Analysis of Environmental Law Scholarship 2016-2017

• Date: 01 August 2018
• Author: Stephanie M. Biggs, Linda K. Breggin, Claire B. Johnson, and Michael P. Vandenbergh

8-2018 NEWS & ANALYSIS 48 ELR 10657

COMMENT

Analysis of Environmental

Law Scholarship 2016 -2017

by Stephanie M. Biggs, Linda K. Breggin, Claire B. Johnson, and

Michael P. Vandenbergh

Linda K. Breggin is a Senior Attorney with the Environmental Law Institute and Adjunct Professor, Vanderbilt

University Law School.

Stephanie M. Biggs and Claire B. Johnson are recent graduates of Vanderbilt University Law School. Michael P. Vandenbergh is the David Daniels

Allen Distinguished Chair

of Law and Co-Director of the Energy, Environment, and Land Use Program, Vanderbilt University Law School.

The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review

(ELPAR) is published by the Environmental Law

In st it ute ’s ( EL I’s) Environmental Law Reporter

in partnership with Vanderbilt University Law School.

ELPAR provides a forum for the presentation and discus-

sion of some of the most creative and feasible environmental

law and policy proposals from the legal academic literature

each year. e pool of articles that are considered includes

all environmental law art icles published during the previ-

ous academic year. e law journal art icles that are re-pub-

lished and discussed a re selected by Vanderbilt University

Law School students with input from their course instruc-

tors and an outside advisory committee of expert s.

e purpose of this Comment is to highlig ht the results

of the ELPAR article selection process and to report on

the environmental legal scholarship for the 2016-2017 aca-

demic year, including the number of environmental law

articles published in general law reviews versus environ-

mental law journals, and the topics covered in the ar ticles.

We also present the top 16 articles that met ELPAR’s cri-

teria of persuasiveness, impact, feasibility, and creativity,

from which seven articles were selected to re-publish in

shortened form, some of them with commentaries from

leading practitioners and policymakers. us, the goal of

this Comment is to provide an empirical snapshot of the

environmental legal literature during the past academic

year, as well as provide information on the top articles cho-

sen by ELPAR.

I. Methodology

A detailed description of the methodology is posted on the

Vanderbilt University Law School and Envi ronmental Law

Institute ELPAR websites.1 In brief, the initial search for

1. Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review Publications, E. L. I.,

https://www.eli.org/environmental-law-policy-annual-review/publications

(last visited Feb. 28, 2018) [https://perma.cc/99JV-W6SS]; Environmental

articles that qualify for ELPAR review is limited to articles

published from August 1 of the prior year to July 31 of the

current year, roughly corresponding to the academic year.

e search is conducted in law reviews from the top 100

law schools, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report in

its most recent report, counting only articles from the rst

100 schools ranked for data purposes (i.e., if there is a tie

and over 100 schools are considered top 100, those that fall

in the rst 100 alphabetically are counted). Additionally,

journals listed in the “Environment, Natural Resources

and Land Use” subject area of the most recent rank ings

compiled by Washington & Lee University School of Law

are searched,2 with certain modications.

e ELPAR Editorial Board and Sta start with a

keyword search for “environment!” in an electronic legal

scholarship database.3 Articles w ithout a connect ion to the

Law & Policy Annual Review Online Supplements, V. L. S., http://law.

vanderbilt.edu/academics/academic-programs/environmental-law/environ-

mental-law-policy-annual-review/online-supplements.php (last visited Feb.

28, 2018) [https://perma.cc/D78E-X5P8].

2. Law Journals, Submissions, and Rankings Explained, W.  L S. 

L., https://managementtools4.wlu.edu/LawJournals/ (last visited Mar. 13,

2018) [https://perma.cc/PW5F-LM3U].

3. ELPAR members conduct a search in the spring semester of articles pub-

lished between August 1 and December 31 of the previous year. In the fall

semester, members search each journal for articles published earlier that

year, between the days of January 1 and July 31. e exact date of access

for each journal varies according to when each individual ELPAR member

performed the searches on their assigned journals, but the spring searches

were performed in the 3rd week of January, 2017, and the fall searches were

performed in the 3rd week of August, 2017. In order to collect articles from

“embargoed” journals, which are only available on Westlaw after a delay, as

well as articles from journals that are published after their ocial publica-

tion date, we set up a Westlaw Alert system to notify us when an article

meeting our search criteria was uploaded to Westlaw after ELPAR members

conducted their initial searches. A Westlaw Alert was set up for the spring

search on April 4, 2017 and ran until August 24, 2017. An alert was set up

for the fall search on August 26, 2017 and ran until September 11, 2017.

Articles caught by the Westlaw Alert system were subsequently considered

for selection by ELPAR and added to our data analysis. is is the rst year

ELPAR has implemented the Westlaw Alert system, therefore, our article

data in Section II should not be compared to data from prior years. Law

reviews of schools added to the U.S. News and World Report Top 100 are

Copyright © 2018 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.