Despite an uptick in legal scholarship addressing resiliency and climate adaptation in general, very little of it analyzes the historic disparity between greater ex post public expenditures to recover from disasters and relatively smaller ex ante investments in disaster preparedness and prevention. This Article addresses the gap in the literature and identifies the circumstances under which investments in disaster preparedness and prevention occur. It concludes that, although these investments are more likely to occur than the public choice scholarship suggests, they face challenges that the public choice claim masks.
In this Article, we explore the problem of beneficial insect population decline and evaluate the utility of existing federal law to reverse the trend. We offer solutions that can be implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under existing federal laws without the need for additional congressional action.
This Article’s central claim is that the governance challenges posed by radical adaptation in Antarctica are surmountable. Geopolitical and security interests may make states more willing than is now evident to explore ice-sheet stabilization and amend the Antarctic Treaty System accordingly. Moreover, the legitimacy of the system relies on the perception that Antarctica is competently governed with adequate regard for global interests—a perception that would be greatly strengthened by vigorous and effective efforts to understand and, if appropriate, execute interventions to slow the continent’s contribution to sea level rise.
This Article is organized as follows. Part I details the increasingly broad domain of environmental justice concerns, from beginnings focused on the negative impacts of waste sites on disadvantaged communities to more attention over the last two years on the relationship between COVID-19 death rates and high particulate matter concentrations. Part II shows that disadvantaged communities are subject to higher particulate matter exposure, and finds that, as a result of both this higher exposure and higher susceptibility, they experience significantly worse health outcomes. Turning to the policy front, Part III details how environmental justice claims were cast aside by EPA in the revisions of the NAAQS for particulate matter. Finally, Part IV explains how, because of a lack of political will and some technical challenges, EPA has institutionalized a state of permanent nonattainment with the NAAQS despite the deleterious environmental justice consequences of this action. The Article concludes with a brief, more optimistic blueprint for future action.
In Part I, I review timber trespass under Louisiana law, including its triple damages provision. In Part II, I discuss the availability of mental distress damages for timber trespass. Finally, in Part III, I use Critical Race Theory to analyze the 1988 case of Johnny Evans v. B.R. Bedsole Timber Contractors, especially in comparison to Harkness v. Porter, a case with very similar facts but a quite different outcome.
Using data collected by Professor Sarah Lawsky for her annual entry level hiring report, I analyzed trends in the hiring of environmental law professors (“ELPs”) from 2011 2022. With this Analysis, I provide insight into the hiring market for environmental law professors. I hope this Analysis is useful and edifying for both aspiring environmental law professors and those in positions of hiring authority within the academy.
This paper aims to unearth patterns, successes, and shortcomings of the legal landscape for cattle in the United States. While U.S. law occasionally works to protect cattle against human exploitation, it is not enough. Instead, the United States’ legal approaches to cattle activity should strive to develop empathy and compassion for cattle, in turn promoting and protecting their health and welfare.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has underscored the racial, social, and economic disparities that have long plagued every part of American society—including the health of our environment. Given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minority communities across the country, government officials have focused their efforts on an equitable COVID-19 response. These efforts, however, have ignored marginalized individuals who are incarcerated. With its interdisciplinary approach, the environmental justice framework may provide a meaningful tool to effectively respond to the impact of COVID-19 in prisons.
Ecology Law Quarterly, one of the nation’s most respected and widely read environmental law journals.