ABOUT THIS COLLECTION

The Arizona Journal of Environmental Law & Policy (AJELP) is an interdisciplinary online publication that examines environmental issues from legal, scientific, economic, and public policy perspectives. This student-run journal publishes articles on a rolling basis with the intention of providing timely legal and policy updates of interest to the environmental community.

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Recent Submissions

  • Advancing Tort Law for Climate Displacement Compensation [Note]

    Todd Newsome, Haley (The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law (Tucson, AZ), 2024)
    Climate change has already displaced people from their homes and is predicted to displace millions more in the coming decades. Involuntary climate-induced migration causes loss and damage before, during, and after the displacement. In this Note, I argue that the climate displaced should seek tort compensation from fossil fuel companies for this loss and damage. However, the existing tort system is not well-suited for climate displacement claims. Challenges for climate-displaced plaintiffs include establishing jurisdiction, navigating forum non conveniens, proving causation, and enforcing a favorable judgment. Tort law must advance to overcome these barriers. Necessary judicial changes include expanding jurisdiction, modifying the forum non conveniens analysis, using attribution science and alternative theories of causation, and developing methods to ensure judgment enforcement. With these solutions, the tort system can play a vital role in achieving compensation and justice for the climate displaced.
  • Landowners Can Receive Tax Benefits for Donating to the Future Management of Conservation Easements [Note]

    Michael, Jonathan (The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law (Tucson, AZ), 2024)
    Conservation easements are supposed to place protections on land forever. But that requires a responsible party to forever monitor and enforce the easement’s terms. Monitoring and enforcement require resources, and someone has to provide those resources. Today, landowners who are donating or selling conservation easements to land trusts are often required to contribute funds for the future management of the easement, including a land trust’s general operating costs. If the conservation easement itself is donated, its value can be deducted as a charitable contribution for income tax purposes. But it is less clear whether other required payments for monitoring and enforcement of the easement can also be deducted as charitable contributions. Charitable deductibility is determined in a holistic, case-by-case analysis by the IRS and courts. Existing guidance is therefore vague, and experts are reluctant to make anything resembling substantial predictions. This note serves to fill in some of the gaps resulting from that vagueness. The short answer is: yes, so long as a conservation easement transaction is not considered quid pro quo, landowners can deduct their required contributions to land trusts for the future monitoring and enforcement of conservation easements.
  • Empowered Neighborhoods: Supporting Community Microgrids [Article]

    Gerard, Wesley; Singh, Sukhmani (The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law (Tucson, AZ), 2024)
    In an era of climate change and increasing power outages, microgrids have the potential to significantly improve grid resilience and reliability. Because they can operate separately from larger electric grids, microgrids can often continue providing electricity service during broader grid outages caused by severe weather events. To the extent that solar- or wind-powered microgrids displace fossil fuel electricity generation, they also help to decarbonize energy systems. Unfortunately, electric utilities often view privately-owned community microgrids as competitive threats and have reasons to obstruct them within their exclusive service areas. Utility opposition and other factors have heretofore hindered community microgrid development in much of the country. This Article highlights the scope of community microgrids’ many benefits and advocates for statutory and regulatory changes capable of accelerating the deployment of community microgrid technologies across the United States.