Environmental Law Commons^™

The International Court Of Justice Decision Concerning The Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary/Slovakia), Ida L. Bostian

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Lakshman Guruswamy

Publications

No abstract provided.

Thinking Of Environmental Law As A Complex Adaptive System: How To Clean Up The Environment By Making A Mess Of Environmental Law, J.B. A. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article is the fourth in my series of articles exploring the application of complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory to legal systems. It applies the model built in the three prior installments (in the Duke, Vanderbilt, and UC-Davis law reviews) to the specific context of environmental law. The work describes the subject matter of environmental law as a CAS and explains why environmental law thus must "think like a complex adaptive system" in order to accomplish its objectives.

Fashioning A Comprehensive Environmental Review Code For Tribal Governments: Institutions And Processes, Dean B. Suagee, Patrick A. Parenteau

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Franklin S. Spears: A Son's Perspective On His Father In Memoriam., Carleton B. Spears

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

The Interaction Of The Division Order And The Lease Royalty Clause., Laura H. Burney

St. Mary's Law Journal

Because lease royalty clauses, which establish the obligation of the lessee to pay royalties to the lessor, generally fail to include the details necessary to calculate a lessor’s royalty, lessee or third party purchasers historically have implemented a division order. An additional document in the payment process, the division order protects against a lessee or third party purchaser’s liability for conversion or failure to account properly. Recent court of appeals and Supreme Court of Texas opinions provide an analysis of the interaction of the lease royalty clause and the division order under Texas statutory and case law. The awkward wording …

Justice Franklin S. Spears: Unsung Hero Of Texas Justice In Memoriam., Thomas R. Phillips

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

The Prospects For Challenging U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy In Light Of The World Court's Advisory Opinion On The Legality Of The Threat Or Use Of Such Weapons Comment., Stephen Gordon

St. Mary's Law Journal

In an opinion, the World Court concluded “the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law,” the only exception being “in an extreme circumstance of self-defense, where survival of a State is at stake.” The Court’s opinion could read as prohibiting the most common ways the United States incorporated nuclear weapons into its defense strategy. First, it may prevent the United States from using such weapons again legally. Second, if the opinion does not render using nuclear weapons illegal in all circumstances, it might prohibit the United States from ever being the …

Immigration Reform: Seeking The Right Reasons., Lamar Smith, Edward R. Grant

St. Mary's Law Journal

The legacy of immigration to the United States permeates the debate over current immigration policy. Because our self-definition as a nation is at stake in this debate, the issue of immigration arouses our deepest sentiments regarding the communities in which we live. We do not need to search far back in our history to find examples of imprudent law-making. Both the 1924 and 1925 immigration laws were motivated in large part by purposes which eventually undermined the principles on which they rested. These acts serve as prime examples of how employing erroneous reasons to enact even well-intentioned laws can be …

Writing In The Margins: Brennan, Marshall, And The Inherent Weaknesses Of Liberal Judicial Decision-Making Essay., Donna F. Coltharp

St. Mary's Law Journal

From 1967, when Thurgood Marshall took his seat as Supreme Court Justice, until 1990, when William Brennan, Jr. vacated his seat, the two Justices formed one of the most consistent liberal voting blocs in the history of the Court. Both Justices were judicial activists who labored in the tradition of Legal Realism. Although both Brennan and Marshall recognized the interpretation and application of the law as purposeful exercises, they differed in their approach to the task. Marshall, for instance, appealed to social consensus stating that his views were supported by society. Furthermore, Marshall strongly believed that the Constitution is a …

Abandoned Frozen Embryos And Texas Law Of Abandoned Personal Property: Should There Be A Connection Comment., Lynne M. Thomas

St. Mary's Law Journal

In vitro fertilization (“IVF”) has become almost commonplace in society. The widespread utilization of IVF and cryopreservation raises new questions with respect to ownership and disposition of embryos. This legal confusion may be addressed by either crafting specific regulations for that particular technology as its implications become apparent, or by applying current law. IVF first began in Great Britain, and the British Parliament passed a law mandating destruction of abandoned frozen embryos five years after cryopreservation. Destruction of the embryos potentially caused the loss of reproduction capability for those persons whose embryos were destroyed. While the number of abandoned frozen …

The Role Of Bilateralism In Fulfilling The Federal-Tribal Relationship: The Tribal Rights-Endangered Species Secretarial Order, Charles Wilkinson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Country/Region Reports -- United States Of America, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Asteroids And Comets: U.S. And International Law And The Lowest-Probability, Highest Consequence Risk, Michael B. Gerrard, Anna W. Barber

Faculty Scholarship

Asteroids and comets pose unique policy problems. They are the ultimate example of a low probability, high consequence event: no one in recorded human history is confirmed to have ever died from an asteroid or a comet, but the odds are that at some time in the next several centuries (and conceivably next year) an asteroid or a comet will cause mass localized destruction and that at some time in the coming half million years (and conceivably next year), an asteroid or a comet will kill several billion people. The sudden extinction of the dinosaurs, and most other species 65 …

Golden Rules For Transboundary Pollution, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

Environmental law is becoming ever more centralized. In the United States, state and local pollution laws have been eclipsed by federal regulation. In the European Community, and to a lesser degree under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), national controls have been supplemented by regional regulation. And the growing importance of treaties regulating particular aspects of the global environment has reinforced calls for more general regimes of international environmental regulation.

One inevitably given justification for this centralizing trend is that pollution is a transboundary phenomenon. Air and water pollution, and to a lesser extent groundwater contamination, can cross political …

Territoriality, Risk Perception, And Counterproductive Legal Structures: The Case Of Waste Facility Siting, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The siting of hazardous and nuclear waste facilities has proven to be a task of enormous difficulty in our federal system. In this Article, the Author argues that one of the major causal factors for this difficulty is that the legal regime surrounding waste facility siting decisions is not structured in a manner sensitive to the human factors involved. The siting of a hazardous waste facility is likely to generate a negative community response where the imposition of externally made decisions and externally generated wastes fails to take into account the innate human trait of territoriality. Territoriality is a powerful …