Environmental Law Reporter

Issue Number

Latest documents

• Plastic Pollution
• Federal Authority to Address Plastic Pollution

  Plastic pollution is emerging as a defining crisis of our time. The United States has set a national goal to eliminate plastic release into the environment by 2040, and is engaging in negotiations on a global plastics treaty while simultaneously developing a national strategy. A recent report published by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium provides a comprehensive overview of existing legal authorities the federal government can leverage to achieve this national goal while safeguarding human health and the environment. On July 1, 2024, ELI hosted the authors of the report along with other experts to explore the plastic pollution crisis. Below, we present a transcript of that discussion, which has been edited for style, clarity, and space considerations

• Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, and Associated Traditional Knowledge
• Regulating Shipping of Carbon Dioxide for Sequestration
• Living the Good Life in the Anthropocene

  The Stockholm Resilience Centre has concluded that the number of "planetary boundaries" we are crossing has increased from three in 2009, when the Centre’s researchers first introduced the concept, to six in 2023. Crossing these boundaries means humans are changing basic attributes of planetary systems to the point of risking the future of civilization. And the distinction between "safe" and "just" planetary boundaries raises questions regarding how to conceptualize the "good life." In this latest in a biannual series of essays, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative explore conceptions of the "good" as well as the various elements necessary to a good life in the Anthropocene, from choice to respect to requirements like freshwater to amenities like outdoor recreation

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• Recent journal literature
• Economy-Wide and End-Use-Sector CO2 Emissions Reductions From 2005 for the IRA and No-IRA Scenario
• The Environmental Justice Impacts of Plastic Pollution

  Plastic pollution is a global environmental problem with a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities and other vulnerable groups. On June 27, 2023, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), ELI's Women in Environmental Law & Leadership initiative, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and WilmerHale co-hosted a panel of experts who explored the environmental justice implications of continued production and disposal of plastics, and addressed key domestic and international policy efforts. Below, we present a transcript of that discussion, which has been edited for style, clarity, and space considerations

• Sackett and the Unraveling of Federal Environmental Law

Featured documents

• Confronting Disproportionate Impacts and Systemic Racism in Environmental Policy

  Understanding and operationalizing the concept of disproportionate impacts are critical to the next generation of environmental justice (EJ) practice. This Article charts a pathway to better defining, articulating, and analyzing disproportionate impacts in a manner that is empirically based,...

• Environmental Rights, Public Trust, and Public Nuisance: Addressing Climate Injustices Through State Climate Liability Litigation
• Federal Grazing Lands as 'Conservation Lands' in the 30 by 30 Program
• The BP B1 Bundle Ruling: Federal Statutory Displacement of General Maritime Law (Part I)
• The Bear Essentials: How Landscape-Level Conservation May Help Save Florida's Biodiversity and Realize the Vision of the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act

  The express mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System “is to administer a national network of lands and waters for conservation, management, and where appropriate, restoration of the fish, wildlife and plant resources and their habitats within the United States.” But the establishment of...

• The Reasonable Investor and Climate-Related Information: Changing Expectations for Financial Disclosures
• Gunderson v. State: The Indiana Supreme Court Strengthens the Public Trust Doctrine's Potential for Conservation in the Great Lakes

  The Indiana Supreme Court recently delivered a landmark public trust decision, Gunderson v. State, ruling that the state acquired and still owns Indiana's bed of Lake Michigan below the ordinary high water mark, including exposed shores, and that it holds that bed in an inalienable trust for public ...

• Of Constitutions and Cultures: The British Right to Roam and American Property Law

  In 2000, England enacted the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, which provides the public the right to roam on certain private lands without compensation to the landowners. There are many constitutional and cultural-historical issues pertinent to importing this right to roam into the United States, ...

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• Global Perspective on Climate and Energy Justice

  The first biennial symposium of the Institute for Global Understanding at Monmouth University was held March 25-27, 2021. The symposium assembled experts from the government, nonprofit, academic, community, and private sectors to examine topics at the intersection of human rights and the...