Environmental Law Commons^™

The State And Regional Role In Developing Ecosystem Service Markets, Gail L. Achterman, Robert Mauger

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

No abstract provided.

Additionality: The Next Steps For Ecosystem Service Markets, Karen Bennett

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

No abstract provided.

Design Principles For Carbon Emissions Reduction Programs, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Paul C. Stern, Gerald T. Gardner, Thomas Dietz, Jonathan M. Gilligan

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The goal, articulated by President Obama in 2009, of reducing U.S. carbon emissions 17% from the 2005 level by 2020 iseminently achievable without new technology or appreciable sacrifice by energy users. However, achieving it will in part require sophisticated energy efficiency and conservation programs. To overcome institutional and behavioral barriers, these programs will need to implement six principles of effective design derived from 30 years of behavioral and social science research. We focus on the household sector, but believe our general conclusions likely apply to other sectors as well.

We recently developed an analysis for the household sector--energy use in …

Policy Challenges Of The Heterogeneity Of The Value Of Statistical Life, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Economic research has developed estimates of the heterogeneity of the value of statistical life (VSL) on dimensions such as individual age, income, immigrant status, and the nature of the risk exposure. This paper examines the empirical evidence on the heterogeneity of VSL and explores the potential implications for the valuation of regulatory policies. Previously, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unsuccessfully sought to adopt a simple age discount percentage for VSL based on survey evidence. However, labor market estimates of VSL indicate a pattern that tracks lifetime consumption trajectories, as the VSL rises with age and eventually tapers off but …

Ecosystem Services And Federal Public Lands: Start-Up Policy Questions And Research Needs, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Essay, based on my presentation at Duke Law School's 2009 symposium, Next Generation Conservation: The Government's Role in Emerging Ecosystem Service Markets, briefly examines this emerging policy front and proposes a set of key policy questions, research needs, and options for building on the policy work that has been done to date. Part I outlines the basic context for thinking about the role federal public lands might play in the management of ecosystem services, and why using the ecosystem services concept in public land policy is worth considering. Part II proposes several key research paths that must be addressed …

Siting Transmission Lines In A Changed Milieu: Evolving Notions Of The "Public Interest" In Balancing State And Regional Considerations, Jim Rossi, Ashley C. Brown

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article discusses how state public utility law presents a barrier to the siting of new high voltage transmission lines to serve renewable resources, and how states could approach its evolution in order to preserve a role for state regulators in a new energy economy in which renewable energy will play a significant role. The traditional approach to determining the "public interest" in siting transmission lines is well on its way to obsolescence. Two developments over the past fifteen years have begun to challenge this paradigm. First, policies at the federal level and in many states have encouraged increased competition …

Power, Exit Costs, And Renegotiation In International Law, Timothy L. Meyer

Scholarly Works

Scholars have long understood that the instability of power has ramifications for compliance with international law. Scholars have not, however, focused on how states’ expectations about shifting power affect the initial design of international agreements. In this paper, I integrate shifting power into an analysis of the initial design of both the formal and substantive aspects of agreements. I argue that a state expecting to become more powerful over time incurs an opportunity cost by agreeing to formal provisions that raise the cost of exiting an agreement. Exit costs - which promote the stability of legal rules - have distributional …

Rethinking Trust Law Reform: How Prudent Is Modern Prudent Investor Doctrine?, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

During the 1990s, modern portfolio theory provided the theoretical foundation for significant reforms in trust investment doctrine-reforms that freed trustees from a legal regime in which they faced potential liability for making "speculative" investments. The reforms enabled trustees to pursue investment policies that protected beneficiaries against inflation risk. But the reforms worked too well; they encouraged trustees to invest a higher percentage of trust assets in equities just in time for a decade that has seen two precipitous stock market declines. Although no sensible investment strategy would have avoided losses during these periods of market turmoil, the doctrinal reforms endorsed …

See No Evil - Revisiting Early Visions Of The Social Responsibility Of Business: Adolf A. Berle's Contribution To Contemporary Conversations, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

This Article situates Adolf A. Berle's contribution to the field of corporate law in the context of current debates over the alleged complicity of multinational corporations in international human rights violations. Specifically, this Article revisits some central insights offered by Berle and Gardiner C. Means in The Modern Corporation and Private Property and reconsiders what conducting business consciously across borders requires in the context of a governance gap generated by economic globalization. Further, this Article considers how both ownership and control are well situated to ensure that business conduct becomes better aligned with a growing consciousness that business organizations must …

Invasive Species And Public Investment In The Green Economy, Invasive Species Advisory Committee

National Invasive Species Council

Invasive Species and Public Investment in the Green Economy, approved by ISAC on June 24, 2010

ISSUE

Invasive species are intricately linked to the economy. Trade, travel, and transport facilitate their spread. Invasive species management requires extensive human and financial resources. The impacts of invasive species can substantially undermine economic growth and sustainable development. United States Executive Order (EO) 13112 defines invasive species as “alien [non-native] species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health” and states that Federal agencies should …“not authorize, fund, or carry out actions that are likely …

Marine Bioinvasions And Climate Change, James T. Carlton, Sandra C. Lindstrom, Celia M. Smith, Jennifer E. Smith

National Invasive Species Council

BACKGROUND

Invasive species are second only to habitat destruction as the greatest cause of species endangerment and global biodiversity loss. Invasive species can cause severe and permanent damage to the ecosystems they invade. Consequences of invasion include competition with or predation upon native species, hybridization, carrying or supporting harmful pathogens and parasites that may affect wildlife and human health, disturbing ecosystem function through alteration of food webs and nutrient recycling rates, acting as ecosystem engineers and altering habitat structure, and degradation of the aesthetic quality of our natural resources. In many cases we may not fully know the native animals …

The Fifth Amendment & The Endangered Species Act: An Examination Of Regulatory Takings & The California Water Crisis, Wesley Lawrence Carlson

Agribusiness

This study was conducted to determine if reductions in water deliveries to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley due to enforcement of the Endangered Species Act has resulted in a compensable Fifth Amendment taking of property. A case study of the California Water Crisis is examined. The subject of this case study is the Westlands Water District.

The details of the California Water Crisis were outlined. The necessary elements of a takings investigation were identified for the case study. These elements were applied to takings criteria that has been established by the courts. Using prior court rulings as a guide …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Law

No abstract provided.

Global Warming & Common Law Tort Claims: Did The Fifth Circuit Open Up Pandora's Box. Comer V. Murphy Oil Usa, Thomas C. Smith

Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Law

No abstract provided.

Washing Machines, Water Efficiency, And Federal Preemption: California's Quest To Regulate Water Consumption Under The Epca. California Energy Commission V. Department Of Energy , Kameron M. Lawson

Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Law

No abstract provided.

Decades Of Uncertainty End With Error. Entergy Corp. V. Riverkeeper, Inc., Aaron Sanders

Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Law

No abstract provided.

Interpreting The Wilderness Act Of 1964, Gordon Steinhoff

Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Law

No abstract provided.

The Times Are They A-Changin'?: What Kivalina Says About The State Of Environmental "Political Questions." Native Village Of Kivalina V. Exxonmobil Corp. , Michael A. Moorefield

Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Law

No abstract provided.

Environmental Law Updates

Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Law

No abstract provided.

Jun. 1, 2010, Ifc, The International Bill Of Human Rights And Ifc Policies And Performance Standards, Ifc

IFC E&S Performance Standards

No abstract provided.

Laying To Rest An Ancien Régime: Antiquated Institutions In Louisiana Civil Law And Their Incompatibility With Modern Public Policies, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

Man faces unprecedented challenges as he barrels through the twenty-first century. The world is now approaching a population of seven billion people, concentrated largely in crowded, overdeveloped urban centers. Global climate change is predicted to cause massive population displacement related to the disappearance of coastal lands and to create dire food shortages within the coming decade. Increasingly, societies are forced to make systemic adaptations to handle the strain of these modern-day crises. Governments must be innovative and adaptive in their efforts to protect the public. When the fundamental goals and objectives of society alter, the law should be modified to …

Investment Promotion Agencies And Sustainable Fdi: Moving Toward The Fourth Generation Of Investment Promotion, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, World Association Of Investment Promotion Agencies

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In April and May 2010, CCSI supported WAIPA to conduct its annual survey. This report, Investment Promotion Agencies and Sustainable FDI: Moving toward the Fourth Generation of Investment Promotion, benchmarks the responses of IPAs regarding sustainable FDI and its four dimensions (economic development, environmental sustainability, social development, governance) and finds, among other things, that these are unevenly addressed by investment promotion strategies and investment incentives. The report also draws attention to the desirability of attracting sustainable FDI, rather than focusing on volume of investment alone.

In 2017, CCSI also helped the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) to conduct …

Coordinating Sanctions In Tort, Kyle D. Logue

Cardozo Law Review

This Article begins with the standard Law and Economics account of tort law as a regulatory tool or system of deterrence, that is, as a means of giving regulated parties the optimal ex ante incentives to minimize the costs of accidents. Building on this fairly standard (albeit not universally accepted) picture of tort law, the Article asks the question how tort law should adjust, if at all, to coordinate with already existing non-tort systems of regulation. Thus, if a particular activity is already subject to extensive agency-based regulation (whether in the form of command-and-control requirements or in the form of …

Implementing The Behavioral Wedge: Designing And Adopting Effective Carbon Emissions Reduction Programs, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Paul C. Stern, Gerald T. Gardner, Thomas Dietz, Jonathan M. Gilligan

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The limited progress of the recent Copenhagen climate negotiations and domestic legislative activity suggests that the time is ripe to identify additional politically viable, low-cost, nonintrusive strategies to reduce carbon emissions. Laws and policies that induce changes in household technology use and adoption are one such strategy. This "behavioral wedge" strategy can be pursued in the near term. The resulting emissions reductions will buy time for a stronger public consensus to emerge on the need for more costly carbon mitigation measures and will complement the addtional measures after they are adopted. In short, the case for the behavioral wedge is …

The Three Degrees Conference: One Year Later, Jennifer K. Barcelos, Gregory A. Hicks, Jennifer Marlow

Washington Law Review

This edition of the Washington Law Review features scholarship emanating from the 2009 Three Degrees Conference, and is a testament to the University of Washington School of Law’s continuing exploration of the connection between climate change and human rights through its larger Three Degrees project. Three Degrees is building on an agenda that began to take shape in late 2007 with the Malé Declaration on the Human Dimension of Global Climate Change, an initiative of the Association of Small Island States. It was the Malé Declaration that led to a call for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human …

Public Nuisance Suits For The Climate Justice Movement: The Right Thing And The Right Time, Randall S. Abate

Washington Law Review

The climate justice movement seeks to provide relief to vulnerable communities that have been disproportionately affected by climate change impacts. Public nuisance litigation for climate change impacts is a new and growing field that could provide the legal and policy underpinnings to help secure a viable foundation for climate justice in the United States and internationally. By securing victories in the court system, these suits may succeed where the domestic environmental justice movement failed in seeking to merge environmental protection and human rights concerns into an actionable legal theory. This Article first examines the nature and scope of the climate …

Allocating The Costs Of The Climate Crisis: Efficiency Versus Justice, Amy Sinden

Washington Law Review

In the international negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement to reduce the greenhouse-gas emissions that are driving global warming, the developed and developing countries are talking past each other. The developed world is speaking the language of efficiency, while the developing world speaks the language of justice. Economic theory and the concept of efficiency are fine for answering the question of who should reduce, but that is not the contentious issue. When it comes to the hotly contested issue of who should pay, economic theory offers no guidance, and the developing world is right to insist that we look to …

Global Warming: A Second Coming For International Law?, Deepa Badrinarayana

Washington Law Review

Currently, there are no adequate mechanisms under international law to balance the competing tensions climate change presents to state sovereignty. On one hand, climate change threatens state sovereignty because the catastrophic loss of life and property of millions of people would deprive states of control over their domestic territories. Yet, other states rely on claims of their sovereignty to reject international legal obligations to mitigate climate change. This Article attributes the inadequacy of international law in the climate context to the evolution of the international community into an economic union that has historically privileged material interests over legal rights. It …

Splitting Scales: Conflicting National And Regional Attempts To Manage Commercial Aquaculture In The Exclusive Economic Zone, Brandee Ketchum

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Like other environmental resources subject to public use, various interest groups struggle over joint management of scarce fisheries resources. Further, differing goals for resource management, such as financial goals versus conservation goals, frequently pit regional groups against one another. In some cases, regional interests may conflict with overall national interests. As goes the water and the air, so go the fish.

Apr. 21, 2010, Unathored, Summary Of Positions On Ifc Policy And Performance Standards And Disclosure Policy, Ifc

IFC E&S Performance Standards

No abstract provided.