It was both fun and a privilege to speak at a symposium at the at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Saturday (Jan. 20) on "The Constitutional Right to a Clean Environment." It was especially good to speak on a panel with Maya van Rossum, James R. May, Franklin Kury and Kate Burgess.
Six states have environmental rights amendments to their constitutions, and only four authorize judicial enforcement of them. These states are Pennsylvania, Montana, Hawaii, and New York. (As a legislator in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Franklin Kury drafted, and led the effort for adoption of, the Pennsylvania amendment.)
The symposium featured a lively and thoughtful discussion about the extent to which such provisions improve environmental and public protection. Their potential to effectively address climate change also received a lot of attention.
I spoke about a draft article that analyzes the many court decisions under these provisions. The article draws three main conclusions about how they have thus far worked in practice:
1) Constitutional environmental rights and public trusts limit governmental authority to act contrary to their provisions.
2) They provide additional authority for governmental efforts to protect the environment and natural resources.
3) In Montana, they provide the basis for legal actions against private parties.
The article is available here: https://lnkd.in/e3EatS6g
Many thanks to Jessie Levin and the editors and staff at the Journal of Constitutional Law for putting on a lively and informative program.
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