Environmental Law Commons^™

Geology, The Marcellus Shale, Experts, And Dispute Resolution, Itzchak E. Kornfeld

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Journal Staff

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

No abstract provided.

Facts, Fiction, And Perception In Hydraulic Fracturing: Illuminating Act 13 And Robinson Township V. Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania, Joshua P. Fershee

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Should Chevron Have Two Steps?, Richard M. Re

Indiana Law Journal

Prominent judges and scholars have criticized the familiar Chevron deference scheme on the ground that its two steps are redundant. But each step of traditional two-step Chevron actually does unique interpretive work. In short, step one asks whether agency interpretations are mandatory, whereas step two asks whether they are reasonable. Other judges and scholars defend two-step Chevron on the ground that the second step should be equated with arbitrary-and-capricious review. But that approach makes Chevron partially redundant with the Administrative Procedure Act and compresses the distinct mandatoriness and reasonableness questions into an artificially singular first step. This Article identifies a …

Complex Value Choices At The Environment-Energy Interface, Hari M. Osofsky

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

During the 2001–02 academic year, I lived in China, teaching U.S. civil rights law and helping to start a labor law clinic. My first day of teaching the fall civil rights course was the day of the September 11 attacks, and that event and reactions to it played a dominant role in my experience of that year. However, it was also a particularly interesting year to be in China from an environmental-energy perspective because the Three Gorges Dam was in the process of being built and brought onlie. At that point, the area was partially flooded and it was one …

Human-Centered Environmental Values Versus Nature-Centric Environmental Values--Is This The Question?, Zygmunt J.B. Plater

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The challenging background context for much of the discussion and cogitation in the panels and pages of this conference is the unfortunate fact that environmental protection law in virtually all its manifestations is currently faring rather poorly in the public policy arenas of national government. From the public health hazards of residual substances in consumer goods and human breast milk to the mighty troubles of human-caused climate disruption, many of the most significant structures of societal governance are locked in political and financial dysfunctions and impasses. Given the conference’s goal to “explore more deeply the relationship between environmental protection and …

Fishers Of Men: The Neglected Effects Of Environmental Depletion On Labor Trafficking In The Thai Fishing Industry, Joanna G. Sylwester

Washington International Law Journal

Migrant fishermen are left out. Both Thailand’s labor trafficking laws and anti-trafficking measures espoused by international bodies fail to effectively protect men coerced into working in Thailand’s fishing industry. Thailand is a prominent destination for human trafficking victims because of the country’s economic, social, and political conditions. The majority of trafficking victims identified within Thailand are migrants from Thailand’s neighbors—predominantly Myanmar (Burma)—who often escape from conditions of poverty or political persecution. Because of a high demand for Thai fish products and labor shortages in the fishing industry, the commercial fishing industry is a hotbed for labor trafficking. The Government of …

Conflicting Property Rights Between Conservation Easements And Oil And Gas Leases In Ohio: Why Current Law Could Benefit Conservation Efforts, Nicholas R. House

William & Mary Law Review

First, this Note will establish why conservation easements and oil and gas leases are likely to conflict. Second, this Note will present two scenarios under which conservation easements and oil and gas leases might conflict and then demonstrate how current law sorts out the conflicting rights. Third, it will advance several arguments for how conservation easements should be adapted, identifying specific provisions that should be altered in light of the Internal Revenue Code and Ohio’s current legal structure. By doing so, this Note will elucidate how the oil and gas boom in Ohio offers conservation organizations a unique opportunity to …

Wilderness Management In National Parks And Wildlife Refuges, Sandra B. Zellmer

Faculty Law Review Articles

This Article provides a wilderness scorecard of sorts for the two "dominant use" land management agencies-the National Park Service (NPS) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Given that both agencies operate under a similar conservation oriented mandate, one night assume that the imposition of a wilderness mandate would be closely aligned with their organic missions. However, NPS and FWS have both, at times, been surprisingly hostile toward wilderness within their systems. In NPS's case, this is likely because of a concern that wilderness might disrupt visitor use and rein in its management discretion over park activities and …

Tidal Wetlands Protection In Virginia: Time For An Update, Pamela Kalinowski, Yvonne Baker

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Is Water Different From Biodiversity- Governance Criteria For The Effective Management Of Transboundary Resources, Michelle Mei Ling Lim

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Effective law for complex environmental issues requires a combination of sound policy, sophisticated doctrinal scholarship and effective institutional arrangements that suit the social and economic context. Together, these elements create the basis for good resource governance. This article sets out criteria that define an effective governance framework for transboundary resource management. To advance legal scholarship, access to such criteria can help frame comprehensive strategies for more effective environmental law. The article extends previously developed criteria for the effective transboundary conservation of terrestrial biodiversity to transboundary water resource governance. It discusses the relative ease with which each of the criteria can …

The Carbon Suite In The Hotel California: "We Are All Just Prisoners Here, Of Our Own Device", Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

As in the Eagle’s classic album and song “Hotel California,” California became a legal “prisoner of its own device,” amid a suite of legal challenges for exceeding the U.S. Constitution’s limits on state power. What distinguished California is not the large suite of recent legal challenges, but the fact that they are initiated by all stakeholders -- environmental, low-income, and industry groups. California was declared to have acted illegally on some basis, or it capitulated through settlement, in the majority of these challenges.

This article charts more than a half dozen recent and often successful challenges to California regulation based …

Arkansas Game & Fish Commission V. U.S., Katelyn J. Hepburn

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, on remand from the Supreme Court, reconsidered whether temporary increased dam-releases resulting in downstream flooding, constituted a physical taking under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Applying the Supreme Court’s more complex balancing test, the Court of Appeals affirmed the Court of Federal Claims’ decision holding that temporary government-induced flooding can qualify as a Fifth Amendment taking. The court upheld an award of damages in excess of $5.7 million.

U.S. Food Aid Reform Through Alternative Dispute Resolution, Delilah J. Griswold

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Article Xx: Protector Of Public Health, The Environment, And The New Provisions Of European Union’S Fuel Quality Directive, Joy Marie Virga

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Indonesia’S Role In Realizing The Goals Of Asean’S Agreement On Transboundary Haze Pollution, David B. Jerger Jr

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Genetically Modified Food: A Golden Opportunity?, Susan Johnson

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Oversight And Accountability Of Water Privatization Contracts: A Proposed Legislative Policy., Mary Strayhorne

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

How Environmental Review Can Generate Car-Induced Pollution: A Case Study, Michael Lewyn

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

As The World Welcomes Its Seventh Billionth Human: Reflections And Population, Law, And The Environment, Robert Hardaway

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Veronica Kennedy

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Agenda: Fracking, Water Quality And Public Health: Examining Current Laws And Regulations, Network For Public Health Law, American Society Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Public Health Law Research Program

Fracking, Water Quality and Public Health: Examining Current Laws and Regulations (March 20)

Improved technology developments in directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as "fracking," have resulted in an oil and gas production boom nationwide. Fracking involves pumping pressurized water, sand, and chemicals down wells to crack bedrock, freeing petroleum and natural gas. Wastewater discharges, hydraulic fracturing fluid releases, and other accidental spills pose potential water quality risks, sparking concern for public health.

This webinar will examine the laws and regulations governing water quality issues related to fracking, recent state court decisions affecting regulations, and implications for public health.

Slides: Best Management Practices For Oil And Gas Development And Comparative Water Quality Database Of Regulations Relating To Shale Oil And Gas, Matt Samelson, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project

Fracking, Water Quality and Public Health: Examining Current Laws and Regulations (March 20)

Presenter: Matt Samelson, J.D., Attorney, Consultant for Intermountain Oil and Gas Best Management Practices (BMP) Project, Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, University of Colorado Law School

34 slides

Cloud Foundation, Inc. V. Salazar, Maxwell Kirchhoff

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia found that the BLM and Forest Service did not act arbitrarily and capriciously when they maintained and extended a boundary fence and decided not to expand a wild horse and burro range. The court also held the BLM used reasoned decision making when it determined a target horse and burro population in a herd management plan. Additionally, a National Environmental Policy Act claim was defeated under the “capable of repetition yet evading review” exception to the mootness doctrine.

Storm King Revisited: A View From The Mountaintop, Albert K. Butzel

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article and the underlying factual information were first presented at Pace University School of Law on April 15, 2010 as the Sixteenth Annual Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law.

Mr. Butzel tells the story of the Storm King case, and gives his impression of where environmental litigation stands up today measured against the promise of the Storm King decision.

Inside Epa: A Former Insider’S Reflections On The Relationship Between The Obama Epa And The Obama White House, Lisa Heinzerling

Pace Environmental Law Review

This essay is an expanded version of remarks delivered on March 12, 2013, as the Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law at Pace Law School.

This essay discusses the relationship between the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House. It focuses specifically on the role that the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, within the Office of Management and Budget, plays in reviewing the EPA’s regulatory output.

Maritime Emissions Taxation: An Alternative To The Eu Emissions Trading Scheme?, Jon M. Truby

Pace Environmental Law Review

Focusing on the EU’s alternative proposal of an emissions tax, this article analyzes the possibility for the imposition by an EU Member State of a targeted environmental tax to reduce maritime emissions. It considers how such a tax can be imposed in a manner that will not be detrimental to commercial interests and can instigate the desired impact. Importantly, it focuses upon providing a greater incentive for the maritime industry to invest in the most efficient shipping fleet to reduce emissions. It concludes by comparing whether such a perceived maritime emissions tax could be more advantageous than including maritime emissions …

Compensation For Environmental Damage In China: Theory And Practice, Michael G. Faure, Liu Jing

Pace Environmental Law Review

This article is organized as follows: following the introduction in Part I, Part II focuses on the role of liability rules in compensation for environmental harm, then Part III focuses on insurance, and Part IV discusses the specific case of marine oil pollution. For each topic, we will first describe theoretical possibilities for providing compensation, and then examine the role these mechanisms play in practice. Part V offers a few concluding remarks, and provides an economic analysis and policy recommendations.

Environmental Controversies “Between Two Or More States”, Robert D. Cheren

Pace Environmental Law Review

The United States Supreme Court plays a unique and important role in resolving environmental controversies that arise among the several states states and in enforcing environmental compacts formed by states with the assent of Congress.

The powers of Congress and the states to unilaterally resolve environmental controversies between states are constitutionally limited. But there are two plenary constitutional mechanisms for resolving environmental controversies among the states: (1) litigation under the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court over controversies between two or more states; and (2) negotiation of compacts between states with Congressional assent that are enforceable against states by Acts …

Assessing Environmental Governance Of The Hudson River Valley: Application Of An Ippep Model, Wang Xi, Albert K. Butzel, Richard L. Ottinger, Nicholas A. Robinson, John Louis Parker, Taryn L. Rucinski, Marla E. Wieder, Radina R. Valova, Wang Pianpian

Pace Environmental Law Review

The process of obtaining effective implementation of environmental laws is a process of “environmental governance.” Law, including environmental law and other fields of law related to environmental law, is essential to frame, facilitate, and foster the major parties to correctly play their roles.

This thesis has been articulated through a Model of Interactions of Parties in the Process of Environmental Protection (IPPEP Model), which has been developed by Professor Wang Xi of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in the context of the People’s Republic of China. The IPPEP Model is a tool for observing and accessing environmental governance at work. It …