Environmental Law Commons^™

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 …

Creating Land With Artificial Oyster Rings: Legal Challenges From State Owned Bottom Land To Living Shorelines, Faith Parker, Will Reach

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

The Virginia Sea Grant program approached VCPC to conduct research in partnership with the William & Mary Public Policy Program and a James Madison University (JMU) architecture professor, Jori Erdman. Professor Erdman is researching the viability of creating land with artificial oyster rings based on similar projects seen in Louisiana. Professor Erdman has provided the diagrams of the project used throughout this paper. Ultimately, this paper examines some legal issues raised by the use of these rings to prevent coastal erosion or act as a flooding buffer for commercial or residential buildings. With this goal in mind, this paper addresses …

Does The Community Choice Aggregation Approach Advance Distributed Generation Development? A Case Study Of Municipalities In California, Robin M. Rotman, Jun Deng

Faculty Publications

Globally, decentralized energy systems are gaining popularity due to their potential for energy accessibility, energy resilience, and sustainability benefits. Existing research on an energy system decentralization approach, community choice aggregation (CCA), shows its ability to lower energy costs and increase renewable electricity consumption for U.S. communities. Nevertheless, research on the relationship between CCA and distributed electricity generation development is lacking. This paper fills this gap by investigating if the CCA approach associates with distributed generation capacity interconnection in California municipalities. The finding shows that although the average capacity has increased for all municipalities throughout the study period, contrary to proponents’ …

Criminalization Of Community-Based Ecotourism (Cbet) In Indonesia: The Cases Of Pari Island, Kepulauan Seribu, Janthi Dharma Shanty, Bono Budi Priambodo

Journal of Indonesian Tourism and Policy Studies

Pari islanders have revamped their island into cultural ecotourism destination since 2010. It has been successful because the activities have diverted the islanders’ dependence on the hard-pressed local coastal and fisheries resources and supplemented their income. This is a win-win situation the Indonesian government seeks to create with the 2007 Coastal Zone and Small Islands Management Law where natural conservation benefits local populace economically. The Law stipulates, among others, that community participation is one of the integrated coastal zone management principles. The Law also prioritizes coastal zones for conservation and tourism activities. Pari islanders thus have already implemented the imperatives …

Prioritizing Regional Wildlife Conservation By Rejuvenating The Western Hemisphere Convention On Nature Protection, Shade Streeter, David Hunter, William Snape Iii

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Last year, parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (“CBD”), representing nearly every nation, signed a milestone agreement committing, among other things, to conserve thirty percent of Earth’s lands and oceans to stave off the rapid diminution of the planet’s biodiversity. Implementing these global commitments will require not only strong domestic measures, but also enhanced regional cooperation targeting the conservation of the region’s migratory wildlife and shared resources. Although the United States is the sole major holdout from the CBD, it can still reassert its leadership in regional wildlife conservation by rejuvenating the Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation …

Unclos, Undrip & Tartupaluk: The Grim Tale Of Hans Isle And Graense, Christopher Mark Macneill

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

“Inuit have lived in the Arctic from time immemorial.” The Arctic, in the face of climate change, has become a hot spot for exploration, resource extraction, and increased shipping and scientific activity. “[The] Inuit . . . have had a common and shared use of the sea area and the adjacent coasts” among their own communities, and contemporaneously with the world. This vast circumpolar Inuit Arctic region includes land, sea, and ice stretching from eastern Russia (Chukotka region) across the Berring Strait, to Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, and Greenland, representing an Inuit homeland known as Nunaat. Hans Isle, a small …

The Great Climate Migration: A Critique Of Global Legal Standards Of Climate-Change Caused Harm, Mariah Stephens

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Approximately 2.4 billion people, or about forty percent of the global population, live within sixty miles (one hundred kilometers) of a coastline. The United Nations (“U.N.”) determined that “a sea level rise of half a meter could displace 1.2 million people from low-lying islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Indian and Pacific Oceans, with that number almost doubling if the sea level rises by two metres.” The U.N. also reports that “sudden weather-related hazards” have internally displaced an annual average of 21.5 million people since 2008. Within the next few decades, this number is likely to continue to increase. …

The Future Of Crypto-Asset Mining: The Inflation Reduction Act And The Need For Uniform Federal Regulation, Liz Guinan

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Crypto-asset mining is energy-intensive and environmentally harmful, presenting challenges and opportunities for federal, state and local governments, regulators, and society as a whole. As of December 2021, the United States has thirty-eight percent of the global crypto network hash rate, which is the total amount of computational power used to mine and process crypto transactions, making the United States the world’s largest crypto-asset mining industry. The total electricity consumption of crypto-asset mining in the United States is estimated to be around 121.36 terawatt-hours (“TWh”) per year, which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of approximately 10.9 million households in the …

Editors' Note, Rachel Keylon, Meghen Sullivan

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

For more than two decades, the Sustainable Development Law and Policy Brief (“SDLP”) has published works analyzing emerging legal and policy issues within the fields of environmental, energy, sustainable development, and natural resources law. SDLP has also prioritized making space for law students in the conversation. We are honored to continue this tradition in Volume XXIII.

Higher Altitudes And Higher Standards: Advocating The Fcc Require Environmental Assessments For Mega- Constellations, John Latson

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This article will explore why the FCC’s current regime on categorical exclusions is ill-prepared for the developing mega-constellation industry, why the regime should be revised to require that companies launching mega-constellations file an Environmental Assessment (EA) as defined in the National Environmental Policy Act, and how such a change might fiscally impact these companies. Part II of this article will explore the National Environmental Policy Act, discussing the purpose of the Act and the goals Congress sought to accomplish. Part III will consider the FCC’s policy on categorical exclusions and EAs, with a comparison of how some other federal agencies …

Fostering Resilience Within Ecological Civilization: Contributions Of Environmental Law, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

My presentation will examine water, to illustrate the questions that Ecological Civilization presents. I shall address five points: (1) Often proposals for attaining Ecological Civilization raise issues relevant to environmental law, but do not examine the roles that environmental law can serve; (2) environmental law is essential to resolving unsustainable water management issues; (3) scientific studies indicate that trends in global environmental degradation limit the time available for implementing reforms to attain Ecological Civilization; (4) environmental legal systems for environmental impact assessment (EIA) can accelerate efforts to attain Ecological Civilization; and (5) For Ecological Civilization to ensure a firm foundation …

Federal Environmental Justice Legislation And Regulations, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Carajás Corridor In Brazil: Could An Sea Have Reconciled Shared-Use Infrastructure And Environmental Protection?, Perrine Toledano, Martin Dietrich Brauch

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

The 998km Carajás railway corridor connects the world’s largest iron ore mine, operated by private mining company Vale S.A. (Vale) in Brazil’s northern state of Pará (PA), to the company’s maritime terminal in São Luís, the capital of the northeastern state of Maranhão (MA). Carajás is one of the few integrated railway corridors financed by a mining company that, apart from transporting the iron ore that made the infrastructure investments viable, also transports general cargo and operates passenger services along the corridor. This corridor was born from the Brazilian government’s plans in the mid1950s that foresaw the iron ore reserves …

Global Climate Litigation Report: 2023 Status Review, Michael Burger, Maria Antonia Tigre

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This Global Climate Litigation Report: 2023 Status Review, which updates previous United Nations Environment Programme reports published in 2017 and 2020, provides an overview of the current state of climate change litigation and an update of global climate change litigation trends. It provides judges, lawyers, advocates, policymakers, researchers, environmental defenders, climate activists, human rights activists (including women’s rights activists), NGOs, businesses and the international community with an essential resource to understand the current state of global climate litigation, including descriptions of the key issues that courts have faced in the course of climate change cases.

Antitrust And Sustainability: A Landscape Analysis, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, Sabin Center For Climate Change Law

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Competition policy and antitrust law are experiencing a global renaissance. New market realities such as digital market gatekeepers, the financialization of firms, highly concentrated markets, a rising labor movement, industrial policy, and trade wars, among others, are radically reshaping how this policy area is understood and applied.

Sustainability concerns have also been a driving force for reconstituting antitrust to meet twenty-first century challenges. It is now widely accepted that competition policy – both its aims and its enforcement – has wider societal impacts beyond competition, including effects on democracy, economic inequality, growth and innovation, racial and gender imbalances, privacy, geopolitical …

Modelling Climate Litigation Risk For (Re)Insurers, Martin Lockman

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

In response to the growing threat of climate change, the insurance industry has made significant investments in modelling and quantifying physical climate risks. However, the emerging risk of climate litigation has proven particularly difficult to model. In 2015 Mark Carney, then-Governor of the Bank of England and Chairman of the Financial Stability Board, warned that climate litigation poses “long-tail risks” for insurers that may be “significant, uncertain and non-linear.” Since that warning, the number of climate-related cases has more than doubled, and the scope and financial significance of climate litigation has become increasingly clear. However, insurers and regulators still struggle …

The End Externalities Manifesto: Restatement, Loose Ends, And Unfinished Business, J.B. Ruhl

Pace Environmental Law Review

Professor J.B. Ruhl observes in his article, “The End Externalities Manifesto: Restatement, Loose Ends, and Unfinished Business,” that Elliott and Esty’s proposal for a rights-centric system of environmental law focuses narrowly on a right to recover compensation for harms to human health caused by pollution. He offers suggestions for implementing that proposal, such as using the concept of ecosystem services to trace how harm to ecosystems can cause harm to human health, and he proposes how Elliott and Esty could extend their rights-centric system to a broader conception of human rights and the environment.

Natural Resource Systems And The Evolution Of Environmental Law, Monika Ehrman

Pace Environmental Law Review

Professor Monika Ehrman provides a pragmatic response to Elliott and Esty’s proposal to end all environmental externalities, which she refers to as an “environmental law moonshot.” She examines the value of transforming environmental law and dreaming big as Elliott and Esty recommend, while discussing the practical considerations of doing so. Her considerations include incentivizing technological advancement, compensating environmentally harmed communities to address systemic issues, and breaking down silos in environmental law.

A Balanced Prescription For More Effective Environmental Regulations, W. Kip Viscusi

Pace Environmental Law Review

Government agencies increasingly base the structure and approval of environmental regulations on a benefit-cost test. For regulations that pass this test, total benefits exceed total costs. Under a benefit-cost framework, the degree of regulatory stringency is set at an economically efficient level whereby the tightness of the regulation is increased up to the point where the incremental benefits equal the incremental costs. Setting regulatory standards to achieve the efficient degree of pollution control does not fully discourage entry into polluting industries, provide compensation to those harmed by pollution, or establish meaningful incentives for effective enforcement. This article proposes that the …

Environmental Law For The 21st Century, E. Donald Elliott, Daniel C. Esty

Pace Environmental Law Review

In this issue, Professors Elliott and Esty expand on their original proposal and respond to critics.2 They apply their perspectives as practitioners, as well as academics, to develop their vision for environmental law in the 21st century. They establish three legal duties that should apply to entities that release potentially harmful materials into the environment. Professors Elliott and Esty contend that such entities have a duty (1) of research and disclosure to assure the public that any environmental releases are not harmful, (2) to minimize harm if they fail to demonstrate the releases are harmless, and (3) to compensate those …