Environmental Law Commons^™

The Disparate Impact Of The California Wildfires On Minority Communities: Exposing Environmental Injustice & Zoning Flaws, Jasmyn Hardin

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Green Rules, Fragmented Fields: Member-State Approaches To Sustainability In Eu Competition Law, Niccolò Galli, Armando Santoni

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

This article provides a comparative, normative-evaluative examination of how sustainability is being incorporated into European competition law. Combining doctrinal legal analysis with economic reasoning, it clarifies competing definitions of sustainability, maps the contest between the consumer-welfare paradigm and sustainability proponents, and evaluates the legal and institutional implications of the Commission’s 2023 Horizontal Cooperation Guidelines. Drawing on national initiatives across Member States plus the UK, the study highlights contrasting instruments, from Austria’s statutory environmental exemption to the Dutch soft-law safe harbour and Greece’s experimental sustainability sandbox, and shows how these divergent approaches produce fragmentation and legal uncertainty for cross-border cooperative initiatives. …

Habitat Destruction: The Where Of Biodiversity Law, Andrew W. Torrance Ph.D., Bill Tomlinson Ph.D.

Akron Law Review

The existence of appropriate habitats is essential to the continued existence of all species with which humans share the Earth. However, humans are currently enacting changes around the globe--anthropogenic environmental disruption--that threaten the habitats of many species. In this article, we first summarize existing habitat-related law in various countries, including legal designation of areas for protection (e.g., national parks), laws that enable conservation organizations to purchase but not utilize development rights, and international treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity or the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. We then propose a suite of novel approaches …

Peeking Around The Corner (Post): An Analysis Of The Impacts Of Corner Post V. Federal Reserve On Environmental Regulations, Olivia Montgomery

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Jurisdiction In The Congress And The Executive, Edmund S. Muskie

Maine Law Review

Extraterrestrial exploration and a historic lunar success have helped give modern man a unique perspective on the earth and his natural environment. We have looked on our planet from the reaches of outer space and have seen how small, how alone, and how vulnerable we are. We have travelled to the moon and photographed Mars, but we have finally realized that no matter how far or how fast we grow, no matter how far afield our explorations take us, and no matter how great our vision, we must always return to earth. This is a discomfiting realization for a civilization …

Ransoming The Maine Environment, G. Graham Waite

Maine Law Review

The call for natural resource conservation is widely heard today. Purity of air and water are goals that most persons seem to endorse, at least in the abstract. The dollar costs of governmental programs for achieving relatively clean air and water doubtless are high, making questions of who bears them important. Some recent decisions of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court suggest that in Maine the major costs will be paid by taxpayers at large rather than by individual resource users.

Ransoming The Maine Environment, G. Graham Waite

Maine Law Review

The call for natural resource conservation is widely heard today. Purity of air and water are goals that most persons seem to endorse, at least in the abstract. The dollar costs of governmental programs for achieving relatively clean air and water doubtless are high, making questions of who bears them important. Some recent decisions of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court suggest that in Maine the major costs will be paid by taxpayers at large rather than by individual resource users.

Legacy Liabilities For Oil And Gas Wells Under The Mineral Leasing Act, Martin Lockman, Ashwin Murthy, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

The federal government is the largest landowner in the United States. The bulk of federal land is controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”), an agency within the Department of the Interior (“DOI”) that manages more than 245 million acres or approximately 10% of the land in the United States. Below the ground, BLM’s authority reaches even further. In total, BLM controls around 700 million acres of minerals — 30% of the onshore mineral resources in the United States, spanning an area larger than Argentina. The enormous scale of oil and gas production on federal land has created a …

Zero Waste Initiatives Across Three Institutions: Local Government, An Academic Institution, And A Retail Business, Soren G. Gray

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Science-Based Policy Recommendations For Managing Emerging Pollutants: Protecting Water Quality For The Health Of People And The Environment, Sarantuyaa Zandaryaa, Ali Fares, Gabriel Eckstein, Regina M. Buono, Mary Trudeau, James E. Nickum, Xingui Xia, Atikur Rahman, Marijn Korndewal, Cassiana C. Montagner, Piero R. Gardinali, Robert Michael Di Filippo, Anoop Veettil

Faculty Scholarship

Emerging water pollutants are a growing global concern due to their ubiquitous presence in water resources worldwide and their potential adverse effects on human health and ecosystems. Limited scientific understanding of sources of emerging pollutants’ emissions to water bodies and their pathways, behaviour, and fate in aquatic environments, as well as human health and ecological effects, is a significant hindrance in managing emerging water pollutants. With exceptions concerning PFAS/PFOS and microplastic beads, there are few regulations for emerging pollutants in national water and environmental policies, which results in a critical gap in safeguarding human health and aquatic ecosystems through effective …

Clean Data: Recursion As Pollution In Environmental Ai, Joshua Fairfield

Scholarly Articles

If “data is the new oil,” then corruption in the data used to train artificial intelligence (AI) constitutes a new form of pollution. Environmental AI has traditionally been discussed in terms of its indirect effects on the environment—the irony of burning power, processor cycles, and heat to produce solutions to stop and heal environmental damage. But there is a deeper problem. When environmental AI suggests interventions, its outputs are written onto the landscape. If that landscape is then read as data to retrain AI, there is a risk of model collapse and catastrophic forgetting, as the snake devours its own …

Rising Tides And Shifting Sands: Inadequacies In American Climate Responses And An Urgent Call For A Federal Climate Adaptation Policy, Armand J. Avila

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Climate change is an increasingly prevalent issue in policy discussions across the United States. Its effects can be observed and measured across ecosystems, industries, and legal jurisdictions, and it is felt in the homes of the people who live and work at the forefront of its impacts. Yet, the federal government’s current policies incentivize states, localities, and private citizens to make poor climate decisions and to put themselves at risk, leading to population growth and property development in some of the most at-risk areas of the country. At the same time, the federal government operates on an outdated disaster response …

Blood Cobalt: Unmasking And Charging Corporations For Involvement In International Law Violations In The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Bolu Jegede

American University International Law Review

Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE) is a legal doctrine developed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to hold participants in a criminal enterprise equally liable for all results of the group’s criminal actions, even if the individuals were not directly involved in committing the crimes. While traditionally used to prosecute individual criminal actions, JCE provides a legal pathway to hold corporations criminally liable for their actions that further international law violations. Although corporations currently do not have specific, listed responsibilities under international law, they are required to respect human rights and ensure their activities do not perpetrate …

“There Is No Fashion On A Dead Planet:”1 How A Mandatory Reporting Directive Shared By The Us And The Eu And Centered On Transparency Could Be The First Step To Increased Sustainability In The Fashion Industry, Adrienne Redman

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The fashion industry hangs on self-expression and individualism, yet our methods of consumption and their resulting environmental impacts are far from an individualistic concern. This paper examines the global fashion industry’s substantial contribution to pollution, resource-depletion, and waste as evidence that the self-regulation model is insufficient to curb the environmental footprint of the industry. Self-regulation presumes that consumer awareness and the desire to purchase sustainably will be enough to limit the industry’s environmental impact. However, this presumption is undermined by a lack of standardized and enforceable regulations necessary for consumer-decision making. Instead, greenwashing and deceptive environmental claims have pervaded the …

Jbs’S Initial Public Offering: Threats To Environmental And Human Rights, Kayla Thompson

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

This paper centers around the decision to be made regarding JBS, the world’s largest meat company, wanting to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the environmental and social impacts that could result from the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval. JBS has been at the center of various controversies over the last several years, including sourcing cattle from ranches acquired through illegal deforestation, engaging in greenwashing practices, incorrectly reporting greenhouse gas emissions, and engaging in human rights abuses. Many environmental groups have filed complaints with the SEC concerning JBS’s bid to list on the NYSE. The …

Environmental Law—Relatively Impermanent Waters: The Need For State Regulation Of Isolated Wetlands In Arkansas After Sackett V. Environmental Protection Agency, Caroline E. O'Connor

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Living The Good Life In The Anthropocene, Danielle Stokes

Law Faculty Publications

The Stockholm Resilience Centre has concluded that the number of “planetary boundaries” we are crossing has increased from three in 2009, when the Centre’s researchers first introduced the concept, to six in 2023. Crossing these boundaries means humans are changing basic attributes of planetary systems to the point of risking the future of civilization. And the distinction between “safe” and “just” planetary boundaries raises questions regarding how to conceptualize the “good life.” In this latest in a biannual series of essays, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative explore conceptions of the “good” as well as the various elements necessary to …

General Discretion Under Maine's Site Location Of Development Law, Tybe Ann Brett

Maine Law Review

The 1960s brought nationwide concern about the environmental impact of post-World War II development and industrial growth. Efforts to protect the environment took many different forms. Part of Maine's response to the growing need for environmental improvement measures was the Legislature's enactment in 1970 of the Site Location of Development Law (Site Law). The Site Law gives the state control over the location of developments that would substantially affect the environment, rather than leaving such decisions to single towns and individual developers. The Law also addresses concerns beyond those dealt with in air and water pollution control legislation. The Site …

The Fiduciary Duty Of Combatting Global Climate Change, Sadie Mapstone

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Ancient Roman Law codified the concept that there are certain resources that are so great and so important to human survival, that intuitively, no person should own them. Further, the government must protect these resources for the people. Today, this concept is known at the public trust doctrine. According to the contemporary doctrine, the seas, oceans, shores, and submerged lands cannot be privately owned, but shall be held in trust by the government for public use. Relying on the public trust doctrine, climate change litigants have brought a tirade of lawsuits—which have largely been unsuccessful—alleging that the government has a …

Changemaker: Samuel Filiaggi: Juris Doctorate: The Powerful Combination Of Representation And Advocacy 10-7-2024, Danna Lorch, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Law School News: The Powerful Combination Of Representation And Advocacy 10-7-2024, Danna Lorch

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Enforcing Legacy Environmental Liabilities For Offshore Oil And Gas Infrastructure, Martin Lockman, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

For more than a century, American fossil fuel companies have extended their operations offshore to exploit the vast oil and gas reserves that lie under the seafloor. Since 1953, the Department of the Interior (DOI) has operated a complex system of offshore leasing that allows private oil and gas companies to operate in federal waters. DOI’s leasing regime requires companies to plug wells, remove offshore platforms, and generally return their operation sites to a safe and stable condition when their leases end. This process, known as “decommissioning,” can cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for each offshore platform. …

Criminalizing Ecocide, Rebecca Hamilton

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Amid widespread acknowledgment that we live on a planet in peril, the term “ecocide” packs a powerful rhetorical punch. Extant regulatory approaches to environmental protection feel insufficient in the face of the triple threat of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. International criminal prosecution for ecocide, by contrast, promises to meet the moment, and a recent proposal to introduce ecocide into the canon of core international crimes is gaining traction. Assuming the push to criminalize ecocide continues to gain momentum, this Article argues that the primary (and perhaps, sole) benefit that international criminal law can offer in this context is …

Participation In Paradise?: Indigenous Participation And Environmental Decisionmaking In HawaiʻI, Lindsay Peterson

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cleaning Up Space Junk: Applying The Models Of U.S. Domestic Environmental Law To Regulate The Creation Of Orbital Debris By Private Actors, Sara Henry

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The commercial space flight industry has grown rapidly in recent decades, and Congress has implemented a “learning period” to prevent heavy regulations on the industry. This learning period has led to the proliferation of orbital debris in space. The learning period is set to lapse in 2024, and now is the proper time to implement regulations to mitigate the creation of more debris. These regulations should be modeled after federal environmental law, including simplifying the current permit system and setting up a trust fund to finance research into active debris removal.

Remediation For Pfas Contamination: The Role Of Cercla Enforcement In Environmental Justice, Amanda F. Watson

Georgia Law Review

PFAS are a family of manufactured chemicals that are highly persistent in the environment. Most people in the U.S. have been exposed to PFAS, but different groups of people may have higher exposure due to their environments. In recent years, peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown that PFAS are linked to numerous adverse human health effects. As a result, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken a variety of actions to address PFAS, including proposing to designate PFOS and PFOA, two chemicals in the PFAS family, as hazardous substances under CERCLA, or Superfund. CERCLA is the primary legal mechanism in …

Are The Mdbs Accountable? Reflecting On The Independent Accountability Mechanisms Of The Multilateral Development Banks, Susan Park

Perspectives

The International Accountability Mechanisms of the Multilateral Development Banks provide important insights into how to hold intergovernmental organizations to account for their environmental and social impacts. This perspective identifies how the IAMs hold the Banks to account according to the six standard questions of accountability: who is accountable, to whom, for what are they accountable, and what are the standards, processes, and sanctions employed to demonstrate that the MDBs are accountable. This highlights what the IAMs can and cannot hold the MDBs to account for, and how this might shape further international grievance mechanisms for people seeking to defend their …

Charting Extraterritoriality: Jurisdiction, Corporate Conduct, And Environmental Harm, Kalika Mehta

National Law School of India Review

Chimni’s TWAIL critique of the principle of jurisdiction, the subject of this symposium, implicates its development with the evolution of capitalism. Against this backdrop, this paper uniquely focuses on international criminal law and the selective application of principle of extraterritorial jurisdiction, particularly its exclusion of corporate entities from prosecution for large-scale violence. Through an analysis that engages with Chimni’s critique, the paper illustrates how these extraterritorial prosecutions align with the mainstream liberal theory of jurisdiction, while also exposing gaps in corporate accountability. Further, the paper contributes to ongoing legal reform debates by exploring the proposed international crime of ecocide, a …

Satellites Crash, Laws Clash: A Legal Framework For The Imminent Space Debris Catastrophe, Michael Conklin

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Enforcing International Human Rights Law Against Corporations, Barnali Choudhury

All Papers

International human rights law is generally thought to apply directly to states, not to corporations since the latter is not a subject of international law. Some domestic courts are, however, enforcing these norms against corporations in domestic settings. Canadian courts have, for instance, recognized that corporations can be liable for breach of customary international law norms while UK courts have enforced international human rights norms indirectly against corporations relying on a combination of domestic corporate and tort law.

At the same time, some states are choosing to enforce international human rights norms against corporations using regulatory initiatives. These initiatives, known …