Environmental Law Commons^™

Kyoto Comes To Georgia: How International Environmental Initiatives Foster Sustainable Commerce In Small Town America, Peter A. Appel, T. Rick Irvin, Julie M. Mcentire, J. Chris Rabon

Scholarly Works

This Article posits that in response to adoption of Kyoto Protocol targets by governments and multi-national corporations overseas that comprise significant portions of the global economy as well as global financial markets, businesses and state and local governments in the U.S. are also being driven by necessity to undertake sustainable commerce initiatives. Businesses in the EU and other Kyoto-compliant regions that have implemented sustainable commerce programs now require overseas vendors and suppliers-including those in the U.S.-to implement their own sustainable commerce initiatives as a condition of approved supplier status. New EU environmental regulations developed in part to meet Kyoto-specified emissions …

Changing Intellectual Property And Corporate Legal Structures To Promote The U.S. Environmental Management And Technology Systems Industry, Peter A. Appel, T. Rick Irvin

Scholarly Works

This Article posits that for the U.S. environmental management and technology industry to enjoy success comparable to that of the biotechnology and semiconductor industries requires critical examination of current law to enable market-based and regulatory incentives, which would position U.S. industry to compete with equal strength against global competitors in global markets. This Article explains that the legal community, along with the environmental science and engineering disciplines, must guide both growth and market dominance of this industry in the global marketplace. The Article examines three areas of the law critical to the U.S. Environmental Technology Management System (EMTS) industry -- …

On The Trail To Increased Client Protection: Attorney Contingent Fee Contract Termination In Light Of Hoover V. Walton Recent Development., Tiffanie S. Clausewitz

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Assault Upon The Citadel Of Privity: The Coexistence Of Strict, Privity And Belt V. Oppenheimer, Blend, Harrison & (And) Tate, Inc. Comment., C. John Muller Iv

St. Mary's Law Journal

The practicing attorney must have a complete understanding of legal malpractice liability. Managing this risk can be a precarious responsibility when the law is not clearly defined. This is compounded by the steady erosion of attorney-client privity barriers making it easier for third party non-clients to sue lawyers for legal malpractice. This is the current state of matters in Texas since the Texas Supreme Court decided Belt v. Oppenheimer, Blend, Harrison & Tate, Inc. on May 5, 2006. The Belt court determined personal representatives of an estate may bring a malpractice claim against the decedent’s attorneys. The Belt court was …

The Protection Of The Marine Environment From Land-Based Pollution And Activities: Gauging The Tides Of Global And Regional Governance, David Vanderzwaag, Ann Powers

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

After providing an introductory overview of the major land-based threats to the marine environment, this article focuses upon the specific global and regional efforts to address land-based marine pollution and activities through a four-part survey. The main international initiative is first described, namely, the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA). Progress in GPA implementation is next assessed with an emphasis on the documentation and results from the Second Intergovernmental Review Meeting on Implementation of the GPA held in October 2006. Major challenges constraining GPA implementation are then summarized, including limited national …

Home State Obligations For The Prevention And Remediation Of Transnational Harm: Canada, Global Mining And Local Communities, Sara Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Canadian mining companies, stock exchanges, mining professionals, and the Canadian government itself, play a significant role in global mining. This unpublished PhD dissertation, completed in January 2008, explores whether Canada has a legal obligation to regulate to prevent and remedy human rights and environmental harm associated with Canadian mining companies operating abroad. Canada and global mining serve as a case study to explore the broader question of whether home states have obligations under international environmental and human rights law. The key claims examined in this dissertation are as follows. First, the exercise of unilateral home state jurisdiction over transnational corporate …

Current Legal Developments: International Union For The Conservation Of Nature, David Freestone, Kristina Gjerde, Rosemary Rayfuse, David Vanderzwaag

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The Workshop on High Seas Governance for the 21st Century was held in New York City on 17-19 October 2007. Over 50 leading experts in international marine policy, science, law and economics gathered to explore policy and regulatory options to improve oceans governance beyond areas of national jurisdiction (BANJ), particularly as they relate to the protection and preservation of the marine environment and marine biological diversity. Participants attended in their personal capacity and the Workshop was conducted under Chatham House Rules. Co-chairs of the Workshop were David Freestone, Kristina Gjerde, Rosemary Rayfuse and David VanderZwaag.

Home State Responsibility And Local Communities: The Case Of Global Mining, Sara L. Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Home states that are actively engaged in global mining have considered and rejected calls to regulate the conduct of transnational mining corporations so as to prevent and remedy human rights and environmental harms. This reluctance to regulate is often expressed as a concern that extraterritorial regulation will conflict with the sovereignty of foreign states. This paper argues that the public international law of jurisdiction is permissive of home state regulation that can be justified under the nationality or territoriality principles, provided that there is no true conflict with an exercise of host state jurisdiction. In the human rights and environment …

Radical Environmental Change In The Polar Regions, William Snape

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

One need only to look at a comparison of summer Arctic ice extent from 1979 to 2007 to understand something significant is happening. In the span of a generation, the millennia-old Arctic has shrunk by roughly two-thirds and could easily be ice free in the summer within a decade. Or if that is not enough, consider that in the winter of 2008, a massive chunk of ice broke off from the Antarctic Peninsula, and another ice sheet the size of Northern Ireland (or Connecticut, if you prefer) hangs on by a thread. Over the past fifty years, the Arctic and …

The Perils Of A Half-Built Bridge: Risk Perception, Shifting Majorities, And The Nuclear Power Debate, Amanda Leiter

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Policy, And Policy Change In China, Jonathan B. Wiener

Faculty Scholarship

Solving the climate change problem by limiting global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will necessitate action by the world’s two largest emitters, the United States and China. Neither has so far committed to quantitative emissions limits. Some argue that China cannot be engaged on the basis of its national interest in climate policy, on the ground that China’s national net benefits of limiting greenhouse gas emissions would be negative, as a result of significant GHG abatement costs and potential net gains to China from a warmer world. This premise has led some observers to advocate other approaches to engaging China, such …

Maine V. Johnson: A Step In The Wrong Direction For The Tribal Sovereignty Of The Passamaquoddy Tribe And The Penobscot Nation, Whitney Austin Walstad

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Governance Of Arctic Marine Shipping, David Vanderzwaag, Aldo Chircop, Erik Franckx, Hugh M. M. Kindred, Moira Mcconnell, Angus Hugh Mcdonald, Ted Mcdorman, Tony George Puthucherril, Phillip Saunders, K. Joseph Spears

Reports & Public Policy Documents

The governance of shipping activities in the Arctic might be described as a “complicated mosaic.” The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), often referred to as the constitution of the oceans, sets out the overall legal framework for the regulation of shipping. The Convention sets out coastal state legislative and enforcement powers over foreign ships according to the maritime zones of jurisdiction laid out in the Convention. A fragmented array of international agreements attempts to address specific challenges raised by shipping such as marine pollution prevention standards, ship safety, seafarer rights and qualifications, and liability …

Law And Policy Options For Strategic Environmental Assessment In Canada, Hugh J. Benevides, Denis Kirchhoff, Robert B. Gibson, Meinhard Doelle

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This research paper has been produced for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency on behalf of the sub-committee on Strategic Environmental Assessment (the SEA sub-committee) which is in turn mandated by the Minister of the Environment’s Regulatory Advisory Committee (RAC). The immediate need for the report is a request from RAC to the SEA sub-committee to research and report on law and policy options for improving the conduct of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in Canada, with a focus on the federal level.

The purpose of the paper is to provide an impartial, research-based assessment of the best approaches to designing and …

Environmental Justice In The Tribal Context: A Madness To Epa's Method, Catherine O’Neill

Faculty Articles

Many American Indian tribes and their members are among those most burdened by mercury contamination. When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set out to regulate mercury emissions from coal-fired utilities, it was aware that mercury contamination and regulation affects tribal rights and resources. EPA's inquiry, therefore ought to have been differently framed, given tribes' unique legal and political status. Specifically, EPA ought to have confronted squarely the impact of its decision on tribes' fishing rights, rather than consider these rights as a mere afterthought. EPA 's process, too, should have been differently conducted EPA should have consulted with tribes from …

How Not To Incorporate Voluntary Standards Into Smart Regulation: Iso 14001 And Ontario's Environmental Penalties Regulations, Stepan Wood, Lynn Johannson

All Faculty Publications

In June, 2007 the province of Ontario, Canada, released environmental penalties (EPs) regulations. EPs (or administrative penalties, as they are called in the US) are the environmental equivalent of speeding tickets for facilities that violate pollution laws. They are found in numerous jurisdictions and are widely understood as part of a move toward smart regulation. The Ontario regulations offer reduced EPs to facilities with an environmental management system (EMS) that meets the requirements of ISO 14001 or the chemical industry's Responsible Care initiative. We argue that non-governmental, consensus-based standards such as ISO 14001 can and should play a constructive role …

Six Principles For Integrating Non-Governmental Environmental Standards Into Smart Regulation, Stepan Wood, Lynn Johannson

All Faculty Publications

Ontario recently introduced environmental penalties (EPs), the environmental equivalent of speeding tickets. EPs are widely understood as part of a move toward "smarter" environmental regulation. As part of the EPs regime, facilities with an environmental management system aligned with ISO 14001 or Responsible Care qualify for reduced penalties. The Ontario government’s attempt to incorporate voluntary standards - such as ISO 14001 - into its EPs regulations was not very smart, however, because it failed to observe six principles that, in our view, should guide the incorporation of standards into smart regulation. First, do not reinvent the wheel. If an existing …

Carbon Taxation In British Columbia, David G. Duff

All Faculty Publications

Among alternative public policies to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs), environmental taxation represents a promising but often under-utilized approach-particularly in North America where the introduction of any new tax involves enormous political challenges. In Canada, however, British Columbia became the first North American jurisdiction to implement a consumption-based environmental tax specifically designed to reduce GHG emissions when BC's provincial government enacted a carbon tax effective July 1, 2008.

This paper provides a general overview and initial evaluation of British Columbia's carbon tax, explaining the background to the announcement of the tax in the Provincial Government's …

Taking Stock Of Sustainable Development At 20: A Principleat Odds With Itself?: Introduction, Stephen C. Mccaffrey

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Surreptitious Recording By Attorneys: Is It Ethical., Carol M. Bast

St. Mary's Law Journal

Ethical rules generally set forth commonly held ethics principles in broad terms which usually generate little debate. What has generated a great deal of debate is whether it is ethical for an attorney to record a conversation. The American Bar Association’s (ABA) view of the issue has shifted over the years. Originally, the practice was held to be unethical except for certain well-defined exceptions involving government attorneys. The 2001 ABA opinion officially withdrew the original opinion allowing attorneys to secretly record a conversation with a non-client where it is not illegal. States’ opinions as to whether conversation recording is ethical …

Ethical Plea Bargaining Under The Texas Disciplinary Rules Of Professional Conduct., Edward L. Wilkinson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Plea bargaining is such an essential component of the administration of justice that disposition of charges after plea discussions is not only an essential part of the process but a highly desirable part for many reasons. Even though 95% of felony criminal cases nationwide are resolved through plea bargaining, there are no specific ethical rules governing the practice. The exhortation in article 2.01 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure states it is the primary duty of all prosecuting attorneys to see that justice is done, rather than merely convicting. In order to determine the ethical boundaries of plea bargaining, …

A Pragmatic Look At Mediation And Collaborative Law As Alternatives To Family Law Litigation Comment., Elizabeth F. Beyer

St. Mary's Law Journal

Since close to half the country’s marriages end in divorce, marriage dissolution is quite a lucrative business for attorneys. Also, fewer people are entering marriage in the first place. Fewer marriages combined with more children born out of wedlock create multitudinous legal problems and family disputes centering around those children. In addition to initial divorce filings and suits affecting the parent-child relationship, dissolution of marriage cases often creates additional litigation down the road. As a solution to the problems caused by the expense and toil of this litigation, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) offers several options for family disputants. Two popular …

Biodiversity, Baking And Boiling, Endangered Species Act Turning Down The Heat, Anna T. Moritz, Kassie R. Siegel, Brendan R. Cummings, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

Today the Earth faces an extinction event on a scale second only to Earth's largest mass extinction, the Permian-Triassic event, which occurred 250 million years ago. Upwards of 70 percent of the Earth's species could be at risk of extinction with a 3.5°C (6.3°F) rise in temperature, which could occur by the end of this century.

The driver is global warming, caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. As such, a rational climate policy is needed immediately to prevent the complete collapse of biodiversity. Yet, the United States—the world's largest cumulative contributor to emissions—is in a state of paralysis when it …

Court Grants Stay Of Injunction In Navy Sonar Case, Alicia Schaffner

Sea Grant Law Fellow Publications

No abstract provided.

Climate Change In The Supreme Court, Lisa Heinzerling

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court confronted the issue of climate change for the first time. The Court held that the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gases and that the agency may not decline to exercise this authority based either on factors not present in the statute or inconclusive gestures toward uncertainty in the science of climate change. I had the privilege of serving as the lead author of the winning briefs in this case. This Article provides an insider's perspective on the choices that went into bringing and …

Legislating To Address Climate Change: Some Lessons From The Field, Christopher H. Schroeder

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Katrina, Feminism, And Environmental Justice, Robert R.M. Verchick

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article examines the disproportionate impact of Hurricane Katrina on marginalized communities, particularly African Americans and women, through the lens of feminist theory and environmental justice. It argues that the disaster's effects were not random but rather the result of systemic inequalities rooted in race, gender, and class. The analysis emphasizes the need to address these disparities in disaster response and recovery policies to ensure justice and equity for all.

Corporate Responsibility And Carbon-Based Life Forms, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Corporations are being monitored as to their carbon base. The level of carbon in the atmosphere is reaching dangerous levels that threaten corporate productivity, as well as human health. Remember that humans are carbon-based life forms. This Article discusses in detail efforts to halt the release of carbon into the atmosphere and mitigate global warming, from state-led initiatives to litigation in lower courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. It concludes that incentivizing corporations to adopt renewable energy practices is the best way to address corporate citizenship and environmental responsibility.

Self-Policing In A Targeted Enforcement Regime, Sarah L. Stafford

Faculty Publications

This paper adds to the debate over whether self-policing can increase environmental protection by considering an issue that has been ignored in previous models—that self-policing may influence future enforcement. The model combines self-policing with targeted enforcement and allows for both deliberate and inadvertent violations. As expected, rewarding self-policers with more lenient future enforcement increases auditing, remediation, and disclosure of inadvertent violations. Self-policing can also serve as a complement to deliberate compliance and can thus further increase environmental performance. However, under reasonable conditions, self-policing can be a substitute for deliberate compliance and could therefore be detrimental to environmental protection.

The National Environmental Policy Act In The Urban Environment: Oxymoron Or A Useful Tool To Combat The Destruction Of Neighborhoods And Urban Sprawl?, Hope M. Babcock

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

To some, applying the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to decisions affecting land use in an urban or built environment is an oxymoron. Cities have historically not been seen “as natural entities but as foreign impositions upon the native landscape,” places where the physical environment is already largely destroyed or reduced to insignificant remnants. Moreover, detecting the required federal presence to trigger NEPA may initially seem difficult when decisions affecting urban resources appear to be principally made by local or state agencies.

At the Institute for Public Representation (IPR) at the Georgetown University Law Center, the author has learned that …