Environmental Law Commons^™

The Employees’ Dilemma: Balancing Internal Reporting, Whistleblowing, And Insider Trading Risks, Geeyoung Min

Seattle University Law Review

The Essay examines how recent developments in insider trading regulations and whistleblower reward programs can lead to unintended and counterproductive results of discouraging employees from using internal reporting channels within corporate compliance programs. While the presence of a robust and well-functioning corporate compliance program is a critical factor both in mitigating the level of public enforcement actions against companies and in protecting corporate managers from liability in private litigation, these programs often provide little incentive for employees to report potential misconduct internally.

Corporate compliance programs are designed to promote the upward information flow within the company, which is essential for …

How The Antidiscrimination Law Of Commercial Transactions Really Works, Helen Norton

Seattle University Law Review

A variety of businesses now cite 303 Creative when seeking First Amendment protection for their refusal to serve certain customers based on those customers’ protected class status. How this litigation will play out remains to be seen. But future courts need not, and should not, repeat the 303 Creative Court’s misunderstanding of how the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions actually works.

Part I of this Essay explains the Court’s longstanding understanding of the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions, and then describes the Court’s failure to engage with this precedent in 303 Creative. Part II then identifies the 303 Creative decision’s …

Applicability Of Multilateral Environmental Agreements During International Armed Conflicts, Beatrice L. Hamilton

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Armed conflicts increasingly contribute to environmental damage and climate change, yet, as proven by recent and ongoing conflicts, the legal framework for the protection of the environment under the law of armed conflict (LOAC) fails to effectively mitigate these damages. With rising temperatures, already diminishing resources, the counter-acting of mitigation and adaptation efforts due to warfare and geo-political tensions on the rise, there is a strong case for considering the potential for enhancing the protection of the environment during armed conflicts.

This Article examines the terms of applicability of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) during international armed conflicts. The article draws …

Obamacare For Homeowners Insurance: Fixing America's Broken Insurance Markets In A Time Of Climate Change, Daniel Benjamin Schwarcz

Articles

Over the last decade, homeowners insurance markets nationwide have experienced unprecedented instability due to climate change. These disruptions, which are likely to accelerate in the coming years, risk destabilizing real estate markets, triggering financial instability, and undermining the nation’s resilience to climate change. Despite these massive stakes, federal and state reforms to date have largely failed to result in more accessible and affordable homeowners insurance coverage that promotes climate change resilience. This Article offers a new way forward, arguing that today’s troubled homeowners insurance markets resemble the broken, state health insurance markets that pre-dated the 2010 passage of the Affordable …

How Climate Change And Environmental Policies Affect Impoverished Communities, Nicole Skala

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

Climate change is a global problem that affects everyone, but not proportionately. Lower income communities face greater physical and economic impacts, and policies often fail to consider their needs. These communities struggle to adapt and recover from disasters due to limited resources, and they lack access to resilient housing. Major corporations like Exxon and Shell profit while their workers are underpaid for dangerous labor. Historically, regions like rural Appalachia have seen exploitation through industries like coal. People of Color (POC) communities experience environmental racism, suffering greater environmental harm due to systemic neglect. Increasing commodity costs can hurt lower income individuals, …

Rulemaking Petitions In A World Without Deference To Agencies: A New Lease On Life?, Daniel E. Walters

Faculty Scholarship

Often overlooked in the study and practice of administrative law, rulemaking petitions are means by which interested persons can prompt federal agencies to implement the statutes they administer in particular ways. After the Supreme Court’s 2024 decisions in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 144 S. Ct. 2244 (2024), and Ohio v. Environmental Protection Agency, 144 S. Ct. 2040 (2024), rulemaking petitions are about to experience a renaissance—one that could reshape environmental law, should environmental advocates choose to leverage the procedure.

An Introduction To U.S. Groundwater Law: Domestic And Transboundary Considerations, Caleb Cook, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

In light of the scientific and historical factors that have shaped the development of groundwater law and policy, this chapter seeks to provide a primarily descriptive account of its current state in the United States and to lay a foundation for future efforts to address gaps in the regime. Section 8B.02 considers the importance of groundwater in modern American society, with a particular focus on its uses and the threats these resources face. Section 8B.03 describes the U.S. framework for the domestic governance of groundwater resources. Section 8B.04 describes the mechanisms for transboundary governance of groundwater between the United States …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Voting Matters: Materiality Considerations And The Shareholder Vote, Renee M. Jones

Seattle University Law Review

For the shareholder franchise to have meaning, shareholders must have access to relevant information to inform their voting decisions. The securities laws’ disclosure requirements play an essential role in informing the shareholder vote.

This Essay focuses on the question of the materiality of information in the context of shareholder voting. It addresses the question of whether ESG-related information is material, positioning the materiality inquiry within the context of shareholders’ voting decisions. It explores the definition of materiality with a focus on the “reasonable investor” concept embedded within the definition. The Essay argues that the implicit expectations of many commentators that …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Understanding The Big Three’S Wavering Support Of Environmental And Social Shareholder Proposals, Jeff Schwartz, Jefferson Jensen

Seattle University Law Review

Because of their substantial equity portfolios, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street (the Big 3) are central players in corporate governance. It is, therefore, critical to understand how they vote. One puzzle is that their support for shareholder proposals on environmental and social matters appears to waiver. In 2020, for instance, BlackRock supported 11.1% of environmental proposals at S&P 500 firms. In 2021, it seemingly reversed course, supporting 55.2%. It then flipped again, supporting 32.1% in 2022. Such statistics suggest that the Big 3 are constantly changing their views on these topics. This Article seeks to better understand whether this is …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Navigating Wastewater: Minnesota Mining Wastewater Permit Challenges And Evolving Compliance Standards, Madelaine Adamich

Journal of Earth and Life Science

February of 2021 marked the beginning of Minnesota clearly establishing that groundwater qualifies as a Class 1 water in a legal battle involving United States Steel, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, WaterLegacy, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and eventually the Minnesota Supreme Court (MNSC). Minnesota has a water classification system, as required by the federal Clean Water Act, with 7 classes of use. Class 1 waters are waters used for domestic consumption (MPCA 4, n.d.). According to Minnesota Statute § 7050.0220, the acceptable level for sulfate is 250 mg/L in Class 1 …

West Virginia V. Epa: Considerations For The Future Of Epa Greenhouse Gas Regulation, Shavonnie R. Carthens

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

When compared to historical levels, the air quality in the United States has improved. However, exposure to air pollution still rises to the top of environmental health risks experienced by Americans. It is estimated that one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand deaths annually are associated with this exposure, which exceeds the deaths from murders and car crashes combined. Further, evidence establishes that “rising concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases pose serious threats to public health.” Looking to the sources of greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel-fired power plants are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in …

West Virginia V. Epa: Consideration For The Future Of Epa Greenhouse Gas Regulation, Shavonnie R. Carthens

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

In this article, Shavonnie Carthens examines the implications of West Virginia v. EPA, emphasizing how the Supreme Court’s use of the major questions doctrine creates uncertainty around the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. It argues that, in light of the doctrine’s growing influence and the end of Chevron deference, Congress should revise the Clean Air Act to explicitly authorize the EPA to regulate greenhouse emissions through system-based transitions to cleaner power-generating sources, public health-conscious considerations, and multi-agency regulatory approaches to ensure durable and effective climate policy.

Pesticide Lies! A Call For Epa Action As Recent Judicial Decisions Reveal The Harmful Truth Resulting From Exposure, Stevi Whitman

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

In this note, Stevi Whitman analyzes the dangers of weak pesticide regulation in the United States. Whitman explains that the EPA’s reliance on the vague “unreasonable adverse effects” standard under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) allows harmful products like Roundup to remain on the market despite strong evidence of health risks. Whitman argues for strengthening U.S. pesticide laws to match the European Union’s stricter safety threshold. She proposes amending FIFRA to require proactive bans on hazardous pesticides and greater accountability from manufacturers to better protect public health and the environment.

Resistance: The Mura Struggle Against Canadian Potash Mining In Brazil’S Amazon, Cardozo Law Institute In Holocaust And Human Rights (Clihhr), Federal University Of Rio Grande Do Sul, Graduate Program In Law (Ppgd/Ufrgs), International Human Rights Program (Ihrp), University Of Toronto Jackman Law, Observatory Of Socio-Environmental Law And Human Rights In The Amazon (Odsdh/Ufam)

CLIHHR Reports & Policy Submissions

A comprehensive human rights and environmental report documenting the Mura Indigenous people’s resistance to Brazil Potash’s Autazes Potash Project in the Brazilian Amazon. The report details environmental risks, human rights violations, failures in consultation processes, litigation history, corporate accountability, and the ongoing struggle for land demarcation.

An Ecofeminist Approach To Climate Risks, Angela Hefti

Michigan Journal of International Law

Climate change poses significant risks to the human right to life. However, international adjudicators have either neglected to examine right to life claims in the context of climate risks or dismissed them as prospective and speculative. International human rights bodies have long applied the standard of imminence to determine whether a threat to the right to life exists and the extent to which it constitutes a violation. In climate change cases, this standard has hardened, requiring a tight temporal connection between climate risks and a violation of the right to life. This article argues that failing to recognize the impact …

Green Dividends: A Case Study In Green Dividends And The Conditions For Private Ordering Solutions, Anne M. Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay introduces a novel private ordering solution to facilitate corporate investments in pro-social and environmental initiatives: Green dividends. Green dividends are an optional increase in shareholder dividends that are returned to the company to be reinvested in environmental initiatives or kept by a shareholder.

Green dividends pose an alternative to the current gridlocked debate that corporations can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, and shouldn’t even try to act in pro-social or environmental ways. Turning the common refrains on their head converts each narrative into an element for a successful private ordering solution: authority, accountability, shareholder buy-in, and government- backed enforcement. With Green …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …