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Rebecca Bratspies headshot

Rebecca Bratspies

Professor of Law

Rebecca Bratspies | August 15, 2013

A Comic Book Sparks Kids Toward Environmental Justice

This blog is cross-posted on The Nature of Cities. In my first blog post for The Nature of Cities, I wrote about environmental justice as a bridge between traditional environmentalism and an increasingly urban global population. I suggested that we had work to do to makes environmental concerns salient to a new, ever-more urban generation. Since then, […]

Rebecca Bratspies | September 18, 2012

Navigating the High Seas: Why the U.S. Should Ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty

a(broad) perspective Today’s post is the last in a series on a recent CPR white paper, Reclaiming Global Environmental Leadership: Why the United States Should Ratify Ten Pending Environmental Treaties.  Each month, this series will discuss one of these treaties.  Previous posts are here. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and […]

Rebecca Bratspies | March 21, 2011

Separating the Natural and Environmental Disasters in Japan

The twin natural disasters that struck Japan this month, earthquake and tsunami, left a trail of devastation in their path. Entire villages were lost. The death toll currently stands at more than 8,000 but is expected to rise much higher (more than 13,000 are missing). Even as survivors struggle for shelter, warmth and food, the natural […]

Rebecca Bratspies | June 25, 2010

Judge’s Injunction Blocking Moratorium on Deepwater Drilling Discounts Statutory Intent

Cross-posted from IntLawGrrls. On Thursday Judge Martin Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana refused to delay the effect of the preliminary injunction he issued on Tuesday, overturning the U.S. Department of Interior’s May 28, 2010, Temporary Moratorium on deepwater drilling. (Related court documents available here.) Several facets of the […]

Rebecca Bratspies | June 7, 2010

Deepwater Horizon: Day 48

Cross-posted from IntLawGrrls Ever since the Deepwater Horizon began gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has been dazzling the American people with a series of colorfully named “solutions:” the dome; top hat, junk shot, top kill. However, as the days turned into week, and the weeks turned into months, one thing has become […]

Rebecca Bratspies | May 6, 2010

When Hoping for the Best is Official Policy

Cross-posted from IntLawGrrls. Today’s New York Times update on the Deepwater Horizon disaster opens with BP’s failed efforts to control the remaining two leaks via concrete, or remote control robots. Strangely, the article makes no mention of the missing remote shut-off valve called an acoustic switch. This $500,000 device might well have prevented this whole […]

Rebecca Bratspies | February 24, 2010

Saving Our Fisheries

A few thousand fishermen and women are making port in Washington, D.C. today to rally against the best hope for the future of fishing. They don’t see it that way, of course, but a look at the evidence leaves no other conclusion. The simple truth is that American waters have been overfished for years. When […]

Rebecca Bratspies | December 21, 2009

Senator Snowe’s Bill on Fisheries Would Open a Wide Loophole

On December 9, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced S. 2856, a one paragraph bill that would quietly gut a key portion of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) by dramatically expanding a narrow exception to one of the Act’s central mandates. Were it to pass, the bill would mark a significant step in the wrong direction for […]

Rebecca Bratspies | December 18, 2009

NOAA’s Draft Catch Share Policy is Cautious, and That’s Good News

NOAA issued a draft of its new catch share policy last week. Despite Director Jane Lubchenco’s clear support for the concept, the draft policy stops short of requiring that fisheries managers implement catch shares. This is a good thing. Instead of mandating catch shares, the draft policy focuses on education, cooperation, and transparency. The agency […]