Environmental Law Commons^™

Testimony, Free Speech Under Attack: The Legal Assault On Environmental Activists And The First Amendment, Anita Ramasastry

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Resurfacing Sovereignty: Who Regulates Surface Mining In Indian Country After Mcgirt?, Robin M. Rotman, Sam J. Carter

Faculty Publications

This article examines disputes over surface mining jurisdiction on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reservation post-McGirt and the larger implications for sovereignty and environmental justice in Indian Country that follow. Part II summarizes the history of federal, state, and tribal relations and provides an analysis of the McGirt decision and its potential impacts on natural resource issues. Part III offers an examination of jurisdictional uncertainties post-McGirt through an in-depth discussion of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act and the State of Oklahoma v. United States Department of the Interior case. Drawing from the examination of surface mining regulation, Part IV …

Environmental Governance By Contract: The Growing Role Of Supply Chain Contracting, Michael P. Vandenburgh, Patricia A. Moore

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Corporate net zero climate commitments and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies have the potential to bypass barriers to international, national, and subnational government action on climate change and other environmental issues. This Article presents the results of a new empirical study that demonstrates the remarkably widespread use of environmental supply chain contracting requirements. The study finds that roughly 80% of the ten largest firms in seven global sectors include environmental requirements in supply chain contracting, a substantial increase over the 50% reported by a comparable study fifteen years ago. The Article concludes that the prevalence of environmental supply chain …

International Investment Law And The Extractive Industries, Ella Merrill, Jesse Coleman, Lisa E. Sachs, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

As of April 2022, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) tallied 3,218 international investment treaties, of which 2,558 are in force. Investors in extractive industries (the oil, gas, and mining sectors) have used investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms embedded in these treaties to challenge a wide range of host state actions and inactions that have allegedly negatively affected their investments. Those claims, and the threats thereof, restrict states’ ability to maximize the benefits, and their ability to limit environmental and social harms, resulting from the exploitation of natural resources. This briefing note provides an introduction to international …

Regulation Weakness And Lack Of Public Awareness Has Impeded The Implementation Of Environmental Policies In Saudi Arabia, Nada Gurmalla Algamdy

Dissertations & Theses

This research aimed to substantially illustrate that the weakness of environmental regulations and lack of public participation in urban planning alongside poor public awareness in Saudi Arabia has inhibited the implementation of environmental policies across this region. To study these issues, this research compared the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (“KSA”) to the United States (“US”) building on numerous studies to illustrate how the identified weaknesses correlate with weak or ineffective environmental policies. It is well known that it would be better to use a European country “because it's known that the EU has tough environmental measures" as a model for …

Law, Labour And Landscape In A Just Transition, Adrian A. Smith, Dayna Nadine Scott

Articles & Book Chapters

Taking conflicts over new solar energy projects on the agricultural landscape in the global North as its backdrop, the chapter demonstrates how work and labour (including that performed in the North by workers from the global South) are erased both by the opponents and the proponents of such projects. The erasure is consistent with prevailing ways of knowing the human-environment nexus, shaped by an underlying political economy derivative of how international law has constructed and maintained the foundational liberal mythology that separates labour from land. Grounded in our commitment to pursuing a ‘just transition’ to decarbonisation – that is to …

Taxing Risky Development: A New Tool For Increasing Coastal Resilience, James Daher

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Coastal overdevelopment in the United States is a persistent issue. Climate change continues to increase the risk of flooding and other damage from natural disasters facing many coastal communities. Yet, development in some of the most at-risk areas has not slowed. Policies at the federal government level have encouraged such development by shifting costs of flood-related property damage from the property owner to taxpayers. At the same time, government actors at all levels are actively trying to protect their coastlines through coastal resilience projects. However, there are not enough funds to protect coastal property, especially at the state and local …

Issue Brief: Impact Assessment And Responsible Business Guidance Tools In The Extractive Sector: An Environmental Human Rights Toolbox For Government, Business, Civil Society & Indigenous Groups, Sara L. Seck, Penelope Simmons, Charlotte Connolly

Responsible Business Conduct and Impact Assessment Law

This issue brief provides an overview of the impact assessment and responsible business conduct toolbox for the extractive sector. The toolbox provides guidance on how governments, businesses, civil society, and Indigenous groups may encourage and adopt a human rights approach to impact assessment (IA). It forms part of a broader research project aimed at highlighting the interrelationship between IA laws and Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) tools, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Knowledge Synthesis Grant: Informing Best Practices in Environmental & Impact Assessments (the “KSG”).

The Carbon Market And Its Regulation In Brazil, Gabriel Wedy, Weber Amaral, Cacia Pimentel

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

At present, the global geopolitical scenario is based on an economy undergoing a post-pandemic recovery, with inflation unleashed in various developed countries and a war conflict in Europe, which entails an overall increase in energy prices, food insecurity and a breakdown of supply chains. Under such circumstances, the outlook is one of enormous pressure on the mitigation and adaptation plans of the United Nations, which seeks to revert climate warming caused by human actions in the post-industrial revolution era. The watchword is decarbonizing the global economy by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and changing carbon-intensive production regimes. Indeed, countries, companies, …

The Polar Silk Road And The Future Governance Of Northern Sea Route, Nengye Liu, Jan Jakub Solski

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines China’s Polar Silk Road (PSR) and its legal implications for the future governance of the Northern Sea Route (NSR). It first discusses China’s economic and geopolitical interests in the so-called Polar Silk Road. The article then focuses on comparing Russian regulation of the NSR and Chinese regulation of foreign vessels as a coastal state. Both China and Russia are contracting parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The comparison of domestic legislations aims to provide a detailed analysis on convergence and divergence of their implementation and enforcement of the UNCLOS on …

Flint, Michigan Drinking Water Crisis, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Briefly covers the Flint, Michigan drinking water crisis including providing some background, a timeline of events, and key takeaways from the perspective of public policy.

This article was originally prepared for distribution to students in Aiken's AECN 357 environmental and natural resources law course.

Ownership Concentration: Lessons From Natural Resources, Vanessa Casado Pérez

Northwestern University Law Review

Concentration of ownership over land or other resources is both a sign and a cause of inequality. Concentration of ownership makes access to such resources difficult for those less powerful, and it can have negative effects on local communities that benefit from a more distributed ownership pattern. Such concentration goes against the antimonopoly principles behind the homesteading land policies and the legal regimes that regulate many natural resources. This Essay suggests that where concentration is a concern, one might draw lessons for reform by looking to the field of natural resources law, which employs a range of deconcentration mechanisms affecting …

Flint's Fight For Environmental Rights, Noah D. Hall

Northwestern University Law Review

This Essay reviews the recent development of environmental rights within U.S. constitutional law, advanced through a series of federal court decisions in the wake of the Flint water crisis. The residents of Flint were poisoned and lied to by their government for nearly two years. They experienced how American environmental governance has failed at the state and federal levels and how our environmental laws leave individuals and communities unprotected. And then Flint fought back, in the courts, for five years. Flint residents have been overwhelmingly successful, achieving some justice for themselves and advancing substantive rights and remedies within our constitutional …

Climate Change Adaptation As A Problem Of Inequality And Possible Legal Reforms, David A. Dana

Northwestern University Law Review

Climate change will necessitate adaptation in all parts of the United States, but some individuals and localities will be better able to adapt than others. Wealth inequalities among individuals and localities already are translating—and will continue to translate—into inequalities between the rich and poor in their capacity to adapt. Current federal disaster aid programs and policies exacerbate these inequalities by favoring the wealthy, and future government resource management decisions and investments also may broaden the gap between rich and poor in terms of the economic and other costs they will bear from climate change. Some have suggested broadening Takings Clause …

Challenging Equality: Property Loss, Government Fault, And The Global Warming Catastrophe, Laura S. Underkuffler

Northwestern University Law Review

One of the bedrock principles of American property law is that all property owners and all property are protected equally. We do not believe—when it comes to compensation for loss—that poor owners are compensated rigidly and rich owners are not, or that property in private homes is protected rigidly and property in commercial or industrial structures is not. When it comes to compensation due to public or private fault, we believe in absolute equality. Equal treatment of property is at the heart of the liberal state and is the promise of American property law.

This Essay challenges that bedrock idea. …

A Science-Based Policy For Managing Free-Roaming Cats, David Hunter, Christopher A. Lepczyk, David C. Duffy, David M. Bird, Michael Calver, Dmitry Cherkassky, Linda Cherkassky, Christopher R. Dickman, David Jessup, Travis Longcore, Scott R. Loss, Kerrie Anne T. Loyd, Peter P. Marra, John M. Marzluff, Reed F. Noss, Daniel Simberloff, Grant C. Sizemore, Stanley A. Temple, Yolanda Van Heezik

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Free-roaming domestic cats (i.e., cats that are owned or unowned and are considered ‘at large’) are globally distributed non-native species that have marked impacts on biodiversity and human health. Despite clear scientific evidence of these impacts, free-roaming cats are either unmanaged or managed using scientifically unsupported and ineffective approaches (e.g., trap-neuter-release [TNR]) in many jurisdictions around the world. A critical first initiative for effective, science-driven management of cats must be broader political and legislative recognition of free-roaming cats as a non-native, invasive species. Designating cats as invasive is important for developing and implementing science-based management plans, which should include efforts …

Scotus Invalidates Obama Clean Power Plan, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

On June 30, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled in the case of West Virginia v. EPA that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could not implement the 2016 Obama administration Clean Power Plan (CPP). This article briefly discusses the CPP, the CPP litigation, the Court's opinion in West Virginia v. EPA, and what the decision means for Biden administration climate policy.

Zaagtoonaa Nibi (We Love The Water): Anishinaabe Community-Led Research On Water Governance And Protection, Nicole Latulippe, Deborah Mcgregor

Articles & Book Chapters

This paper presents Indigenous community-led, collaborative, and community-engaged water governance research with a First Nations community in the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron region in northeastern Ontario, Canada. The methodology draws on Indigenous approaches to understanding and developing knowledge and is designed to build community capacity in research and in water protection and governance. This approach recognizes existing community strengths, including traditional knowledge, experiences, perspectives, and associated cultural perspectives and values, laws, responsibilities and lived experience in relation to water. Results identify and contextualize community-held responsibilities and legal principles pertaining to water that support culturally relevant water governance and strategic …

Science-Intensive Dispute Mechanism For Protection Of Atmosphere: Icj, Wto And Pca, Chhaya Bhardwaj, Anmol Agarwal

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The authors argue that protection of atmosphere related science intensive disputes should be submitted to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) because it has a better approach in comparison to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and World Trade Organization (WTO). This comparative analysis highlights different approaches by the three dispute settlement institutions. The approach by the ICJ and WTO are discretionary and follow a case-by-case method to evaluate scientific evidence. The PCA has standardized its dispute settlement process under its codified protocols for science-intensive disputes. There is an increase in science-intensity of legal issues in the twenty-first century and …

International Investment Governance And Achieving A Just Zero-Carbon Future, Ella Merrill, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Lisa E. Sachs

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

As developing countries continue to be the most negatively affected by climate change and the energy transition, it is increasingly critical that they receive foreign direct investment and financial support to build climate resilience, adapt to climate impacts, avoid carbon lock-in and fossil fuel dependence, and leverage their rich endowments of renewable and extractive resources to prepare for the zero-carbon future.

There is a disconnect and fundamental misalignment between international investment law and the international climate change regime, comprising the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. Existing investment treaties—including their centerpiece, investor–state dispute settlement …