Flooding the Permafrost: The Role of Environmental Claims in the Effort to Regulate Global Warming Emissions

This article focuses on the role that public and private claims play in spurring, supporting, supplementing, and, at times, impeding, climate change initiatives. Sections 1 and 2 describe the essential features of greenhouse gases and briefly detail the history of federal initiatives and the collapse of will that precipitated many of the claims filed by states, municipalities, and environmental groups. Section 3 discusses plaintiffs' early challenges and efforts to compel regulatory action; nuisance actions that have been filed by states, public interest groups, and individuals; and the possible trajectory of future claims. Section 4 discusses the role of climate change claims in enforcing compliance, improving corporate responsibility, and promoting interorganizational benchmarking in governmental and market-based standards programs. Section 5 concludes with a discussion of the precautionary principle and ways in which companies can protect themselves against future climate change-related claims.     

Environmental Mock Claims Analysis

Environmental risks have earned a reputation for undermining a wide range of business activities. Given the tremendous potential for unanticipated environmental losses, multitiered claims and high-priced litigation, environmental risks have prompted organizations to seek protection through a variety of risk transfer methods. The insurance community has in turn responded with the creation of a progressive menu of project-specific and entity-specific environmental insurance products that can help provide financial security to those organizations exposed to real or perceived environmental risks. What are these products and how do they work? The following mock claim analysis (MCA) highlights some of the risk issues and the insurance solutions.     

The Role of Suggestibility in Personal Injury Claims

Interrogative suggestibility and other psychological vulnerabilities are often assessed in the forensic criminal context in disputed confession cases. Such an assessment may also be relevant in disputing the validity of a confession by a plaintiff in a tort claim. This paper will outline the relevancy of suggestibility in the personal injury context, the reasons why an individual may falsely confess, how interrogative techniques may increase the likelihood of a false confession, false confession and suggestibility research, and methodology to be used in assessing vulnerability to falsely confessing.     

The Impact of Unfunded Environmental Mandates When Environmental Quality and Timber are Produced Jointly

A number of different aspects of environmental quality are produced jointly with timber. Unfunded environmental mandates whose costs are borne strictly by the private landowner lead to reduced production of both timber and environmental quality relative to the quantity of both that would be produced in the absence of such policies. That is, acting without regard to environmental consequences, private landowners produce more environmental quality (as a byproduct of producing timber) than they do when unfunded policy mandates result in de facto partial takings for which they are not compensated.     

The Aftermath of the Macondo Discovery Well Spill: The Interplay of Claims to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and Insurance Claims

The processing of claims for compensation arising from the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig and its environmental and economic aftermath has proceeded simultaneously before the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and insurers. The criteria for recovery between these two recipients of claims differ significantly. Compensation from the facility has included claims for purely economic injury, whereas compensation from insurance generally requires, inter alia, a closer geographic or causal nexus to property damage. The resolution of compensation issues both by the facility and insurers will impact whether further disputes arise in the courts. Based upon similar experiences from September 11 and Hurricane Katrina, these issues are likely to continue for several years before they are fully resolved.     

从一起案例看人身损害案件中医院的安全保障义务

在发生在医院的杀人伤害案件中,医院作为安全义务保障人,其合理的安全义务保障限度应为事先提醒义务和事后救助、报警等,防止或制止犯罪不是医院的法定义务.医院赔偿责任限于补充赔偿责任而非连带赔偿责任.     

司法在环境治理中的作用:德国之考量

保护性法律理论和制度限制了当事人就环境争议诉诸司法,但德国司法通过判例解释和发展环境法,赋予第三方当事人和扩张环境团体起诉资格,司法同时发挥对环境立法和环境行政的测试和控制,对行政决定进行实体和程序上的充分司法审查。     

Insurance Coverage for Environmental Claims: Current Litigation Issues in the United States

The insurance industry introduced exclusions for environmental claims in the general commercial litigation policies in the early 1970s, and introduced even greater restrictions in the 1980s. Litigation over the two most common pollution exclusions has been robust and will likely continue to increase. This article first briefly reviews the history of insurance coverage for environmental claims in the United States, including the most common issues and how the courts have addressed them. The article then discusses the current issues and emerging trends in insurance coverage for environmental claims under the general commercial policies. Finally, there is a brief discussion on the growing market for insurance products that specifically cover (rather than exclude) environmental claims.     

Labor Rights for All? The Role of Undocumented Immigrant Status for Worker Claims Making

Drawing on forty-one interviews with both documented and undocumented Latino restaurant workers in San Jose, California, and Houston, Texas, this article examines how documentation status shapes the legal consciousness of immigrant workers. I identify three common narratives that undocumented workers provide to justify not making claims on workplace protection. First, I highlight that an ever-present fear of deportation inhibits any formal confrontation. Second, I demonstrate how undocumented status leaves undocumented immigrants with a particularly pragmatic and short-term understanding of their working life in the United States, rendering their working conditions temporary and endurable to them. Third, I expand Gordon and Lenhardt's (2008 ) discussion of the centrality of work to the American conception of citizenship. I reiterate that this particular sense of belonging is situated vis-à-vis other low-wage workers. These findings provide sociolegal scholars important theoretical contributions for crafting a research agenda on the role of undocumented status and legal mobilization.     

New York's Landmark October 2003 Brownfields Legislation and Environmental Claims Exposures

New York's new 107-page brownfields law encourages the redevelopment of contaminated properties in order to increase tax revenues, revitalize communities, create jobs, protect the environment, and preserve open space. The legislation contains significant financial incentives to volunteers and municipalities to investigate, remediate, and redevelop brownfields to promote the reuse of such properties. While the law provides certain liability protection for claims by the State, it retains the “polluter pays” philosophy and contains scary re-opener provisions. This article will provide a brief overview of New York's recently enacted environmental law and explain why the legislation encourages the procurement of environmental insurance to mitigate the risks inherent with brownfield redevelopment projects.     

Environmental Governance: The Role of Institutions in Causing and Confronting Environmental Problems

This article describes and explains in accessible terms major findings arising from the work of the long-term international research project on the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC). In analyzing the roles institutions play in both causing and confronting environmental problems, the project directs attention to three analytic themes – known as the problems of fit, interplay, and scale – and seeks to illuminate these concerns through empirical studies of marine, terrestrial, and atmospheric systems. IDGEC science has highlighted the pervasiveness of institutional misfits and begun to identify the reasons why misfits often prove difficult to eliminate, even when their existence becomes widely known. Research conducted under the auspices of the project demonstrates the growing impact of national and even international institutions on the effectiveness of local resource regimes. Similarly, IDGEC research has identified reasons why policy instruments that work well at the national level (e.g., tradable permits) are frequently difficult or impossible to transfer to the international level. To make the discussion of these findings concrete, the project has explored the problem of fit with particular reference to the performance of Exclusive Economic Zones, the problem of interplay through an analysis of the fate of tropical forests, and the problem of scale through an account of the limits of emissions trading as a policy instrument in the climate change regime.     

论预先防范原则在国际环境法中的地位

预先防范原则是在20世纪80、90年代出现在国际环境法领域的一种新的处理缺少确切科学证据的环境风险的主张.迄今已有至少八个国际环境条约载入了与预先防范原则有关的内容,虽然具体用词不尽相同;与预先防范原则有关的案例也已经有数个.以这些为研究对象,探讨预先防范原则在国际环境法上的地位.现在预先防范原则还没有形成国际环境法领域的习惯法,但很多国家愿意在处理缺少确切科学证据的环境风险时,使用与其相关的方法或措施.     

论请求权竞合时诉的客观合并之形态

为缓解“案多人少”矛盾,很有必要以妥当处理请求权竞合纠纷为切入点,拓展诉的客观合并制度的研究。与我国《民法典》第186条规范目的相符合的是请求权自由竞合说与择一实现说。依据实体法的规定、学说及我国诉讼标的理论、诉讼制度,诉讼实务中可能出现规模化的后续诉讼。诉的客观合并具有现实必要性和理论上的应然性。随着请求权竞合现象增多,为了充分保障当事人权利、一次性解决纠纷,应尽快确立完整的诉的客观合并制度。就诉的客观合并的具体形态而言,不宜以客观预备合并应对请求权观念竞合现象。请求权观念竞合时采竞合合并较为适宜。请求权现实竞合时可允许选择合并与客观预备合并。     

论私人在环境危机应对策略中的地位——基于私权视角的考察

环境危机正在威胁人类所创造的文明,环境问题以及由此而发的环境危机作为公共性悲剧,看似由人类行为外部性所致,实则源于社会主体之间缺乏有效的协调机制。环境资源的公有化、私有化以及兼具两者的公私一体化均可在一定程度上化解环境危机,但是相比而言,能够充分发挥私人主动性的环境资源私有化制度、私有财产权制度和市场化制度显得更为有效。当然,私人在解决以生态灾难为特质的环境危机时也存在一定的局限,其比较优势的发挥依赖于特定的社会条件。     

Arbitration of Environmental Insurance Claims: It's Not All Bad News for Policyholders

Most environmental insurance policies contain provisions calling for arbitration of claim disputes. Arbitration generally is confidential; it prevents development of the common law and is geared toward compromise. Standard policy arbitration provisions also are often used to curtail traditional policyholder protections. For these and other reasons, arbitration is generally not favorable to policyholders and should often be avoided. About a dozen states recognize this and bar coverage arbitration. There are other ways to avoid arbitration depending on the circumstances. However, if arbitration ultimately is required, there are several practical ways to make it fairer.