Environmental Law Commons^™

The Environmental Laws And Policies Of Taiwan: A Comparative Law Perspective, Dennis T. Tang

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article discusses the development of environmental regulation and preservation in Taiwan in light of United States environmental law. The Article begins with a discussion of how few measures have been enacted to protect the Taiwanese environment. It then illuminates some of the problems with the Taiwanese environmental regulations that do exist. According to the author, some of these problems include: ambiguous and conflicting goals enunciated in the legislation; political pressures on the authorities influencing environmental policies; poor enforcement mechanisms; a legislative bias in favor of regulating new sources of pollution and against enforcing regulations in the case of old …

Enforcement Of Tsca And The Federal Five-Year Statute Of Limitations For Penalty Actions, Teresa A. Holderer

Michigan Law Review

Many years prior to TSCA, Congress enacted a general five-year statute of limitations for actions for the enforcement of civil penalties, fines, and forfeitures, which, if applicable, would alleviate these problems. Although the Agency claims that no statute of limitations applies, this Note argues that the general five-year statute of limitations, found in section 2462 of title 28, should apply to EPA's administrative proceedings to assess penalties as well as to later collection actions in federal courts. Part I details TSCA's enforcement procedures, which create special difficulties when applying section 2462's statute of limitations. Part I also examines how EPA, …

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 …

Takings Term Ii: New Tools For Attacking And Defending Environmental And Land-Use Regulation, Michael Allan Wolf

Law Faculty Publications

The 1991 October Term of the United States Supreme Court can legitimately be called "Takings Term II," a sequel to the Court's regulatory takings activism of the 1986 October Term. Unlike the previous trio of Keystone, First English, and Nollan, however, the Court's contributions in Lucas, Yee, and PFZ are as significant for what the Justices did not say as for what they contributed to the pages of the United States Reports. ...

Footprints In The Shifting Sands Of The Isle Of Palms: A Practical Analysis Of Regulatory Takings Cases, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

It was not until the last day of the term, June 29, 1992, that the Court decided Lucas. By that time, interest could not have been greater. At issue was the validity of a regulation that prohibited all permanent development of the plaintiff's two beachfront lots. The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the regulation by a 3-2 margin because it prevented a “great public harm.” The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that determination and remanded the case to determine whether South Carolina's common law of nuisance could prohibit the construction of single-family housing on the lots. The fractured Court delivered an …

The Tragedy Of The Commons, Part Two, James E. Krier

Articles

This symposium is about the idea of "free market environmentalism" in general and the book Free Market Environmentalism, by Terry Anderson and Donald Leal,1 in particular. While I focus chiefly on Anderson and Leal's book, the discussion will necessarily involve the general idea of free market environmentalism as well. The conceit of my tide, which obviously derives from Garrett Hardin's celebrated essay on The Tragedy of the Commons,2 is this: Superficial differences aside, Hardin's essay and Anderson and Leal's book address the same fundamental problem of coordinating human behavior as it affects environmental quality. But both the essay and the …

Limitations Of Sovereign Immunity Under The Clean Water Act: Empowering States To Confront Federal Polluters, Corinne Beckwith Yates

Michigan Law Review

This Note considers whether civil penalties that states impose on federal agencies for violations of NPDES permits arise under federal law and thus are covered by the Clean Water Act's waiver of sovereign immunity - an issue the Supreme Court is scheduled to address during the 1991 term. Part I outlines the history of the Clean Water Act, discussing Supreme Court decisions and statutory amendments that affect the sovereign immunity provision. Part II explains the mechanics of the NPDES state permit process and examines, through analysis of statutory provisions, the degree of control retained by the EPA over individual states …

Understanding The Toxic Substances Control Act: The Significance Of Reporting And Recordkeeping Requirements, Courtney M. Price, Jennifer M. Smart

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Agenda: Innovation In Western Water Law And Management, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Innovation in Western Water Law and Management (Summer Conference, June 5-7)

Conference organizers and/or faculty included University of Colorado School of Law professors Lawrence J. MacDonnell, David H. Getches, Charles F. Wilkinson and Richard B. Collins.

Pressures of population, drought, and changing water use have provided the impetus for numerous innovations in water law and management in recent years. The Center's annual conference June 5-7, 1991, will look at innovation and change in five areas--water planning, special water management areas, negotiated settlements of tribal water rights, conjunctive use of ground and surface water, and public values in water decision making. Each session will begin with talks by experts from several western …

Defining "Green": Toward Regulation Of Environmental Marketing Claims, Roger D. Wynne

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note joins a rising chorus calling for government regulation of green marketing claims. It attempts to encourage and add a sense of urgency to a burgeoning regulatory movement by highlighting some of the legal issues that such regulation entails. Part I identifies a gap in the law: the inability of current truth-in-advertising laws to clarify the legality of green marketing claims. Part II urges bridging that gap quickly; it examines the costs of continued nonregulation and describes some of the forms regulation is taking. Part III attempts to allay any fears that such regulations might be challenged on first …

In The Regulation Of Manmade Carcinogens, If Feasibility Analysis Is The Answer, What Is The Question?, Christopher H. Schroeder

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Environmentally Induced Cancer and the Law by Frank B. Cross

Acid Rain And Ozone Layer Depletion: International Law And Regulation, Kernaghan Webb

Dalhousie Law Journal

Although international customary and conventional law have addressed aspects of transfrontier pollution problems for decades,' the regional and global environmental degradations which have come to the forefront in the 1980s and 1990s - acid rain, ozone depletion, and global warming, to name but three - represent new challenges to existing international law institutions and concepts. In a sense, the world has over the past two centuries gone through a period of what could be called "technological adolescence", as individuals and corporations, largely from industrialized nations, exploited the earth's resources with little if any concern for the immediate and long-term implications …

Book Reviews, Risk Editorial Board

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

Reviews of the following books prepared by the editors of Risk on the topic of toxic tort litigation and/or public regulation of toxic substances:

Frank B. Cross, Environmentally Induced Cancer and the Law: Risks, Regulation and Victim Compensation, (1989).

Chemical Contamination and Its Victims: Medical Remedies, Legal Redress, and Public Policy (David W. Schnare & Martin T. Katzman, eds., 1989.

The Role of Science in Toxic Tort Litigation: Evaluating Causation and Risk: Drawn from Papers Presented at the TIPS Annual Meeting, August 1988, Toronto, Canada. Chicago, Ill: Tort and Insurance Practice Section, American Bar Association.

The Stagnation Of Texas Ground Water Law: A Political V. Environmental Stalemate., Karen H. Norris

St. Mary's Law Journal

The rapidly increasing Texas population coupled with the scarcity of water resources has created an urgent need for regulation of ground water pumpage. The extraction of ground water in Texas remains largely unregulated. Texas landowners, by virtue of their surface ownership, have property rights in all underlying ground water. As such, Texas landowners have the right to unlimited pumpage of the ground water beneath their land. Texas landowners have jealously guarded this right at the expense of our environment and future water resources. The Texas legislature created conservative underground water districts to help preserve water resources. However, the limited scope …

Federal Agency Treatment Of Uncertainty In Environmental Impact Statements Under The Ceq's Amended Nepa Regulation § 1502.22: Worst Case Analysis Or Risk Threshold, Charles F. Weiss

Michigan Law Review

This Note traces the judicial and administrative treatment of uncertainty under NEPA and supports the CEQ's replacement of worst case analysis with a qualitative probability threshold. Part I discusses the development of reasonableness standards in NEPA common law to define agency obligations prior to promulgation of the worst case analysis regulation. Part II reviews the worst case analysis regulation and its judicial construction. Finally, Part III outlines the amended regulation, which replaces worst case analysis with a probability threshold employing the rule of reason to limit EIS discussion to environmental effects shown through credible scientific evidence to be reasonably foreseeable. …

Livestock Grazing On Public Lands: Procedures And Issues, E. T. Bartlett

The Public Lands During the Remainder of the 20th Century: Planning, Law, and Policy in the Federal Land Agencies (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

17 pages.

Contains references.

Review Of Environmental Protection Policy, By E. Rehbinder And R. Stewart, James E. Krier

Reviews

Environmental problems have been on the agenda of the federal government in the United States for roughly a century now, about half of the government's life, and a dominant concern for the last two decades. The European Economic Community ("EEC"), itself a system perhaps on its way to some brand of federalism, presents a similar but much foreshortened picture. The EEC has been concerned with the environment for about the last half of its thirty year life. Environmental Protection Policy' ("EPP") is a richly detailed study of environmental policy in these two very different systems.

Siting Industrial Facilities In The Western United States, Joseph Browder

External Development Affecting the National Parks: Preserving "The Best Idea We Ever Had" (September 14-16)

24 pages.

Contains references.

Legal Issues Associated With Protecting Park Resources: Air Quality And Related Values, Molly N. Ross

External Development Affecting the National Parks: Preserving "The Best Idea We Ever Had" (September 14-16)

109 pages.

Contains references.

Contains 5 attachments:

1) United States Department of the Interior Memorandum, September 20, 1985: Protection of National Park System Units from the Adverse Effects of Air Pollution.

2) Library of Congress Congressional Research Service Memorandum, November 19, 1985: Comments on Department of the Interior Memorandum of September 20, 1985 Entitled "Protection of National Park System Units from the Adverse Effects of Air Pollution."

3) United States Department of the Interior Memorandum, May 15, 1986: Legal Authority of the Secretary to Protect the Air Quality and Related Values of NPS Units from Adverse Impacts of Surface Coal …

Pennsylvania's Implementation Of The Surface Mining Control And Reclamation Act: An Assessment Of How "Cooperative Federalism" Can Make State Regulatory Programs More Effective, John C. Dernbach

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article first explains the background against which Pennsylvania's implementation of SMCRA has occurred. Coal mining has had a serious and continuing effect on the State's environment, as Part I explains. In response to these effects, Pennsylvania began to regulate coal mining many decades ago. This regulatory development reached a milestone when the State achieved primacy under SMCRA in 1982.

Part II suggests that the new program in Pennsylvania has been responsible for substantial reductions in adverse environmental effects from surface coal mining, particularly less erosion and sedimentation, less acid mine drainage, and more backfilling. In addition, Part II explains …

The Dilution Of The Clean Water Act, Mark C. Van Putten, Bradley D. Jackson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article argues that the zero discharge goal of the Clean Water Act is more than naive rhetoric. To the contrary, it is the Act's raison d'être, and it is woven into the fabric of the Act's operative provisions. So understood, the zero discharge goal can and should provide continuing guidance for EPA's implementation of the Act.

Genetically Engineered Plant Pesticides: Recent Developments In The Epa's Regulation Of Biotechnology, Mary Jane Angelo

UF Law Faculty Publications

This paper examines the EPA's new policy regulating plant pesticides and presents the legal, scientific and policy issues surrounding the regulation of genetically engineered plants. Part I introduces the concepts covered in this paper. Part II.A. discusses products that have originated from biotechnology. Part II.B. describes the EPA's legal authority for regulating plant pesticides and other biotechnology products. Part II.C. presents the history of federal regulation of biological pesticides and biotechnology products. Part III examines the controversy surrounding the use of genetically engineered plants, including the potential risks and benefits of genetically engineered plants and the public's perception of these …

Water Rights, The Public Trust Doctrine, And The Protection Of Instream Uses, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Our society uses water for a variety of productive purposes, including domestic, agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and energy development. Most of these uses require physical removal of water from watercourses or ground water aquifers. Water can also serve useful purposes, however, when it remains a lake or stream. Flowing water helps to maintain water quality and furthers other uses such as recreation, aesthetic values, and ecological interests—referred to as “instream uses.”

Large quantities of water must remain in place to safeguard instream uses. At the same time, the increasing demands of consumptive water users are significantly reducing streamflows and lake levels …

Compliance Without Coercion, Albert J. Reiss Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Environment and Enforcement: Regulation and the Social Definition of Pollution by Keith Hawkins

Frameworks For Analyzing The Effects Of Risk And Environmental Regulations On Productivity, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The existence of a negative relationship between the regulatory burden and capital investments, and consequently productivity,is not controversial. A conventional model of this type is developed in Section I. If, however, these regulations change over time and firms' investment decisions are irreversible, there will be additional distortions, as shown in Section II. In Section III, I show that uncertainty regarding these regulatory changes exacerbates the adverse productivity effects even for risk-neutral firms.

The San Luis Valley Groundwater Dispute, David Harrison, Jeris Danielson

Groundwater: Allocation, Development and Pollution (Summer Conference, June 6-9)

25 pages (includes illustrations and map).

Clean Coal/Dirty Air, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Clean Coal/Dirty Air by Bruce A. Ackerman and William T. Hassler

Book Review, Howard C. Klemme

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act Of 1978: Regulating Nonfederal Property Under The Property Clause, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In an effort to resolve the nagging controversy over the management of more than one million acres of public forests, lakes, and streams in northeastern Minnesota, Congress enacted the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act of 1978 (BWCA Act). Despite its objective, the Act has engendered further controversy. Particularly troublesome are several provisions that regulate the use of motorboats on lakes within and partly within the area. Those provisions test the scope of congressional power over nonfederal property under the property clause of article IV of the United States Constitution.

This Article examines the aged Supreme Court cases under which …

Agenda: Federal Lands, Laws And Policies And The Development Of Natural Resources: A Short Course, University Of Colorado. School Of Law, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Federal Lands, Laws and Policies and the Development of Natural Resources: A Short Course (Summer Conference, July 28-August 1)

Even before the [Natural Resources Law] Center was established [in the fall of 1981], the [University of Colorado] School of Law was organizing annual natural resources law summer short courses. To date four programs have been presented:

- July 1980: "Federal Lands, Laws and Policies and the Development of Natural Resources"

- June 1981: "Water Resources Allocation: Laws and Emerging Issues"

- June 1982: "New Sources of Water for Energy Development and Growth: lnterbasin Transfers"

- June 1983: "Groundwater: Allocation, Development and Pollution"

(Reprinted from Resource Law Notes, no. 1, Jan. 1984, at 1.)

Instructors for this conference included University …