Environmental Law Review’s Symposium Issue addresses Trump’s Impact on Critical Environmental Law and Policy

The new edition of Lewis & Clark’s Environmental Law Review follows the well-attended symposium in April, titled “Environmental Law Under Trump,” which sparked a lively discourse regarding the Trump Administration’s actions in environmental law and policy.

After the symposium, contributors assembled a list titled “Action Items for a Post-Trump Administration.” Many of the scholars and practitioners from around the country who presented on the symposium panels also published their essays and articles in Volume 48, No. 2 of the law school’s Environmental Law journal.

Symposium Editor Kacy Manahan ’18 introduces this landmark issue of Environmental Law, which has a thirty year legacy of publishing the most cutting edge environmental legal scholarship and is the first law journal in the U.S. dedicated solely to exploring environmental issues in the law. This symposium issue features articles analyzing the legal action taken by the Trump Administration regarding environmental compensatory mitigation policies, wildlife conservation, public lands protections and the Clean Water Rule.

Professor of Law at UC Hastings Dave Owen questions why the environmental compensatory mitigation policies that had been supported across the political spectrum in the past have recently come under attack by conservatives.

Kalyani Robbins, associate professor of law at Florida International University, wrote on the potential for ecosystems property rights to complement regulatory efforts to protect biodiversity.

Lewis & Clark Professor of Law Michael Blumm and International Environmental Law Project Fellow Olivier Jamin ’17 co-wrote an article analyzing the Trump administration’s arguably undemocratic, revolutionary rollback in public lands protections and how the consequences may play out in the long-run.

Patrick Parenteau, professor of law at Vermont Law School, wrote an article arguing in favor of the hard-fought 2015 Clean Water Rule, which clarifies the definition of “waters of the United States.” Parenteau asserts that the Trump Administration’s efforts to repeal the rule and replace it with a legal test following Justice Scalia’s plurality opinion in Rapanos v. United States goes against the language, purpose and cooperative federalism policies of the Clean Water Act.

“I think this issue stands out because it deals, exclusively, with current events. And as is readily apparent, when it comes to current events, our country is polarized by the positions and actions the Trump Administration is taking,” said Former Editor in Chief of Environmental Law Will Enoch ’18. “It seems the Administration’s actions are a mad dash, with pretty sizeable actions happening every day with seemingly little scientific analysis.”

Visit the Environmental Law online journal to read current and past issues.