that Americans' environmental values are advanced without sacrificing the individual liberties the American government was created to protect.

The problem with current regulatory approaches is not merely …

When Is Two A Crowd: The Impact Of Federal Action On State Environmental Regulation, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

This article seeks to identify the ways in which federal actions can influence state regulatory choices in the context of environmental policy. The federal government may directly influence state policy choices by preempting state policies or by inducing state cooperation through the use of various incentives and penalties for state action. The federal government may indirectly, and perhaps unintentionally, influence state policy choices as well. Federal policies may encourage greater state regulation by reducing the costs of initiating regulatory action or by placing issues on state policy agendas. Federal regulation may also discourage or even "crowd-out" state-level regulatory action by …

Livre Comércio E O Meio Ambiente, Darren Rosenblum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Primeiramente eu gostaria de agradecer a Cláudia Lima Marques por organizar esta interessante e empolgante conferência. Devo fazer um prefácio dos meus comentários dizendo que a minha bolsa se foca mais em leis de comércio internacional do que direito ambiental. Contudo é claro para mim que estas duas áreas estão substancialmente relacionadas, como ficará claro através da minha fala de hoje.

Esta apresentação se focará na questão do "livre comércio" nos Estados Unidos e o impacto doméstico no meio ambiente. Então, irei falar dos aspectos gerais do crescente sistema de comércio global. Finalmente irei fazer paralelos entre a economia …

Fairness In The Air: California's Air Pollution Hearing Boards, Kenneth A. Manaster

Faculty Publications

This article is an update of my earlier article, "Administrative Adjudication of Air Pollution Disputes: The Work of Air Pollution Control District Hearing Boards in California." Because basic features of the law governing California's air pollution hearing boards have remained in place over the years, the original article reportedly continues to be useful for lawyers and others. Nonetheless, some important aspects of the law have changed, and so have many of the practices hearing boards follow. Furthermore, in many parts of the state, hearing boards now often face cases of far greater technical and legal complexity, and environmental and economic …

New Orleans, The Chesapeake, And The Future Of Environmental Assessment: Overcoming The Natural Resources Law Of Unintended Consequences, Erin Ryan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Green Costs Of Kelo: Economic Development Takings And Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler, Ilya Somin

Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kelo v. City of New London has rekindled the debate over “economic development” takings—condemnations that transfer property from one private owner to another solely on the ground that doing so might improve the local economy or increase tax revenue. While such takings have been condemned by many commentators on both the right and the left, environmentalists have been notably absent among Kelo’s critics. Some environmentalists have even defended the Kelo decision and the use of eminent domain to spur private economic development. At the same time, scholarly commentary on Kelo and other economic …

Judicial Federalism And The Future Of Federal Environmental Regulation, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

This article assesses the current and likely impact of the Supreme Court's federalism cases on federal environmental regulation. As a result of this assessment, the article seeks to make four points: (1) Thus far, the Supreme Court's federalism cases have had a limited impact on federal regulation, as federal courts have not used these cases as a basis for limiting the reach of federal regulatory authority. (2) Notwithstanding this limited impact, the underlying logic of the Supreme Court's cases does pose a challenge for federal regulation, particularly in the Commerce Clause context. (3) The thrust of the federalism cases makes …

Jurisdictional Mismatch In Environmental Federalism, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Jurisdictional mismatch plagues contemporary environmental law and policy. The division of authority and responsibility for environmental protection between the federal and state governments lacks any cohesive rationale or justification. The federal government regulates in many areas where there is no clear analytical basis for federal involvement. At the same time, the federal government is relatively absent where a stronger federal presence could be justified. Conversely, states are precluded, discouraged or otherwise inhibited from adopting environmental protections where state efforts would be worthwhile. At the same time, state intervention seeps into areas where a dominant federal role would be more defensible. …

Back To The Future Of Conservation: Changing Perceptions Of Property Rights & Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Property rights hold a central place in our Constitutional design and provide the foundation for America's market economy. Admiration of private property has not been universal, however. Some environmental scholars and policymakers have been particularly critical of classical liberal conceptions of private property on both theoretical and practical grounds, suggesting that traditional, classical liberal notions of property rights are incompatible with the demands of environmental protection. These perspectives influenced the development of command-and-control environmental regulation in the 1960s and 1970s. In recent years, however, the perception of private property's role in environmental conservation has begun to change. Disregard for the …

Judicial Federalism And The Future Of Federal Environmental Regulation, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

This article assesses the current and likely impact of the Supreme Court's federalism cases on federal environmental regulation. As a result of this assessment, the article seeks to make four points: (1) Thus far, the Supreme Court's federalism cases have had a limited impact on federal regulation, as federal courts have not used these cases as a basis for limiting the reach of federal regulatory authority. (2) Notwithstanding this limited impact, the underlying logic of the Supreme Court's cases does pose a challenge for federal regulation, particularly in the Commerce Clause context. (3) The thrust of the federalism cases makes …

Jurisdictional Mismatch In Environmental Federalism, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Jurisdictional mismatch plagues contemporary environmental law and policy. The division of authority and responsibility for environmental protection between the federal and state governments lacks any cohesive rationale or justification. The federal government regulates in many areas where there is no clear analytical basis for federal involvement. At the same time, the federal government is relatively absent where a stronger federal presence could be justified. Conversely, states are precluded, discouraged, or otherwise inhibited from adopting environmental protections where state efforts would be worthwhile. In addition, state intervention seeps into areas where a dominant federal role would be more defensible. This jurisdictional …

Back To The Future Of Conservation: Changing Perceptions Of Property Rights & Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Some environmental scholars and policymakers have been particularly critical of classical liberal conceptions of private property on both theoretical and practical grounds, suggesting that traditional notions of property rights are incompatible with the demands of environmental protection. Perceiving an environmental crisis borne from Lockean conceptions of property and capitalism, many environmental thinkers came to view the legal protection of private property as an obstacle to environmental sustainability. As a result, the development of command-and-control regulation in the 1960s and 1970s was influenced by the ecological critique of private property.

In recent years, however, the perception of private property's role in …

The Fable Of Federal Environmental Regulation: Reconsidering The Federal Role In Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Cleveland was the site of one of the seminal events in environmental history. On the morning of June 22, 1969, a stray spark ignited oil and debris on the surface of the Cuyahoga River. The resulting fire attracted relatively little local attention in Cleveland, but became a national event. Subsequently, Time, National Geographic, and The New York Times all wrote about the fire. It even inspired a song by Randy Newman. By many accounts, it lit the spark that led to the passage of the Federal Clean Water Act.

There are some problems with the traditional story of the Cuyahoga …

The Fable Of Federal Regulation: Reconsidering The Federal Role In Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

This essay posits that many federal environmental laws were adopted for the wrong rea- sons. Further, it suggests that environmental protections could be improved if more policy decisions were left in the hands of state and local governments.

Conservation Through Collusion: Antitrust As An Obstacle To Marine Resource Conservation, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Although it is not a new environmental problem, overfishing is arguably one of the most serious environmental problems today. Despite decades of government regulation, fisheries are in trouble the world over.

With little doubt, the federal fishery regulations adopted in the last twenty-five years have failed to ensure sustainable utilization of U.S. fisheries. The existing regulatory framework is "a failed experiment that has led to the destruction of United States coastal fisheries." At the same time that the federal government adopted an elaborate regulatory structure, federal law has impeded the development of cooperative fishery management institutions that may have helped …

Billboards And Big Utilities: Borrowing Land-Use Concepts To Regulate "Nonconforming" Sources Under The Clean Air Act, Deepa Varadarajan

Faculty Publications

Part II of this Note provides an overview of how the regulatory framework has developed with regard to federal control technology requirements governing major stationary sources. It focuses on the statutory language of the 1970 Clean Air Act and the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments and subsequent administrative and judicial interpretations. Part III examines the development of the land-use doctrine governing the regulation of preexisting nonconforming uses and highlights its theoretical similarities to the air pollution context. Part IV looks specifically at the jurisprudence surrounding the use of amortization provisions in the zoning context. By and large, a court's acceptance …

Recent Developments Concerning Environmental Law And Agriculture, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Justice Unconceived: How Posterity Has Rights, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fables Of The Cuyahoga: Reconstructing A History Of Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

On June 22, 1969, just before noon, an oil slick and assorted debris under a railroad trestle on the Cuyahoga River caught fire. The fire attracted national media attention, and helped prompt the passage of federal environmental laws. A river on fire was a symbol of earth in need of repair, and federal regulation was the reparative tool of choice. Much of the Cuyahoga story is mythology, however, a fable with powerful symbolic force. The river did burn in 1969 - as it and other rivers had burned many times before - and today the Cuyahoga and many U.S. rivers …

Legal Obstacles To Private Ordering In Marine Fisheries, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Part II of this Article surveys the challenges of marine conservation, the failures of existing regulatory regimes, and the potential for property rights in marine resources. Part III discusses the nature of private ordering, providing examples that arise from the fisheries context. Part IV discusses how legal rules can inhibit private ordering. That section focuses in particular on how antitrust law has impeded cooperative fishery management. Part V then explores possibilities for overcoming antitrust obstacles to private ordering. This Article concludes with some broader thoughts about the implications of this research for resource conservation.

Introduction: The Virtues And Vices Of Skeptical Environmentalism, Jonathan H. Adler, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Publications

Introduction to the symposium on Bjorn Lomborg's "The Skeptical Environmentalist" Cleveland, Ohio, 2002.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Emissions Trading In North America, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Introducation to the symposium on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources in the Canada/U.S. Context: Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Emissions Trading in North America: Kyoto Treaty and U.S. Initiatives, Cleveland, Ohio, 2002.

On Revolution And Wetland Regulations, Michael J. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Myths And Truths That Ended The 2000 Tmdl Program, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Bioavailability: On The Frontiers Of Science And Law In Cleanup Methodologies For Contamination, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Eco-Pragmatism: Making Sensible Environmental Decisions In An Uncertain World, Lynda L. Butler

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Case Against Private Disparate Impact Suits, Thom Lambert

Faculty Publications

This article argues that the Third Circuit, and the courts that have implicitly approved private disparate impact suits, have erred in construing Title VI to permit private plaintiffs to sue federally funded entities for discrimination based on disparate impact alone. From a policy standpoint, permitting private disparate impact suits is a bad idea, for the threat of such suits will lead to deterrence of actions and decisions that have incidental disparate effects but are, on the whole, good.

The Pathology Of Property Norms: Living Within Nature's Boundaries, Lynda L. Butler

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Brownfields Redevelopment: Cleaning Up Contaminated Sites For Community Renewal, Ronald H. Rosenberg

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Of Sinking And Escalating: A (Somewhat) New Look At Stare Decisis, Rafael Gely

Faculty Publications

This article explores the concept of stare decisis from the escalation of commitment perspective. I argue that the theory of escalation of commitment provides a powerful tool that can be used in our understanding of the application of stare decisis . The literature on the use of precedent is extensive; however, this Article develops a new way of looking at case law development and stare decisis . In particular, the Article contemplates stare decisis as a decision-making process and then considers the academic literature in order that we may gain some insight into that process.