Environmental Law Commons^™

Collaborative Management As A Mechanism For Incentivizing Private Landowners And Protecting Endangered Species, Ashley Graves

Texas A&M Law Review

Currently, the Endangered Species Act is falling short of its potential. Even though the Endangered Species Act has provided protection for endangered and threatened species and helped some species to recover and even thrive, the fact that most listed species’ habitat is on private land remains a hurdle that has not yet been overcome. In fact, the stringent requirements imposed upon private landowners often put endangered and threatened species at risk as some private landowners will use any means possible to stop the government from finding endangered or threatened species on their land. Because of this, the United States Fish …

Agency Coordination Of Private Action: The Role Of Relational Contracting, Karen Maire Bradshaw Schulz

Texas A&M Law Review

This Article explores the previously overlooked role of relational contracting in forming and maintaining public-private partnerships. Relational contracting generally describes firms using formal but legally non-binding agreements to collaborate on shared objectives. Why do parties invest in forming elaborate contracts that they do not—and cannot—enforce in court? Contract theory suggests that the very act of contracting is relationship-building; it generates commitment, trust, cooperation, a win-win philosophy, and strengthened communication. Writing down goals and intentions allows parties to clarify expectations while maintaining flexibility for unforeseen conditions. This Article demonstrates that agencies also use relational contracting— creating unenforceable written agreements to build …

Unilateral Steps To End High Seas Fishing, Katrina M. Wyman

Texas A&M Law Review

In discussions about the overexploitation of the vast oceans that lie beyond national jurisdiction, one bold proposal is to close fishing entirely on the high seas. Existing research suggests that converting the high seas into a giant reserve for fish might increase overall global fish catches by boosting fish catches within the adjoining areas of the oceans under national control. This conversion also might help to protect marine biological diversity, which is particularly important in an era of climate change. This Essay identifies the potential that the United States—a significant importer of high seas fish—might unilaterally take steps to end …

Payments For Ecosystem Services: Past, Present And Future, James Salzman, Genevieve Bennett, Nathaniel Carroll, Allie Goldstein, Michael Jenkins

Texas A&M Law Review

While we don’t tend to think about it, healthy ecosystems provide a variety of critical benefits. Ecosystem goods, the physical items an ecosystem provides, are obvious. Forests provide timber; coastal marshes provide shellfish. While less visible and generally taken for granted, the services underpinning these goods are equally important. Created by the interactions of living organisms with their environment, ecosystem services provide the conditions and processes that sustain human life.1 If you doubt this, consider how to grow an apple without pollination, pest control, or soil fertility. Once one realizes the importance of ecosystem services, three points quickly emerge: (1) …

Water Management On The Brahmaputra And The Applicability Of The Unece Water Convention, Stephanie Biggs

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Brahmaputra River is one of the world's largest transboundary waterways, yet it lacks a coherent, international management framework. The river, which flows from China through India and into Bangladesh, has been subject to decades of stalled negotiations, gamesmanship, and stop-gap oversight measures. As climate change and population growth place new stressors on the Brahmaputra and its riparian states, this arrangement will become untenable. Moreover, obtaining consensus may soon become impossible as the region grows increasingly water scarce. There is a brief window of opportunity to rectify inadequate management of the river and address urgent issues such as environmental protection …

Taking The Public Out Of Public Lands: Shifts In Coal-Extraction Policies In The Trump Administration, Jessica Owley

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Challenges For Land Conservation: Rethinking Conservation Easements, Strategies, And Tools, Jessica Owley, Federico Cheever, Adena R. Rissman, M. Rebecca Shaw, Barton H. Thompson Jr., W. William Weeks

Journal Articles

Climate change has significant consequences for land conservation. Government agencies and nonprofit land trusts heavily rely on perpetual conservation easements. However, climate change and other dynamic landscape changes raise questions about the effectiveness and adaptability of permanent conservation instruments like conservation easements. Building upon a study of 269 conservation easements and interviews with seventy conservation-easement professionals in six different states, we examine the adaptability of conservation easements to climate change. We outline four potential approaches to enhance conservation outcomes under climate change: (1) shift land-acquisition priorities to account for potential climate change impacts; (2) consider conservation tools other than perpetual …

Climate Change Innovation, Products And Services Under The Gatt/Wto System, Padideh Ala'i, David Gantz

Contributions to Books

This is Chapter 14 of the book entitled "Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Climate Change", edited by Joshua D. Sarnoff and published in Spring 2016 by EE Elgar. The co-authors are Professors of Law specializing in International Trade Law.

The chapter aims to identify some of the major sources of tension between climate change-related measures proposed or implemented on the national level and the trading rules as they have been applied by the WTO dispute settlement bodies over the past nearly 20 years. The chapter first describes three categories of national approaches to climate change, and highlights the potential …

Regulating Geoengineering: Applications Of Gmo Trade And Ocean Dumping Regulation, Elizabeth F. Quinby

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Geoengineering--the deliberate, large-scale manipulation of the environment--is being increasingly considered as an emergency solution to curb global warming, as efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have largely proved inadequate. This Note explores one form of proposed geoengineering: solar radiation management, which contemplates spraying reflective particles into the stratosphere to cause a global cooling effect. Geoengineering presents many challenges to regulators because of its potential to cause trans-boundary harm, its relative ease of enactment, and its unknown nature. Current international environmental treaties do not address geoengineering and would likely inadequately regulate it. But premature multilateral geoengineering regulations, if agreed to by …

The Gap-Filling Role Of Private Environmental Governance: A Case Study Of Semiconductor Supply Chain Contracting, Cassie D. Roberts

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Three of the principal international agreements that govern various aspects of hazardous substances or wastes are not legally binding on American companies because the US Congress has not passed the requisite implementing legislation. The failure of American companies to meet or exceed the standards set forth in these agreements, although not legally mandated, could be detrimental to American businesses operating on the global stage. The American semiconductor industry responded to this potential disconnect by developing internal firm-specific standards that bind suppliers through supply chain agreements. This Note explores the phenomenon of private standard setting in the semiconductor industry, a prime …

Climate Adaptation Law: Governing Multi-Level Public Goods Across Borders, Maria L. Banda

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The increasingly severe and irreversible effects of climate change around the world make adaptation to a changing climate an immediate and urgent global priority, as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change acknowledged. Yet adaptation investment--to make communities and ecosystems more resilient to climate change--has been slow to materialize. Closing the finance gap and rising to the challenge of adaptation requires two conceptual shifts in how we think about adaptation law and governance. The first is that optimal adaptation is a public good, much like a healthy climate or safe streets. Everyone is better off in a resilient community that can …

Making Existing Homes Greener, James Smith

Scholarly Works

The environmental movement that has taken hold in the last half-century includes the objective of reducing the adverse impacts buildings have on the natural environment. In the United States, this has manifested itself in changes in the design and construction of buildings. Modern buildings-those built recently-perform better with respect to some, but not all, environmental criteria than older buildings. The most prominent characteristic is the efficiency of energy use for heating, cooling, and appliances.

Even when the combination of building codes and voluntary standards work effectively to promote the construction of new green homes, they cannot provide a solution with …

Conclusions: The Value Of An Innovation Framework For International Law, Alastair Neil Craik, Sara Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The concluding chapter to Global Environmental Change and Innovation in International Law provides an assessment of the value of an innovation framework for further scholarship in the field of international environmental law. The authors note that thinking more systematically about how international law structures innovation and how innovation within law arises has potential to generate new insights into the role of law in the development of sustainable transitions and may provoke greater attention to the sources and processes of legal transformations themselves. Identifying the constraints to legal innovation, particularly in the context of increasingly complex system demands, was identified as …

Edging Towards Principled Ocean Governance: Law Of The Sea And Beyond, David Vanderzwaag

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Elisabeth Mann Borgese is well known for her commitment to advancing the legal order for the improved regulation of the world’s oceans. Her advocacy with respect to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is the subject of other essays in this volume. However, in the decades since 1982, legal principles, sometimes linked to provisions in treaties, have become critical in the global quest for sustainable seas and healthy coastal communities. Principles, such as precautionary and ecosystem approaches, have influenced the negotiation, implementation, and interpretation of international agreements. They may also guide national ocean law and …

Paris To Projects Research Initiative, Robert B. Gibson, Karine Peloffy, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This working paper explores the key components and provisions that need to be incorporated into impact assessment legislation to ensure that assessed undertakings help meet Canadian climate change mitigation commitments and duties.

This discussion paper includes a summary that serves as a basic briefing note on the core climate components that should be included in the new federal legislation. It also includes a box presenting the tests for determining an undertaking's contributions to meeting Canada's international climate change mitigation commitments, and a more detailed discussion of implications for the new law.

Decades Of Climate Policy Failure In Canada: Can We Break The Vicious Cycle?, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper explores the causes of 20 years of climate policy failure in Canada.

Compliance In Transition: Is Facilitative Compliance Finding Its Place In The Paris Climate Regime, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The paper explores the current compliance negotiations under Article 15 of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. The paper provides an overview of the current state of the negotiations, and considers ways to conclude the negotiations toward an effective compliance system under the Paris Agreement. In the process, the paper explores key differences and similarities between Paris and Kyoto, and identifies possible lessons from the Kyoto compliance experience.

Toward A Principled Design Of Provincial Cap & Trade Systems: Lessons From Nova Scotia's Proposal To Meet The Carbon Pricing Requirement In The Pan-Canadian Framework For Climate Change, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article explores the Cap & Trade System proposed by the province of Nova Scotia in response to the call in the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change for all provinces to implement a carbon pricing mechanism. The proposed C & T system itself and the way it has been developed offers insights into ongoing debates in the governance of climate mitigation. The first debate is about the strength and weaknesses of various carbon pricing mechanisms, most notably the carbon tax and cap and trade systems. The second debate is about the relative importance of carbon pricing and …

Lessons For The Treaty Process From The International Law Commission And International Environmental Law, Sara L. Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The chapter examines Amnesty case studies in order to document the state practice identified and the gaps that need to be filled. The chapter will then consider the work of the ILC in its progressive codification of the law on prevention and loss allocation with respect to transboundary harm arising from hazardous activities, culminating in draft Articles8 and draft Principles,9 respectively, in 2001 and 2006. The modest claim of this chapter is that as the key United Nations body responsible for the progressive development and codification of international law, the work of the ILC should surely be of relevance to …

Book Review: Colin T Reid And Walters Nsoh, The Privatisation Of Biodiversity? New Approaches To Conservation Law, New Horizons In Environmental And Energy Law, Sara Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The Privatisation of Biodiversity? New Approaches to Conservation Law, written by Colin T Reid and Walters Nsoh, is a recently published addition to the Edward Elgar book series New Horizons in Environmental and Energy Law. The book explores how “private rights and market devices” may serve as an alternative to “direct ‘command and control’ regulation”, and so ensure that the use of natural resources remains within ecological limits, while preventing the loss of habitat, habitat degradation, and species extinctions. A diverse range of mechanisms are considered under the “privatisation” heading, with “an emphasis on private law frameworks” that enable private …