Issue 2

Ecology Law Quarterly Volume 51.2 Front Matter

We are honored to introduce Ecology Law Quarterly’s Annual Review for 2023–24 presented in this 51.2 edition. The Annual Review represents a unique opportunity to highlight the academic scholarship of Berkeley Law students. This year’s selection of cases range from covering landmark decisions on our nation’s foundational environmental statutes to ...

This Note argues that Congress can and should pass new federal building electrification legislation to protect, incentivize, and accelerate local electrification efforts.

This Note analyzes and applies the Supreme Court’s reasoning in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross (NPPC) to make two arguments. First, it argues the majority’s analysis of extraterritoriality in NPPC reinforces the case for overruling the previous “garbage cases” and refocusing the Dormant Commerce Clause (DCC) on protectionism. Second, ...

This Note first examines how textualism’s plain meaning rule requires the enacted purposes canon. Next, it examines the Clean Water Act and its purposes section, which is ideal for interpretation under the enacted purposes canon because of its clarity, specificity, and comprehensiveness. Finally, it examines the conservative split in Sackett ...

This Note focuses on the Navajo Nation’s unqualified right to divert water from the Colorado River, the decreed rights of the Nation versus undecreed rights, and how administrative agencies can employ an EJ-plus lens to provide the Nation with administrative solutions.

Focusing on the tail end of the material life cycle of e-products, this Note raises issues regarding e-waste pollution including how the global trade of this hazardous waste creates informal economies that can be harmful to human health and the environment. It proposes a domestic policy measure that could reduce ...

This In Brief explores Maine Lobstermen’s Association v. National Marine Fisheries Service. It argues that the D.C. Circuit’s textualist approach to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and refusal to give the benefit of the doubt to the endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) limits the scope of agency interpretations when ...

This In Brief explores how the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in SF Herring Association was based primarily on statutory interpretation of the GGNRA Act distinguished from ANILCA and therefore was a narrow holding on the Park Service’s ability to administer the waters of the San Francisco Bay. However, the ruling has ...

This In Brief examines the role of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) in climate change action, including the evolution of sustainability reporting and materiality assessment nuances. To mitigate the non-disclosure issue, this In Brief argues that it is necessary to interpret the ESRS to recognize climate change issues as ...

This In Brief highlights that in Klamath Irrigation Dist., the Ninth Circuit signaled that where government, private, and Tribal interests conflict, courts will be wary of non-Tribal entities alleging they adequately represent Tribal interests. The Court emphasized that Tribes could protect their treaty rights by asserting their sovereign immunity in ...

This In Brief explores Murphy Company v. Biden, in which the Ninth Circuit ruled that the O&C Act and the Antiquities Act did not conflict and that Proclamation 9564 was a proper use of presidential authority. While the Ninth Circuit held that Proclamation 9564 was consistent with the O&C Act ...

This In Brief analyzes the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Harrison County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Harrison County). It argues that while the decision aligns with precedent, Harrison County is out of step with the urgent need for the Corps to incorporate climate change into its decision making. It ...

This In Brief explores how the Tenth Circuit’s failure to vacate the applications for permits to drill (APDs) in Diné Citizens v. Haaland was a missed opportunity to operate an effective check on agencies taking advantage of NEPA’s broad language. NEPA and the standard of judicial review associated with NEPA ...

This In Brief explores how the court in Western Watersheds Project v. Haaland deviated from general practice of the Tenth Circuit and other circuits of remanding cases to district courts for evaluation of the appropriateness of vacatur or other injunctive relief. Given the substantive nature of the agency deficiencies of ...

This In Brief argues that in Center for Biological Diversity v. Haaland (Center v. Haaland), the Ninth Circuit severely limited the power of organizations to subject agency recovery plans to judicial review. Holding that a grizzly bear recovery plan was not “final agency action,” the Ninth Circuit effectively barred litigation ...

Ecology Law Quarterly Volume 51.2 Full Version PDF.