Land Use Law Commons^™

Dark Accounting Matter, Colleen Honigsberg

Seattle University Law Review

Physicists calculate that approximately 85% of the matter in the universe is composed of “dark matter” that “does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation and is therefore difficult to detect.” The S&P 500 currently trades at a price-to-book value of 4.2, suggesting that book value accounts for less than 20% of the S&P 500’s market value. The remaining 80% appears nowhere in these firms’ balance sheets—it is invisible to contemporary accounting techniques and constitutes “dark accounting matter.”

Some “dark accounting matter” is composed of factors commonly described as components of “ESG.” Human capital, for example, is an intangible asset …

The Employees’ Dilemma: Balancing Internal Reporting, Whistleblowing, And Insider Trading Risks, Geeyoung Min

Seattle University Law Review

The Essay examines how recent developments in insider trading regulations and whistleblower reward programs can lead to unintended and counterproductive results of discouraging employees from using internal reporting channels within corporate compliance programs. While the presence of a robust and well-functioning corporate compliance program is a critical factor both in mitigating the level of public enforcement actions against companies and in protecting corporate managers from liability in private litigation, these programs often provide little incentive for employees to report potential misconduct internally.

Corporate compliance programs are designed to promote the upward information flow within the company, which is essential for …

How The Antidiscrimination Law Of Commercial Transactions Really Works, Helen Norton

Seattle University Law Review

A variety of businesses now cite 303 Creative when seeking First Amendment protection for their refusal to serve certain customers based on those customers’ protected class status. How this litigation will play out remains to be seen. But future courts need not, and should not, repeat the 303 Creative Court’s misunderstanding of how the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions actually works.

Part I of this Essay explains the Court’s longstanding understanding of the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions, and then describes the Court’s failure to engage with this precedent in 303 Creative. Part II then identifies the 303 Creative decision’s …

Understanding The Big Three’S Wavering Support Of Environmental And Social Shareholder Proposals, Jeff Schwartz, Jefferson Jensen

Seattle University Law Review

Because of their substantial equity portfolios, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street (the Big 3) are central players in corporate governance. It is, therefore, critical to understand how they vote. One puzzle is that their support for shareholder proposals on environmental and social matters appears to waiver. In 2020, for instance, BlackRock supported 11.1% of environmental proposals at S&P 500 firms. In 2021, it seemingly reversed course, supporting 55.2%. It then flipped again, supporting 32.1% in 2022. Such statistics suggest that the Big 3 are constantly changing their views on these topics. This Article seeks to better understand whether this is …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

The Centerline Presumption And Easements: A Property Owner's Guide To Understanding Property Rights In Land Ownership Disputes For Inverse Condemnation Lawsuits, Grant Houske

Law Student Works

In this Pathfinder guide, you will find a comprehensive analysis concerning the legal doctrine known as the centerline presumption combined with easements as two foundational requirements to establish liability as a basis for landowner property rights in asserting claims for an inverse condemnation claim/ "takings" claim, or quiet title lawsuits.

The research for this pathfinder will include history on the evolution of the centerline presumption, the "strip and gores" doctrine, easements, and the application of an easement with respect to potential ownership rights in real property subject to the possible application of the centerline presumption where a property owner can …

Resistance: The Mura Struggle Against Canadian Potash Mining In Brazil’S Amazon, Cardozo Law Institute In Holocaust And Human Rights (Clihhr), Federal University Of Rio Grande Do Sul, Graduate Program In Law (Ppgd/Ufrgs), International Human Rights Program (Ihrp), University Of Toronto Jackman Law, Observatory Of Socio-Environmental Law And Human Rights In The Amazon (Odsdh/Ufam)

CLIHHR Reports & Policy Submissions

A comprehensive human rights and environmental report documenting the Mura Indigenous people’s resistance to Brazil Potash’s Autazes Potash Project in the Brazilian Amazon. The report details environmental risks, human rights violations, failures in consultation processes, litigation history, corporate accountability, and the ongoing struggle for land demarcation.

Green Dividends: A Case Study In Green Dividends And The Conditions For Private Ordering Solutions, Anne M. Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay introduces a novel private ordering solution to facilitate corporate investments in pro-social and environmental initiatives: Green dividends. Green dividends are an optional increase in shareholder dividends that are returned to the company to be reinvested in environmental initiatives or kept by a shareholder.

Green dividends pose an alternative to the current gridlocked debate that corporations can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, and shouldn’t even try to act in pro-social or environmental ways. Turning the common refrains on their head converts each narrative into an element for a successful private ordering solution: authority, accountability, shareholder buy-in, and government- backed enforcement. With Green …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Identifying Intangible And Biocultural Heritage Elements Toward Environmental Understanding: Engaging Stakeholders Through Art, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Grounded in a case study in Barbuda in the Caribbean, this research examines sustainability from the perspective of what arts and heritage can contribute to community engagement and local and broader understandings about the environment. This article documents a growing body of literature recognizing the role of arts and culture, including local knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), in climate change endeavors. Art and TEK present expansive world views. Contextual information situates research done on the island of Barbuda pre- and post-Hurricane Irma. Visual arts workshops engaged community members in mixed methods research. Results documented cultural elements, particularly intangible and …

A Guide To Urban Planning And Environmentalism, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Review of The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook, by Nico Larco, Kaarin Knudson.

Company Districts, C.J. Suglia

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Special districts that are owned or controlled by private entities and act almost uniformly like a company town can be dubbed a “company district.” These special districts, similar to historical company towns, have autonomy over the districts, control the local government, and only have to answer to the state government. Historical company towns like Pullman, Illinois and Hershey, Pennsylvania had almost canonical command over the land within their boundaries. Company districts operate their business similar to a company town—in a city that the private entity controls, but do not have employees living on-site. Company districts benefit by being immune to …

The Reedy Creek Improvement District: A Comparative Analysis Underscoring The Problems In Hampering Special Districts, J. Patrick Moll

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In 2022, the Florida legislature passed a bill that removed the administration of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the special district governing the Walt Disney World Resort. The bill replaced it with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Governor Ron DeSantis hailed this legislation as a success in reigning in a corporation operating with unchecked and unprecedented levels of governmental authority. Since its inception, however, the replacement administration has contended with claims of ethical violations, inefficiency, and unconstitutional enactment. Before the repeal of the Walt Disney World special district, special districts themselves were not often present in the Nation’s everyday …

How To Teach A Course On Land Use And Anti-Jewish Discrimination, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

In 2022, I was asked to teach a one-week mini-course within a broader course on "Structural Barriers and the Pursuit of Equity," a course focusing on various forms of structural discrimination. The course is typically taught by over a dozen professors from various parts of Touro University, each of whom teaches for a week on a different topic. I chose to teach on issues related to land use law (because my scholarship focuses on that area) and in particular how land use law has been used by and against traditionally observant Jews (because that is the religious tradition I am …

Free Movement Rights And The American City, Ryan Stoa

FIU Law Review

American cities are facing an inflection point. Widespread dissatisfaction with urban planning outcomes is making land use and transportation policies (such as congestion pricing) a mainstream topic of debate. Suburban sprawl and housing shortages are moving urban populations into the periphery, commuting times (and associated mental health problems) are increasing, and pedestrian and cyclist deaths caused by vehicles are at all-time highs. American cities that were largely planned and built in the twentieth century based on assumptions that we now know are flawed are not meeting the needs of their residents, and urban planners are making changes to reshape urban …

The Effectiveness Of The Minnesota Buffer Law And Its Impacts On People, Ellen P. Isakson

Journal of Earth and Life Science

In January 2015, the then-governor of Minnesota Mark Dayton announced new legislation that would require 50-foot vegetation buffers along all waterways in Minnesota; this legislation would come to be known as the Minnesota buffer law, exact requirements being “perennial vegetative buffers of up to 50 feet along lakes, rivers, and streams and buffers of 16.5 feet along ditches” (Albert, 2017; MN Board of Water and Soil Resources [MN BWSR] 4 ). A buffer in the context of vegetation and natural resource management is a strip of vegetation around a body of water “designed to intercept stormwater runoff and minimize soil …

The Legal Debate: Corner Crossing And Public Land Access, Kaden Leverenz

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Is it legal to cross from one corner of public land to an adjacent corner of public land across checkerboarded landscapes in the American West? This question regarding corner crossing has become one of the most prominent and unresolved issues in public land access. Although federal courts in Iron Bar Holdings v. Cape (2025) confirmed corner crossing, without touching or damaging private land, does not constitute trespass, the legal landscape still remains unsettled. Public land users play a significant role in shaping the direction of this issue, as demonstrated by past public mobilizations against large-scale land sell-offs. Therefore, this paper …

Zoning The Subsurface, Hannah Jacobs Wiseman, Anne Menefee, Seth Blumsack, Michael Helbing

Faculty Scholarship

The vast rock formations underlying the United States stand at an important Demsetzian turning point, at which the externalities of inadequately defined property rights justify the costs of solidifying formal property rights for this resource. This need arises from the growing scarcity of pore space (tiny openings) in subsurface rocks—property that is critical to address climate change. Efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate impacts require large-scale underground storage of carbon dioxide, water, and energy within the pore space of subsurface reservoirs. The subsurface will also continue to house millions of miles of pipelines, hundreds of thousands of waste disposal …

The Law Of Energy Abundance, Alexandra B. Klass, Matthew Appel

Articles

For the first time in decades, electricity demand in the United States is increasing due to the growth of data centers to power artificial intelligence, new manufacturing hubs, and transportation electrification. At the same time, coalfired power plants have been closing in response to competition from lower cost natural gas and renewable energy. Clean energy is being rapidly deployed to replace fossil fuels but not quickly enough to address concerns about demand growth and grid reliability. Accordingly, there is a growing imbalance between electricity supply and demand in many regions of the country that threatens to increase electricity prices and …

Community Redevelopment Agencies' (Cras) Perceptions Of The Legal, Ethical, Economic, And Financial Impacts On Florida's Redevelopment Since The Passage Of Florida House Bill 9 In 2019, Laurel L. Richmond

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This qualitative study explores the legal, ethical, economic, and financial impacts on Community Redevelopment Agencies (CRAs) following the passage of Florida House Bill (HB) 9 in 2019 by interviewing administrators and attorneys of the oldest Florida CRAs. CRAs are dependent special districts, funded by tax increment financing (TIF), and created to address areas deemed slum, blighted, or facing a shortage of affordable housing. HB 9 intended to address transparency and accountability issues and restore CRA operations and spending back to the original purpose, as authorized by Florida Statute 169.

The findings are timely and novel, given it has been five …