Environmental Law Commons^™

Using International Property Law As A Lever To Evolve Toward Integrative Ocean Governance, Rachael E. Salcido

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

A "Switching Costs" Approach: Epa's Clean Power Plan As A Model For Allocating The Burden Of Carbon Reductions Among Nations, Michael Barsa, David Dana

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

In Part I, this paper reviews the allocation plans that have been tried so far on an international scale and why they have not succeeded. In Part II, the paper explains EPA's Clean Power Rule and what we are calling the switching opportunities approach that is at least roughly suggested by the Rule. In Part III, the paper discusses the two different "cost-sensitive" approaches adopted by the EPA under the Clean Air Act so far, and in Part IV, the paper discusses the basis for using the Clean Power Plan as a model and the advantages and disadvantages of "scaling …

Picking Up The Slackline: Can The United States And Japan Successfully Regulate Commercial Fishing Of Bluefin Tuna Following Failed Intergovernmental Attempts?, Sarah E. Bauer

Indiana Law Journal

Part I of this Note will address the reasons why intergovernmental organizations have failed to adequately regulate the commercial fishing of Bluefin tuna. Part II offers an analysis of the Bluefin markets in the United States and Japan and argues that these countries are ideal candidates for successful Bluefin regulation because of their market structures. Part III explores the likelihood that the two countries would implement such regulations, taking into account the respective governments’ histories of species-specific regulation.

International Environmental And Resources Law 2015 Annual Report, Kristen Hite, Lynn A. Long, Stephanie Altman, Derek Campbell, David Gravallese, Richard A. Horsch, David Hunter, Erika Lennon, Thomas Parker Redick, Matt Oakes

The International Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Corporate Social Responsibility/Sustainability Reporting Among The Fortune Global 250: Greenwashing Or Green Supply Chain?, John K. Lewis

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

The sustainability reporting efforts of MNCs who are members of the Fortune Global 250 (FG250) was investigated. The focus was on sustainability reporting by MNCs of supply chain impacts. The reporting of FG250 MNCs was examined to determine if greenwashing was occurring or whether MNCs had committed to operating a green supply chain. A mixed methodology was used consisting of quantitative analysis of twenty-five MNC CSR/sustainability reports which were randomly selected from the FG250 listing. Qualitative analysis using content analysis was also conducted on the reports. Both methodologies concentrated on the sustainability reporting of the selected MNCs in regard to …

Poetic Justice, Darrell Cannon

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Invisibility Of Female Farmworkers: How Current Workers' Rights Legislation Fails To Adequately Protect Female Farmworkers And Exposes Them To Serious Health And Safety Risks, Martha Laura Garcia

Public Interest Law Reporter

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers are one of the most isolated and vulnerable population groups in the United States. Not only is the nature of their work exhausting and dangerous, but many times, the workers face other challenges, like cultural and language barriers and limited access to legal, health, and educational services. Female farmworkers are particularly vulnerable to the many risks seasonal and migrant farmworkers face, with the additional challenge of having limited forms of legal relief. By giving an overview of current labor laws and presenting the main risks female farmworkers face, this article will demonstrate that labor laws and …

Tunnel Vision: How The System Chooses Its Target, Alison Hill

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Many Poor Americans Are Not Getting Access To Clean Drinking Water, A Basic Human Right, Keimer Raymond

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Reform Demanded By Minorities On Police's Use Of Excessive Force And The U.S. Government's Resistance To Change, Jessica Younan

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Linkages To The Resource Sector: The Role Of Companies, Governments, And International Development Cooperation, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

With support from GIZ, CCSI prepared a report titled "Linkages to the Resource Sector: The Role of Companies, Governments, and International Development Cooperation." It outlines options for how these stakeholders can increase the economic linkages to the extractive industries sector not only in terms of ‘breadth’ (number of linkages) but also in terms of ‘depth’ (local value added). Apart from providing the theoretical framework for linkage creation and an overview of existing literature on this topic, the study highlights successful case study examples. Recommendations are provided for the three types of stakeholders.

Should The United States Create Trading Markets For Energy Efficiency?, Noah M. Sachs

Law Faculty Publications

This Comment examines whether the vision for energy efficiency markets matches the reality. It explains how energy efficiency markets work, examines the handful of energy efficiency markets that have been established to date, and explores the policy challenges inherent in commodifying energy efficiency and making it a tradable good.

Ferc V. Epsa And The Path To A Cleaner Electricity Sector, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the impact of FERC v. Electric Power Supply Association, in which the Supreme Court upheld FERC’s demand response rule (Order 745) and confirmed FERC’s authority over “practices” “directly affecting” wholesale rates for electricity. It contends that the Supreme Court made a definitive pronouncement on FERC’s authority over end users of electricity who also provide resources back to the electric grid. It also contends that FERC v. EPSA marks the end of “dual federalism” in electricity law that treated federal and state jurisdiction as separate and distinct spheres of authority. Instead, it posits a new era of concurrent …

Ontario’S Climate Change Mitigation And Low Carbon Economy Act: Pious Aspirations Or New Dawn?, Damilola Olawuyi

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper assess Ontario's proposed cap and trade program for effectiveness; comprehensiveness; transparency and fairness; and offset eligibility. It identifies its areas of innovation and strengths, key implementation and logistical questions that may arise, and offers perspectives on how to address such gaps.

Using Online Databasing To Unlock The Full Value Of Environmental Impact Assessments, Jessica A. Wentz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This paper considers how a multi-disciplinary research community can build upon these efforts to further enhance online access to EIA documents and make it easier for the public to use the information contained in those documents. Part I lays the groundwork for this inquiry: it describes the types of information contained in EIA documents and the extent to which existing online databases provide an effective means of locating and searching through these documents. Part II discusses the potential applications of the information contained in these documents, and how this might inform priorities related to online database development. Part III contemplates …

Lessons From The Wolf Wars: Recovery V. Delisting Under The Endangered Species Act, Martha C. Williams

Faculty Law Review Articles

This article uses the fundamentals of the ESA to remind us why Congress passed the ESA. It applies those fundamentals and their focus on recovery of species in peril, to the wolf wars, the decades long legal battles over the reintroduction, recovery, and delisting of wolves culminating in two cases, Defenders of Wildlife v. Jewell (Wyoming case) and Humane Society of the U.S. v. Jewell (Western Great Lakes case). Applying the ESA’s focus on species recovery to the wolf wars demonstrates where the disconnect between recovery and delisting occurs.

Part 1 of this article sets out the fundamentals of the …

Saving The Serengeti: Africa's New International Judicial Environmentalism, James T. Gathii

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article analyzes recent environmental law decisions of Africa's fledgling international courts. In 2014, for example, the East African Court of Justice stopped the government of Tanzania from building a road across Serengeti National Park because of its potential adverse environmental impacts. Decisions like these have inaugurated a new era of enhanced environmental judicial protection in Africa. This expansion into environmental law decision-making by Africa's international trade courts contrasts with other international courts that are designed to specialize on one issue area such as human rights or international trade, but not both. By contrast, Africa's international courts are simultaneously pushing …

Sea-Level Rise And Changing Times For Florida Local Governments, David Markell

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

The legal environment for local government in Florida is beginning to change when it comes to sea-level rise (sometimes referred to as SLR). Innovations in institutional structure and governance strategies are underway in the State as well. This paper reviews three recent developments, which relate primarily to comprehensive planning in the State, and explores their implications for Florida’s local governments, among others. It begins with the State’s decision, in 2011 legislation, to give local governments a new, optional tool – referred to as “Adaptation Action Areas” (AAAs) – to address sea-level rise and related issues in local comprehensive plans. The …

The Brazilian Amazon Timber Industry And The International Mechanisms Of Timber Trade Control – Combating Illegal Logging And Associated Trade, Juliana Coelho Marcussi

Dissertations & Theses

Illegal logging and its associated trade are one of the main causes of degradation of the Amazonian Rainforest in Brazil. They spring from several deficiencies in the regulatory and monitoring systems. The purpose of this work is to recommend mechanisms to overcome these deficiencies to eliminate illegal logging and its associated trade in the long-term and to enhance the appreciation of the standing forests and the sustainable use of their natural resources.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the Brazilian tropical timber market’s trends, and briefly describes the main stages of timber supply chain to build familiarity with the activities …

A Brook With Legal Rights: The Rights Of Nature In Court, Hope M. Babcock

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Over two decades ago, Professor Christopher Stone asked what turned out to be a question of enduring interest: should trees have standing? His question was recently answered in the affirmative by a creek in Pennsylvania, which successfully intervened in a lawsuit between an energy company and a local township to prevent the lifting of a ban against drilling oil and gas wastewater wells. Using that intervention, this Article examines whether such an initiative might succeed on a broader scale. The Article parses the structure, language, and punctuation of Article III, as well as various theories of nonhuman personhood to see …

Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Resolving The Ri Grande (Rio Bravo) Water Dispute., Ruben R. Barrera, Dan A. Naranjo

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

The Dilemma Of Interpreting Rules Of Civil Procedure: A Proposal For Elastic Formalism., L. Wayne Scott

St. Mary's Law Journal

When lawyers are well prepared, know the law, present the law, and have it ignored by judges who interpret the law in their own way, it can be frustrating. When courts publish opinions embodying this attitude, students, too, become frustrated or conclude that the law is whatever judges decide it should be. This Article does not focus on unethical judges who decide cases with wrong motives but, rather, it focuses on ethical judges who are faced with “hard” cases and have the dilemma of deciding the case, either by the rule or by the judge’s concept of fairness. In both …

Suppressing The Truth: States' Purposeful Violation Of The Right Of No Cruel Or Unreal Punishment In Lethal Injection Executions., Nadine G. Rodriguez

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

A Law And Economics Analysis Of The Duty Of Utmost Good Faith (Uberrimae Fidei) In Marine Insurance Law For Protection And Indemnity Clubs., Elizabeth Germano

St. Mary's Law Journal

Writing for the Supreme Court in The Lottawanna in 1875, Justice Joseph P. Bradley envisioned federal and state regulation of maritime affairs as “a system of law coextensive with, and operating uniformly in, the whole country.” He thought state involvement in maritime law defeated the consistency and uniformity the Constitution sought to achieve for interstate and international commerce. Over 100 years later, Justice Antonin Scalia, describing the current relationship between state and federal regulation in the admiralty arena, stated: “It would be idle to pretend that the line separating permissible from impermissible state regulation is readily discernible in our admiralty …

The Admissibility Of Aerial Photographs - Evidentiary Foundations., Kristopher R. Hufstetler

St. Mary's Law Journal

Services such as Google Maps and MapQuest significantly impact how consumers use the Internet. For as much as they contribute to Internet use, issues arise concerning the use of satellite images and aerial photographs in the context of litigation. Historical concerns about satellite and aerial imagery typically involved expectations of privacy and the application of the Fourth Amendment. Courts and citizens alike express concern with when and where privacy ends with respect to aerial views. Concerns as to the admissibility of aerial photographs have also been prominent. Specifically, interest in admissibility of these photographs focuses on sufficiency, relevance, and accuracy. …

The Neoliberal Turn In Environmental Regulation, Jason J. Czarnezki, Katherine Fiedler

Utah Law Review

Regulation has taken a neoliberal turn, using market-based mechanisms to achieve social benefits, especially in the context of environmental protection, and promoting information dissemination, labeling, and advertising to influence consumer preferences. Although this turn to neoliberal environmental regulation is well under way, there have been few attempts to manage this new reality. Instead, most commentators simply applaud or criticize the turn. If relying on neoliberal environmental reform (i.e., facing this reality regardless of one’s view of this turn), regulation and checks on these reforms are required. This Article argues that in light of the shift from traditional to neoliberal “substantive” …

Paying High For Low Performance, Steven A. Bank, George S. Georgiev

Articles

This Essay argues that regulatory reforms in the area of executive compensation introduced by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 have not yet achieved their purpose of linking executive pay with company performance. The rule on shareholder say-on-pay appears to have had limited success over the five proxy seasons since its adoption. The rule on pay ratio disclosure, adopted in August 2015, and the rules on pay-versus-performance disclosure and the clawback of certain incentive compensation, proposed in April 2015 and July 2015, respectively, are also unlikely to succeed. For the most part, the rules are intuitive and well-intentioned, but a closer …

How Cheap Is Corporate Talk? Comparing Companies' Comments On Regulations With Their Securities Disclosures, James W. Coleman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

When companies face adverse proposed rules, they may want to convince regulators that the proposed rules are unworkable and should be changed while, at the same time, reassuring investors that the rules will be manageable. These conflicting incentives may lead to inconsistent messages in regulatory comments and securities disclosures, fueling a perception that corporate submissions to regulators are cheap talk. Despite this perception, there has been no empirical study comparing statements to these two audiences. This project performs such a study, taking the example of comments submitted on the Environmental Protection Agency's Renewable Fuel Standard. This standard provides an ideal …

Rwu Law: The Magazine Of Roger Williams University School Of Law (Issue 9) (2016), Roger Williams University School Of Law

RWU Law

No abstract provided.

Process And Reconciliation: Integrating The Duty To Consult With Environmental Assessment, Neil Craik

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

As the duty to consult Aboriginal peoples is operationalized within the frameworks of government decision making, the relevant agencies are increasingly turning to environmental assessment (EA) processes as one of the principal vehicles for carrying out those consultations. This article explores the practical and theoretical dimensions of using EA processes to implement the duty to consult and accommodate. The relationship between EA and the duty to consult has arisen in a number of cases and a clear picture is emerging of the steps that agencies conducting EAs must carry out in order to discharge their constitutional obligations to Aboriginal peoples. …