Land Use Law Commons^™

Presentations: Pennsylvania's Environmental Rights Amendment And Environmental Justice, Samantha Phillps Beers, John C. Dernbach, Emma H. Bast, Margaret O. Murphy

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Pressure In The Pipeline? Hidden Tensions Beneath The Surface In The D.C. Circuit's Analysis Of Alabama Municipal Distributors Group V. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Marina Campo

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Montana Trout Unlimited V. Montana Department Of Natural Resources, Kelly Brady

Public Land & Resources Law Review

A proposed copper mine located near tributaries of the highly protected Smith River in central Montana set off a series of lawsuits over the use of water in the state. After a number of administrative hearings and subsequent trials, the only substantial question left was the status of “mine dewatering.” The Montana Supreme Court decided whether 1,500,000 gallons of water removed annually from the inner workings of a mine should require a water use permit as a beneficial use or if it exists outside of the regulatory jurisdiction of the Montana Department of Natural Resources under the Montana Water Use …

Montana Environmental Information Center. V. Montana Department Of Public Service Regulation, Sadie Giles

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Montana Environmental Information Center v. Montana Department of Public Service Regulation provides insight into the discretion of the Public Service Commission and its impact on renewable energy development in Montana, especially in the wake of the repeal of the Renewable Power Production and Rural Economic Development Act. This case evaluates the Commission’s decisions to grant waivers to NorthWestern Energy for its 2015 and 2016 renewable energy purchase obligations under the Act. The Court found the Commission’s decisions were arbitrary and unsupported by substantial evidence and appropriate reasoning. Montana’s renewable portfolio standards had proven effective in promoting renewable energy and economic …

Tribal Sovereignty And The Limits Of Federal Evidence: Authenticating Indian Status In United States V. Harper, Anthony J. Shirey

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In United States v. Harper, the Tenth Circuit reversed a conviction for violent crimes committed in Indian Country because the government failed to provide admissible evidence proving that the defendant was an “Indian” under federal law. At first glance, the ruling appears to turn on a technical evidentiary issue concerning the exclusion of a tribal membership verification letter under the business records exception. Yet the case reveals something deeper: a jurisdictional framework that conditions the recognition of tribal identity on federal evidentiary norms, and in doing so, limits the functional sovereignty of tribal governments in federal courts. This Note seeks …

Friends Of The Inyo V. United States Forest Service, Sarah J. Leopard

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Friends of the Inyo v. United States Forest Service provides necessary guidance for categorical exclusion analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the United States Forest Service wrongfully construed NEPA as permissive of applying different categorical exclusions to various components of the same mining project until the project was excluded in its entirety from further environmental review. The Court’s holding establishes two essential rules for evaluating mining proposals on public lands: (1) a categorical exclusion, when applied under § 220.6, must cover the entire scope of a proposed project; and (2) the …

Session 2: The Cases For Industry Self-Regulation And Government Regulation Of Ai, Boaz Ashkenazy, Kevin Bartholomew, Kevin De Liban, Christopher Yoo

SITIE Symposiums

In Session Two of the SITIE 2025 Symposium titled “The Cases for Industry Self-Regulation and Government Regulation of AI,” moderated by Seattle University Technology Ethics Initiative Director and Professor Onur Bakiner, the panelists discuss their perspectives and experiences with AI regulation. They share observations about the industry and delve into the topics of AI complexity, concerns around accountability, the shift to agentic AI, the current state of AI regulation, existing legal guardrails, and their outlook on AI regulation.

Session 1: Guidance From International Regulation Sources, Charlotte Tschider, Marie-Charlotte Roques-Bonnet

SITIE Symposiums

In Session One of the SITIE 2025 Symposium titled “Regulating Artificial Intelligence: From Where and When?”, Professor Mark Chinen moderated a panel featuring Professor Charlotte Tschider and Dr. Marie-Charlotte Roques-Bonnet. The discussion focused on international AI regulation, privacy, data governance, and the EU’s regulatory approach to AI oversight.

Opposition To Renewable Energy Facilities In The United States: June 2025 Edition, Matthew Eisenson, Jacob Elkin, Ivonne Norman, Rebecca Coombs, Chadol Kim, Rex Koenig, Suzan Michalski, Eric Quiroz, Josepi Scariano, Ava Teasdale, Victor Tong, Annabel Williams

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Increasing the amount of electricity generated in the United States to power electric vehicles, data centers, and other end uses, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require deploying a massive number of renewable energy facilities at an unprecedented scale and pace. Although many renewable energy facilities are sited without a problem, local opposition often arises. The Sabin Center’s annual report, Opposition to Renewable Energy Facilities in the United States, documents legal obstacles and challenges that arise during the siting process. In particular, the report focuses on: (a) state laws and local ordinances (“restrictions”) that impede the siting and deployment …

Planning A New Paradigm: Tribal Co-Stewardship And Federal Public Lands Planning, Monte Mills, Martin Nie

Articles

Planning is a critical part of the federal government’s management of the nation’s public lands. Over the last half century, Congress has mandated that each of the four major public land management agencies; the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service, develop and rely on plans to guide their oversight of public lands and resources. Virtually every activity or decision affecting these public lands can be traced back to language in—or missing from—a plan. But, despite the importance of planning, the process by which each agency develops and …

The New Redlining: How Progressive Policies Restrict The Development Of Housing Supply And Perpetuate America's Racist Property Law Past, Steve Calandrillo, Kelsey Dunn

Articles

Recent scholarship has exposed America’s racist property law past. During the twentieth century, decades of deliberate state-sponsored discrimination (a.k.a., “Redlining”) made homeownership—and the accumulation of wealth—more difficult for people of color. In 1948, the Supreme Court outlawed these practices in the seminal case, Shelly v. Kraemer. However, the damage had been done, and has proven to be long-lasting. Redlining slowed economic mobility for people of color and exacerbated the racial wealth gap. As a result, America is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis that disproportionately impacts people of color.

Readers well versed in economics and public policy …

Water Flowing Down Wall Street, Vanessa Casado-Pérez

Faculty Scholarship

Water scarcity is a perennial problem with dire consequences for the United States and governments around the world. A lack of adequate water resources is a systematic cause of environmental harm, economic damage, and societal division. Climate change has exacerbated these problems making water even more valuable and essential.

Financial actors have turned water into the new oil. These large financial actors profiteer from buying and selling water without any interest in its actual use as an input of production. Instead, they typically seek to hold these rights until dire situations, like droughts and fires, cause temporary, but large, spikes …

How Atlanta's Use Of Eminent Domain Displace Low-Income Peoplestown Residents, Babafemi Fatade

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Conservation Law Clinic Students Help Draft New Indiana Prescribed Burn Legislation, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

A new Indiana law that expands the state’s prescribed burning capacity was signed by Indiana Governor Mike Braun on April 30, in part due to efforts by Indiana University Maurer School of Law students through the school’s Conservation Law Clinic.

The law expands a prescribed fire training program administered through the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and defines the standard of liability for those certified through the training program. Before the bill was signed, Indiana was one of only a few states nationwide without a certification program or standard of liability clearly defined through legislation. This new law will allow …

Montana Environmental Information Center V. Montana Department Of Environmental Quality, Alexis Karbowicz

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.

Puerto Rico's Coast: Preservation Through Positive Obligations On Property Owners And The State In The Context Of Climate Change, Jaime Villeta-Garcia

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

The rise in sea level, the obvious rampant coastal erosion and the uncertain future due to climate change urge the need to rethink the coast, through property and administrative law. The security of life, property and the fair and orderly use of the ultra-valuable resources that is the coast depend on a new concept for properties in the coastal zone and its effective execution by a conscious and responsible State. Centered on the community of Ocean Park in San Juan, Puerto Rico, it’s no longer a question of whether coastal property rights can contribute to safeguarding the coast, but rather …

Introduction, Karen Johnston

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

This article provides an introduction to the Journal of Comparative Urban Law & Policy, the Study Space Program offered by Georgia State University College of Law, and the articles resulting from the Study Space Rio de Janeiro Program held in June 2024.

Suggested Revisions In Maine's Planning And Land Use Control Enabling Legislation—Part Ii, Orlando E. Delogu

Maine Law Review

The process which transfers land from its natural or an unintensively used agricultural state to house lots, shopping centers, or industrial sites is often referred to as land subdivision. No more long-lasting or fundamental series of changes with respect to the land can be imagined; yet the process in Maine is not only unregulated by the state and by most local levels of government, but is not at present capable of being regulated in any meaningful sense of the word. No state statutes exist which impose even the most reasonable standards, limitations, or procedural safeguards on either the process of …

The Law Of The Land: Development Legislation In Maine And Vermont, J. Jackson Walter

Maine Law Review

In recent Maine and Vermont environmental protection legislation, desecration of the landscape has emerged as an issue as controversial as pollution of water and air. Traditional techniques of land use regulation operate locally, some say parochially, without any regular regard for Earth Day or statehouse politics or even administrative fair play. The trend in northern New England to adopt state-level standards totally changes the business of land development. And statewide rules are not the end; national land use standards are imminent. A report by the President's Council of Environmental Quality recommends federal controls within areas of critical environmental concern, such …

Contract Zoning: A Flexible Technique For Protecting Maine Municipalities, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

Since the constitutionality of comprehensive zoning plans was upheld by the 1926 United States Supreme Court decision in Euclid v. Ambler Realty, municipal zoning has become an acceptable, indeed a necessary, fact of life. Maine, as well as most states, has enacted zoning enabling legislation pursuant to which many Maine municipalities have adopted zoning ordinances. The standard zoning approach which has evolved since Euclid has been based largely on the concept of uniform gridiron districts which conform to a legislatively preconceived comprehensive plan intended to assist municipalities in maintaining an orderly growth. These comprehensive plans, however, frequently have become a …