NEWS
Steve McCaffrey from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law and the Institute for Sustainable Development, speaks at CCELP on "International Regulation of Shared Surface and Ground Water: A Work in Progress". View his talk here (.mov) and his PowerPoint here (pdf) and his "Comments on the International Law Commission's Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers" here.
Cymie Payne, Associate Director of CCELP and Director of the Global Commons Project, recently participated in the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali. To read her report on the conference, click here.
Professor Holly Doremus, visiting faculty from UC Davis, has written a book about the water war in the Klamath Basin. To learn more, click here.
Professor Dan Farber was interviewed in the National Law Journal's January 21, 2008 article "Scholars Consider New Area of 'Disaster' Law." A handful of legal scholars, shocked by the collapse of the New Orleans Courts following Hurricane Katrina, are working to create a new specialty they call "disaster law." More...
Visiting Professor Holly Doremus published an article in Slate on January 17, 2008. on politics and the inclusion of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. To view this story, please click here.
Richard Frank was recently featured in a KPIX CBS5 news piece about California's lawwuit against the EPA over emissions standards. To view this story, please click here.
Professor Sax recently featured in the Daily Journal for winning the
Asahi Blue Planet Prize honoring his life's work. Read more...
Berkeley Law holds public forum and launches multi-volume project on the United Nations and aftermath of the Gulf War. Click here (PDF).
In Depth: A Very Green Environmental Ruling, From The Green State, by Richard M. Frank. Read more...
Read Rick Frank's recent San Francisco Chronicle op-ed, "Conservative Court Goes Green?". Click here.
Professors David Caron and Harry Scheiber recently wrote an ASIL Insight on the Law of the Sea Convention which is currently under debate in the Senate. Click here.
CCELP Associate Director, Cymie Payne's reflections on the legal implications of U.S. Supreme Court's recent EPA decision were picked up by the European news. Read more...
Stay up-to-date with the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force
Delta Vision is intended to identify a strategy for managing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as a sustainable ecosystem that would continue to support environmental and economic functions that are critical to the people of California.
To track, CCELP Executive Director, Richard Frank's work with the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, check out the Task Force website.
|
|
PUBLICATIONS
Public Lands and Climate Change
In November 2007 a symposium was convened to discuss decision-making and management strategies for the conservation of public lands in the face of climate change. Sponsored by the California Department of Parks and Recreation and the California Center for Environmental Law and Policy, with assistance from the Resources Legacy Fund and The Nature Conservancy, the conference was attended by over 160 representatives of both public and private entities. To read the "Summary of the Proceedings," please click here. To read the "Summary of Proposals," please click here. For more information about the symposium, including video-recordings of the presentations, please go here.
Climate Justice and the China Fallacy
In this preview of his forthcoming article, Professor Daniel Farber explains why "The China argument -- that we only have a duty to reduce emissions or assist victims of climate change if China reduces emissions -- is all too often taken for granted. It may be superficially appealing, but is based on two serious errors. One error is conceptual: the idea that one person's culpability is excused to the extent that the actions of others would have independently caused the same harm. That view is contrary to a basic and deeply entrenched principle of our tort system. The other error is factual: the assumption that the amount of harm done by our own emissions goes down to the extent that other countries have high emissions." (April 2008)
Disaster Law and the Legal Academy: Curriculum, Research and Law Reform (October 2007)
A CCELP white paper reporting on a disaster law workshop held at Berkeley Law June of 2007.
California Levee Risk, Now and in the Future: Identifying Research and Tool Development Needs
(November, 2006). Robin Newmark, Michael Hanemann and Daniel Farber. The Center for Catastrophic Risk Management (CCRM) and the California Center for Environmental Law & Policy (CCELP) at UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) joined together to cosponsor a workshop to define research requirements to mitigate the hazards facing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Levee system. This report details the workshop participants' recommendation that research focus on climate change, seismic risks, current conditions, and dynamic change.
Op-Ed Article by Rick Frank
on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. USEPA
Proposition
90: An Analysis (October 2006) - A CCELP White
Paper analyzing Eminent Domain and Regulatory Takings
provisions in 2006 California Ballot Initiative
Proposition 90
Disasters
and the Law (2006) - Daniel A. Farber, Jim Chen -
Katrina alone will involve at least a hundred
billion dollars in compensation, insurance, and
rebuilding efforts, and lawyers will be heavily involved
for at least the remainder of the decade in disputes
over these funds. Unfortunately, there is no reason at
all to think that Katrina is the last word on disasters.
At first glance, disaster law seems to be nothing but a
collection of legal rules of various kinds that happen
to come into play when communities have suffered severe
physical damage. But at a deeper level, disaster law is
about assembling the best portfolio of legal rules to
deal with catastrophic risks - a portfolio that includes
prevention, emergency response, compensation and
insurance, and rebuilding strategies. Because of this
unifying theme, we think that the topic is deserving of
serious law school attention even beyond its newsworthy
qualities.
|
|
PROJECTS
Cap and Trade as a Tool for Climate Change Conference Archive
Update on International Climate Negotiations
Climate Change
Listen to Professor Dan Farber's,
2008 Quinney Lecture, "The Moral Case for Climate Compensation" given at
the University of Utah.
Disaster Law
|
