Juliana v. United States is “no ordinary lawsuit.” Twenty-one Youth Plaintiffs from the United States have alleged that the federal government has knowingly abetted the fossil fuel industry in activities that have caused significant carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution for over fifty years. The continuation of policies and practices the government knows to be harmful to the environment is, according to plaintiffs, an infringement on their “constitutional rights to life liberty, and property.”
The federal government owns 45.8 million acres of property in California, approximately 46 percent of the state’s total land area. Soon after President Trump took office in 2017, his administration began to threaten widespread rollbacks of protections on federal public lands. The State of California drafted California Senate Bill 50 (SB 50) in response to signals after the 2016 election that the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress were contemplating expansive sales of federal public lands, including national parks, wilderness areas, and monuments, to private parties.
As the Editors-in-Chief of Ecology Law Quarterly and the Berkeley Journal of International Law, we welcome you to this special issue in honor of Professor David D. Caron ’83. This issue reflects a nearly year-long joint effort of law students in both journals coming together to publish scholarship that reflects Professor Caron’s dual, and often complimentary, exploration of pressing issues in international and environmental law.
David Caron had an enormous impact on Berkeley Law School and on the field of international law. He is terribly missed. A wonderful conference was held on September 14 and 15, 2018, at Berkeley Law School to honor, remember, and celebrate David. Hundreds of people attended a moving memorial service where colleagues and former students paid tribute. A conference brought together top scholars, practitioners, and judges from the field of international law. The papers from this conference are contained in this volume.
