Environmental Law Commons^™

Energy Justice And Renewable Rikers, Rebecca Bratspies

University of Miami Law Review

Unsustainable energy practices generate the lion’s share of global carbon emissions as well as staggering levels of deadly particulate pollution. Replacing the current dirty, fossil fuel-based system with affordable, clean energy is both a human rights imperative and a climate change necessity. This transition, which has already begun, creates the opportunity to do things differently. By confronting the structural racism embedded in existing energy structures, we can build a just transition rather than just a transition. This Article uses New York City’s Renewable Rikers project as a case study to explore how we might take advantage of the intersections between …

Seeding A Movement: Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Mariaelena Huambachano

University of Miami Law Review

For many Indigenous peoples, well-being is bound up with and inseparable from the natural world. But since colonialism, Indigenous traditions and access to traditional foods or foodways have been disrupted, imperiling their health and well-being. In this Article, I discuss the role of Indigenous cosmovision/worldview and Indigenous Food Sovereignty in achieving environmental justice. Specifically, in this Article, I discuss that despite, or perhaps because of, efforts to deny Indigenous peoples’ access to healthy and culturally appropriate foods, Indigenous Food Sovereignty took a rise of preciousness in informing natural regenerative food systems, and ultimately, “holistic/collective well-being.”

Indigenous Knowledge As Evidence In Federal Rule-Making, Edward Randall Ornstein

University of Miami Law Review

Recent and historic federal guidance instructs agencies to consider Indigenous Knowledge in decision-making where it is available. However, tribal advocates are faced with many hurdles, in the form of “information quality” criteria, which requires the collection and dissemination of Indigenous Knowledge to conform to a complex set of procedural rules before agencies may be willing to consider it as evidence for rule-making. This Article seeks to define Indigenous Knowledge, highlight the hurdles to its implementation by federal agencies, and equip tribal advocates and officials with strategies and a demonstrative example of best practices for the packaging and presentation of Indigenous …

Public Health Impacts And Intra-Urban Forced Displacement Due To Climate Gentrification In The Greater Miami Area—Community Lawyering For Environmental Justice And Equitable Development, Theresa Pinto, Abigail Fleming, Sabrina Payoute, Elissa Klein

University of Miami Law Review

Because Miami-Dade County is “ground zero” for such climate effects as sea-level rise and increasingly hazardous, climate-driven Atlantic hurricanes, the coral rock ridge that runs along the Eastern coast of South Florida is a prime target for redevelopment and “climate” gentrification. Through a community and movement lawyering for environmental justice approach, we partnered with local community organizations to contribute to the ongoing work of community-driven equitable development. In partnership, we developed an environmental public health study to understand and document the public health effects on disadvantaged communities in Miami-Dade County from forced intra-urban displacement due to redevelopment that is being …

Evolving Legal Conceptions Of “Energy Communities”, Uma Outka

University of Miami Law Review

The concept of “energy communities” has had long-standing and evolving significance in the United States and in other countries around the world. Under the Biden Administration, the term “energy communities” has acquired new legal meanings that differ by context and continue to evolve. This Article traces the shifting meaning of “energy communities” and examines how it relates to other dominant references to “communities” in the context of energy law and policy, including environmental justice, low-income, underserved, and disadvantaged communities, as well as newer community-scale energy system innovations, such as community solar or “advanced energy communities.” International comparisons, such as with …

The Underwater: Using Art To Engage Communities Around Climate Action, Xavier Cortada

University of Miami Law Review

This Article delves into the intersection of art and environmental activism, with a focus on the impact of climate change. Cortada, both an artist and trained attorney, re-counts his three-decade journey leveraging art to inspire community engagement and address social and environmental challenges. He explains how Antarctic researchers made him aware of South Florida's vulnerability to sea level rise, leading to the development of interactive art projects that foster civic engagement and climate advocacy. The Article also addresses the challenges posed by climate denial and misinformation, emphasizing the need for creative strategies to combat these issues.

Cortada introduces specific participatory …

Till The Rivers All Run Dry: Equal Sovereignty And The Western Water Crisis, Simon Ciccarillo

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Across the United States, a countless number of people rely on groundwater for basic necessities such as eating, drinking, agriculture, and energy-creation. At the same time, overuse combined with increasingly dry conditions throughout the country, tied to the increasingly unpredictable and devastating impacts of climate change, threaten this fundamental building block of society. Nowhere is this problem more pernicious than the American Southwest. The Colorado River Basin has always been the epicenter of water disputes between communities and states. Bad policies, unhelpful federal actions, and sluggish Supreme Court decisions stop the painful but necessary steps to address the increasingly dire …

Respect My Authority: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Public Authority, Tom J. Letourneau

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

This comment synthesizes various historical aspects of motor vehicle infrastructure in the United States. The network of issues at play involves centuries of public policy decisions made at the local, state, and federal level, which twentieth century legal innovations hastened and curdled into the car culture we are all a part of today. The public authority is the paradigm of these legal innovations, but it has outlived its usefulness in the face climate change and burgeoning issues relating to urbanism.

Windward Woes: The Misalignment Of Economic Incentives And Renewable Energy Development Goals, Matthew S. Edwards

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

Energy tax credits have always been a significant driver of renewable energy development, but the recent Inflation Reduction Act in response to new national development goals represents the most significant change in several decades. The Inflation Reduction Act is certainly a step in the right direction, but there are numerous factors that limit the impact on future developments that should be remedied to allow for the nation’s best chance to reach 2030 renewable energy goals.

30 Years Removed, Oil-Spill Liability Insurance's Evolution Since The 1989 Exxon Valdez Incident, Rejo Mathew

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

In the thirty years since the Exxon Valdez incident, much has changed. This article looks back at the events of the accident and the subsequent changes to the marine pollution insurance industry, from the statutes regulating oil tankers in 1989 to the Oil Pollution Act of the 1990. The regulatory framework resulting from the Exxon Valdez is examined and compared to the litigation deriving from the spill.

Getting The Green Light: Renewable Energy As An Internal Tribal Matter, J. Shinay

Maine Law Review

For over forty years the Wabanaki people of Maine have had their sovereignty diminished as a result of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA), an arrangement with the state and federal government unlike any other tribal sovereignty arrangement in the Unites States. The MICSA was born from a decades-long debate over land rights and resource rights in Maine, culminating in a “compromise” that avoided political conflict at the expense of Wabanaki sovereignty. Under the MICSA, the Wabanaki do not have sovereign status, instead only holding sovereign control over those matters the state deems “internal tribal matters.” Among the many …

Legal, Policy, And Environmental Scholars Discuss Global Food Systems At Indiana Law Symposium, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

The Indiana University Maurer School of Law and its Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies are hosting scholars from around the country Friday and Saturday (Jan. 19-20) for an interdisciplinary discussion on one of the world’s most prevalent problems—food insecurity.

Data from the World Bank estimate more than 780 million people around the world suffered from chronic hunger in 2022. As climate change affects agricultural production and water accessibility, the problem could worsen in coming years.

“A Fragile Framework: How Global Food Systems Intersect with the International Legal Order, the Environment, and the World’s Populations” will bring together legal, policy, …

Animal Liberation Front: Threat To Kentucky, Zoe E. Hunt

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is a global terrorist organization that was founded in 1976. Since the creation of ALF, the group has spread rapidly as well as turned into a domestic terrorist organization in the United States. With this project, the group's potential threat to Kentucky was evaluated. ALF was evaluated using four structured analytic techniques and an intelligence collection plan. A better understanding of what ALF is was formed by the discussion of the group’s origins, ideology, and organization. In addition, the group's goals, objectives, and capabilities were discussed. Using the information gathered during the threat profile, the …

Labor Rights In The Anthropocene: The Effects Of Climate Change On Undocumented Farm Workers, Sophia Anderson

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Forever Chemicals Are Infiltrating America, And The Nation Is Letting Impoverished And Marginalized Communities Take The Brunt Of The Contamination, Elizabeth Troutman

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Journal Of Food Law & Policy - Fall 2023, Journal Editors

Journal of Food Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Enforcing International Human Rights Law Against Corporations, Barnali Choudhury

All Papers

International human rights law is generally thought to apply directly to states, not to corporations since the latter is not a subject of international law. Some domestic courts are, however, enforcing these norms against corporations in domestic settings. Canadian courts have, for instance, recognized that corporations can be liable for breach of customary international law norms while UK courts have enforced international human rights norms indirectly against corporations relying on a combination of domestic corporate and tort law.

At the same time, some states are choosing to enforce international human rights norms against corporations using regulatory initiatives. These initiatives, known …

Corporate Climate Litigation And Environmental Justice: How Green Amendments Can Be Used To Advance Accountability And Equity, Noah Hines

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

The term “Green Amendment” was first coined by author Maya van Rossum in her 2017 book The Green Amendment: Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment, in which she argues that modern environmental protection laws are fundamentally failing the most vulnerable people in society and proposes the creation of new constitutional rights as a solution. The provisions van Rossum argues ought to be added to state constitutions as “Green Amendments” are also sometimes called “Environmental Rights Amendments,” and generally enumerate the right of all citizens to a clean or healthy environment. Green Amendments currently exist in Pennsylvania, Montana, Illinois, Hawaii, …

Calming The Waters: The International Atomic Energy Agency As A Viable Model To Address Water Weaponization, Jenna Beasley

Emory International Law Review

No abstract provided.

“Green” Is The New Black: Enforcing Consumer Protection Laws Against Greenwashing In The Fashion Industry, Emma Sammons

Emory International Law Review

As climate change continues to relentlessly change landscapes, threaten harvests, and increase the frequency of natural disasters, legislators and regulators globally must expand upon their efforts to protect the environment and citizens from the harmful practices of corporations, some of the greatest contributors to climate change. One of the greatest perpetrators of harm to the environment is the fashion industry. The harm is further compounded by the rise of fast fashion companies. These companies utilize methods of rapid production and encourage overconsumption, resulting in a rampant storefront to landfill cycle. However, legal activists, politicians, the public, and some industry leaders …