Environmental Law Commons^™

Liability For Environmental Harm And Emerging Global Environmental Law, Robert V. Percival

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The Aftermath Of Copenhagen: Does International Law Have A Role To Play In A Global Response To Climate Change?, Jacob Werksman, Kirk Herbertson

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Multiscalar Governance And Climate Change: Reflections On The Role Of States And Cities At Copenhagen, Hari M. Osofsky

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

From Bali To Copenhagen: Towards A Shared Vision For A Post-2012 Climate Regime?, Jutta Brunnée

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Spirit Food And Sovereignty: Pathways For Protecting Indigenous Peoples' Subsistence Rights , Allison M. Dussias

Cleveland State Law Review

The Article examines three pathways recently followed by tribes and Native communities in seeking protection of their rights to valued subsistence resources focusing on the legal principles and theories on which they have relied, including treaty rights, environmental law, tribal sovereignty, and international human rights law, as they have followed their different pathways.

Siting Green Infrastructure: Legal And Policy Solutions To Alleviate Urban Poverty And Promote Healthy Communities, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Green infrastructure is an economically and environmentally viable approach for water management and natural resource protection in urban areas. This Article argues that green infrastructure has additional and exceptional benefits for the urban poor which are not frequently highlighted or discussed. When green infrastructure is concentrated in distressed neighborhoods—where it frequently is not—it can improve urban water quality, reduce urban air pollution, improve public health, enhance urban aesthetics and safety, generate green collar jobs, and facilitate urban food security. To make these quality of life and health benefits available to the urban poor, it is essential that urban leaders remove …

Public Trust Limits On Greenhouse Gas Trading Schemes: A Sustainable Middle Ground?, Karl S. Coplan

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

There is a some consensus among economists, environmentalists, and politicians that some form of “cap and trade’ program is the appropriate regulatory mechanism to achieve the greenhouse gas emissions reductions necessary to avoid disastrous global climate disruptions. “Cap and trade” programs necessarily incorporate tradable emissions rights – essentially tradable rights to pollute. As such, they run into principled objection by some environmentalists who oppose the notion of creating economic rights in the global commons – essentially the “right to pollute.” This principled objection derives doctrinal support from the public trust doctrine – the ancient notion rooted in common law and …

The Law Of Sustainable Development: Keeping Pace, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article describes the emerging field of sustainable development law and examines whether it is up to the challenge it faces. In a world of finite resources overrun by sprawl, threatened by climate change, short on fuel, and long on greenhouse gas emissions, the law must keep pace. After discussing what sustainable development law is, the article considers the relationship between change in society and the evolution of legal principles, strategies, and practices, particularly with respect to land use, property, and natural resources. Documented in this review is the steady change exhibited in the common law applicable to the ownership, …

Success Or Failure?, Richard L. Ottinger

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Copenhagen Climate Conference and its Copenhagen Accord have generally been billed by the press as having been a failure. I think this is a very unfortunate mischaracterisation. The conference was a failure only in not achieving binding commitments to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission levels sufficiently to meet the requirements identified by the some 3,000 leading global scientists of the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to avoid disastrous consequences – such as sea-level rise leading to massive migration, food disruption, water shortages, tropical disease migration, biodiversity destruction, etc. But the conference didn’t expect that this could …

Human Rights Implications For The Climate Negotiations, David Hunter

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Symposium: The Confluence of Human Rights and the Environment INTRODUCTION: According to John Holdren, the Science Advisor to President Obama, humanity can only respond to climate change in three ways. We can mitigate climate change, for example by reducing greenhouse gas emissions; we can adapt to climate change, for example by defending our coastlines; or we can suffer from climate change. Given current emission levels and projected climate change impacts, we are inevitably going to do some of all three. A human rights approach, the subject of this Article, puts the focus on those who will suffer from climate change, …

Understanding Cercla Through Webster's New World Dictionary And State Common Law: Forestalling The Federalization Of Property Law, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act ("CERCLA") was hastily enacted in 1980 in the wake of the Love Canal disaster, where vast amounts of toxic wastes were found buried beneath a residential community. The contours of this legislation, though comprehensive in its outward scope, have been difficult to discern, largely as a consequence of vague and confusing expression. Though often the first tool resorted to for interpretation is the dictionary, the courts have looked beyond the literal terms, in an effort to determine the intended and sensible limits, consistent with both the congressional aim to reach broad categories …

Climate Change Displacement To Refuge, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vise versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water, energy and climate coordination can occur through international consensus building.

Non-State Actor Access And Influence In International Legal And Policy Negotiations, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the importance of increasing civil society actor access to and influence in international legal and policy negotiations, drawing from academic scholarship on governance, conservation and environmental sustainability, natural resource management, observations of civil society actors, and the authors’ experiences as participants in international environmental negotiations.

Transcript of panel discussion at McGill University, March 26, 2010. This piece is based on the article Elizabeth Burleson & Diana Pei Wu, Non-State Actor Access and Influence in International Legal and Policy Negotiations, 21 Fordham Envtl. L. Rev. 193 (2010).

Bundling Public And Private Goods: The Market For Sustainable Organics, Margot J. Pollans

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Modern agriculture has vast environmental externalities. The pesticides, fertilizers, and sediments in irrigation runoff pollute surface and groundwater; single-crop farms destroy biodiversity; and massive amounts of fossil fuels are burned in agricultural production, post-harvest processing, and shipping. Nevertheless, farming operations have largely escaped the post-1970 expansion of federal environmental regulation. Compounding the problem, federal farm policy has encouraged the very farming practices that most cause this degradation.

In 1990, Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA), which created an organic food certification and labeling system. While OFPA's primary purposes are to facilitate the growth of the organic sector and …

The Epa’S Proposed Transport Rule: Implications For Climate Change Regulation, Jessica A. Wentz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

On July 6, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a Clean Air Act rulemaking to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from power plants in the eastern United States. If it survives legal scrutiny, the rule will impose a hybrid cap-and-trade program with state-specific SO2 and NOx emission budgets and limited interstate trading. This paper discusses the rule's requirements, how it compares to its predecessor (the Clean Air Interstate Act), the projected impact on air quality and public health, and implications for future climate change policy.

What Ever Happened To Canadian Environmental Law?, Stepan Wood, Georgia Tanner, Benjamin J. Richardson

Articles & Book Chapters

This Article examines the history of Canadian environmental law to explain why it has become a laggard in both legal reform and environmental performance. Canadian environmental law has long been of interest to scholars worldwide, yet its record is often poorly understood. The Article contrasts recent developments with the seemingly progressive initiatives of the 1970s, and analyzes these trends in light of their political, economic, and governance context, as well as the wider critiques of environmental law. It argues that there is considerable room for Canadian governments to adopt more robust methods of environmental law, including following pioneering reforms advanced …

Energy Independence: Challenges Facing The West In Adopting Alternative And Renewable Energy Sources, Barbara Cosens

Articles

No abstract provided.

Sustainability Starts Locally: Untying The Hand Of Local Governments To Create Sustainable Economies, Jerrold A. Long

Articles

No abstract provided.

Rainwater Recapture: Development Regulations Promoting Water Conservation, Julian C. Juergensmeyer

Faculty Publications By Year

The increasing need for water conservation in the eastern as well as western parts of the United States is focusing attention on rainwater recapture. The technology available is effective and relatively inexpensive. Using land development regulations to require or encourage new development to incorporate rainwater recapture facilities is one approach to alleviation of local water shortages.