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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Law

The University of Maine

Senator George J. Mitchell Center

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Interdisciplinary Research And Environmental Law, Caroline L. Noblet, Dave Owen Jan 2014

Interdisciplinary Research And Environmental Law, Caroline L. Noblet, Dave Owen

Publications

This Article considers the involvement of environmental law researchers in interdisciplinary research. Using a survey and a series of unstructured interviews, we explore environmental law professors’ level of interest in such research; the extent of their engagement in it; and the inducements and barriers they perceive to such research. We conclude that levels of engagement in such research are probably lower than they ought to be, and we therefore recommend steps that individuals and institutions could take to facilitate more and better interdisciplinary work. More generally, we conclude that some common critiques of interdisciplinary legal research rest on assumptions that …


Mapping, Modeling, And The Fragmentation Of Environmental Law., Dave Owen Jan 2013

Mapping, Modeling, And The Fragmentation Of Environmental Law., Dave Owen

Publications

In the past forty years, environmental researchers have achieved major advances in electronic mapping and spatially explicit, computer-based simulation modeling. Those advances have turned quantitative spatial analysis — that is, quantitative analysis of data coded to specific geographic locations — into one of the primary modes of environmental research. Researchers now routinely use spatial analysis to explore environmental trends, diagnose problems, discover causal relationships, predict possible futures, and test policy options. At a more fundamental level, these technologies and an associated field of theory are transforming how researchers conceptualize environmental systems. Advances in spatial analysis have had modest impacts upon …


Critical Habitat And The Challenge Of Regulating Small Harms., Dave Owen Jan 2012

Critical Habitat And The Challenge Of Regulating Small Harms., Dave Owen

Publications

This Article investigates how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the courts are implementing the Endangered Species Act’s prohibition on “adverse modification” of “critical habitat.” That prohibition appears to be one of environmental law’s most ambitious mandates, but its actual meaning and effect are contested. Using a database of over 4,000 “biological opinions,” interviews with agency staff, and a review of judicial decisions considering the adverse modification prohibition, this Article assesses the extent to which the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the courts are relying on the adverse modification …