Environmental Law Commons^™

Comparative Environmental Jurisprudence: A Multi-Country Analysis Of Rights Of Nature Applications, Lillian C. Johns

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

This thesis examines three distinct cases, Ecuador, the United States, and India, in their conceptualization and implementation of the Rights of Nature and environmental jurisprudence. Although the Rights of Nature have gained global traction as a response to accelerating ecological degradation and as a potential legal mechanism for addressing it, issues with implementation and enforcement consistently arise. The outcomes in each case are largely shaped by institutional design, political context, and legal cultures. Ecuador’s constitutional recognition of the Rights of Nature, the United States multilevel recognition, and India’s judicial assertions of ecological personhood represents divergent pathways for articulating environmental rights. …

One Man's Trash: Spent Fuel Recycling As A Path Forward For The U.S. Nuclear Energy Industry, Wilson Barlow

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The U.S. nuclear energy industry currently operates using an open fuel cycle in which uranium is mined for fuel, used in reactors once, and then disposed of. The alternative is a closed fuel cycle where spent nuclear fuel from reactors is reprocessed and reused. As the modern-day nuclear industry seeks to expand, the shortcomings of the closed fuel cycle are becoming apparent and may stifle further growth. This Note explores a series of historical events and policy choices dating back to the early days of the country’s nuclear industry to explain why the United States currently has an open fuel …

Paying For Climate Resilience: A Tax Incentive For Climate Adaptation In New Jersey, Kaeli Brennan

Fordham Environmental Law Review

Climate change poses a significant threat to the health and safety of New Jersey’s coastal communities. Scientists predict rising sea levels and intensifying storms will bring increased flooding, erosion, and other climate-driven coastal hazards. In January 2026, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (“NJDEP”) adopted the Resilient Environments and Landscapes (“REAL”) rule amendments. While the REAL rules made New Jersey the first state to adopt forward-looking climate-adaptation land-use regulations, New Jersey’s economic and environmental interests conflict. The REAL rules lack sufficient funding to support compliance without deterring development. Further, the high costs associated with sustainable development risk that developers …

Paint The Line Green: Evaluating Consumer Protection And The Reasonable Person Standard In Environmental Greenwashing Claims, Carmen L. Florez

Fordham Environmental Law Review

As more consumers become informed about climate change and their own environmental impact, more businesses begin to market their products as “green,” “eco-friendly,” or “sustainable.” However, not all products marketed as environmentally friendly1 actually are; greenwashing, the deceptive marketing practices that misrepresent or exaggerate a product’s or service’s environmental benefits, is on the rise. Imagine a consumer chooses to buy a new outfit from their favorite brand’s “sustainable” line. They forego other options because they believe their choice will support the brand’s apparent efforts to conserve water and reduce their carbon footprint. Then, the consumer later finds out that the …

Maroonage: A Framework For Environmental Justice And Racial Freedom, Ryan Whyte

Fordham Environmental Law Review

Environmental hazards cause significant harm across society, with certain communities bearing the brunt of these burdens. In response, environmental advocates formed the environmental justice movement to promote equal environmental treatment for all. Closely related to this concept of environmental justice is environmental racism, which focuses on how people of color are disproportionately affected by environmental risks. While efforts to address environmental justice and racism have led to some successes, they have not fully addressed the persistent challenges affecting communities of color.

This Note seeks to apply a maroonage framework to address environmental racism and achieve environmental and racial justice for …

The Supreme Court And Climate Law: A Qualitative Analysis, Tanner Blackington

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper seeks to explore the Supreme Court’s understanding of climate justice and its evolution over time. I begin with an explanation of the context on climate law, climate change, and the Supreme Court as an institution. I situate the study in the literature on judicial restraint, institutional barriers, and the powers of the Supreme Court as focal points. Then, drawing on a sample of 20 Supreme Court opinions issued between 2007 and 2025, I offer an empirical analysis which reveals the Supreme Court’s feelings of confinement within the boundaries of federalism and balancing power with the Legislative and Executive …

The Legacy Of Lead: Lead Exposure's Harmful Effects And Its Concentration In Poc Communities, Layla Sophronia Barber

Student Theses 2015-Present

This thesis examines the disproportionate burden of lead exposure carried by low income, POC communities. The systemic nature of this problem is a symptom of a longstanding legacy of environmental injustice in the United States. Decades of federal neglect are reflected in the higher statistics of lead exposure and poisoning in predominantly black communities. While it is understood that lead exposure poses a serious threat to physical health and early cognitive development, there is a discouraging lack of urgency to remove the toxin from non-wealthy communities. The material covered by this thesis aims to identify and correct the discriminatory social …

Environmental Law, Travis M. Trimble

Mercer Law Review

In 2025, in a Clean Water Act (“CWA”) citizen-suit challenge to a landowner’s filling of a tract of land on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, under a nationwide dredge-and-fill permit issued by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that the landowner did not waive its right to challenge whether the tract was a wetland by virtue of submitting a form to the Corps in connection with its obtaining coverage under the permit that stated that the landowner accepted that the tract at issue was a jurisdictional water …

Clihhr Leads Push For Regulatory Scrutiny Of Amazon Mining Project, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

The Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR), in collaboration with the University of Toronto's International Human Rights Program, filed requests with U.S. and Canadian securities regulators seeking investigations into alleged misrepresentations related to Brazil Potash's proposed mining project in the Brazilian Amazon. The initiative highlights concerns regarding Indigenous rights, environmental impacts, and investor disclosure.

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism., Cynthia A. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The purpose of this Article is to bring some of the emerging empirical literature evaluating the effects of required greenhouse gas (GHG) disclosure to bear on discussions of disclosure as a mechanism to address climate change. Since disclosure has become such a significant part of global efforts to address climate change, whether it has the effects in fact that are attributed to it in theory is properly subject to interrogation.   In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence show about the effects of required (GHG) disclosures on emissions? What mechanisms are engaged in …

Climate Lies And Unjust Profits, Vanessa Casado-Pérez, Yotam Kaplan, Yael Lifshitz, Niv Meyerson

Faculty Scholarship

The climate crisis has reached a perilous tipping point. Our entrenched reliance on fossil fuels remains unchecked, as fossil fuel corporations wield their power to block meaningful reform and entrench their profits. The political horizon offers little relief—an incoming administration is poised to dismantle vital environmental protections, stripping away the few safeguards that stand between us and climate catastrophe.

In this grim landscape, communities across the nation are turning to the courts with renewed urgency, seeking justice and reform through climate litigation. Yet past efforts have fallen short, stymied by two formidable barriers. First, by centering on greenhouse gas emissions …

Arbitrating Energy: The Impact Of Arbitration On The Energy Transition, Somtochukwu Attamah, Lara B. Fowler

Arbitration Law Review (2009 - Present)

Even prior to recent events in the Middle East, the global energy sector has been undergoing a significant transformation as states pursue regulatory reforms aimed at addressing climate change, environmental protection, and energy system restructuring. These developments have contributed to an increase in disputes arising from energy-related investments, particularly where regulatory measures affect existing investment expectations. This paper examines the role of arbitration in the context of global energy transitions by tracking publicly available arbitration cases through 2022 and analyzing selected energy disputes linked to regulatory change. It explores how arbitration operates not only as a mechanism for resolving …

Poor Esg: Regressive Effects Of Climate Stewardship, Zohar Goshen, Assaf Hamdani, Alex Raskolnikov

Faculty Scholarship

The rise of inequality and global warming are the two ultimate challenges of our time. After decades of congressional failure to address climate change, the private sector has stepped in and adopted a set of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies as a market-based solution to a public policy failure. ESG advocates hope that corporate executives would save our planet. Where Congress failed, ESG will succeed.

This Article argues that if ESG-driven climate stewardship ever achieves the scale necessary to have a real impact on global warming, it will hurt the poor. Legislative interventions to combat climate change are nearly …

Trawling For Clues: Examining Nefmc Herring Amendment 8, Christopher Santoro

Honors Scholar Theses

In 2007, almost twenty years ago, the Magnuson-Stevens Act changed the landscape of fisheries management in the US. Through the establishment of Fisheries Management Councils (FMCs), it paved the way for top-down management approaches that helped the government combat nationwide declines or collapses in fish stocks. Among the myriad responsibilities of the FMCs was the expectation that amendments to existing fisheries management plans would be a necessity to adapt to modern circumstances. This thesis focuses on New England Fisheries Management Council's (NEFMC's) Herring Amendment 8 (A8). This amendment, passed in 2021, attempts to lay the groundwork for sustainable management of …

The Green Amendment As A Substantive Canon, Blake Zimmerman

Cardozo Law Review

State-level environmental rights amendments, commonly referred to as “Green Amendments,” embody inspired ideals of the environmental conditions owed to all. Their aspirational language—promising a clean and healthful environment for present and future generations—intuits bold action. Nonetheless, when leveraged as a standalone cause of action, the Green Amendment’s ability to exact substantive outcomes has proven less inspired, and jurisprudence in the three Green Amendment states—New York, Pennsylvania, and Montana—reveals several shortcomings. These include that the Green Amendment has been interpreted as providing only procedural rights, the Green Amendment generally does not reach private parties, the Green Amendment’s broad language begets circumspect …

From Tech To Table: Moving Sustainable Proteins Beyond Marketplace Bottlenecks, Andy Fitch, Cynthia Hanawalt

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Climate advocates may hope to see dramatic commercial breakthroughs over the next several decades that reshape emissions-intensive components of our everyday lives, such as our dietary choices, household energy use, and transportation habits. Yet transforming these consumer sectors will require not only scientific ingenuity and entrepreneurial ambition, but also nimble competition policy to address complex market dynamics.

Sustainable food production likely necessitates substantial departure from traditional livestock-management practices. Agricultural production currently generates about one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions (“GHGs”). Animal livestock account for the largest share, while occupying roughly 40% of the Earth’s habitable land, much of which could …

Environmental Movements In El Paso And Ciudad Juarez: Possibilities And Limitations Of Cross-Border Organization At The U.S.-Mexico Border, Vanessa Maria Almada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

At the U.S.-Mexico border, the anthropogenic and nationalistic construction of the landscape has accelerated urbanization and unequal development without establishing effective binational institutions for governance over a shared commons. Borderlanders, then, contest unsustainable development with the added complexity of navigating a barrier which creates diverse socioeconomic and political realities that challenge cross-border cooperation. This qualitative research analyzes environmental organizations in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. Through ethnographic study of mobilization in response to environmental legislation and administrative action in each city, the immediate barriers to cross-border cooperation and limitations of nationalistic institutions in the borderlands can be better understood.

The Legal Framework For Direct Ocean Carbon Capture And Storage (Volume 2: The United States), Korey Silverman-Roati, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper, the second in a series of two, focuses on the U.S. legal framework for the marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) approach of direct ocean carbon capture and storage (DOCCS). The first explores DOCCS governance under international law and is available here: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sabin_climate_change/271/.

DOCCS aims to remove some of the carbon currently stored in the ocean and thereby enable it to uptake additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. DOCCS is still undergoing research, but early studies suggest it could have significant carbon dioxide removal potential. However, DOCCS could also present environmental and other risks, including from the construction …

Groundwater Laws And Regulations: Survey Of Twenty-One U.S. States, Rebekah Acosta-Hueston, Abigail Adkins, Khadija Alibhai, Olivia Alland, Matthew C. Allen, Dan Archibald, Jeffrey Berk, John Broussard, Justin Cias, Bradford Eckhart, Blakely Fahning, Jackson Field, Michael Flores, Ellen Earl Gillis, Emma Golightly, Merrick Hayashi, David Hernandez, Kate Keithley, Matthew Maslanka, Erin Milliken, Lucas Mylet, Abigail Nichols, James O’Donnell, James Osteen, Connor Pabich, Cheryl Patterson, Rhyan Phillips, Sarah Rathmell, Margaret Reed, Laura Smith, Kelsi Sorrells, Brooke Thoendel, Ani Tookoian, Sandhya Wagle, Margaret Ward, Mackenzie Watson, Carolyn Wheeler, Ashley Wilde

EENRS Program Reports & Publications

This report constitutes the third and final volume in an ongoing project designed to explore and articulate the groundwater quantity laws and regulations of all fifty U.S. states that could then be used for comparative research. This particular report presents surveys for twenty-one states from across the country. The first volume featured thirteen state surveys while the second volume contained sixteen additional state surveys. Both can be found on the project website at: https://www.law.tamu.edu/US-Groundwater-Laws.

Professor Gabriel Eckstein at Texas A&M University School of Law and Professor Amy Hardberger at Texas Tech University School of Law developed an analytical rubric …

Factors Behind Choosing Carbon Tax Vs Carbon Trading To Curb Environmental Impact: The Asean Case, Mohamed Redza Mohamed Zakaria, Albertus Prabu Siagian

Indonesian Journal of Environmental Law

Carbon accumulation in the atmosphere is a major environmental impact of today's economy. To make carbon emissions costlier, ASEAN country members have different preferences. Some choose not to price the carbon yet, some choose carbon taxation first (regardless carbon trading follows later or not), and some choose carbon trading first (regardless carbon taxation follows later or not).

This paper aims to assess whether these differences are shaped by the difference in the population size and the economic level of their respective countries. This paper hypothesizes that ASEAN country members with lower income per capita tend to not price the carbon …

The Legal Framework Of Carbon Trading In The Perspective Of Climate Law: A Comparative Study Of Global Warming Mitigation Strategies Between Indonesia And Brazil, Istikhomah Istikhomah, Laella Millinia

Indonesian Journal of Environmental Law

This study examines the legal framework of carbon trading, focusing on a comparative analysis of global warming mitigation strategies in Indonesia and Brazil. Using a normative juridical method, this research analyzes legal instruments, policies, and international commitments that shape carbon trading mechanisms in both countries. The primary issue explored is the effectiveness of regulatory frameworks in facilitating carbon trading to mitigate climate change while ensuring environmental sustainability and economic growth. Both Indonesia and Brazil have established carbon trading regulations in line with their commitments under the Paris Agreement. However, their implementation strategies differ significantly. Indonesia employs a regulatory based approach …

Climate Change, Flood Management And Internal Displacement In Malaysia: Whose Responsibility?, Sheila Ramalingam Dr

Indonesian Journal of Environmental Law

Malaysia has not escaped the effects of climate change, with the country facing increasingly high precipitation resulting in massive floods occurring almost annually. The floods wreak havoc in terms of destruction of lives and property. Overlooked in this tragedy are those who are internally displaced through the loss of homes, property, livelihood and way of life. Using a qualitative research method, this article seeks to explore the legal rights of Malaysians who are internally displaced due to extreme weather, with a particular focus on floods. In doing so, flood management measures implemented in England and Japan will also be …

Global South Sacrifices: Climate Law Implications On Ambitious Nickel Extractions In Indonesia, Sarah Yessie Hana Monica, Nadine Fakhira Putri Ravanti

Indonesian Journal of Environmental Law

Excessive demands for nickel have prompted massive mining extractions. The global north fascination towards the luscious natural resources owned by the global south has prompted visible environmental degradations. As one of the major global south exporters, Indonesia is bearing the ecological challenges. A smelting furnace in Sulawesi explodes, killing 21 people and injuring 38 others whilst the disposal of heavy metals pollutes the rivers. The 1945 Constitution intended national resources to build the economy with sustainability aspect must also be borne in mind, which was made adamant in the national commitment on Law Number 32 of 2009. This article analyzes …

Climate Change And The Reconfiguration Of Arctic Access, Charles H. Norchi, Amanda H. Lynch

Faculty Publications

The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on Earth, with surface air temperatures increasing at a rate nearly four times the global average.1 This amplification of global change has been reshaping the Arctic for decades, altering sea ice extent and thickness, snow regimes, permafrost stability, and hydrological systems. Against this backdrop, a persistent narrative has taken hold that the diminishing cryosphere2 is setting the table for opportunity: opening the Arctic to navigation, development, and exploitation. But this thaw renders the Arctic neither benign nor uniformly accessible. The region remains frozen for most of the year, dark for months …

“Downstream People:” Lessons From The Tar Creek Superfund Site And Quapaw Nation In Pursuit Of An Environmental Justice-Informed Cercla Regime, Leah Fitter

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In 1983, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) designated Tar Creek, a former productive zinc and lead mining zone located in northeastern Oklahoma on land predominantly owned by the Indigenous Quapaw people, as a Superfund site. Its designation came in the wake of findings in 1980 that drainage and tailings from the site’s mining days had polluted the zone’s surface water into some of the most toxic water in the country. Tar Creek was an environmental justice disaster that disproportionately exposed the historically marginalized Quapaw Nation to hazardous mining waste and resulted in detrimental health impacts. Despite numerous demonstrations …

The Retreat Of Federal Power And The Rise Of Post-Supremacy Federalism, Victoria Grace Litman

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article introduces the theory of post-supremacy federalism to describe a structural condition in which federal law remains formally binding, but enforcement has durably receded or collapsed. Unlike frameworks grounded in intergovernmental friction or negotiated cooperation, this account begins from federal retreat—the cumulative erosion of enforcement capacity across judicial, administrative, legislative, and executive institutions. Post-supremacy federalism arises when three conditions are met: (1) federal law remains intact; (2) enforcement retreats; and (3) no formal devolution occurs. In this vacuum, states are not merely filling gaps. They are governing by default—under laws that still bind but no longer structure governance in …

Revolutionizing Corporate Accountability: The La Oroya Case And The Right To A Healthy Environment In The Inter-American System, Teresa Jacques Valenzuela

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

La Oroya v. Perú marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of Business and Human Rights and the Right to a Healthy Environment (R2HE) under the Inter-American legal framework. This paper examines the groundbreaking judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which established new standards for state responsibility in regulating and supervising corporate activities to prevent environmental harm. By integrating principles of environmental law with human rights obligations, the case highlights the transformative potential of judicial action in addressing corporate accountability. While the judgment sets a precedent for advancing corporate responsibility, it exposes enduring challenges, including jurisdictional limitations, corporate …

The Right Of Nature: Lessons From Panama For Mangrove Protection In Miami, Jayson Fry

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Mangrove ecosystems are indispensable to climate resilience, yet traditional environmental governance has repeatedly failed to prevent their decline. This Note employs a comparative framework to examine Panama and Miami, two rapidly developing coastal regions facing parallel pressures of urbanization and sea-level rise, to demonstrate that mangrove loss persists not because law is absent, but because existing frameworks structurally authorize regulated degradation. Panama’s 2022 Rights of Nature Law, which grants ecosystems legal personhood and enforceable rights, represents a departure from anthropocentric environmental regulation. Its early judicial application in the Cobré Panamá mine case shows how rights-based protections can override extractive economic …

Alaska Dep’T Of Fish And Game V. Federal Subsistence Bd., Mj Fiedler

Public Land & Resources Law Review

A subsistence hunt in Kake, Alaska, during the COVID-19

pandemic sparked a lawsuit from the State of Alaska Department of Fish

and Game challenging the authority of the Federal Subsistence Board to

open the hunt. This lawsuit is a recent addition to a long history of the

State of Alaska’s resistance to federal enforcement of the Alaska National

Interest Lands Conservation Act provision establishing priority for rural

subsistence users. The Ninth Circuit ultimately affirmed the Federal

Subsistence Board’s authority to open the subsistence hunt.

"The Silence Of The Farms": Suppressing Speech And Trampling Transparency To Shield Big Ag, Erin Okuno

Texas A&M Law Review

Do you really know where your last meal came from and whether it was safe to eat? Most people are not aware of the often appalling conditions at agricultural production facilities (aptly known as “factory farms”), including worker injuries and abuse, contaminated food, and environmental pollution, as well as the horrific ways in which the animals are kept, raised, and slaughtered. In the face of these concerning conditions and alarmingly frequent food recalls—including millions of pounds of contaminated meat—it would seem prudent to increase transparency at factory farms, but historically, they have operated behind a shield of secrecy due to …