Great Lakes Law

Environmental Justice in Practice - national conference at Wayne Law

Wayne Law is hosting a national conference on environmental justice Friday January 26, 2018. Environmental Justice in Practice features a superb line-up of advocates, attorneys, community leaders, organizers, and policy-makers. Panels will cover energy and climate justice, water access and affordability, urban air quality, and careers in environmental justice. The conference is co-sponsored by Wayne Law's Transnational Environmental Law Clinic and Environmental Law Society, CURES at Wayne State, the University of Chicago Law School's Abrams... Read more →

Safe Drinking Water: A Tale of Three Cities - Sixteenth Annual Great Lakes Water Conference at University of Toledo College of Law

Safe drinking water will be the focus of the 16th Annual Great Lakes Water Conference on Friday, November 4, 2016 at the University of Toledo College of Law. Todd Flood, Special Counsel for the Michigan Attorney General Flint water crisis investigation (and a Toledo Law alum) will open the conference with a keynote speech, followed by a panel I’m moderating that will explore the situation and legal developments in Flint in more detail (with NRDC... Read more →

Great Lakes Environmental Law Center adds two new attorneys

I am very excited to share news that two superb attorneys have joined us at the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. Oday Salim, most recently Senior Attorney at Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services, brings the same title to GLELC. Oday was previously a Staff Attorney at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law’s Environmental Law Clinic. Oday is a Wayne Law graduate and was one of my best students. After earning his J.D., he continued... Read more →

The Refined State: Tar Sands, Pet Coke, and the Front Lines of Great Lakes Oil Cities

The Freshwater Lab, a program of the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has hosted a year-long series exploring the oil-water mix in the Great Lakes. Next Tuesday, April 19, is the final event, titled The Refined State: Tar Sands, Pet Coke, and the Front Lines of Great Lakes Oil Cities. I’m very excited to be presenting (thanks Rachel Havrelock for organizing and inviting me) and will discuss our region’s... Read more →

Author Josh Cohen visiting Wayne State to discuss conservation and stewardship of Michigan’s rare coastal habitats

Josh Cohen and Brad Slaughter, authors of A Field Guide to the Natural Communities of Michigan, will be hosting a public discussion at Wayne State on conservation and stewardship of Michigan’s rare coastal habitats. Josh is the Lead Ecologist with Michigan Natural Features Inventory, Michigan’s natural heritage program. He is a good friend and great field guide for his adopted state of Michigan and its rare and unique habitats and critters. He roams the woods... Read more →

Fifteenth Annual Great Lakes Water Conference at University of Toledo College of Law

The University of Toledo College of Law’s annual Great Lakes Water Conference brings together leading academics, policy makers, and legal practitioners to explore current challenges facing the Great Lakes. Keynote speaker U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur will kick off the conference. The first panel will explore legal solutions to the harmful algal blooms plaguing Lake Erie. I’m moderating the second panel on challenges arising from the network of petroleum pipelines in and near the Great Lakes.... Read more →

Lee Paddock visiting Wayne Law Thursday October 22, 2015 to discuss fracking and environmental law enforcement

Wayne Law’s Environmental Law Society and the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center are honored to host a visit from Lee Paddock, Associate Dean for Environmental Law Studies at George Washington University Law School, this Thursday October 22 at 12:10 (Room 2249). His public talk will focus on hydraulic fracturing regulation, citizen enforcement, and corporate enforcement of supply chain requirements. I’ve known Lee for nearly 15 years, dating back to our days with the Minnesota Center... Read more →

Symposium on the Public Trust Doctrine and the Great Lakes in Detroit this Friday, October 16

The University of Detroit Mercy Law Review is hosting a symposium entitled, "The Public Trust Doctrine: An Ancient Tool for Protecting the Great Lakes from New Hazards," this Friday, October 16. Some of the leading voices on the public trust doctrine will be giving presentations, including Prof. Jim Huffman of Lewis & Clark (author of Speaking of Inconvenient Truths — A History of the Public Trust Doctrine) and Prof. Melissa Scanlan of Vermont Law (author... Read more →

Law and Governance of the Great Lakes

Along with my friend and colleague Ben Houston, I’ve published a new article entitled simply “Law and Governance of the Great Lakes.” The article appears in the DePaul Law Review’s special symposium issue on the Great Lakes, 63 DePaul Law Review 723 (2014). It aims to explain the law and governance of the Great Lakes within the United States (apologies to Canada, that’s a subject for another time). While discussing the key laws and policies,... Read more →

Thirteenth Annual Great Lakes Water Conference at University of Toledo College of Law

The University of Toledo College of Law’s annual Great Lakes Water Conference brings together leading academics, policy makers, and legal practitioners to explore current challenges facing the Great Lakes. The conference theme this year is “Algae: A Blooming Problem in the Great Lakes and Beyond.” Algae blooms, fueled by excess nutrient pollution, cause economic and environmental harm and threaten public health. Keynote speaker Chris Korleski, Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National... Read more →

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy keynoting Michigan Law conference on public health and environmental law

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy will be in Ann Arbor this Thursday, September 26 to give the opening keynote for the Environmental Law and Public Health Conference at the University of Michigan. The conference is sponsored by Michigan Law's Environmental Law and Policy Program and Environmental Law Society. The conference will explore the relationship between environmental protection and public health, with panels focusing on children’s health, industrial siting, and urban agriculture. Conference proceedings will be available... Read more →

New book announcement - Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public Rights, and Environmental Protections

My new book, Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public Rights, and Environmental Protections, has been published by Foundation Press and is available on Amazon. I was honored to work with two superb co-authors on this book - Robert Adler, Interim Dean and James I. Farr Chair in Law, and Robin Kundis Craig, William H. Leary Professor of Law, both at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public... Read more →

Great Lakes Symposium in Chicago hosted by DePaul Law Review

On March 1, the DePaul Law Review will hold its 23rd annual symposium on the topic of the Great Lakes, specifically addressing the legal issues and policy concerns relating to freshwater resources. I’ll be giving the opening talk on the Great Lakes legal regime, followed by panels and presentations on climate change, invasive species, emerging contaminants, stormwater, and Great Lakes water policy. I’m especially looking forward to Professor Melissa Scanlan’s midday discussion of “virtual water”... Read more →