Great Lakes Law

The Dulcepamba River gets its day in court - rights of nature and Constitutional law in Ecuador

The following guest post is by Great Lakes Environmental Law Center student fellow Shannon Nelson. Shannon is a University of Michigan Law School student and graduate of Wesleyan University. Prior to law school, she was the operations manager for Floating Doctors in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Shannon has led our project in Ecuador, working with local advocates and attorneys to protect the Dulcepamba River and support the people most affected by its destruction. In 2008,... Read more →

Equal Justice Works Fellow Erin Mette joins the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center to focus on children’s health in Detroit and Flint

Equal Justice Works has awarded recent Wayne Law graduate (and former GLELC student fellow) Erin Mette a two-year fellowship to work with the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center on urban children’s health. Erin’s project will focus on protecting children in Detroit and Flint from home-based environmental health hazards. As a staff attorney with GLELC, Erin will provide legal counseling and representation to affected families and work for policies that address the root causes of this... Read more →

New Second Edition of Modern Water Law – comprehensive text now includes human right to water

Our new Second Edition of Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public Rights, and Environmental Protections has been published by Foundation Press and is available on Amazon. Co-authored again with Robert Adler, the Jefferson B. and Rita E. Fordham Presidential Dean, and Robin Kundis Craig, the James I. Farr Presidential Endowed Chair of Law, both at the University of Utah College of Law. Modern Water Law provides a comprehensive text to study the range of legal... Read more →

Open Source Property: A Free Casebook

I’m teaching property again this semester and have compiled a new book for my students, Open Source Property: A Free Casebook. As the title describes, the book is available under open source licensing, totally free and public. Students and anyone else can have it at no cost (except for the time and energy downloading a 650-page book) at http://www.greatlakeslaw.org/files/Open_Source_Property_Casebook_Hall.pdf. In 16 chapters, the book covers: 1. Ownership 2. Subject Matter of Property 3. Property in... Read more →

"Water Law" - new book explores private rights and public interests in freshwater

I have a new book out this year – it’s about water law and aptly named “Water Law.” Water Law: Concepts and Insights (full title) is another collaboration with Robin Kundis Craig, the James I. Farr Presidential Endowed Chair of Law, and Robert Adler, the Jefferson B. and Rita E. Fordham Presidential Dean, both at the University of Utah College of Law. (The cover photo of the Detroit River was taken from Belle Isle State... Read more →

A win for Great Lakes wolves in federal court

The federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling striking down an attempt by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist Great Lakes wolves under the Endangered Species Act. Delisting the Great Lakes wolves would remove federal protections and open the wolves to state hunting seasons. (See this prior Great Lakes Law post on Michigan’s state-sanctioned wolf hunt.) In Humane Society v. Zinke, the federal court rejected the U.S. Fish... Read more →

Great Lakes Environmental Law Center fellows for 2017

We welcome two new Great Lakes Environmental Law Center fellows for 2017, joining two returning fellows from last year- (L-R, Sabra Bushey, Jasmin M. Haynes, Erin Mette; Joe Regalia not pictured) Sabra Bushey, Wayne Law ’17, returns for a second year as a fellow. She is also a second-year member of the school’s National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition team and the Board of the Environmental Law Society. She graduated from the University of Maryland,... Read more →

A Changing Environment in China: The Ripe Opportunity for Environmental Law Clinics to Increase Public Participation and to Shape Law and Policy

My colleague Nick Schroeck has just published an exciting article exploring new opportunities for environmental law clinics in China. Nick directs Wayne Law's Transnational Environmental Law Clinic and is Executive Director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. In the fall of 2014, Nick traveled to Xi'an China where he taught international environmental law at the Northwest University of Politics & Law as part of a faculty exchange program. While Nick was teaching at NWUPL,... 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 →

Standing on the public trust doctrine

The standing doctrine is one of Justice Scalia’s legacies and has become a powerful tool for keeping environmental citizen suits out of court. A recent federal district court decision in Chicago recognizes the public trust doctrine as a basis for granting citizens standing to sue to protect certain natural resources. The following guest post by Austin Probst gives a brief update on this decision. Austin is a Wayne Law student (JD expected ‘17), member of... Read more →

Waukesha Great Lakes water diversion proposal strongly opposed

A proposal by the Wisconsin City of Waukesha to divert Lake Michigan water out of the Great Lakes basin has generated strong opposition from environmental organizations, which have formed a regional coalition on the issue. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has weighed in with a letter expressing his concerns with the proposal. The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and Wayne State’s Transnational Environmental Law Clinic filed a comment letter authored by Charlotte Johnson, and she... Read more →

Introducing the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center 2015-16 Fellows

Law students and new attorneys are the future of environmental law. We have formalized the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center fellowship program this year, and have four spectacular individuals working with us in 2015-16: Joe Regalia is a postgraduate Research Fellow, currently clerking for Judge Jay Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 2013 earning the Daniel Grady... Read more →

A critical look at Michigan’s coastal sand dune law

Coastal sand dunes are one of Michigan’s most treasured resources. In 1994, the state enacted legislation regulating land use on sand dunes. The legislature intended to balance competing public and private interests over the resource. The Sand Dune Protection and Management Act (SDPMA) was extensively amended in August 2012. As amended, local governments have a significantly diminished role in determining land use on sand dunes within their borders. Suzanne Sutherland is an attorney with Hilger... Read more →