Environmental Law Commons^™

Environmental Justice And Community Empowerment: Learning From The Civil Rights Movement , R. Gregory Roberts

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The 'Ascent Of Man': Legal Systems And The Discovery Of An Environmental Ethic, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

A decade ago, firefighters in a warehouse on the Rhine in Switzerland washed chemicals, solvents, and mercury into the river, destroying all life in the river for miles, killing millions of fish, and endangering the water supplies of cities in Germany and the Netherlands. This tragedy galvanized the river valley states into action. They vowed to clean up the river, not just from that incident but from the effects of having used the river as a sewer for two centuries. But how clean is clean? The goal for this calculated plan, which will take decades to achieve, is symbolized by …

England's Contaminated Land Act Of 1995: Perspectives On America's Approach To Hazardous Substance Cleanups And Evolving Principles Of International Law, Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

An important contemporary problem in environmental regulation concerns the cleanup of property that is an unfortunate legacy of the modem industrial age—acres of land affected by past inadequate disposals of toxic substances. The United States began to address this problem in 1980 with the enactment of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). CERCLA establishes both a liability regime for assigning the costs of cleaning up lands contaminated by the release of hazardous substances and regulatory requirements defining how those cleanups are to be pursued. In 1995, England enacted the Contaminated Land Act (alternatively referred to as the …

The Morality Of Trading And Purchasing Pollution Emissions Rights: Further Comments On The, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The December 12, 1997 Issue of IBPP provides an analysis supporting the trading and purchasing of pollution- emissions rights as means to responsibly confront the threat of global warming. The present article maintains this stance in critiquing a December 15, 1997 article in The New York Times by Michael J. Sandel, a professor of government at Harvard University.

Trends. The Kyoto Protocol: Emissions On Trading Or Purchasing Emissions Rights, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

In this analysis, the author discusses the Kyoto Protocol.

Environmental Inequity: Economic Causes, Economic Solutions, Thom Lambert, Christopher Boerner

Faculty Publications

The article examines one such shortcoming: namely, that existing research fails to account for the dynamic nature of the housing market. Analyzing data from the St. Louis metropolitan area, this study finds that economic factors--not siting discrimination--are behind many claims of environmental racism. This phenomenon suggests the need to develop public policies that fit the economic nature of the problem. In particular, a policy that compensates individuals living near industrial sites is the key to securing environmental justice.

Still Dirty After Twenty-Five Years: Water Quality Standard Enforcement And The Availability Of Citizen Suits, Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

When Congress enacted the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly known as the Clean Water Act, it established a pollution control regime that imposed a baseline level of technology-based pollution control, and was designed to ensure that water quality would not fall below certain standards. Twenty-five years after the enactment of the Clean Water Act, success may be claimed with regard to technology-based controls. Achieving water quality standard (WQS) compliance has proved much more difficult. Indeed, evaluated from a variety of perspectives, the enforcement of the water quality-based system of pollution control must be viewed as a failure.

In light …

Dioxin: Reassessing The Risk, Linda-Jo Schierow

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Dr. Schierow briefly summarizes the status of a draft Environmental Protection Agency report reassessing the appropriate treatment of dioxin and describes ongoing intra- and extramural reviews of the reassessment.

The Effectiveness And Fairness Of Superfund's Judicial Review Preclusion Provision, Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article examines the effectiveness and fairness of section 113(h) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund). That broadly-worded provision forecloses judicial review of Superfund cleanups prior to enforcement or cleanup completion by requiring that any review action fall within several narrowly-defined exceptions.

After providing an overview of the statute, its enforcement mechanisms, and a context for considering section 113(h), the article summarizes how courts have applied CERCLA's timing of review provision, focusing principally on recent interpretations of the provision. Finally, the article evaluates the effectiveness and fairness of CERCLA review preclusion and concludes by …

The Missing Chinese Environmental Law Statutory Interpretation Cases, John Copeland Nagle

Journal Articles

Environmental law and theories of statutory interpretation have developed side by side in the United States during the past twenty-five years. Many of the leading environmental law cases are also statutory interpretation cases. China is different. China has enacted many environmental statutes, often patterned after foreign laws such as those in the United States, but there are no Chinese environmental law statutory interpretation cases.

This article examines why there are no such cases, and what we may learn from that fact. I am indebted to the work of Professor Stewart, whose engaging article in this symposium issue combines three of …

Sustainability: Myth And Reality, Kai Lee

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

23 pages (includes illustrations).

Contains references.

Municipal Solid Waste Flow Control In The Post-Carbone World, Eric S. Peterson, David N. Abramowitz

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Garbage will always ultimately be the government's problem. Evolving environmental standards and state and federal policies will continue to require reasoned responses from local governments and municipal solid waste flow control is a vital cog in many jurisdictions' solid waste management solutions. Without flow control of some form, governments' ability to plan and provide for the most environmentally sound and economically acceptable solutions will wane, leaving the public vulnerable to the vagaries of a private market that does not have a duty to protect the public health and safety. The Carbone decision has blunted one of the local governments chief …

Regulatory Takings And Wetland Protection In The Post-Lucas Era, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In June 1992, the United States Supreme Court decided Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council. The case involved a claim for compensation against the State of South Carolina by a landowner who was prohibited from placing structures on two of his beachfront lots. The Court declared that the landowners must be compensated when government regulations deprive them of all economically beneficial or productive uses of their property unless the proscribed uses were not permitted as part of their original titles.

Although some legal commentators have praised the Lucas decision, others have strongly condemned it. A common criticism of Lucas …

Enforcement And The Success Of International Environmental Law, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Professor O'Connell discusses the traditional methods used for international law "enforcement," and she argues that international law is generally obeyed. Its enforcement is based primarily on compliance, not enforcement. Accordingly, the author argues against using international enforcement mechanisms to enforce international environmental law. Instead, she posits that domestic courts should be used for international environmental law enforcement; however, certain obstacles, such as sovereign immunity, the doctrine of standing, and the principle of forum non conveniens, must be overcome. Professor O'Connell argues that it may be possible to overcome many of these court-made obstacles to enforcing international law through domestic courts. …

Background Material On The Colorado Grazing Roundtable, William E. Riebsame

Who Governs the Public Lands: Washington? The West? The Community? (September 28-30)

10 pages.

Contains endnotes.

Nafta And The Environment: A Trade-Friendly Approach, Bradly J. Condon

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Although the North American Free Trade Agreement, (NAFTA), contains more detailed environmental provisions than any previous trade agreement,' only some of them are mandatory. These mandatory NAFTA environmental rules purport to prevent the use of environmental policy instruments as disguised barriers to trade. Since most human activities have some impact on the environment, a vast array of government regulation could potentially be characterized as relating to the environment. This fact increases the risk that domestic industries will exploit political discretion over environmental policy implementation to put foreign competitors at a disadvantage by raising non-tariff barriers to trade. It is important …

Ethics, The Legacy Of The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., And The Movement Toward Environmental Justice, Beverly Mcqueary Smith

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Using Trade To Enforce International Environmental Law: Implications For United States Law, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The United States has enviable domestic environmental protection laws. However, good domestic environmental protection raises two concerns: effectiveness and competitiveness. In response to these two problems of environmental protection—effectiveness and competitiveness—members of Congress introduced over thirty bills in 1990 to amend U.S. trade laws. The bills were designed to either press other states to adopt environmental protection standards similar to the United States own or to at least minimize the competitive disadvantage for U.S. business inherent in U.S. regulations. The bills took one of two approaches: either they aimed at restricting access to U.S. markets for those states failing to …

Case Digest, Journal Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Case Digest provides brief analyses of cases that represent cur-rent aspects of transnational law. The Digest includes cases that establish legal principles and cases that apply established legal principles to new factual situations. The cases are grouped in topical categories and references are given for further research.

Toward A Sustainable Maine : The Politics, Economics, And Ethics Of Sustainability, Richard Barringer (Ed.)

Maine Collection

Toward A Sustainable Maine : The Politics, Economics, and Ethics of Sustainability

Richard Barringer, editor, Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern Maine

Edmund S. Muskie Institute of Public Affairs, University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine, 1993.

The proceedings of a conference presented at Bowdoin College on March 19 and 20, 1993, by the Edmund S. Muskie Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Southern Maine, and by the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Ellen Baum, conference organizer.

Contents; Foreword by Richard Barringer / Welcome by Everett Carson / Global, Canadian, and Maine Perspectives / Sustaining Our Natural and …

Gatt And Environmental Protection, Kristina Haverkamp

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis analyzes the direct and indirect impacts of Articles I, II, III, VI, XVI, and XXII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) on three broad catetgories of national environmental protection measures: (1) those offsetting environmental compliance costs, (2) those incentivizing volutnary environmental efforts, and (3) those promoring environmental protection in foreign countries. This thesis discusses the applicability and scope of government subsidies and countervailing duties as present in Articles XVI and VI and how they deviate from the standards of Articles I and II, the non-discrimination obligations set forth in Articles I and III, including the …

Identifying Chemical Hazards For Regulation: The Scientific Basis And Regulatory Scope Of California's Proposition 65 List Of Carcinogens And Reproductive Toxicants, William S. Pease

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Noting that the Proposition 65 list has become an authoritative source for hazard identification, Dr. Pease examines its legislative, regulatory and scientific origins. After analyzing the California approach, he offers suggestions for better selection of future regulatory targets.

Direct Liability For Hazardous Substance Cleanups Under Cercla: A Comprehensive Approach, Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In enacting the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA), Congress intended to impose liability for hazardous substance cleanups on all parties responsible for a site's use and contamination. However, in implementing the CERCLA liability scheme, courts have issued opinions offering unclear and misguided explanations of their decisions. The author suggests that, to properly assure CERCLA's proper operation, the basis for the imposition of liability must be clarified. To this end, the author examines the prescribed liability for individuals, parent corporations and secured creditors and explains the appropriate grounds for the responsibility of each.

Sepa: A Proposed Standard For Judicial Review Of Agency Decisions Not To Require Preparation Of A Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, Lori Ann Terry

Seattle University Law Review

To enable citizens opposing projects and proponents defending projects to predict more accurately the results of litigation and to discourage spurious litigation, a more definitive standard of judicial review is necessary. This Article proposes a standard of judicial review that encompasses components of both the adequacy and negative threshold standards of judicial review. The proposed standard of review discourages lawsuits that are brought merely for purposes of delay while ensuring that the agency acted reasonably in making its determination. Before this new standard can be considered, the context in which it will operate must be reviewed. Part II of this …

Developing A World Vision: An Introduction To International Environmental Policy, Beverly Mcqueary Smith

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Regulating Air Toxics In Rhode Island: Policy Vs. Technical Decisions, Julie A. Roque

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Dr. Roqu6 recounts her work as a doctoral candidate at Brown in developing standards for the regulation of airborne carcinogens. Based in part on this experience, she argues that care needs be taken lest those who regulate Risk bury key policy decisions within a mass of often irrelevant technical details.

The Two-Headed Dragon Of Siting And Cleaning Up Hazardous Waste Dumps: Can Economic Incentives Or Mediation Slay The Monster, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This Article will show that neither economic incentives nor mediation alone has been successful in addressing the issues of siting or remediation, despite good theoretical reasons for the success of both approaches. This Article advocates a two-pronged approach of using economic incentives and mediation together to attack the dilemmas of siting and remediation. A developer could offer to remediate an orphan or MSW landfill site, and thereby improve public safety, in exchange for the opportunity to build a new, less risky hazardous or solid waste disposal facility.15 In conjunction with mediation and negotiated compensation, this proposal may be able to …

The International Exportation Of Waste: The Battle Against The Path Of Least Resistance, Kenda Jo M. Mccrory

Penn State International Law Review (1982 - 2011)

This Comment will focus on the United States' current regulations governing the exportation of waste, their strengths and weaknesses, and the changes needed to incorporate the Basel Convention into United States domestic law.

The Medical Waste Tracking Act Of 1988: An Analysis Of Its Provisions And Its Effect On New York State, Laurence D. Granite

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Pursuit Of Nepa's Promise: The Role Of Executive Oversight In The Implementation Of The Environmental Policy, William L. Andreen

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.