Environmental Law Commons^™

How Halal Certification And Islamic Ethics Tackle Greenwashing: New Solutions For A Sustainable Economy, Muhammad Afif Ryan Pratama

Journal Of Middle East and Islamic Studies

This research explores the role of halal certification and Islamic ethics in addressing greenwashing within the financial sector. Greenwashing, the practice of exaggerating environmental responsibility, undermines genuine sustainability efforts and trust among consumers and investors. Islamic finance, based on principles of transparency, social justice, and ethical business practices, provides a robust framework to counter such deceptive practices. The study proposes expanding halal certification to incorporate environmental standards, ensuring that companies demonstrate both ethical and sustainable practices. This integrated approach offers a unique solution to combat greenwashing and aligns with broader sustainability goals. By including sustainability in halal certification, the credibility …

Assessing State Laws And Regulations On Radon In Us Childcare Centers, Benjamin Poku, Sayed Hussaini

Journal of Global Awareness

In the US, radon is the second most significant contributor to lung cancer, following smoking. Despite this, there is a notable absence of state-level measures and guidelines aimed at managing and mitigating the risks associated with exposure to radon gas. The objective of this research was to investigate whether state-level laws regarding radon in childcare centers have a correlation with the proportion of counties in each state that fall under radon zone 1 (with levels exceeding 4 pCi/L). The research method was secondary analysis. Data was gathered from multiple sources, including the EPA radon website, academic journals, official state government …

Yellowstone National Park's Record Of Decision On Bison Management, Lila Bennett

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Bison herds once roamed the American Plains by the millions and were a staple in the lives of Native Americans. By the late 1800’s, bison were nearly extinct due to the westward expansion of European settlers and over hunting. Now, there is a population of merely 30,000 wild bison in North America. Although bison no longer face threats of immediate extinction, wild herds face stark realities of disease, habitat loss, and genetic degradation.

Schutter V. State Board Of Land Commissioners, Gillian P. Ellison

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Schutter v. State Board of Land Commissioners, the Montana Supreme Court addressed the State’s fiduciary obligation in the context of water rights appurtenant to school trust lands. Central to the Court’s holding was the State’s fiduciary duty in managing lands held in trust for the benefit of the State. By upholding the State’s claim to partial ownership of a water right originating on private land, the Schutter Court underscored the tension between private property rights and the State's trust fiduciary duties.

Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force V. Montana, Sarah J. Leopard

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force v. Montana evaluates the efficacy of the proposed 2024 gray wolf floating season in preventing harm to grizzly bears, a protected species in Montana. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the implementation of a “serious questions” test for preliminary injunctions that is specific to Endangered Species Act cases. The Court agreed with the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction that limited the 2024 floating season temporally, but modified the injunction in two respects, thereby narrowing its application. The Court’s holding signifies the continuation of a preliminary injunction standard that values protections for …

Supplements To Environmental Impact Statements: Implementation Of The Standards Set By The Council On Environmental Quality, Dale Lynn Gavin

Maine Law Review

Environmental impact statements (EISs) are prepared before any major federal project is undertaken, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). An original EIS may become obsolete if a Project's operation later changes in any significant way, or if previously unsuspected environmental impacts are later discovered. When either of these two events occurs, compliance with NEPA demands that a supplemental EIS be prepared to focus on the changes. The decision whether a supplement is required in any particular situation is guided by standards set by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). In addition, some federal agencies have promulgated their …

Corner Post V. Board Of Governors Of Federal Reserve System, Alexis Karbowicz

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System resolved a circuit split on when claims against the federal government “accrue” under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2401(a). The Supreme Court clarified whether plaintiffs must file challenges within six years of a regulation’s enactment or may wait until they are directly affected by an agency action, even if that occurs years later. Examining the case’s factual and procedural background provides insight into the relevant regulatory context. The Court’s analysis offers a detailed interpretation of statutory language and establishes principles of claim accrual, alongside the policy considerations of regulatory finality and …

The Biopiracy Of Traditional Knowledge In United States Patent Law, Hannah Green

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The United States intellectual property (“IP”) system is deeply intertwined with our country’s history and constitution. t is foundational in favoring young American inventors. George Washington signed the first patent act in 1790 in hopes of promoting the innovation and progress of science and useful arts. Yet, our patent system was also built around the Western tradition of individualism and competition, which failed to recognize the communal nature and traditional knowledge of tribal communities. This disparity allows the biopiracy of traditional knowledge to be lawful. This comment will explore the harmful toll that United States patent law has taken on …

A Home Away From Home For Indigenous Environmental Justice, Deborah Mcgregor

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Public Trust Doctrine In Maine's Submerged Lands: Public Rights, State Obligation And The Role Of The Courts, Mitchell M. Tannenbaum

Maine Law Review

The State of Maine has within its borders over three thousand miles of coastline and numerous navigable rivers and lakes. The productive use of these waterways and the lands which lie beneath them historically has been linked to the quality of life within Maine and continues to be essential to the social and economic development of the state. Both the state's control over its thousands of acres of submerged lands and the public's right to use these lands derive from what has come to be known as the "public trust doctrine." The basic tenet of the doctrine is that the …

The Blm's Public Lands Rule And "Periodic Adjustments In Use To Conform To Changing Needs And Conditions" Under The Federal Land Policy And Management Act, Jamie Pleune

Pace Environmental Law Review

On May 9, 2024, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) finalized new regulations, cumulatively referred to as the “Public Lands Rule.” According to the preamble for the rule, the purpose of the regulations is “to advance the BLM’s multiple use and sustained yield mission by prioritizing the health and resilience of ecosystems across public lands.” When making land management decisions, the definition of multiple use requires the BLM to take into account “the long-term needs of future generations.” Those resource needs include “recreation, range, timber, minerals, watershed, wildlife and fish, and natural scenic, scientific and historical values.” Despite this directive, …

Community Benefits And Alternative Energy Infrastructure Siting, Edward W. De Barbieri

Pace Environmental Law Review

This essay studies the increasing use of community benefits frameworks in the siting of alternative energy infrastructure. It begins with a discussion of the community benefits agreement movement, the types of agreements that fall under the community benefits agreement frame, as well as the use of community benefits agreements at local law, and in different geographic contexts. Next, it introduces the increasing use of community benefits legal tools in the context of wind energy infrastructure siting. The second part of this essay presents an example of an agreement to share community benefits particularly in the context of federal subsidies through …

Expanding The Toolbox Of Sustainable Business Law: The Transnational Impacts Of The Eu Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (Csddd), Anne-Marie Weber

Pace Environmental Law Review

The contemporary global economy relies extensively on interconnected value chains that often span different continents, presenting challenges when operations result in human rights violations or environmental damage. This has prompted the emergence of non-binding due diligence guidelines and binding laws in several countries, reflecting the necessity of fostering accountability in transnational business activities. The European Union’s adoption of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) on May 24th, 2024, represents a novel significant milestone in this trajectory. As a new instrument of binding transnational business law, the CSDDD aims to promote sustainable business practices, with implications extending beyond EU borders. …

A Transformative Era Of Action: How The Public Land And Private Sectors Are Realigning To Solve The Energy Transition And Climate Change, Roger Martella, Jillian Lavery, Michael O'Hora

Pace Environmental Law Review

Over the last 50 years, environmental laws have transformed the areas we inhabit—and Planet Earth—for the better. Since the daybreak of the environmental law movement in 1970, our air and water are clearer, the lands we navigate are cleaner, and the food and products we consume are safer. Unfortunately, this same legal framework has not met the same success when tackling two of the biggest challenges of ours and future generations: the energy transition and climate change. Since the Supreme Court empowered the Environmental Protection Agency to act on climate change over fifteen years ago, conventional environmental laws and policies …

The Gulf Of Maine Case And The Future Of Ocean Boundary Delimitation, Edward Collins Jr., Martin R. Rogoff

Maine Law Review

On October 12, 1984, a Chamber of the International Court of Justice handed down its decision in the Case Concerning the Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary in the Gulf of Maine Area (Can. v. U.S.). By a vote of four to one, the Chamber described in geodetic lines the course of the single maritime boundary that divides the continental shelf and exclusive fishery zones of Canada and the United States in that area. The Chamber's decision ended more than a decade of conflict between the two countries concerning jurisdiction over continental shelf and fishery resources in the Georges Bank area. …

Wilderness, Trust, And Finality: The Baxter State Park Snowmobile Dispute, Ellen Kandoian, Brooke E. Barnes

Maine Law Review

The recent controversies surrounding the use of snowmobiles in Baxter State Park exemplify the human essence of the trust relationship and the law's awkwardness in addressing the inherently nonlegalistic principles of trust. Baxter State Park is an area of 201,018 acres in northern Maine, purchased by former Governor Percival Proctor Baxter and then donated to the State of Maine in trust. The park includes Mount Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine and the head of the Appalachian Trail. As Chief Justice McKusick wrote in a recent decision construing the trust, "in its combination of size, uniqueness, permanence, and vision, his …

Managing The Cumulative Effects Of Coastal Land Development: Can Maine Law Meet The Challenge?, Alison Rieser

Maine Law Review

Following a period of slow economic growth for the State of Maine in the early part of this decade, improved economic conditions and new demographic trends have renewed the demand for commercial, residential, and recreational development in coastal communities across the state. For many years, Maine has tried to stimulate growth in its communities. Now, many of its coastal towns face a huge development boom, particularly in the southern and mid-coast areas, in communities such as York, Wells, Ogunquit, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Portland, Camden, and Belfast. These towns are struggling to find ways to control the increasing density of development along …

The Cftc, Mqd, And Climate Change, Todd Phillips, Will Dobbs-Allsopp

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

In June 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a request for information (RFI) “to better inform its understanding and oversight of climate-related financial risk as pertinent to the derivatives markets and underlying commodities markets.” The financial regulatory agency is one of several working to address climate-related risks present within the financial system. Given its unique role in regulating derivatives and overseeing commodity markets, the CFTC is working to ensure that the private sector may effectively use those products to address its own climate-related risks. Because such risks threaten the nation’s financial stability and private-sector operations, it is imperative …

Removing Methane Via Soil Amendments: The Legal Framework, Korey Silverman-Roati, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Rapid and sustained reductions in human-driven methane emissions are critical to limiting warming in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement. Reductions in certain methane emissions, particularly from the fossil fuel sector, can be implemented cheaply and efficiently. Other forms of methane emissions, like those from agricultural sources, are more difficult to control. This fact, coupled with concerns that climate change could unlock significant additional natural emissions from tropical wetlands and melting permafrost, has increased interest in atmospheric methane removal (“AMR”).

AMR refers to human interventions to accelerate the conversion of methane in the atmosphere to a form that causes less …

State Authority To Regulate Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement, Ashwin Murthy, Korey Silverman-Roati, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper provides a detailed examination of the regulatory landscape surrounding Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (“OAE”), a form of marine carbon dioxide removal (“CDR”) that seeks to mitigate climate change. The paper explores the domestic (U.S.) regulation of two of the most commonly discussed approaches to OAE: a mineral based approach and an electrolytic approach.

While no federal laws specifically mention OAE, the practice might be subject to various pollution control and other federal statutes and regulations. One key question is the extent to which federal law preempts state regulation of OAE. This paper aims to answer that question by reviewing …

Truth In Advertising For Environmental Sustainability, Robin M. Rotman, Aidan David-Pennington

Faculty Publications

“Sustainability” is in—but what does that term mean, when applied to products, services or brands? This article explores existing Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) oversight of “sustainable” claims in marketing, centering on the FTC’s Guidelines for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims (often referred to as the “Green Guides”). It analyzes thousands of public comments filed in a recent FTC quasi-rulemaking docket to inform proposed revisions to the Green Guides. The article suggests that the FTC include guidance on “sustainable” claims in its next revision to the Green Guides, and further recommends that the FTC formally extend the Green Guides to …

How Detrimental Is Transunion V. Ramirez, Really? Understanding The Impact On Environmental Law, Lauren Young

Washington Law Review

In 2021, the United States Supreme Court issued a controversial opinion with the potential to constrict the standing doctrine. TransUnion v. Ramirez appeared to alter standing’s “concrete harm” requirement, which would significantly restrict plaintiffs’ ability to invoke the jurisdiction of federal district courts. Building off its 2016 case, Spokeo v. Robins, the Court declared that intangible harms are only concrete when “plaintiffs have identified a close historical or common-law analog[] for their asserted injury.” The “common-law analog[]” required a “close relationship to harms traditionally recognized as providing a basis for lawsuits in American courts.” The Court mandated this requirement …

New Approaches And Challenges Regarding Trade, Climate Action, And The Wto, Sunayana Sasmal

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

This report considers how the WTO, as an institution and its rules, can and should be a game-changer in undertaking climate action and the green energy transition globally. By leveraging its toolkit, the WTO has the potential to drive climate action, from regulating border carbon adjustments to promoting trade in green products, green electricity, and dissemination of climate technologies. However, unlocking this potential requires legal reforms, a proactive institutional role, and strong political will from WTO members.

Toxic Narratives, Toxic Communities, And Enforcement Of Environmental (In)Justice, Alyse Bertenthal

Washington Law Review

The United States has committed to enforce environmental justice in ways it never has before. A spate of new policies aims to increase resources for environmental agencies’ enforcement sections, improve training for environmental enforcement staff, and ensure community engagement in environmental enforcement decision-making. Yet there exists mounting evidence that enforcement of environmental laws happens less frequently and less vigorously in low-income and minoritized communities.

We need to understand why that is happening. Many commentators, opining from a distance, point to insufficient resources for environmental enforcement and legal and political constraints on environmental agencies. While not discounting these reasons, this Article …

The Legality Of Revenue Disbursement From An Economic Measure Agreed At The International Maritime Organization For Purposes Other Than The Decarbonisation Of International Shipping, Blánaid Sheeran

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This analysis fills a gap in the existing legal literature on the adoption of a greenhouse gas (GHG) pricing mechanism at the International Maritime Organization (IMO or Organization). First, it investigates whether the adoption of a GHG pricing mechanism which includes the potential use of funds for purposes aside from the decarbonisation of international shipping is within the general competence of the IMO. Providing an affirmative interpretation, it then considers the adoption of such a measure as an amendment to Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). The analysis concludes that a broad …

Water, Rosario Sanchez, Gabriel E. Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

As the new US administration begins its term in January 2025, its ability to address complex, interconnected challenges will shape the future of US-Mexico relations. From economic cooperation and migration to shared security concerns, the new president’s leadership will be pivotal in navigating these critical issues and strengthening bilateral ties between Mexico and the United States. Effective collaboration will be vital to building a more prosperous and stable North America.

To support this effort, the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute has prepared a comprehensive booklet as a practical roadmap for the incoming administration. This publication offers actionable recommendations across six priority …

Protecting Cultural Property From Climate Destruction: A Case Study Of Greece, Audrey Nadler

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Climate change poses an escalating threat to Greece’s cultural heritage, with ancient sites such as the Acropolis of Athens and the Palace of Knossos at risk from rising sea levels, wildfires, and pollution. Greece’s legal system includes protections for cultural property and aligns with international treaties, yet lacks sufficient integration between cultural heritage laws and environmental safeguards, leaving vital sites vulnerable. This Note contends that Greece must reinforce domestic law to bridge this gap and protect cultural assets from climate-induced harm. Addressing this deficiency through legal reforms and economic incentives could prevent irreversible damage to Greece’s cultural identity and fulfill …

Human Rights Due Diligence At The Intersection Of Corporate Compliance And Corporate Purpose, Stephen Kim Park

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The concept of human rights due diligence (“HRDD”) is one part of a broad and diverse range of approaches to address the responsibilities of business to society. Through laws requiring that companies identify and address their adverse impacts on workers, communities, and the environment, HRDD expands the role of corporate compliance in making companies accountable for the welfare of stakeholders. This Article addresses the implications of HRDD laws on how corporations operationalize corporate purpose and examines the barriers posed by corporate compliance practices to meaningfully—rather than cosmetically—enhance responsible business conduct.

Driving Corporate Environmental Responsibility With Tax Incentives And Carbon Taxation, Riya Dhall

Journal of Law and Policy

In response to the worsening global climate crisis, this Note examines the potential role of tax policy in encouraging corporate environmental responsibility. Focusing on tax incentives and a proposed federal carbon tax, it explores how strategic tax measures could drive corporations to mitigate their environmental impact. Through an analysis of economic and regulatory measures, such as cap-and-trade and excise taxes, alongside recent legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, this Note assesses the potential of tax credits and carbon taxes to reduce corporate emissions. It further discusses the emergence of benefit corporations, specifically B Corp certified companies, such as Patagonia and …

Predicting (And Protecting) The Future Of Environmental Law After Loper Bright, Sanne H. Knudsen

Articles

Nostradamus, the sixteenth-century French philosopher and seer, is said to have predicted many things: the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, the Great Fire of London, the rise of Adolf Hitler, the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Of course, there are skeptics. The predictions, after all, tended to be “cryptic and vague.”

Still, if alive today, I wonder what quatrain Nostradamus might write—and what elusive meaning his fans might try to decode—about the future of environmental law in the United States. Would he predict that environmental law will be ravaged by the binary politics of the moment, reduced …