By Hume Ross, Staff Member Georgetown Environmental Law Review This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Read the original here and leave a comment. I. Introduction Before World War II, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto wrote: “Because I have seen the motor industry in Detroit and the oilfields of Texas, I know Japan has no chance if she goes to war with America, or if she starts to compete in building warships.”[1] As he anticipated, after hostilities broke out the United States government quickly began to mobilize the nation’s considerable natural resources and manufacturing capacity. The War Production Board (WPB)…

By Garrett M. Gee, J.D. Candidate, William & Mary Law School, 2016; Staff Member, William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review Abstract: This article explains the process to convert a rail line to a recreational trail under the Rails-to-Trails Act and addresses some legal issues that often arise from such conversions. This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. The Rails-to-Trails Act (“Trails Act”) provides localities and nonprofits with a useful tool for transforming dormant rail rights-of-way (“ROWs”) into recreational trails.  16 USC § 1247(d).[1]  The Act streamlines the legal complexity of trail conversion by providing a…

This week’s post, Ethical Convergence and the Endangered Species Act, was written by Caitlin Troyer Busch, J.D. Candidate at Stanford Law School. Read the post here.

Caitlin Troyer Busch, Stanford Law School, J.D. Candidate 2017 This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Read the original here and leave a comment.   Introduction The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is both lauded and criticized as one of the most powerful environmental laws ever enacted. Proponents of the law praise it for protecting thousands of endangered species over the last forty years, while detractors argue it is a bureaucratic mess that no longer benefits humans, but instead overburdens private landowners and development and values species’ needs above human needs. These claims reflect the disparate values underlying…

This week’s post, Adapting the Paris Agreement, was written by Bonnie Smith at Vermont Law School.  Bonnie is currently a Staff Editor for Vermont Journal of Environmental Law. Read the post here.

By Bonnie Smith, Staff Editor, Vermont Journal of Environmental Law This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate.  Read the original here and leave a comment.   Introduction For the first time in the history of international climate negotiations, adaptation has its own article in a legal text. Even more striking is that loss and damage, historically treated as a component of adaptation, does too. For many years, negotiations concerning adaptation and loss and damage have been contentious between developed countries, which prioritize mitigation over adaptation and loss and damage, and developing countries uniquely vulnerable to the impacts…

This week’s post, It Is Time For Oregon To Define Its Public Trust Duties, was written by Olivier Jamin, a 2L at Lewis & Clark Law School.  Olivier is currently the Online Journal Editor for Environmental Law. Read the post here!

By Olivier Jamin, a 2L at Lewis & Clark Law School, where he is the Online Journal Editor for Environmental Law.  This post is part of the Environmental Law Review Syndicate. Read the original here and leave a comment.   I. Introduction The public trust doctrine (PTD) is a concept under which states have the duty to preserve certain natural and cultural resources for the benefit of the public.[1] The PTD is a common law doctrine, and state courts around the country have spent the last three decades applying — and in some cases rejecting — it to a variety of natural…