Natural Resources Law Commons^™

An Introduction To The National Park Service Symposium, Sarah J. Morath

Akron Law Review

This symposium features four different perspectives on the National Park Service Centennial, and includes the voice of Donald J. Hellman, an attorney who has spent much of his career working for the National Park Service in Washington, D.C., Jamison E. Colburn, an environmental law and policy scholar at Penn State Law School and former EPA attorney, Julie Joly Lurman, a natural resources law and public lands expert, and Liz Putnam, a youth and conservation advocate.

Public Conservation Policies On Private Land: A Case Study Of The Brazilian Forest Code And Implications For The Agro-Industry Sector, Rayane Aguiar, Jody M. Endres, Caroline Taylor, Samuel Evans

Pace Environmental Law Review

The objectives of this paper are to discuss (1) a brief history of the Brazilian Forest Code (FC); (2) key aspects of the 2012 FC revisions; (3) the status of implementation, including institutional and field-level challenges, as well as economic incentives to ease compliance; and (4) the importance of the FC for the Brazilian agro-industrial sector.

Text Of Solicitor Opinions And A Presidential Letter Regarding National Monuments And The Antiquities Act Of 1906, Mark Squillace

Research Data

These five full-text documents are cited in Mark Squillace, The Monumental Legacy of the Antiquities Act of 1906, 37 Ga. L. Rev. 473 (2003), available at http://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles/508; and/or Mark Squillace, Eric Biber, Nicholas S. Bryner & Sean B. Hecht, Presidents Lack the Authority to Abolish or Diminish National Monuments, 103 Va. L. Rev. Online 55 (2017), http://www.virginialawreview.org/sites/virginialawreview.org/files/Hecht%20PDF.pdf:

• U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, Opinion of Apr. 20, 1915 (cited in Opinion of January 30, 1935, M-27657).

• U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor, Opinion of June 3, 1924, M-12501, M-12529 (cited …

Shooting Stars And Dancing Fish: A Walk To The World We Want, Tony Oposa

Environmental Law Program Publications @ Haub Law

From the foreword by Durwood Zaelke, President, Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, Washington, DC.

“Since the beginning of time, human knowledge and culture have been passed down through stories. Short stories, songs, prayers, poems, even paintings can stick in your mind forever. These have always been the most powerful ways we learn and remember.

Tony is not only one of the world’s greatest lawyers, he is also one of the world’s greatest storytellers.

This book, in which he generously shares his experiences, his scars, and most importantly his humanity, is Tony’s gift to generations to come.

But he does …

Illicit Exploitation Of Natural Resources - Art. 28l Bis Of The Malabo Protocol, James G. Stewart, Daniëlla Dam

All Faculty Publications

Article 28A(1)(13) of the Protocol to the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights lists ‘Illicit exploitation of natural resources’ as a criminal offense within the Court’s jurisdiction. In conjunction with the new mandate of the African Court, which includes the exercise of jurisdiction over corporations for the first time in an international treaty, the prohibition of “illicit exploitation of natural resources” creates an offense with especially sharp teeth, for business people, their corporations, military actors and politicians. The crime constitutes an important innovation in international law, since it offers a distinct legal basis for prosecution of …

Optimal Property Rights For Emerging Natural Resources: A Case Study On Owning Atmospheric Moisture, Jianlin Chen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article critically examines the design of property rights for emerging natural resources—naturally occurring substances that humans have only recently come to be able to exploit viably—through a case study of how the fifty states allocate ownership in, and regulate the use of, atmospheric moisture, an issue that has emerged in the context of weather modification (particularly cloud seeding). Building on the surprising finding that legislative declarations of state ownership have not resulted in greater regulatory control or other substantial restrictions on private use, this Article highlights a dimension of property rights design that has yet to receive concerted scholarly …

Employment From Mining And Agricultural Investments: How Much Myth, How Much Reality?, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Olle Östensson, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Employment creation is often seen as a key benefit of investment in natural resources. However, this benefit sometimes falls short: job estimates may be inflated, governmental policies may fail to maximize employment generation, and, in some cases, investments may lead to net livelihood losses. A more thorough examination of employment tied to mining and agricultural investments is thus useful for assessing whether and how employment from natural resource investments contributes to sustainable economic development – a particularly timely topic as countries consider how they will achieve the Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015.

This report aims to clarify the processes …

Recent Case Decisions, Daniel Franklin, Jordan Volino, John Curtis, Jarrod H. Gamble, Patrick J. Hoog, Taylor C. Venus

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor's Introduction, Daniel Franklin

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Periodic Review In Natural Resource Contracts, Jacky Mandelbaum, Salli Anne Swartz, John Hauert

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Periodic contract review mechanisms, which are provisions in contracts that formally require parties to meet at particular intervals to review the terms of the contract, are mechanisms that may facilitate the process of negotiating contractual changes to accommodate changing circumstances over the term of extractive industries contracts. Through the review of existing extractive industries agreements, this article considers how such review mechanisms have been incorporated into existing contracts and the use of such mechanisms as a tool for maintaining good relationships between the parties. In addition, the article suggests a new approach to the drafting of these mechanisms by negotiating …

Editor's Introduction, Daniel Franklin

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Conservation Options: An Argument For Statutory Recognition Of Options To Purchase Conservation Easements (Opces), Federico Cheever, Jessica Owley

Articles

Land conservation transactions have been the most active component of the conservation movement in the United States for the past three decades. Conservation organizations have acquired property rights-mostly conservation easements-to protect roughly 40 million acres of land nationwide. However, climate change threatens this vast edifice. Climate change means that the resources that land conservation transactions were intended to protect may not persist on the land protected. Options to purchase conservation easements ("OPCEs") have long played a modest but important role in conservation law practice. In the world climate change is creating, with its substantial uncertainties and shifting windows of opportunity, …

International Investment Law And The Extractive Industries Sector, Lise Johnson, Jesse Coleman

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Since the 1990s, international investment law has been rapidly evolving, resulting in a complex web of over 3,000 investment treaties. These treaties have been used to challenge a wide range of host state actions and inactions that have allegedly negatively affected foreign investors or investments. Those challenges, in turn, expose host states to potentially significant financial costs, and can restrict the ability of such states to maximize the benefits, and limit the environmental and social harms, that can result from the exploitation of natural resources. This briefing note provides an introduction to international investment law, with a view to assisting …

New Approaches To Energy Development In Indian Country: The Trust Relationship And Tribal Self-Determination At (Yet Another) Crossroads, Monte Mills

Articles

Energy development in Indian country exists at the crossroads of tribal self-determination and the federal government's trust responsibility. This article reviews the foundations of this crossroads, describes recent developments, and analyzes pending proposals that may enhance both tribal sovereignty and energy development in Indian country.

Public Trust Doctrine Implications Of Electricity Production, Lance Noel, Jeremy Firestone

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The public trust doctrine is a powerful legal tool in property law that requires the sovereign, as a trustee, to protect and manage natural resources. Historically, the public trust doctrine has been used in relationship to navigable waterways and wildlife management. Despite electricity production’s impact on those two areas and the comparatively smaller impacts of renewable energy, electricity production has garnered very little public trust doctrine attention. This Article examines how electricity production implicates the public trust doctrine, primarily through the lens of four states—California, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and New Jersey—and how it would potentially apply to each state’s electricity planning …

Measuring Land Rights For A Sustainable Future, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Jeffrey D. Sachs

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Land rights, both for individuals and for communities, are critical for achieving sustainable development. Security of land tenure and other rights to the land (sometimes held communally rather than individually) can accelerate poverty reduction, strengthen food security, and empower women. Land rights can reduce resource conflicts, as well as encourage the responsible use of natural resources. As the UN member countries begin to implement the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), they should keep land rights in their focus, and measure and protect land rights in order to achieve the SDGs.

Environmental Law And The Collapse Of New Deal Constitutionalism, Arthur F. Mcevoy

Akron Law Review

This Article, which is a précis for a book in progress about the history of late twentieth-century U.S. environmental law, argues that our modern environmental law is peculiarly a creature of the New Deal. Despite its obvious legacy from common-law nuisance and Progressive regulation, what makes modern environmental law different from anything that came before is the way in which reformers built it out of parts copied from New Deal reform projects: cooperative federalism, the tax-and-spend power, representation-reinforcing, rights trumps, and so on. Environmental law’s history, its character, its accomplishments, and its shortcomings thus entwined with those of the New …

Symposium: The Next Generation Of Environmental And Natural Resources Law: What Has Changed In Forty Years And What Needs To Change As A Result, Kalyani Robbins

Akron Law Review

Introduction to nine perspectives changing in the field of Environmental and Natural Resources Law. These discussions, and our shared concern for the issues that will impact the planet for centuries to come, are so valuable.

Slides: The Columbia River Treaty, Barbara Cosens

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Presenter: Barbara Cosens, Professor, University of Idaho College of Law and Waters of the West Graduate Program

22 slides

Natural Resource Contracts As A Tool For Managing The Mining Sector, David Kienzler, Perrine Toledano, Sophie Thomashausen, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In this report commissioned by the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), CCSI examined the different types of legal regimes governing mining projects in 18 countries to gain a better understanding of mining deals granted and negotiated under different minerals regimes. CCSI compared the provisions of 30 mining contracts from 13 countries, analyzed a selection of mining-related legislative texts from 18 countries, and surveyed the experiences of mining contract negotiations through dozens of interviews with experts, government officials, company representatives, and members of civil society organizations.

The report …

Slides: Practicing Sustainability In Natural Resource Industries, Gary D. Libecap

Natural Resource Industries and the Sustainability Challenge (Martz Winter Symposium, February 27-28)

Presenter: Gary D. Libecap, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and Economics Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

10 slides

The Long-Term Tort: In Search Of A New Causation Framework For Natural Resource Damages, Sanne H. Knudsen

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Keeping Track Of Conservation, Jessica Owley

Articles

Throughout the world, governments require land protection in exchange for development permits. Unfortunately, oftentimes scant attention has been paid to these land protection programs after development. Agencies and permit applicants agree on mitigation rules, but there appears to be little follow-up. When we do not know where conservation is occurring and cannot determine the rules of mitigation projects, the likelihood that they will be successful or enforced diminishes. I journeyed to California in search of answers by tracing four mitigation plans associated with the Federal Endangered Species Act. While I anticipated some difficulties, the tale is more alarming than expected. …

Breaking The Curse: A Multilayered Regulatory Approach, Hunter Dekoninck

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Eastern Africa has been plagued for generations with what Richard Auty considers 'The Resource Curse." This curse, translated into modern economic tragedies, is the exploitive extraction and use of precious minerals from Eastern Africa, specifically the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As a result of attempts to combat the international market that perpetuates this curse, Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, largely in response to human rights activism, passed into law a provision requiring companies to account to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for their use of certain listed foreign minerals. Although such regulation is …

Report Of The Special Rapporteur On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples On The Situation Of Maori People In New Zealand, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Fair Market Value Of Public Resources, Bruce R. Huber

Journal Articles

This Article explores the problem of public resource sales with particular reference to natural resources managed by the federal government. Lands owned by the United States hold trillions of dollars' worth of natural resources. Federal agencies earn billions in annual revenue from resource sales, yet critics assert that billions more could be reaped if resources were sold for a fair price. Although federal law has increasingly required that agencies price resources at fair market value, this requirement is surprisingly difficult to interpret and even more dfficult to implement and enforce. This Article analyzes the various forces that bear on public …

Report Of The Special Rapporteur On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples On The Situation Of Indigenous Peoples In Canada, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Keystone Xl Pipeline And The Dormant Commerce Clause: Would Action By Congress Preclude Adequate Environmental Regulation At The State Level?, S. Shane Stroud

Utah Law Review

The Commerce Clause significantly limits the ability of States and localities to regulate or otherwise burden the flow of interstate commerce, but it does not elevate free trade above all other values. As long as a State does not needlessly obstruct interstate trade or attempt to place itself in a position of economic isolation, it retains broad regulatory authority to protect the health and safety of its citizens and the integrity of its natural resources.

Introduction, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.

Report Of The Special Rapporteur On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples On The Situation Of Indigenous Peoples In The Republic Of The Congo, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.