BLS Library Blog

Unsplash/Markus Spiske: A climate change demonstration in Erlangen, Germany.

Whenever you are researching an issue, whether for a paper or a note, one of the most efficient ways to get started is to find a research guide. The BLS librarians have created dozens of research guides, available on the library’s homepage (just click on the Research Guides tab), including guides on Career Resources, Paper Topic Selection and Development for International and Foreign Law, Federal Legislative History Research, New York Civil Practice, Researching Copyright Law, and Antitrust and Competition law. 

Our latest guide summarizes resources for researching climate change and environmental law . This guide includes links to books, treatises, databases, major environmental treaties, blogs and news sources for researching U.S. and international climate change and environmental law. As noted in a recent report issued by the UN Environment Programme , there has been a rapid increase in climate change litigation with over 1,500 cases filed in 38 countries as of July 2020. Our research guide includes links to climate change litigation databases and other resources that will assist students researching this burgeoning field of law. 

Find our Climate Change and Environmental Law Guide under the Research Guides tab at brooklaw.edu/library. Happy Researching! 

Officials at the European Union (EU) have declared that, if the US does indeed withdraw from the Paris Agreement in 2020, there will be no future trade deals between the two blocs. In June 2017, the US President announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. The move can only take effect in 2020, according to the rules of the agreement. He has also backed away from policies designed to deliver on US commitments to the accord. France’s Foreign Minister, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, told the French Parliament that “one of our main demands is that any country who signs a trade agreement with [the] EU should implement the Paris agreement on the ground. No Paris agreement, no trade agreement,” he added. “The US knows what to expect.” The use of the word “implementation” suggests that the trading partners need to have not just signed, but ratified the Paris agreement. That means that it would not only the US that is excluded, but 23 other countries including Russia. The US is clearly the target of this proposal.

For more on the Paris Climate Agreement, see Brooklyn Law School Library’s e-book The Paris Agreement on Climate Change: Analysis and Commentary edited by Daniel Klein et als. Signed in December 2015, the agreement came into force on November 4, 2016, a whole four years before the original intended date of 2020. The e-book combines a comprehensive legal appraisal and critique of the new Agreement with a practical and structured commentary to all its Articles. Part I discusses the general context for the Paris Agreement, detailing the scientific, political, and social drivers behind it, providing an overview of the preexisting regime, and tracking the history of the negotiations. It examines the evolution of key concepts such as common but differentiated responsibilities, and analyses the legal form of the Agreement and the nature of its provisions. Part II comprises individual chapters on each Article of the Agreement, with detailed commentary of the provisions which highlights central aspects from the negotiating history and the legal nature of the obligations. It describes the institutional arrangements and considerations for national implementation, providing practical advice and prospects for future development. Part III reflects on the Paris Agreement as a whole: its strengths and weaknesses, its potential for further development, and its relationship with other areas of public international law and governance. The book is an invaluable resource for academics and practitioners, policy makers, and actors in the private sector and civil society, as they negotiate the implementation of the Agreement in domestic law and policy.

On Friday, January 28 at 6PM, the Brooklyn Law School Environmental Law Society (ELS) and the Street Vendor Project (SVP) will host a meeting to discuss ways that law students can represent street vendors at the Environmental Control Board when vendors receive tickets, and how students can get involved in helping to pass the newly introduced bill which will dramatically lower the civil penalties which vendors face. New York City Councilman Stephen Levin from Brooklyn has sponsored two bills that would reduce the vending fines to pre-2005 levels. Intro 434 and Intro 435, which now each have 17 co-sponsors at City Council, would provide relief to street vendors during difficult times. When the bills come to a hearing, BLS probono students will testify and submit written testimony.

According to Lee Miller, co-chair of land use programs for ELS, the event to be held on Friday in Room 605 will have food from Kwik Meal (the best street meat in NYC!). Lee says that the Street Vendor Pro-Bono Project is a new public interest opportunity for BLS students that started last semester. The ELS is sponsoring and funding the pro-bono project in its first year. The groups cross-promote and work collaboratively to tie vending and sidewalk culture issues to environmental programs. Their objectives include lifting the cap on vending permits and licenses and reducing the fines associated with vending violations. 

Students who participate in this pro-bono project have the opportunity to advocate on behalf of New York City-based street vendors. They analyze violations by the Department of Health, the Parks Department and the Police Department, and defend the vendor before the Environmental Control Board (ECB), the administrative tribunal that handles civil violations issued by City agencies. Preparation for these cases involves direct interaction with street vendors, site visits, evidence gathering, and an analysis of Administrative Code provisions and the Rules of the City of New York. Students will refine their legal research and oral argument skills as they present their defenses before administrative law judges at the ECB.

A recent case involves a street vendor operating for the past three years at the corner of 86th and Lexington, Paty’s Taco Truck. Last summer, New York City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin from the Upper East Side introduced a bill to revoke permits of food trucks if they receive three parking tickets. Although the bill is stalled, the street vendor has been targeted for enforcement of a traffic law which prohibits the selling of “merchandise” (not food) from a metered parking spot. The vendor’s truck has been towed three times and all three tickets were dismissed by the traffic court. It is not clear if the law applies to food vendors as the vending laws in New York City consistently distinguish between “food” vendors and “general merchandise vendors”.

Listen to this episode on BrooklynWorks.

This podcast is of a conversation with two officers of Environmental Law Society (ELS) at Brooklyn Law School. ELS is a student organization with interests in environmental law, international law, the laws of war and bio-terrorism, real estate law, land use and zoning laws. The ELS officers talk about their efforts to create opportunities for its members by hosting events where students can meet with leading experts in a variety of fields. They also discuss their plans for the upcoming year. ELS recently sponsored Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary investigation into an important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century – The World Water Crisis. The documentary is called Flow: How Did a Handful of Corporations Steal Our Water? 

ELS showed the film during the same week when the United Nations sponsored World Water Day on March 22. Starting in 1993, the United Nations General Assembly by resolution designated March 22 of each year as the World Day for Water.