Environmental & Urban Law

Environmental Law as a Legal Field: An Inquiry in Legal Taxonomy

Todd S. Aagaard - Villanova University School of Law

What is environmental law?  When we describe a factual pattern, case, or rule as arising within environmental law, what associations do we mean to convey by that designation?  What, if anything, unifies environmental law?  Is environmental law a legal field, or just an amalgamation of laws arranged under a general… Read More »

Existing Uses and the Limits of Land Use Regulations

Christopher Serkin - Brooklyn Law School

Existing uses occupy a special place in property and land use law.  A use, once established, is imbued with an expectation that it may continue to exist, even in the face of regulatory change.  For example, once built, a building becomes all but immune from subsequently enacted zoning rules.  As… Read More »

The Case for Limiting Federal Preemption of State Environmental Regulations

Brian T. Burgess - Law Clerk to Judge Guido Calabresi

States have exhibited leadership in environmental policy, addressing issues of national and global scope.  But this leadership is threatened by federal ceiling preemption—federal laws that prevent states from adopting regulations that are stricter than federal standards.
Environmental law scholars argue that federal ceiling preemption has pernicious effects. These scholars fail, however,… Read More »

Institutional Design for Lawmaking and Climate Change: Restraining the Present to Liberate the Future

Richard J. Lazarus - Georgetown University Law Center

During the next four years, the new President, Barack Obama, and new Congress are expected to join together in the first serious effort in the United States to enact sweeping national legislation to address global climate change.  If they are successful, federal climate legislation will be the first major environmental… Read More »

Iterative Federalism and Climate Change

Ann E. Carlson - UCLA School of Law

With the election of Barack Obama as President, national and global attention on climate change will turn to the federal government.  Though the looming economic crisis may slow a federal response, President Obama has made clear his support for ambitious action on climate change with a cap and trade scheme… Read More »

Welcome to Legal Workshop

New York University & Stanford University

Below is a brief introduction to the Legal Workshop project. We hope you enjoy getting to know us, and we welcome your feedback.
 
Mission:
The Legal Workshop website provides a single online forum for cutting-edge legal scholarship from the top law journals in the country.
The Legal Workshop features… Read More »