SelectedWorks @ Widener University Commonwealth Law School
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Introduction: Shale Gas and the Future of Energy
No full textThis is the introduction to the first book systematically exploring the relationship between shale gas and sustainable development, Shale Gas and the Future of Energy: Law and Policy for Sustainability (Edward Elgar 2016). It describes the growing importance of unconventional shale gas and the evolution of sustainable development as a policy norm, and explains that there has been little analysis of the relationship between unconventional shale gas and sustainability. The introduction then summarizes twelve chapters by the contributing authors, who are not only lawyers and current and former policy makers, but also from public health, the social sciences, economics, and other disciplines. Each chapter addresses (1) what sustainability means for their particular topic, (2) what various governmental entities and private sector parties are doing to foster sustainability on this topic, and (3) recommendations for ways to foster sustainable practices in shale gas development. Their chapters cover five broad topics: public health and the environment; community; public participation, public information, and access to justice; governance; and energy and climate change. As the introduction explains, a final chapter synthesizes what all of these chapters, taken together, mean for the sustainability of shale gas
Building a Language of Municipal Bankruptcy and Insolvency on an Urban Law Foundation
No full textThe rich field of urban law has thus far lacked a holistic and concerted scholarly focus on comparative and global perspectives. This work offers new inroads into the global and comparative streams within urban law by presenting emerging frameworks and approaches to topics ranging from urban housing and land use to legal informality and consumer financial protection. The volume brings together a group of international urban legal scholars to highlight emergent global, interdisciplinary perspectives within the field of urban law, particularly as they have import for comparative legal analysis. The book presents a timely addition to the literature given the urgent legal issues that continue to surface in an age of rapid urbanization and globalization
Shale Gas and the Future of Energy: Framing the Sustainability Questions
No full textFew energy issues in recent decades have proven as contentious as shale gas. Supporters and opponents often speak in such strikingly divergent terms that they seem to be describing different activities. Typically, supporters point to the economic and security impacts of shale gas, and minimize the adverse environmental and social effects. Opponents often point to negative environmental and social impacts, and downplay the economic and security effects. This chapter, from Shale Gas and the Future of Energy: Law and Policy for Sustainability (Edward Elgar 2016), explains sustainable development as an essential framework for providing a more complete understanding of whether shale gas contributes to overall human well-being. Key questions are whether shale gas development is sustainable and, if not, whether law and policy can actually make shale gas development sustainable. As this chapter also explains, it is not enough to make some progress toward sustainability. Key further questions are whether shale gas can help accelerate the transition to sustainability and, if so, how. These are the questions this book attempts to answer
Creating Legal Pathways to a Zero-Carbon Future and Policy Responses to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment
No full textThis paper provides an overview of the challenge of achieving a zero carbon future, as well as the way in which sustainable development would frame the decision-making process for doing so. It then reviews major reports by the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project and the World Bank that describe overall approaches at the global and national levels for meeting the zero carbon objective. Finally, using the United States as an example, it describes ways to identify and create legal pathways to that objective for the U.S., building on the insights of these two reports. Creating possible legal pathways could help accelerate the transition the transition to a sustainable energy future for the U.S. and other countries
Teaching Applied Sustainability: A Practicum Based on Drafting Ordinances
No full textThis article describes and explains a sustainability law practicum class that is now taught in only two law schools, but which has considerable teaching and practical value. It also explains how this class is consistent with, and furthers, the growing demand for experiential, skills-based legal education employing formative assessment. The class uses a realworld setting to provide students with skills they will need to help clients meet their sustainability goals. These skills include application of the principles of sustainable development in specific contexts; researching local government law; legislative/ordinance drafting; giving short presentations; and client counseling. These skills are developed in the course through a semester-long project involving drafting sustainability-related ordinances (e.g., green roofs, composting) for an actual municipality or municipal government trade association
Reflecting and Foreshadowing: Mathews v. Eldridge
No full textDiscusses the case in which the Supreme Court decided that a Social Security Disability recipient does not have a right to continuing benefits while awaiting an administrative hearing on the recipient\u27s challenge to the termination of benefits. This case\u27s holding is contrary to the one in Goldberg v. Kelly, the Supreme Court case that determined a recipient of welfare benefits should get benefits while awaiting an administrative hearing decision. The case reflects the changes in the make-up of the Court, a downturn in the economy because of more imported goods, and a society that had become more focused on self-interest and less on helping others. The chapter discusses these economic, social, and Court changes and how they are reflected in the Mathews decision and how the Mathews decision foreshadows the decisions in later poverty law cases decided by the more conservative Court
A Short and Happy Guide to the First Amendment
No full textThis concise guide breaks down a complicated topic - the First Amendment - and makes it understandable and fun. The book walks briskly through cases, rules and theories to draw a reader-friendly road map of the First Amendment. The authors synthesize principles with memorable examples and a sharp wit. Their analysis reveals the common sense behind much First Amendment law, and at the same time identifies some of its flaws and inconsistencies. The book addresses the deep historic roots as well as current problems such as campaign finance, hate speech, and electronic communications. It is equally useful as a general guide as it is for preparing for a class and for exams (including the bar)
Creating a Post-Graduate Incubator Program through a Law School-Bar Association Partnership
No full textA joint effort of Widener Law Commonwealth and the Dauphin County Bar Association (DCBA), the incubator project kicked off in 2015 as the first based entirely in Pennsylvania. It provides new legal professionals with Harrisburg office space, computer and printing equipment, training in the work of building a law practice, mentoring and networking support
Regulatory Arbitrage, Extraterritorial Jurisdiction, and Dodd-Frank: The Implications of US Global OTC Derivative Regulation
No full textThe Procedural Fortress of US Immigration Law
No full textImmigrants face many obstacles. This paper reveals a less obvious one: the procedural system designed to adjudicate immigration removal cases. In the United States, the procedural system itself has become a barrier for immigrants. A structure intended to provide procedural safeguards for immigrants has instead become an obstruction. Instead of facilitating fair and efficient process, the system is dysfunctional. It is collapsing under its own weight and is unable to adjudicate consistently in a fair and competent manner. This failed procedural system is a barrier to immigration that needs to be fixed. The failure to fix it, despite longstanding and well-known shortcomings, reveals that procedural fairness is not a policy priority in the United States