Environmental Law Commons^™

The Law Of Words: Standing, Environment, And Other Contested Terms, David N. Cassuto

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167 (2000), exposes fundamental incoherencies within environmental standing doctrine, even while it ostensibly makes standing easier to prove for plaintiffs in environmental citizen suits. According to Laidlaw, an environmental plaintiff needs only to show personal injury to satisfy Article III's standing requirement; she need not show that the alleged statutory violation actually harms the environment. This Article argues that Laidlaw's distinction between injury to the plaintiff and harm to the environment is nonsensical. Both the majority and dissent in Laidlaw incorrectly assume that there exists an objective …

From Schweizerhalle To Baia Mare: The Continuing Failure Of International Law To Protect Europe's Rivers, Aaron Schwabach

Law Faculty Scholarship

Beginning on January 31, 2000, at least 100,000 cubic meters of highly polluted water escaped from a tailings dam at the Aurul gold mine in Baia Mare, Romania. The water flowed into the Somes, Tisza, and Danube Rivers, causing enormous environmental damage. Most of the damage occurred in Hungary, downstream from Baia Mare. Hungarian politicians called the spill “the first, most serious environment[al] catastrophe in the 21st century,” and “the worst ecological disaster in central Europe since Chernobyl in 1986.”

More striking than the resemblance to the Chernobyl disaster, though, was the resemblance to another 1986 environmental catastrophe: the Sandoz …

Ecocide And Genocide In Iraq: International Law, The Marsh Arabs, And Environmental Damage In Non-International Conflicts, Aaron Schwabach

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Frictions Of Federalism: The Rise And Fall Of The Federal Common Law Of Interstate Nuisance, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

Prior to the erection in the 1970s of a comprehensive federal regulatory infrastructure to protect the environment, transboundary pollution disputes frequently were adjudicated by the U.S. Supreme Court, exercising its original jurisdiction over disputes between states. In a series of cases commencing at the dawn of the Twentieth Century, the Court served as a national arbiter of interstate pollution disputes. This paper reviews the history of the Supreme Court's use of these cases to develop a federal common law of interstate nuisance.

The paper argues that while federal common law initially performed a zoning function by encouraging polluters to relocate …

Creation, Liberation, And Property: Virtues And Values Toward A Theocentric Earth Ethic, W. Wade Berryhill

Law Faculty Publications

Religion continues to play a significant role in shaping our attitudes toward nature.2 Time-honored principles of stewardship of the land demand that we owe a duty to future generations to allow them to inherit a healthy environment. Essential to this obligation is spiritual faith, not the trendy brand of secular humanism espoused by ecodogmatists seeking environmental justice through means unmoored from centuries-old principles of creation. What secular humanism ignores-and what religious traditions the world over have recognizedis the reality that we are a "creative expression of the earth's own evolution."3 Thus, in light of our duty to posterity, mere emphasis …

The Allocation Of Civil Liability For Damage To The Marine Environment In The New Canadian Law Of Merchant Shipping, Or The Polluter Pays How Much?, Hugh M. Kindred

Dalhousie Law Journal

Infrequent but catastrophic incidents of pollution by ships have attracted worldwide attention to the regulation of the merchant shipping industry for the protection of the marine environment. Under the detailed legal regime that has been established, ships and their owners are held strictly liable for the pollution of the oceans that they cause. Less well known but equally well established are other principles of maritime law that allow shipowners to limit their liability for the expense and damage their polluting ships incur. Canada has recently undertaken a major reform of its shipping laws and, in the process, it has revamped …

Liability For Damage To The Marine Environment From Ships, Michael White

Dalhousie Law Journal

Marine pollution damage from ships is not a major problem in Australian jurisdictions, but there are regular incidents. The Australian law relating to marine pollution from ships closely follows the international conventions. Australia is a party to almost all of the relevant IMO conventions and, as is required for common law countries, the domestic legislation to give effect to them needs to be put in place. This has been done for the most part by the Commonwealth, the states and the Northern Territory as Australia is a federation. The Commonwealth and the states have established adequate enforcement resources for the …

Proliferation And Expansion Of America's Airports At The Expense Of Its Treasured Parks And Preserves: Judicial Perversion Of The Term "Use" In Section 4(F) Of The Department Of Transportation Act, Matthew J. Christian

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

No More Parking Lots: How The Tax Code Keeps Trees Out Of A Tree Museum And Paradise Unpaved, Francine J. Lipman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

What Happened To The Skeptical Environmentalist, David Schoenbrod, Christi Wilson

Articles & Chapters

This essay focuses on the critical reaction to Bjorn Lomborg's book, The Skeptical Environmentalist. After the book was glowingly reviewed in the Washington Post, the Economist, and other influential publications, it was critically reviewed in Scientific American, Nature, and Science and criticized by environmental organizations. The criticism went beyond trying to show him wrong on environmental policy to claim that he should be disqualified as a participant in debates on environmental policy. The basis for the disqualification was that he does not understand the science or was disingenuous in his treatment of it. In analyzing this effort to disqualify him, …

Environmental Law, Lisa Spickler Goodwin

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fishing For Cancer, David Schoenbrod

Other Publications

After protracted deliberations, the Environmental Protection Agency decided to dredge large quantities of sediment from the upper reach of the Hudson River in order to remove a small portion of the PCB's that came from two General Electric factories. They used these chemicals from the 1940s through the mid-1970s. The corporation will be required to pay for the clean up. The agency's administrators appointed by both Presidents Clinton and Bush as well as leading newspapers explained the decision to the public as required to protect the broad public from a significant risk to human health. This explanation is inconsistent with …

Water In Cuba’S System Of Environmental Policies And Laws [Abstract], Fernando Pérez Monteagudo

Allocating and Managing Water for a Sustainable Future: Lessons from Around the World (Summer Conference, June 11-14)

2 pages.

Keynote Address, John Watts

Coalbed Methane Development in the Intermountain West (April 4-5)

5 pages.

Panel: Ethical Dilemmas: Finding Common Ground On Controversial Issues, Lesley Blackner, Richard C. Foltz, Brion Blackwelder, Lisa C. Schiavinato, Alyson C. Flournoy

UF Law Faculty Publications

This panel discussion applied ethics to the theme of the 8th Annual Public Interest Environmental Conference. Panelists examined ways ethics may help reconcile industry (such as business and development) with environmentalism.

From Kyoto To Marrakech; A Long Walk Through The Desert: Mirage Or Oasis?, Meinhard Doelle

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article reviews the results of four years of negotiations of the parties to the UNFCCC,3 from the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 to the Marrakech Accords in 2001. This process was intended to provide the details and operational rules needed for parties to make decisions on whether to ratify and how to implement the Kyoto Protocol in time for the start of the first commitment period in 2008. The author analyzes the Marrakech Accords with respect to the Kyoto Mechanisms, reporting, verification, compliance, and developing country issues, and concludes that the Kyoto Protocol in itself is a negligible step …

Fables Of The Cuyahoga: Reconstructing A History Of Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

On June 22, 1969, just before noon, an oil slick and assorted debris under a railroad trestle on the Cuyahoga River caught fire. The fire attracted national media attention, and helped prompt the passage of federal environmental laws. A river on fire was a symbol of earth in need of repair, and federal regulation was the reparative tool of choice. Much of the Cuyahoga story is mythology, however, a fable with powerful symbolic force. The river did burn in 1969 - as it and other rivers had burned many times before - and today the Cuyahoga and many U.S. rivers …

Information Based Regulation And International Trade In Genetically Modified Agricultural Products: An Evaluation Of The Cartagena Protocol On Biosafety, Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article considers the regulation of international trade in genetically modified agricultural products. Specifically, it addresses both products released into the environment as seeds and products intended for consumption as food. The first part of the Article describes the significance of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in modem agriculture, especially agriculture in the United States. This discussion summarizes the risks and potential benefits associated with the use of agricultural GMOs, especially the risks and benefits related to biodiversity. The Article then briefly describes the approaches to the regulation of these products adopted in the

Cartagena Protocol to the Convention on Biological …

Adjucating Sustainability: New Zealand's Environment Court, Bret C. Birdsong

Scholarly Works

New Zealand's Resource Management Act of 1991 (“RMA”) placed the island nation on the world's cutting edge of environmental management by making sustainability the law of the land. The RMA also presents an opportunity to examine a less heralded New Zealand innovation in environmental governance: a specialized, expert court that is focused exclusively on resolving environmental disputes. The Environment Court is a critical institution in New Zealand's effort to move toward sustainable management of the environment. Exercising broad powers to review most of the fundamental issues arising under the RMA, the Court is the primary arbiter of whether activities and …

The United Nations And Civil Society, Jayantha Dhanapala

A Cartography of Governance: Exploring the Province of Environmental NGOs (April 7-8)

7 pages.

Transactional, Social, And Legal Aspects Of Oil Exploration And Extraction In Colombia, Juan Carlos Palau

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In Colombia, as in many other countries with oil reserves potential, the government has sought to reduce the activity's inherent high degree of un-certainty by shaping the legal and economic environment that foreign com-panies have to operate in, making it more profitable and attractive for them.16 This paper seeks to accurately represent this environment to the pro-spective investor, starting with the structures of the two basic transactions, referred to herein as "modes", through which most commonly, foreign com-panies participate in the oil industry in Colombia, namely, the Standard As-sociation Mode ("S.A.M") and the Risk Sharing Mode ("R.S.M.").17 The contractual agreements …

Seqra’S Silver Anniversary: Reviewing The Past, Considering The Present, And Charting The Future, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy, Arctic Council And Multilateral Environmental Initiatives: Tinkering While The Arctic Marine Environment Totters, David Vanderzwaag, Robert Huebert, Stacey Ferrara

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The Arctic marine environment is not pristine, as commonly imagined, but is facing numerous pressures,' the most serious arguably coming from outside the region. Melting of sea ice, linked to global warming, threatens the long-term survival of various species including polar bears and has potential to seriously disrupt ocean currents. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including pesticides, industrial compounds and combustion by-products, are transported via air and water currents from regions outside the Arctic and become concentrated in the fatty tissues of animals." The pollutants threaten not only the well being of wildlife but the health of northern residents heavily dependent …

Standing In Environmental Citizen Suits: Laidlaw’S Clarification Of The Injury-In-Fact And Redressability Requirements, Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In its first week of business during the new millennium, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services (TOC), Inc., and provided important clarifications about the law of standing in environmental citizen suits. Specifically, the Court rejected the narrow view of environmental injury-in-fact advocated by Justice Scalia and instead adhered to the broader view of injury-in-fact established in a nonenvironmental context by the Court's decision in Federal Elections Commission v. Akins. As importantly, the Court also addressed the redressability requirement of Article III standing in Laidlaw. Here too, the Court did …

Environmental Damage Resulting From The Nato Military Action Against Yugoslavia, Aaron Schwabach

Law Faculty Scholarship

During the 1999 war between NATO and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, NATO targeted and destroyed chemical plants and storage facilities at Pancevo, Kragujevac, and elsewhere. A United Nations inspection team found that the NATO attacks had caused measurable, but not catastrophic, environmental damage wityin the territory of Yugoslavia. This article explores the historical evolution and current status of the body of law regarding protection of the environment during wartime, as well as the legality of NATO's actions. It concludes that NATO probably did not violate international law as it currently stands. However, the postwar reactions of states, including the …

The Nafta Package And The Environment: A Green Analysis Of Its Origins And Effects, Pedro M. Morales-Gomez

LLM Theses and Essays

When the presidential candidate Clinton announced that he would not support NAFTA without environmental and labor side agreements, and during the period before NAFTA's ratification by the American Congress, Mexicans lived in most tense suspense. Even though, the idea of an environmental side agreement seemed to please most environmentalists in Mexico who hoped that this would lead to creating a major environmental conscience in the Mexican government. The purpose of this thesis is to elaborate a critical analysis of the North American Free Trade Agreement, its related documents and their effects concerning the environment, specifically its legal protection. We will …

Agenda: Strategies In Western Water Law And Policy: Courts, Coercion And Collaboration, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, University Of Colorado Boulder. Center Of The American West

Strategies in Western Water Law and Policy: Courts, Coercion and Collaboration (Summer Conference, June 8-11)

1 v. (various pagings) : ill., maps, charts ; 29 cm

Conference organizers, session moderators and/or speakers included University of Colorado School of Law professors Gary C. Bryner, James N. Corbridge, Jr., David H. Getches, Douglas S. Kenney, Lawrence J. MacDonnell, Kathryn M. Mutz and Charles F. Wilkinson

Includes bibliographical references

The event will examine the principal problem-solving strategies in western water law and policy: courts, coercion and collaboration. In addressing this broad range of strategies, the program will focus on national, west-wide and Colorado-specific issues.

Conference activities will commence with a free public program cosponsored by the Center of …

Is There A Private Cause Of Action Under Epa's Title Vi Regulations?: The Need To Empower Environmental Justice Plaintiffs, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article will apply the Chester three-factor test to find a private right of action implied in the administrative regulations promulgated by various agencies to implement Section 602 of Title VI. This article also proposes that it would be inconsistent to apply today's more stringent standard for inferring congressional intent in deciding whether a private right exists under Section 602. Such inconsistency arises as a result of the Supreme Court's application of a more lenient standard in recognizing a private right of action under Section 601.

Book Review Of Policy Making In An Era Of Global Environmental Change (R. E. Munn, J. W. M. La Riviere & N. Van Lookeren Campagne Eds., 1996), Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this book review, Michael P. Healy examines Policy Making in an Era of Global Environmental Change (R. E. Munn, J. W. M. la Riviere & N. van Lookeren Campagne eds., 1996).

Of Sinking And Escalating: A (Somewhat) New Look At Stare Decisis, Rafael Gely

Faculty Publications

This article explores the concept of stare decisis from the escalation of commitment perspective. I argue that the theory of escalation of commitment provides a powerful tool that can be used in our understanding of the application of stare decisis . The literature on the use of precedent is extensive; however, this Article develops a new way of looking at case law development and stare decisis . In particular, the Article contemplates stare decisis as a decision-making process and then considers the academic literature in order that we may gain some insight into that process.