Environmental Law Commons^™

Venezuela Undermines Gold Miner Crystallex's Attempts To Recover On Its Icsid Award, Sam Wesson

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Examining How Federal Infrastructure Policy Could Help Mitigate And Adapt To Climate Change: Hearing Before The H. Comm. On Transp. & Infrastructure, 116th Cong., Feb. 26, 2019 (Statement Of Vicki Arroyo), Vicki Arroyo

Testimony Before Congress

As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in November, describes, the United States is already experiencing serious impacts of climate change—and the risks to communities all across the country are growing rapidly.

These findings, along with those in the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)report, are clear and should be a call to immediate action. Even if we manage to limit planetary warming to just 2 degrees C, the world will still face increased chances of economic and social upheaval from more severe flooding, droughts, heatwaves, and other climate impacts as well as devastating environmental consequences, the IPCC report …

Microgrids: Legal And Regulatory Hurdles For A More Resilient Energy Infrastructure, Raquel Parks

Pace Environmental Law Review

Natural disasters and climate change have made it apparent that energy infrastructure needs to be modernized and microgrids are one type of technology that can help the electricity grid become more resilient, reliable, and efficient. Different states have begun developing microgrid pilot projects including California, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. The City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the first city to propose implementing “energy districts” of microgrids that will serve as critical infrastructure, in the first phase, and then expand to commercial and community settings. This large project involves many shareholders including public utilities, government agencies, and private entities. Utilizing microgrids …

The Time Has Come For A Universal Water Tribunal, Tarek Majzoub, Fabienne Quilleré-Majzoub

Pace Environmental Law Review

Since its inception in 1981, the International Water Tribunal has emerged as a non-governmental body with a multidisciplinary composition and a mandate based on conventional and customary international water law, which holds public hearings in order to address water-related complaints. This Article describes the historical background of the proposed Universal Water Tribunal (“UWT”) and significant difficulties on the horizon facing the proposed Tribunal (including political, practical, and legal-technical considerations). It then summarizes the key factors of such Tribunal and, finally, touches upon the proposed model based on an expanded concept of jurisdiction. The main underlying thesis is that, whereas the …

Law, Cultural Heritage, And Climate Change In The United States, Casey J. Snyder

Pace Environmental Law Review

Climate change is a reality. What happens climatically over the upcoming centuries is partially dependent on the comprehensiveness of a global response to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. However, within a century, forecasts predict a one-meter sea level rise that could have grave implications to our society: the loss of an incalculable extent of cultural heritage. This Article examines the threat climate change poses to physical cultural heritage, like archaeological sites and historic structures, and the current framework of law, regulation, and policy in the United States meant to protect these resources. This Article blends research and data from climate …

State Public Nuisance Claims And Climate Change Adaptation, Albert C. Lin, Michael Burger

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Article explores the potential for state public nuisance claims to facilitate adaptation, resource protection, and other climate change responses by coastal communities in California. The California public nuisance actions represent just the latest chapter in efforts to spur responses to climate change and attribute responsibility for climate change through the common law. Part II of this Article describes the California public nuisance lawsuits and situates them in the context of common law actions directed against climate change. Part III considers the preliminary defenses that defendants have raised and could raise in the California public nuisance lawsuits, including the existence …

Cleaning Up Our Toxic Coasts: A Precautionary And Human Health-Based Approach To Coastal Adaptation, Robin Kundis Craig

Pace Environmental Law Review

Hurricanes in the United States in 2005, 2012, and 2017 have all revealed an insidious problem for coastal climate change adaptation: toxic contamination in the coastal zone. As sea levels rise and violent coastal storms become increasingly frequent, this legacy of toxic pollution threatens immediate emergency response, longer term human health, and coastal ecosystems’ capacity to adapt to changing coastal conditions.

Focusing on Hurricane Harvey’s 2017 devastation of Houston, Texas, as its primary example, this Article first discusses the toxic legacy still present in many coastal environments. It then examines the existing laws available to clean up the coastal zone—CERCLA, …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rehabilitating The Nuisance Injunction To Protect The Environment, Doug Rendleman

Washington and Lee Law Review

The Trump Administration has reversed the federal government’s role of protecting the environment. The reversal focuses attention on states’ environmental capacity. This Article advocates more vigorous state environmental tort remedies for nuisance and trespass. An injunction is the superior remedy in most successful environmental litigation because it orders correction and improvement. Two anachronistic barriers to an environmental injunction are the New York Court of Appeals’ decision, Boomer v. Atlantic Cement, and Calabresi and Melamed’s early and iconic law-and-economics article, One View of the Cathedral. This Article examines and criticizes both because, by subordinating the injunction to money damages, they undervalue …

Half A Century Of Supreme Court Clean Air Act Interpretation: Purposivism, Textualism, Dynamism, And Activism, David M. Driesen, Thomas M. Keck, Brandon T. Metroka

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article addresses the history of the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act, which now goes back almost half a century. Many scholars have argued that the Court has shifted from an approach to statutory interpretation that relied heavily on purposivism—the custom of giving statutory goals weight in interpreting statutes—toward one that relies more heavily on textualism during this period. At the same time, proponents of dynamic statutory interpretation have argued that courts, in many cases, do not so much excavate a statute’s meaning as adapt a statute to contemporary circumstances.

Betting On Climate Policy: Using Prediction Markets To Address Global Warming, Gary M. Lucas Jr, Felix Mormann

Faculty Scholarship

Global warming, sea level rise, and extreme weather events have made climate change a top priority for policymakers across the globe. But which policies are best suited to tackle the enormous challenges presented by our changing climate? This Article proposes that policymakers turn to prediction markets to answer that crucial question. Prediction markets have a strong track record of outperforming other forecasting mechanisms across a wide range of contexts — from predicting election outcomes and economic trends to guessing Oscar winners. In the context of climate change, market participants could, for example, bet on important climate outcomes conditioned on the …

Manure Management For Climate Change Mitigation: Regulating Cafo Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under The Clean Air Act, Katrina A. Tomas

University of Miami Law Review

Climate change is the defining challenge of our time, which if unbridled, will imperil our communities and the viability of future generations. Efforts to reduce global temperature rise require more than merely reforming carbon dioxide emissions from the energy and transportation sectors. Notably, climate solutions cannot be reached without simultaneously addressing the more potent methane and nitrous oxide gases. In the United States, intensive factory farms, legally known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (“CAFOs”), are responsible for large emissions of these two greenhouse gases due to manure mismanagement. While there are no federal environmental regulations in place for mitigating CAFOs’ …

Proposed State Offshore Oil & Gas Legislation And Resolutions: 2017-18, Marine Affairs Institute, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Megan Betts

Sea Grant Law Fellow Publications

No abstract provided.

War Torts, Autonomous Weapon Systems, And Liability: Why A Limited Strict Liability Tort Regime Should Be Implemented, Elizabeth Fuzaylova

Cardozo Law Review

Part I of this Note will discuss the evolution of Al from early computer models in the 1980s to sophisticated and standalone thinking machines in today's world, while touching on some of the drawbacks. It will also discuss the evolution of Al within the military, encompassing the current state of the debate over the use of autonomous weapons. Further, it explores the already proposed regulatory changes that surround Al and their hypothetical impacts on military Al and autonomous weapon systems. Part 11 first delves into factors to consider in regulating autonomous weapon systems. It then analyzes whether an Al machine …

Comparative Analysis Of State Regulation Of Direct-To-Market Sales Of Finfish, Marine Affairs Institute, Roger Williams University School Of Law, James Philopena Jr.

Sea Grant Law Fellow Publications

No abstract provided.

A Wall Impervious To Facts: Seawalls, Living Shorelines, And The U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers' Continuing Authorization Of Hard Coastal Armoring In The Face Of Sea Level Rise, Travis Brandon

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article critiques the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ continued authorization of hard coastal armoring under Nationwide Permit 13 (NWP 13) in light of mounting scientific evidence demonstrating the ecological, physical, and economic harms associated with seawalls and bulkheads. Despite documented reductions in biodiversity, accelerated shoreline erosion, and the impairment of wetland migration under conditions of sea level rise, the Corps reissued NWP 13 in 2017, allowing significant shoreline stabilization projects without individualized review. At the same time, the Corps adopted Nationwide Permit 54 to streamline approval of “living shorelines,” a more ecologically adaptive alternative, yet imposed comparatively stricter conditions …

The Fair Housing Act: Enacted Despite The Mainstream Media, Neutered By The Federal Government's Unwillingness To Enforce It, Craig Flournoy

Cardozo Law Review

This Article examines the 1968 Fair Housing Act from two perspectives. The first Part discusses the urban riots of the mid-1960s; the failure of the white press to examine the connection between the riots and systemic social problems, particularly segregation; and the Kerner Commission's devastating indictment of mainstream media coverage of the riots, the Black ghetto, and African Americans. I argue the mainstream media's poor coverage of the problems caused by inner-city ghettos made it more difficult to win popular and political support for the Fair Housing Act. The second Part examines the creation of a separate and unequal system …

Time To Act: Response To Questions Posed By The Expert Panel On Sustainable Finance On Fiduciary Obligation And Effective Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, Janis P. Sarra, Cynthia Williams

All Faculty Publications

While there are numerous strategies to be deployed to move Canada to a financially sustainable future, this study addresses two critically important issues: fiduciary obligation of corporate- and pension-fiduciaries, and national action on environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) financial disclosure, including climate-related financial risk disclosure. The Canadian economy is facing significant challenges and disruptions in the transition to a lower carbon world. Absent clear and innovative steps to ensure our corporations and financial institutions act to address carbon emissions and other environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities, we will be seriously prejudiced in a world that is rapidly moving …

The Brave New World Of Energy And Natural Resources Development, Donald N. Zillman

Faculty Publications

The world of energy and natural resources development has changed a great deal over the past 30 months, perhaps more so than in the preceding 30 years. Beginning with the June 2016 vote in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union and continuing through today, there are global signs of increasing emphasis on protecting national sovereignty and less on world efforts to address major environmental and energy issues. Admittedly, the United Nations-based effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions continues to move forward. However, more than a few nations are hinting that they may not live up to their commitments …

Advancing The Aquaculture Industry Through The Federal Crop Insurance Program, Matthew H. Bowen

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

In recent times, the aquaculture industry has experienced dramatic growth. The growth of the industry is a direct result of an increase in demand for seafood, and a decrease in supply from wild fisheries. The industry, however, is also experiencing growing pains. Aquaculture species, compared to their wild counterparts, are at a higher risk of catastrophic loss from a variety of different perils. These perils make investment in the aquaculture industry significantly risky. The federal crop insurance program could be a tool that mitigates these risks, but the program was designed around terrestrial agriculture, and while aquaculture may be covered …