What We Don't See When We See Copyright As Property,
2018
University of Michigan Law School
What We Don't See When We See Copyright As Property, Jessica Litman
Articles
For all of the rhetoric about the central place of authors in the copyright scheme, our copyright laws in fact give them little power and less money. Intermediaries own the copyrights, and are able to structure licenses so as to maximise their own revenue while shrinking their pay-outs to authors. Copyright scholars have tended to treat this point superficially, because – as lawyers – we take for granted that copyrights are property; property rights are freely alienable; and the grantee of a property right stands in the shoes of the original holder. I compare the 1710 Statute of Anne, which …
Western Organization Of Resource Councils V. United States Bureau Of Land Management,
2018
University of Montana School of Law
Western Organization Of Resource Councils V. United States Bureau Of Land Management, Seth Sivinski
Public Land & Resources Law Review
To what extent must the BLM analyze potential climate change impacts where millions of acres of public lands and federal mineral estates are being considered for coal development? Western Organization of Resource Councils v. BLM addresses this, setting the scope for NEPA-mandated environmental impact analysis and reasonable alternative consideration by federal agencies. Judge Brian Morris of the District of Montana eschewed BLM’s assertions that considering climate impacts would be speculative, instead requiring BLM to acknowledge scientific reality and include modern climate science in its NEPA review analysis.
Highway Culverts, Salmon Runs, And The Stevens Treaties: A Century Of Litigating Pacific Northwest Tribal Fishing Rights,
2018
Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana
Highway Culverts, Salmon Runs, And The Stevens Treaties: A Century Of Litigating Pacific Northwest Tribal Fishing Rights, Ryan Hickey
Public Land & Resources Law Review
Isaac Stevens, then Superintendent of Indian Affairs and Governor of Washington Territory, negotiated a series of treaties with Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest during 1854 and 1855. A century and a half later in 2001, the United States joined 21 Indian tribes in filing a Request for Determination in the United States District Court for the District of Washington. Plaintiffs alleged the State of Washington had violated those 150-year-old treaties, which remained in effect, by building and maintaining culverts under roads that prevented salmon passage. This litigation eventually reached the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held in favor …
Collaboration Through Nepa: Achieving A Social License To Operate On Federal Public Lands,
2018
Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources and the University of Wyoming College of Law
Collaboration Through Nepa: Achieving A Social License To Operate On Federal Public Lands, Temple Stoellinger, L. Steven Smutko, Jessica M. Western
Public Land & Resources Law Review
As demand and consumption of natural gas increases, so will drilling operations to extract the natural gas on federal public lands. Fueled by the shale gas revolution, natural gas drilling operations are now frequently taking place, not only in the highly documented urban settings, but also on federal public lands with high conservation value. The phenomenon of increased drilling in sensitive locations, both urban and remote, has sparked increased public opposition, requiring oil and gas producers to reconsider how they engage the public. Oil and gas producers have increasingly deployed the concept of a social license to operate to gain …
Public-Private Conservation Agreements And The Greater Sage-Grouse,
2018
University of Denver Sturm College of Law
Public-Private Conservation Agreements And The Greater Sage-Grouse, Justin R. Pidot
Public Land & Resources Law Review
In 2015, the Obama Administration announced its conservation plans for the greater sage-grouse, an iconic bird of the intermountain west.Political leadership at the time described those plans as the “largest landscape-level conservation effort in U.S. history,”and they served as the foundation for a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) that a listing of the bird was not warranted under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The Trump Administration appears poised to substantially amend the plans, although an array of interested parties have urged that the plans be left intact. Regardless of the outcome of this debate, conservation of …
Streamlining The Production Of Clean Energy: Proposals To Reform The Hydroelectricity Licensing Process,
2018
University of Montana
Streamlining The Production Of Clean Energy: Proposals To Reform The Hydroelectricity Licensing Process, Travis Kavulla, Laura Farkas
Public Land & Resources Law Review
Hydroelectric power is an efficient and clean source of power. In an era when air emissions dominate public concern about the environmental effects of the energy sector, it is a paradox that among the most highly regulated energy projects are hydroelectric dams, which do not combust fuel. This is partly due to a failure of successive statutory enactments,which have transformed hydroelectric licensing from a regulatory “one-stop shop” with a single regulator, to a process chained to a bewilderingnumber of often conflicting regulatory agencies, often riven with delay. Hydroelectric licensing has also failed because its capacious standard of review encourages special-interest …
Keeping Power In Charge: Federal Hydropower And The Downstream Environment,
2018
University of New Mexico School of Law
Keeping Power In Charge: Federal Hydropower And The Downstream Environment, Reed D. Benson
Public Land & Resources Law Review
No abstract provided.
Language Matters: Environmental Controversy And The Quest For Common Ground,
2018
University of Montana
Language Matters: Environmental Controversy And The Quest For Common Ground, Scott Slovic
Public Land & Resources Law Review
No abstract provided.
Center For Biological Diversity V. Zinke,
2018
Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana
Center For Biological Diversity V. Zinke, Ryan Hickey
Public Land & Resources Law Review
The oft-cited “arbitrary and capricious” standard revived the Center for Biological Diversity’s most recent legal challenge in its decades-long quest to see arctic grayling listed under the Endangered Species Act. While this Ninth Circuit decision did not grant grayling ESA protections, it did require the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider its 2014 finding that listing grayling as threatened or endangered was unwarranted. In doing so, the court found “range,” as used in the ESA, vague while endorsing the FWS’s 2014 clarification of that term. Finally, this holding identified specific shortcomings of the challenged FWS finding, highlighting how …
Friends Of Animals V. United States Fish & Wildlife Service,
2018
Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana
Friends Of Animals V. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, Bradley E. Tinker
Public Land & Resources Law Review
In Friends of Animals v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, the Ninth Circuit held that the plain language of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act allows for the removal of one species of bird to benefit another species. Friends of Animals argued that the Service’s experiment permitting the taking of one species––the barred owl––to advance the conservation of a different species––the northern spotted owl––violated the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The court, however, found that the Act delegates broad implementing discretion to the Secretary of the Interior, and neither the Act nor the underlying international conventions limit the taking of …
Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility V. United States Epa,
2018
Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana
Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility V. United States Epa, F. Aaron Rains
Public Land & Resources Law Review
Prior to 2016, the EPA acknowledged that human activities significantly contribute to climate change. However, on March 9, 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that significant debate regarding the issue remained in the scientific community. In response to these statements, a nonprofit organization filed a FOIA request with the EPA seeking any documents or records Pruitt may have used when formulating his statements or substantiating his position. The EPA refused to comply with the request, citing undue burden and improper interrogation and this action followed. Upon review, the District Court for the District of Columbia found the plaintiff’s FOIA request …
Agency Pragmatism In Addressing Law’S Failure: The Curious Case Of Federal “Deemed Approvals” Of Tribal-State Gaming Compacts,
2018
University of Iowa College of Law
Agency Pragmatism In Addressing Law’S Failure: The Curious Case Of Federal “Deemed Approvals” Of Tribal-State Gaming Compacts, Kevin K. Washburn
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (IGRA), Congress imposed a decision-forcing mechanism on the Secretary of the Interior related to tribal-state compacts for Indian gaming. Congress authorized the Secretary to review such compacts and approve or disapprove each compact within forty-five days of submission. Under an unusual provision of law, however, if the Secretary fails to act within forty-five days, the compact is “deemed approved” by operation of law but only to the extent that it is lawful. In a curious development, this regime has been used in a different manner than Congress intended. Since the United States …
Rent-A-Tribe: Tribal Immunity To Shield Patents From Administrative Review,
2018
University of Washington School of Law
Rent-A-Tribe: Tribal Immunity To Shield Patents From Administrative Review, Seth W.R. Brickey
Washington Law Review
In 2017, Allergan Pharmaceuticals entered into an agreement with the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe (SRMT). Allergan agreed to assign several patents to SRMT and to pay an initial sum of $13.75 million and annual royalties of approximately $15 million. SRMT, in exchange, licensed the rights to use the patents back to Allergan and agreed not to waive its tribal immunity in any administrative proceeding challenging the patents. Two outcomes were expected as a result of this Allergan-Mohawk agreement. First, Allergan would retain the rights to manufacture and market a highly profitable drug while insulating the underlying patents from an unforgiving …
Report From The Royalty Policy Committee: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Royalty Policy Committee,
2018
Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana
Report From The Royalty Policy Committee: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Royalty Policy Committee, Monte Mills
Faculty Books & Book Chapters
This report was Prepared for the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Special Institute on Federal and Indian Oil & Gas Royalty Valuation and Management: Panel: Report from the Royalty Policy Committee October 24, 2018 ~ Houston, Texas
Canada's Residential Schools And The Right To Integrity,
2018
Saskatchewan Bar
Canada's Residential Schools And The Right To Integrity, Amy Anderson, Dallas K. Miller, Dwight Newman
Dalhousie Law Journal
Apart from characterizations of the residential schools system as imposing cultural genocide, it is possible to understand the system in terms of a legal wrong involving violations of family integrity. The 19th and early 20th centuries saw increasing state intervention in families generally so as to impose compulsory education. However, wrongs in this intervention were recognized, and international law developed toward a right of family integrity that led to changes in non-Indigenous contexts. Evidence from the TRC shows that Canada did not respond as quickly in the Indigenous context, thus permitting an identification of how the residential schools system violated …
The Constitutionality Of Classification: Indigenous
Overrepresentation And Security Policy In Canadian
Federal Penitentiaries,
2018
Dalhousie University
The Constitutionality Of Classification: Indigenous Overrepresentation And Security Policy In Canadian Federal Penitentiaries, D'Arcy Leitch
Dalhousie Law Journal
This article examines one component of the Correctional Service of Canada's (CSC) risk classification scheme. The CSC uses the Custody Rating Scale (CRS), a 12-item actuarial instrument, to measure risk and to provide security classification recommendations. Empirical data shows that while CRS recommendations may have some predictive validity, certain of the 12 items the CRS includes do not, particularly for Indigenous prisoners. This article makes the case that the inclusion ofsuch items in the CRS violates prisoner's rights under section 7 of the Charter by depriving them of liberty in a manner that is arbitrary and overbroad. Habeas corpus is …
The Impact Of The Honour Of The Crown On The
Ethical Obligations Of Government Lawyers:
A Duty Of Honourable Dealing,
2018
University of British Columbia
The Impact Of The Honour Of The Crown On The Ethical Obligations Of Government Lawyers: A Duty Of Honourable Dealing, Andrew Flavelle Martin, Candice Telfer
Dalhousie Law Journal
The honour of the Crown is recognized as a Canadian constitutional principle that is essential to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. As part of the process of reconciliation, this article argues that the honour of the Crown imposes a special ethical obligation on government lawyers in specific circumstances, which we call the duty of honourable dealing. We situate this duty in the divided literature and case law about whether government lawyers have special ethical obligations and in the two dimensions in which the honour of the Crown applies: the Crown as an institution and the Crown as a collection …
Upper Skagit Indian Tribe V. Lundgren,
2018
Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana
Upper Skagit Indian Tribe V. Lundgren, Brett Berntsen
Public Land & Resources Law Review
Stemming from a property dispute between a private landowner and the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, this action evolved into a debate concerning the scope of tribal sovereign immunity and whether Indian tribes should be bound by certain common law doctrines applicable to most other sovereigns. The Washington Supreme Court originally ruled against the Tribe, citing County of Yakima v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima Nation in holding that sovereign immunity does not apply to in rem actions. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to clarify that its ruling in Yakima did not support such a proposition. The case …
Tensions Underlying The Indian Child Welfare Act: Tribal Jurisdiction Over Traditional State Court Family Law Matters,
2018
Brigham Young University Law School
Tensions Underlying The Indian Child Welfare Act: Tribal Jurisdiction Over Traditional State Court Family Law Matters, Elizabeth Maclachlan
BYU Law Review
State courts have historically exercised jurisdiction over family law cases. However, under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), Indian child custody and adoption cases have been taken out of state jurisdiction and placed with Indian tribal governments. State courts have pushed back against proper deference to ICWA and violate ICWA by misapplying its provisions and refusing to transfer custody and adoption cases to tribal courts. This Note analyzes the state-tribal tensions surrounding ICWA and argues that the primary reason for the lack of full state acceptance of ICWA is that, historically, states have had nearly total jurisdiction over family law …
Upstate Citizens For Equality, Inc. V. United States,
2018
Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana
Upstate Citizens For Equality, Inc. V. United States, Kirsa Shelkey
Public Land & Resources Law Review
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1935 is the proper avenue for Tribes pursuing restoration of their historic trust lands. The Oneida Indian Nation of New York long sought to reassert tribal jurisdiction over its historic homeland in Central New York. These efforts were largely unsuccessful until 2008 when the United States took 13,000 acres of this historic homeland into trust on behalf of the Tribe under the Indian Reorganization Act. This case affirms the federal government’s plenary powers over Indian Tribes, and that neither state sovereignty principles, nor the Enclave Clause upset that authority.
