Environmental Law Commons^™

Implementation Of Article 82 Of The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea: The Challenge For Canada, Aldo Chircop

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Article 82 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is a novel provision introducing the first-ever international royalty on production from non-living resources within national jurisdiction, specifically from the extended continental shelf as defined in Article 76. Article 82 has several textual ambiguities that could pose a challenge for its interpretation and implementation by both affected coastal States and the International Seabed Authority. The Authority is responsible for receiving payments or contributions in kind and for effecting their distribution to States Parties to the Convention, especially developing countries, in accordance with equitable criteria. The Authority has …

Gearing Up Impact Assessment As A Vehicle For Achieving The Un Sustainable Development Goals, Angus Morrison-Saunders, Luis E. Sánchez, François Retief, A. John Sinclair, Meinhard Doelle, Megan Jones, Jan-Albert Wessels, Jenny Pope

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article reflects on the potential for impact assessment (IA) to be a major vehicle for implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While it is acknowledged that the SDGs are intended to deliver broader outcomes than IA currently does, we nevertheless argue there is significant convergence between IA and the SDGs, which we explore utilising the key dimensions of sustainability assessment: comprehensiveness, strategicness and integratedness. We conclude that ‘geared up’ IA might be used as a major vehicle to facilitate achievement of the SDGs. However, IA must become more comprehensive and integrated, such that the full suite of SDGs …

Global Risks Of Intensive Animal Farming And The Wildlife Trade, Deborah Cao

Animal Sentience

This commentary discusses two issues highlighted by Wiebers & Feigin in the context of the current and future global health crisis: the wildlife trade and factory farming. Both are instances of globalized animal cruelty – in China as well as worldwide -- that require global solutions for the well-being of both humans and nonhumans.

Environmental Injustice: How Treaties Undermine Human Rights Related To The Environment, Lisa E. Sachs, Lise Johnson, Ella Merrill

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Growing cries for action to effectively address the climate and other environmental crises hold important implications for the governance of cross-border investments. Policymakers and environmental advocates have often overlooked how provisions granted by states in international investment agreements (IIAs) have been used by investors to challenge government measures taken in the public interest to protect the environment and advance environmental justice.

This 2019 paper, published in the Sciences Po Legal Review issue devoted to the climate crisis, explains how the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, made available to investors in thousands of bilateral and multilateral trade and investment agreements, may …

On Environmental Law, Climate Change, And National Security Law, Mark P. Nevitt

Faculty Articles

This Article offers a new way to think about climate change. Two new climate change assessments—the 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment (“NCA”) and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Climate Change— prominently highlight climate change’s multifaceted national security risks. Indeed, not only is climate change an environmental problem, it also accelerates existing national security threats, acting as both a “threat accelerant” and “catalyst for conflict.” Further, climate change increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events while threatening nations’ territorial integrity and sovereignty through rising sea levels. It causes both internal displacement within nations …

Rights, Water, And Guardians: How Rights Of Nature Movements Are Reshaping Our Current Environmental Ethics And What These Policies Need To Be Successful, Megan Schmiesing

Pitzer Senior Theses

Giving legal rights to nature is no longer a fringe idea in international environmental law. Rights of Nature movements have gained traction in countries around the world, including Ecuador, Australia, India, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the United States. The act of organizing to recognize legal rights and legal personhood for nature represents a philosophical, moral, and political shift from previous anthropocentric values. Through two case studies in Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States, this thesis examines the policy language and the context and history that led to their creation. The Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act and …

The Rise And Fall Of Clean Air Act Climate Policy, Nathan Richardson

Faculty Publications

The Clean Air Act has proven to be one of the most successful and durable statutes in American law. After the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, there was great hope that the Act could be brought to bear on climate change, the most pressing current environmental challenge of our time. Massachusetts was fêted as the most important environmental case ever decided, and, upon it, the Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama built a sweeping program of greenhouse gas regulations, aimed first at emissions from road vehicles, and later at fossil fuel power plants. It was the most …

Migration As Reparation: Climate Change And The Disruption Of Borders, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article examines the legal and moral basis for migration as a form of reparation for the harms inflicted on the states and peoples of the Global South through climate change and through centuries of predatory economic policies. Using Central American migration to the United States as a case study, the article explains that susceptibility to climate change is a function of two variables: exposure and social and economic vulnerability. High-emitting affluent states are disproportionately responsible for Central America’s exposure to climate change due to their historic and current greenhouse gas emissions, their unwillingness to curb these emissions, and their …

Are Securities Laws Effective Against Climate Change? A Proposal For Targeted Climate Related Disclosure And Ghg Reduction, Nate Chumley

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil on October 24, 2018, claiming the company committed securities fraud in order to prop up the value of the company by publicly disclosing a higher proxy cost—or projected future cost—of climate change regulation than the internal cost used. Following this lawsuit, a federal class action was filed utilizing the same legal theory on the same facts. These lawsuits should be viewed as part of the larger history of lawsuits against large fossil fuel companies for climate change-related harms. Public nuisance theory largely captured a set of lawsuits against these …

The Law Of Enhanced Weathering For Carbon Dioxide Removal, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Despite scientists’ dire warnings about the catastrophic impacts of climate change, the greenhouse gases that cause it continue to be emitted in substantial amounts. While there is no question that deep, across the board cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are essential, many scientists now agree that simply cutting future emissions will not be enough. It will also be necessary to remove previously-emitted greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This paper explores one greenhouse gas removal technique – enhanced weathering – which involves spreading finely ground silicate rocks or other materials with similar chemical composition over land or ocean waters. The materials …

The Public Trust Doctrine In The 21st Century, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In this Symposium's initial lecture, I will (a) provide a glimpse into life in Medieval England to explain the context from which Magna Carta arose, (b) describe the evolution of environmental rights from Magna Carta to the Forest Carter, (c) explore in a case study how “liberties of the forest” functioned for 800 years in England's Royal Forest of Dean, ultimately sustaining the ecological systems of Dean, (d) discuss the “liberties of the forest” in light of Elinor Ostom's common pool analyses, and (e) offer some views on the question just posed. I shall start by describing the English environment …

Governing The Salish Sea, Kyla Wilson

UC Law Environmental Journal

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Management In The Space Age, Paul B. Larsen

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article is about how we can use space technology and regulation to help overcome adverse effects of climate change on Earth. It describes the growing use and importance of outer space technology for monitoring, understanding, and resolving the problems of climate change. It describes precedents for the current climate crisis, discusses relevant international space laws, and explains how they fit into the existing international laws on climate change. It emphasizes the oversight role of the United Nations (“U.N.”). It describes the heavy duties placed by current climate laws on the developed countries compared with the developing countries. It explains …

After Juliana: A Proposal For The Next Atmospheric Trust Litigation Strategy, Kacie Couch

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The cliffs of California are dissolving.2 Glaciers in Colorado and Montana are dissolving.3 Islands in Louisiana and Alaska are dissolving.4 America as we know it is dissolving; twenty-one youth plaintiffs that face a future with less liberty and independence than generations before them claim that federal government inaction in the face of climate change is to blame.5 Those plaintiffs, in the landmark case Juliana v. United States, sought judicial declaration of a federal public trust and substantive due process right to a stable climate system.6 In proceedings, Judge Anne Aiken of the District Court of Oregon declared a newly …

Reaching Beyond The “Tools Of The Trade”: Anchors And Signposts To Enhance Mediator Effectiveness, Neil H. Katz

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

During my 48-year career as both a professor and program director in Conflict Resolution programs at various universities and the head of a modest organizational consulting firm, I have participated as a student and instructor in many mediation and other related Alternative Dispute Resolution classes and training. Alternative Dispute Resolution, often referred to as ADR, can be thought of as any means of dispute settlement outside of a courtroom. Various well-known methods of ADR include negotiation, conciliation, facilitation, mediation, and arbitration. I usually think the training and classes I have attended are of high quality, both in content and delivery. …

Front Matter, Colorado Environmental Law Journal

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Colorado Environmental Law Journal

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Species Conservation & Recovery Through Adequate Regulatory Mechanisms, Sandra B. Zellmer, Sam J. Panarella, Oliver Finn Wood

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

The world is experiencing its sixth episode of mass extinction of life. In rhetoric typically used by bloggers rather than scientists, the National Academy of Sciences reports that this "biological annihilation" is more dire than previously believed,' and that the decimation of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services resulting from it is nothing less than a "frightening assault on the foundations of human civilization."2

Unlike previous episodes of mass extinction, this one is caused by human overpopulation, overconsumption, and anthropogenic climate change. The United States has been a world conservation leader for over a century, but its commitment to supporting …

Stadium Development: Special Treatment From Special Legislation, Caleb Tomaszewski

Marquette Sports Law Review

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Development Disasters: Accountability And Remedy In International Development Projects, Kate E. Morrow

American University Law Review

International development projects have a history of creating problems on the ground. Debates about the benefits of top-down development, the need for community buy-in, and the importance of community participation in development have been ongoing and have focused on how to prevent environmental and social harms to local communities. More recently, the conversation has shifted to focus more on the importance of providing remedy for harms, with a focus on development finance institutions (DFIs). DFIs have embraced internal, independent mechanisms to provide a process for accountability when a community suffers harms, but those mechanisms are not externally enforceable. They rely …