Environmental Law Commons^™

The Public Square In A Private-Property Obsessed Country: What New York City’S Pops Regulations Get Right And Why Other Cities Should (Mostly) Copy Them, Carson Mcgregor

Seattle University Law Review

When New York City (NYC) was first becoming the metropolitan monolith it is today, it had a problem: the city streets were chock full of skyscrapers, and sunlight, air, and usable open space were at a premium. In response, the City promulgated its first Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) regulations, which allowed developers to build skyward in exchange for providing public space on the street level. Unfortunately, in July of 2023, the New York Times (NYT) discovered that New Yorkers received only a fraction of what they were promised. Building owners received billions of dollars’ worth of added floor space, …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Defining Deference: Impacts Of Abandoning Chevron On Emerging Technology Governance And Administrative Law, R. Aubrey Davis Iii

Seattle University Law Review

Emerging technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), often lead to unforeseen legal outcomes. Notable abuses in areas such as facial recognition, employment bias, and housing discrimination are well known. However, legislative responses to these issues either have been largely reactive or there has been no legislative response at all. In lieu of legislation, agencies have sought to fill the gap. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently proposed a rule mandating voter notification for all AI-generated political phone calls citing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 as authority. However, the TCPA was originally passed to curtail telemarketing, not …

Intellectual Property Or Modern Folklore? The Problem With Open Gaming Licenses In Tabletop Gaming, Rosie Midget

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses how courts and legislatures should address “Open Gaming Licenses” commonly attached to tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), which game publishers use to promote a false image of accessibility—misleading consumers and building goodwill from the misunderstanding. Part I discusses what TTRPGs are, including the defining features of the hobby and culture surrounding it, as well as the unique interplay between publishers and players. Part II explores the question of which elements in a TTRPG system may be subject to copyright protection. Part III examines these elements in practice using Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons TTRPG as a …

Modern Day Colonialism Through HawaiʻI’S Quiet Title And Partition Laws, Cheyann Fujii

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will attempt to highlight important aspects of Hawaiian history to provide readers with a clear picture on how Native Hawaiians are still impacted by colonialism, specifically when plaintiffs bring a quiet title or partition action against Native Hawaiian owners of kuleana lands. Before colonization, the concept of private land ownership did not exist in Hawai‘i, and Native Hawaiians adopted a feudal system by dividing land into geographical areas. Missionaries and businessmen brought Western ideas to Hawai‘i and influenced legislation such as the Great Māhele and the Kuleana Land Act of 1850, which solidified the concept of private property. …

Data Advantage And Merger Review: Can Entrenchment Theory Reform Antitrust Enforcement?, Shin-Ru Cheng

Seattle University Law Review

A merger involving giant digital companies is likely to dampen competition, as it allows those companies to combine and control data access, enabling them to entrench their dominant positions in relevant markets and extend those positions into related markets. While competition law in many jurisdictions aims to prohibit mergers that may substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly, arguably the review of digital mergers is failing because antitrust agencies lack an effective approach to identify data-generated anticompetitive harms. This Article demonstrates that entrenchment theory, recently reintroduced in the 2023 U.S. Merger Guidelines, would help reform the process of antitrust enforcement. …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Caution: Potholes In E-Scooter Data Collection, Dakota Rakestraw

Seattle University Law Review

Lime scooters keep ending up in major waterways in Washington state metro areas, a testament to the ubiquity of e-scooters in the metropolitan landscape. How they get there is unclear. Why they get there is even murkier. Perhaps the answer lies in the implications of modern geolocation data collection through e-scooters and gaps in current data collection regulation curbing individual liberties.

Since September 2020, electric scooters have run Seattle’s streets and have dramatically overtaken ridesharing bike trips. For example, from September 2020 to September 2021, there were about 1.4 million scooter and bike trips with September 2021 seeing 300,000 scooter …

Machinists Preemption In The New Administrative Law, Andrew J. Ziaja

Seattle University Law Review

This Article assesses Machinists preemption—a labor-specific form of implied field preemption—while freshly considering implications both for and of new developments in administrative law. The radical transformation of administrative law in the Supreme Court, particularly its newfound emphasis on clear-statement rules, provides opportunities to reconsider the Machinists rationale. Aligning with scholars who have called to question the doctrine’s “ossifying” influence on labor and employment policy, it argues that the modern-day version of Machinists preemption clashes with the Supreme Court’s newly constrained view of delegated power and its differing conceptions of the major questions doctrine.

On the other hand, Machinists preemption might …

The New Reliability Override, Benjamin Rolsma

Connecticut Law Review

Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act grants the Secretary of Energy a sweeping authority to exempt electric generation and transmission facilities from any federal, state, or local environmental laws. When Congress first adopted § 202(c) in 1935, it designed the provision as an emergency power that federal regulators could use to force fractious utilities to work together to preserve electricity reliability in times of war or natural disaster. But in the last decade things changed.

This Article, drawing on a novel catalog of all § 202(c) emergencies from the provision’s nearly ninety-year history, is the first to comprehensively describe …

Regulation Of Sargassum Removal And Sinking In Florida, Ashwin Murthy, Korey Silverman-Roati, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Carbon dioxide removal is increasingly recognized as a necessary component of global climate mitigation efforts. One emerging method involves the deep-sea sinking of plant biomass to sequester carbon. Sargassum, a free-floating brown seaweed, has been identified as a promising candidate for this approach due to its natural buoyancy and decomposition process, which enables it to sink and potentially store carbon in the deep ocean. With sargassum blooms growing dramatically in the Atlantic since 2011 — posing ecological, economic, and public health risks when they wash ashore — there is growing interest in offshore removal and sinking as a climate solution. …

Fluctuations In Environmental Policy: An Example For Why Not To Despair, Seattle T. Schuessler

Whittier Scholars Program

This paper explores the historical and contemporary fluctuations in environmental policy within the United States. Emphasizing the role of political polarization in shaping legislative and regulatory outcomes within environmental policy. Through a chronological analysis of environmental policy, through legislation such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, to the changing agendas of presidential administrations, the paper demonstrates that environmental protection has progressed upward in a fluctuating manner. Despite eras of regulatory rollbacks and administrative opposition, particularly during conservative presidencies, the overall trends indicate enduring support for environmental legislation. The paper further investigates the implementation challenges of California Senate …

Conservation Advocates Zambia Limited V The Attorney General (2023/Ccz/0018) [2024] Zmcc 6, Emmanuel N. Nyambe

SAIPAR Case Review

The author explores Conservation Advocates Zambia Limited v The Attorney General, contrasting the majority’s application of the constitutional avoidance doctrine with a forceful dissent. The majority declined to hear an environmental petition, classifying the grievances as statutory rather than constitutional. The author aligns with the dissent, arguing that such reasoning sidesteps the judiciary’s constitutional mandate to protect and promote environmental rights. The case presents a fundamental choice for the Court: whether to treat the Constitution as a source of aspirational guidance or as a directly enforceable instrument of environmental accountability and public participation.

Overharvesting: The Why Of Biodiversity Loss, Andrew W. Torrance, Bill Tomlinson

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

This Article examines the consequences of overharvesting biodiversity, focusing on its detrimental effects on biodiversity—on the biosphere, ecosystems, communities, populations, and individual organisms. It evaluates legal mechanisms designed to protect biodiversity from overharvesting and also considers legal mechanisms that lead to overharvesting to the detriment of biodiversity. The Article compares regulations and laws from multiple jurisdictions, including Europe, Oceania, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and analyzes how these regulations and laws seek to curb overharvesting. Examples include the United States’s Endangered Species Act, Canada’s Wild Animal and Plant Protection Act, and the European Union’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive. International conventions …

Pollution: The What Of Biodiversity Loss, Andrew W. Torrance, Bill Tomlinson

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

This Article examines the damage to biodiversity caused by anthropogenic pollution at all levels—to the biosphere, to ecosystems, to communities, to populations, and to individual organisms. It also analyzes pollution control laws across the globe and their efficacy in mitigating or preventing harm to biodiversity. The analysis covers all forms of pollution—air, water, and land—that threaten biodiversity, noting both improvements and ongoing challenges in different regions. The Article provides a comparative study of diverse jurisdictions, including North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. It scrutinizes pivotal legislation such as the United States’ Clean Air Act, the UK’s Environment Act, and the …

Invasives: The How Of Biodiversity Loss, Andrew W. Torrance, Bill Tomlinson

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Invasive species are non-native organisms, existing outside of their original habitat, which may cause damage to the biodiversity in their new environment. These species often outcompete native species for resources, which can dramatically disrupt ecological balance and biodiversity. This Article first surveys existing invasive species laws, documenting the current legal frameworks that various countries use to manage invasive species. It then proposes an array of new legal approaches that may improve how human civilizations manage the complex issues surrounding invasives. Finally, it evaluates the prospects for preventing—or even rolling back—the harm invasives cause to biodiversity. The broad goal of this …

Goodbye, Zoning?, Michael Allan Wolf

UF Law Faculty Publications

American zoning is under attack on multiple fronts. The concerns of zoning's many critics range from social and racial justice, to private property rights, to the extreme shortage of affordable housing, to climate-change resilience and sustainability. A growing number of voices have called for, at a minimum, the elimination of single-family zones; some even champion the abolition of this ubiquitous method of American land use regulation. This Article is the first detailed look at what would happen if zoning's critics got their way. The most efficient means for erasing zoning from American law would be for the U.S. Supreme Court …

The Effect Of Non-Profit Organizations On The Passage Of Climate Change Legislation In Connecticut, John-Henry Burke

Honors Scholar Theses

Connecticut has a long history of climate action. In this study, I looked into the effect that non-governmental organizations have on the passage of climate change legislation in Connecticut. Eighteen different climate policy stakeholders, including legislatures, non-governmental organization (NGO) staff members, youth activists and state employees were interviewed to gain their perspective on how non-profits forward climate initiatives. I found that non-profit organizations do have a significant impact on the passage of climate change legislation in Connecticut by working as providers of information to legislators and mobilizers of constituents. This impact can be limited by various political factors.

Trump Attacks On Climate Science May Violate Numerous Federal Laws, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Starting on its first day on January 20, 2025, the second Trump administration has launched an unprecedented rollback of efforts to fight climate change. The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law’s Climate Backtracker already has 117 items.

Much of this is aimed at scientific research on climate change, or has the effect of inhibiting the conduct and dissemination of this research. Many of these actions may also violate federal laws.

This article discusses these actions, some of their legal implications, and the litigation challenges that have already been brought. It begins with actions that are specifically aimed at climate research, …

The Prospects Of The High Seas Treaty Decisively Reducing The Negative Biodiversity Impacts Of Distant Water Fishing Operations, Shirley V. Scott, Nengye Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

International fisheries law has so far proven inadequate to prevent over-fishing on the high seas, a key cause of biodiversity loss in areas of the ocean beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Negotiation of the High Seas Treaty (Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction or BBNJ Agreement) afforded an opportunity to respond decisively to the worsening problem. The Treaty was concluded in 2023. It is yet to enter into force. Preparations and negotiations for the Treaty spanned some 20 years. By …