Environmental Law Commons^™

Compensation And The Interconnectedness Of Property, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Joseph Sax's scholarship on the Takings Clause combines the craft of a first-class lawyer with the passion of a visionary. The good lawyer that he is, Sax's scholarship reflects a deep understanding of Supreme Court case law, legal history, and the practical dimensions of various kinds of land use disputes. Yet his work on takings is not animated by any desire for mere doctrinal tidiness. It is driven by a distinctive vision – one in which the earth's resources are becoming increasingly interconnected and in which there is an increasing need for the government to resolve conflicts regarding the …

Autonomy Through Separation?: Environmental Law And The Basic Law Of Hong Kong, Benjamin L. Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

One hundred days after taking office as Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong SAR) of the People's Republic of China, Tung Chee-hwa pledged both to take steps to improve Hong Kong's environment, and to increase coordination of environmental policy with officials in neighboring Guangdong Province. Tung's comments marked a rhetorical shift from environmental policy in British Hong Kong: eight years earlier, the Hong Kong government's first White Paper on environmental policy, Pollution in Hong Kong – A Time to Act, made only passing mention of China. Yet the White Paper was not alone in …

Demons And Angels In Hazardous Waste Regulation: Are Justice, Efficiency, And Democracy Reconcilable?, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The Superfund program is perhaps environmental law's best Rorschach test, in which those who write about the national effort to clean up contaminated sites disclose as much about their own philosophies of justice, democracy, and economic efficiency as about environmental legislation. The ten books reviewed here show deep conflicts among these values. I argue, based on these disparate judgments, that many of the Superfund debates have an almost religious character. The law has been shaped to fit the view that demonic polluters were, and remain, at work. The law also reflects a sense of higher duty to future generations – …

Instituting Environmental Protection: From Red To Green In Poland, Daniel H. Cole

Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty

Under socialism, Poland suffered tremendous environmental devastation. After socialism, Poland's environmental performance has improved remarkably. This book explains that system-specific institutions of socialism undermined environmental protection by creating regulatory conflicts of interest that led the Party/state to soften budget and law constraints on polluters. Those problems have diminished in post-Communist Poland as socialist legal, political and economic institutions have been replaced by liberal-democratic institutions and competitive markets. The analysis carries important implications for an institutional theory of environmental protection.

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Stockholm To Kyoto And Back To The United States: International Environmental Law's Effect On Domestic Law, Joel B. Eisen

University of Richmond Law Review

We Americans think we're so darned smart. We invented modern environmental law, developed its sophisticated "command-and-control" structure, got the public involved as never before in fighting corporate polluters, and achieved measurable successes by getting lead out of our air and bald eagles back from near extinction. We've even tried "second generation" tools such as emissions trading systems' and incentive-based regulatory flexibility approaches when we discovered our system's limitations. Not that we've got it all figured out, mind you, but we're inclined to think of ourselves as world leaders when it comes to environmental protection.

Ozone Transport And The Clean Air Act: The Answers Are Blowin' In The Wind, Shari R. Desalvo

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note addresses the major provisions of the Clean Air Act that deal with the transport of ozone from one state to another. After an overview of the Act and specific sections dealing with ozone transport, the Note discusses the Environmental Protection Agency's (the "EPA") inconsistent interpretation and application of the Act, as exposed through the limited case law addressing this issue to date. Next, using the illustrative cases of Pennsylvania and Ohio, the Note discusses how Northeastern states are suffering economically and physically due to Midwestern pollution. This Note concludes that it is time for the EPA to stop …

Epa's Hazardous Waste Identification Rule For Process Waste (Hwir-Waste) Gone Haywire, Again, Christopher J. Urban

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Encouraging Industry In Order To Preserve Non-Commercial Property, Katherine X. Vasiliades

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

The Commerce Clause Meets The Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly, John Copeland Nagle

Journal Articles

Is the Endangered Species Act constitutional? The D.C. Circuit considered that question in National Association of Home Builders v. Babbitt in 1997. More specifically, the case considered whether the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce authorized the ESA's prohibition upon building a large regional hospital in the habitat of an endangered fly that lives only in a small area of southern California. The three judges on the D.C. Circuit approached the question from three different perspectives: the relationship between biodiversity as a whole and interstate commerce, the relationship between the fly and interstate commerce, and the relationship between the hospital …

Endangered Species Wannabees, John Copeland Nagle

Journal Articles

Environmental law and theories of statutory interpretation have developed side by side in the United States during the past twenty-five years. Many of the leading environmental law cases are also statutory interpretation cases. China is different. China has enacted many environmental statutes, often patterned after foreign laws such as those in the United States, but there are no Chinese environmental law statutory interpretation cases.

This article examines why there are no such cases, and what we may learn from that fact. I am indebted to the work of Professor Stewart, whose engaging article in this symposium issue combines three of …

Killing Kids Who Kill: Desecrating The Sanctuary Of Childhood Symposium: Thoughts On Death Penalty Issues 25 Years After Furman V. Georgia., Richard Burr, Mandy Welch

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Juries Under Siege., Phil Hardberger

St. Mary's Law Journal

Beginning in the late 1980s, the Texas Supreme Court saw a slew of conservative judges elected to the bench. With this new Court, previous expansions of the law were stopped. Jury verdicts became highly suspect and were frequently overturned for a variety of reasons. Damages too did not go unnoticed. Juries’ assessments were wiped out by increasingly harsher standards. The ripple effect of the Court’s conservative philosophy on the judicial process was substantial. Jury verdicts, few as they may be, are not subject to harsh scrutiny by conscientious appellate judges sworn to follow the Texas Supreme Court’s precedent. And the …

The Role Of Nongovernmental Organizations In The Climate Change Negotiations, Chiara Giorgetti

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Asian Dragons And Green Trade, Simon S. C. Tay & Daniel C. Esty, Eds., Lakshman D. Guruswamy

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Flushing The Danube: The World Court's Decision Concerning The Gabčíkovo Dam, Ida L. Bostian

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Colorado Journal Of International Environmental Law And Policy

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Tropical Forest Conservation Act, Amanda Lewis

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Community Participation In Natural Resources Management In Malawi: Charting A New Course For Sustainability, Tracy Dobson

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Update: Hungary–Slovakia And The Gabcíkovo–Nagymaros Project, Colorado Journal Of International Environmental Law And Policy

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Who Needs Congress? An Agenda For Administrative Reform Of The Endangered Species Act, J.B. A. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article comprehensively examines the history and content of the numerous administrative reforms of the Endangered Species Act program carried out under the tenure of Department of the Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. The assessment is that these reforms provide a tremendous impetus for innovation of species conservation.

The Social Costs Of Punitive Damages Against Corporations In Environmental And Safety Torts, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Legal scholars and judges have long expressed concerns over the unpredictability and arbitrariness of punitive damages awards. Proposed remedies, such as restricting punitive damages to narrowly defined circumstances, have not yet met with success. This paper addresses the threshold issue of whether, on balance, punitive damages have benefits in excess of their costs. There is no evidence of a significant deterrent effect based on an original empirical analysis of a wide range of risk measures for the states with and without punitive damages. These measures included accident rates, chemical spills, medical malpractice injuries, insurance performance, and other outcomes that should …

Taming The Suburban Amoeba In The Ecosystem Age: Some Do's And Don'ts, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Urban central cities present a host of environmental problems including, but not limited to, industrial pollution, brownfields, smog, and environmental injustice. Rural and agricultural areas also experience environmental degradations such as pesticide runoff, wetlands conversion, and overgrazing. Between these different bands of lifestyle and land use lie the suburbs, which present their own set of environmental policy issues. This Article focuses on one of those problems: the growth of suburban land area and what it means for emerging notions of ecosystem management and sustainable development at the local land use scale. Part I of the Article provides the demographic and …

Coastal Marine Science For Law And Business Students: Preparing Law And Business Professionals To Make "Informed Decisions" About Coastal Issues, David H. Niebuhr, Lynda L. Butler, Don Rahtz, Britt E. Anderson, April N. Lawrence

Faculty Publications

The rigors of employment-directed undergraduate education. and decreased emphasis on "Liberal Arts" studies occurring at some colleges and universities has left many graduates with a level of scientific understanding which is inadequate to make infonned choices about issues which effect the environment. To address this lack of scientific understanding. the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (Virginia) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, with the Marshall-Wythe School of Law and the School of Business Administration of the College of William and Mary are developing a Coastal Ecosystem Science Program to teach future law and business professionals the basics of …

Taller Internacional Sobre Formación De Capacidades Para El Manejo De Las Costas Y Los Océanos En El Gran Caribe (International Workshop On Management Capacity Building For Coasts And Oceans In The Wider Caribbean, Havana, Cuba), Aldo Chircop

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Spanish Abstract: El Taller Internacional sobre Formación de Capacidades para el Manejo de Costas y los Océanos en el Gran Caribe tue organizado conjuntamente por la Universidad de la Habana, el Comité Oceanógrafico Nacional de Cuba (CON) y el Instituto de los Océanos de Canadá (IOC), y recibió el apoyo del Programa Gubernamental para la Sustentabilidad de los Océanos de la Agencia Canadiense para el Desarrollo Internacional (ACDI), del Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo Internacional (CIDI), y de la Comisión Oceanógrafica Intergubernamental de la U N E S C O . Fue organizado en respuesta a iniciativas recientes para …

Rhetoric And Rage: Third World Voices In International Legal Discourse, Karin Mickelson

All Faculty Publications

This paper sets out to question the conventional view of the Third World and international law, which tends to characterize Third World legal discourse as ad hoc and reactive. It considers whether it might be possible to identify "distinctive modes of thought and analysis" characteristic of a Third World approach to international law. In her analysis, the author begins by exploring various usages of the term "Third World," and explains the way in which it is used in this paper. She then sketches out Third World approaches to the subject areas of international economic law, human rights and the environment, …

The Transboundary Movement Of Hazardous Waste A Comparative Analysis, Els Reynaers

LLM Theses and Essays

An analysis of the transboundary movement of hazardous waste requires a comparative examination of three main regulatory entities. First, the international Basel Convention on the Control of the Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal will be covered. More particularly, an inquiry of its raison d'etre, will be followed by a critical examination of its goals and mechanisms. The relationship the United States has with the Convention and its national approach towards the export of hazardous waste will be covered next. A brief investigation of the real situation impacts of the Basel Convention will finalize this chapter. The second …

Indictments And Informations In Texas: The Conduct/Evidence Pleading Conundrum., Robert R. Barton

St. Mary's Law Journal

In the prosecution of a criminal case in Texas, the State’s primary pleading is an indictment or information. In an indictment or information, there are two basic rules for the charging of an offense. First, the defendant must be given adequate notice to prepare a defense and to plead the judgment from the trial of the case in bar to a subsequent prosecution for the same offense. Second, the State is not required to plead evidentiary matters. The simplicity of these rules exists more in their statement than in their application because circumstances exist which require the State to plead …

A Catholic Lawyer's View Of The Death Penalty Symposium: Thoughts On Death Penalty Issues 25 Years After Furman V. Georgia., Kevin M. Doyle

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Victims' Rights And The Death-Sentenced Inmate: Some Observations And Thoughts Symposium: Thoughts On Death Penalty Issues 25 Years After Furman V. Georgia., Susan L. Karamanian

St. Mary's Law Journal

The concept of “victims’ rights” refers to the movement from the 1950s which focuses on enhancing the role of the victim in the criminal process. The movement changed dramatically the manner in which capital cases are investigated and prosecuted. Prosecutors may work with the victims’ families on whether to accept a plea bargain or whether to seek the death penalty. The victims’ families may now also provide victim impact statements to let their own suffering influence the jury during the sentencing phase. The right of the victim’s family to have a say in the process does not end with the …