The Public Trust Doctrine Fifty Years after Sax and Some Thoughts on its Future

AbstractUnited Kingdom Supreme Court Justice Robert Carnwath has urged the judiciary to develop ‘common laws of the environment’, which can operate within different legal frameworks, tailored where necessary towards specific constitutions or statutory codes. One such mechanism with the potential for repositioning environmental discourse in both common law and civil law jurisdictions is the doctrine of the public trust. Basing their arguments upon a heritage of civil law and common law, supporters of the public trust doctrine are currently testing its scope in United States federal courts via groundbreaking litigation aimed at forcing the federal government to uphold its duty to protect the atmosphere. This article considers whether common law judicial resourcefulness can transform a transatlantic hybrid of uncertain parentage into a powerful tool of environmental protection.

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The future of the common heritage of mankind: Intersections with the public trust doctrine

Confronting Ecological and Economic Collapse ◽

10.4324/9780203384022-11 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 46-60

Keyword(s):

Public Trust ◽

The Public ◽

Common Heritage ◽

Public Trust Doctrine ◽

Common Heritage Of Mankind ◽

The Future ◽

The Common

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The Struggle for Streeterville

10.7591/cornell/9781501754654.003.0005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 128-164

Author(s):

Joseph D. Kearney ◽

Thomas W. Merrill

Keyword(s):

Supreme Court ◽

Supreme Court Decision ◽

Public Trust ◽

Public Works ◽

Court Decision ◽

Social Standing ◽

The Public ◽

The Third ◽

Public Trust Doctrine ◽

Northwestern University

This chapter assesses the implications of natural accretion, unauthorized landfilling, and a legally sanctioned public works project on the neighborhood known today as Streeterville. It illustrates the three periods following the struggle for control of the land of Streeterville: the first was relatively decorous, consisting largely of litigation over rights to land formed by natural accretion, the second was intense and largely extralegal, and the third period was when the wealthy landowners who claimed the land by riparian rights consolidated their control over the area, abetted by construction undertaken by institutions of impeccable social standing, such as Northwestern University. The chapter investigates why it took so long for the struggle over Streeterville to be resolved, arguing resolution came only when the claimants with the most resources started to build substantial structures on the land. It also examines why the filled land in this area of the lakefront is overwhelmingly held in private hands, whereas the land south of the Chicago River, in what is now Grant Park, is public. Ultimately, the chapter reviews how the public trust doctrine was invoked in challenging the artificial filling of submerged land in Streeterville, and analyzes the Illinois Supreme Court decision following the case.

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The Lakefront Today

10.7591/cornell/9781501754654.003.0010 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 281-298

Author(s):

Joseph D. Kearney ◽

Thomas W. Merrill

Keyword(s):

Public Trust ◽

The Political ◽

Boundary Line ◽

Deep Tunnel ◽

The South ◽

The Public ◽

The Past ◽

Public Trust Doctrine ◽

The Future ◽

Recent Developments

This chapter reviews how the political settlements and legal understandings canvassed in the account continue to affect the Chicago lakefront today. It offers brief snapshots of five more recent developments on the lakefront that reflect the influence of the past — and that may be indicative of the future. The chapter begins by recounting the boundary-line agreement of 1912 which planted the seeds of the Illinois Central's demise on the lakefront. Today, the railroad has largely disappeared from the lakefront, in both name and fact. The chapter then shifts to discuss the Ward cases, which continue to affect the shape of the lakefront. It chronicles the success of Millennium Park and the Illinois Supreme Court's demotion of the public dedication doctrine to a statutory right limited to Grant Park. The chapter also recounts the Deep Tunnel project and the challenges in the South Works site. Ultimately, it discusses the appearance of the public trust doctrine on the lakefront, being invoked by preservationist groups to challenge both a new museum and the construction of President Barack Obama's presidential library (called the Obama Presidential Center).

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