Nadia Ahmad (Yale Law School; Barry University - Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law) & Melissa Bryan (Barry University, Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law, Students) have posted Environmental Law as Segregation (64 Howard Law Journal 439 (2021)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
We write about the formulation of environmental law as segregation in that environmental law evolved to enhance the experience and preservation of white spaces. Environmental law, broadly conceived, is an extension of the common law and administrative law that promote white racial supremacy and subjugate non-white people. Both environmental law and administrative law, upon which it is based, are rooted in the Anglo-American legal tradition, which forms the basis for enslavement, incarceration, disenfranchisement, dislocation, and segregation.
Environmental law, climate change, the carceral state, dispossession of land, pollution, and chemical toxicity are all inextricably related. The environmentalism of white spaces, of suburbs and rural areas, is meant to limit and restrict access to environmental rights and segregate communities. More so, environmentalism and climate change adaptation have been exclusively the domain of protecting white spaces. Even green growth initiatives and renewable energy development occur on the backs of the indigent, poor, Black and brown folks. This Article examines how the preservation of white spaces has led to more environmental protection measures rooted in efforts to preserve segregated systems of property, land, avoidance of toxins, and protection of environmental health.
