Nov

15

Seventh Circuit Criminal Case of the Week: Yes, Eco-Terrorists Are Real Terrorists

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | November 15, 2009 | 1 Comment

On the night of July 20, 2000, Katherine Christianson, Bryan Rivera, and two companions damaged or destroyed more than 500 trees at a United States Forest Service facility.  Was it a prank?  A dare?  A harvest for the thneed industry? No, Christianson and Rivera were members of the eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front, and their target was the Forest Service’s genetic-engineering [...]

Nov

12

Commodifying Environmental Resources

Posted by: David Strifling | November 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Many people value certain environmental resources even if they have never actually visited or “used” those resources.  For example, a person might assign what economists call “nonuse values” to the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, or a particular endangered animal species even if she has never hiked the Canyon, gone scuba diving on the [...]

Jul

17

IP Philanthropy Can Be Ecologically Responsible

Posted by: Eric Lalor | July 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Since early 2008, there has been an interesting project in IP philanthropy.  At that time, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) established an initiative called the Eco-Patent Commons.  Member companies of the Eco-Patent Commons are able to “pledge” patents from their portfolios which cover technologies that provide environmental benefits.  Pledging patents into the [...]

May

26

Environmental Sentencing: Its Bark Is Worse Than Its Bite — Should We Care?

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | May 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I have a new paper on SSRN about the sentencing of environmental offenders.  The title is “Bark and Bite: The Environmental Sentencing Guidelines after Booker.”  Using date collected by the United States Sentencing Commission, I show that judges sentence below the range recommended by the federal sentencing guidelines in an unusually high percentage of environmental [...]

Apr

15

Wisconsin, the Stimulus Package, and Green Jobs

Posted by: Paul M. Secunda | April 15, 2009 | 1 Comment

Some legal commentators in recent months have questioned whether the Obama Stimulus Package will truly create green jobs for the American economy. See, for example, Morriss et. al., Green Job Myths.
Here is some indication how to use those dollars so that they will actually create those jobs.  The following is a press release from the [...]

Jan

24

Environmental Crime and “Real” Crime

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | January 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I just got back from a couple days at the University of Utah, where I was participating in a national conference on environmental crimes at the S.J. Quinney School of Law.  It was a terrific conference, and I was honored to be included among the many distinguished speakers.  But it was also among the more contentious academic conferences [...]

Sep

1

Real Estate Development and Environmental Consciousness

Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | September 1, 2008 | 4 Comments

My colleague Matt Parlow has a new article suggesting that real estate developers are becoming more sensitive to environmental concerns. The article, “Greenwashed: Developers, Environmental Consciousness, and the Case of Playa Vista,” appeared as part of a terrific symposium issue of the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review on “The Greening of the Corporation.” (The entire issue is [...]