http://hdl.handle.net/10150/667999 2026-06-12T08:07:45Z http://hdl.handle.net/10150/675227 Prosecution for a Porpoise: Strengthen U.S. Enforcement Against Criminal Networks to Address International Trafficking Of Endangered Species Sundareshan, Priyanka The vaquita marina is a critically endangered porpoise, only found in the Gulf of California, whose numbers have dropped precipitously over the last few years such that fewer than 20 individuals remain in the population. Their predicament is exacerbated by the fact that they are often killed as bycatch in Mexican fishing nets set out to catch totoaba, an endangered fish endemic to the same waters. The totoaba, like many other endangered species, are imperiled by the high prices they command in illegal wildlife markets in other countries. Although both vaquita and totoaba are protected by environmental regimes such as the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, efforts to apprehend and prosecute totoaba traffickers under these laws have been weak and ineffective, as have fishing bans and enforcement in Mexico. But wildlife traffickers who trade internationally in these endangered species are committing additional crimes such as smuggling, bribery, money laundering, and even drug trafficking. Yet existing tools and resources for these financial and other crimes, which include heavier penalties than environmental crimes, often go unused by law enforcement in investigating and charging wildlife traffickers. This article argues that wildlife traffickers should be more consistently prosecuted under these financial crime tools. Moreover, financial sanctions tools available to the U.S. Treasury could be effective for rapidly cutting off funds to the organized criminal networks engaged in wildlife trafficking. 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10150/675226 Arizona’s Groundwater Management Act at Forty: Tackling Unfinished Business Engel, Kirsten; Loiseleur, Esther; Drilhon, Elise Forty years ago, motivated by dropping water tables and land subsidence, Arizona lawmakers enacted the 1980 Groundwater Management Act. At the time, the Act was hailed as the most far-reaching state legislation to control rampant groundwater depletion ever enacted. Despite the rhetoric, however, the Act never dealt with Arizona’s groundwater usage in a comprehensive manner and today its shortcomings are starkly apparent. The Act addressed the groundwater crisis only in the State’s most populous areas, leaving the remainder of the State to the unregulated Wild West of groundwater use, a veritable “tragedy of the commons” perpetuated by the lax “reasonable use” doctrine. Furthermore, it left untouched in the law the hydrologic fallacy that ground and surface waters are distinct. The result is as predictable as it is tragic; plunging water tables in many of Arizona’s rural areas are forcing homeowners and businesses to either drill deeper wells or relocate. Riparian areas are being lost, and with them, Arizona’s unique desert ecosystems. This Article argues that Arizona lawmakers must return to the drafting table to complete the work they started in 1980—the creation of a groundwater management code, based in science, that will ensure the equitable and sustainable use of groundwater across the entire State for current and future generations. It suggests two options for such future legislation, one embodying a property rights approach and the other a government regulation approach. Under the former, legislation would establish the framework for a groundwater market according to which existing and future groundwater users could purchase and trade the right to pump groundwater. Under the latter, Arizona could balance the powerful state and local interests in groundwater management through an expanded Act that follows “cooperative localism,” a term coined in this Article to refer to a division of governing authority between state and local government in which local governments plan and implement state-imposed groundwater protection requirements. Cooperative localism would provide for local planning in pursuit of a statewide safe yield goal implemented on a basin-by-basin basis. Today’s groundwater crisis comes at a time when scientists warn that climate change will likely exacerbate current drought conditions, thus placing additional pressure on Arizona’s declining groundwater resources. It also comes at a time when Arizona can expect future reductions in Colorado River supplies as a result of the recently enacted multistate Drought Contingency Plan. 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10150/675225 The Mustang Spirit of the West: How Taking a More Cooperative Approach Will Save Our Mustangs Duran, Katrina This Note examines the systematic mismanagement of wild horses and burros on America’s public lands and proposes a cooperative solution to these problems. America’s wild horses and burros have faced a long history of abuse which led to their protection under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 (WHBA). However, between trying to work within the structure of an almost-50- year-old statute and a tight federal budget, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has not been able to find a proper balance between a thriving horse population and an overcrowded one. This Note proposes possible solutions to this problem. Cooperative federalism, voluntary intergovernmental agreements, or even proactive state legislation are all viable options that would allow the wild horses and burros to thrive on America’s public lands. In this instance, cooperative federalism seeks to set strict guidelines for states to meet in order for state governments to take over the care of these animals. Intergovernmental agreements would allow non-federal governments to take over the “smaller” tasks related to wild horses and burros in order to allow the Federal Government to focus on the task of long-term management and care of horses and burros in off-site holding facilities. Finally, proactive state legislating allows state governments to assume the care and control of horses and burros and it allows states to make the rules and suit them to their own state needs and resources. 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10150/675224 Corporate Social Responsibility and the Dynamic Role of Greenhouse Gas Reporting Requirements Davila, Hunter Business entities of several varieties play an invaluable role in the maintenance, growth, and preservation of the socioeconomic framework, both in the United States and worldwide. Generally, corporations do not assume a duty to act in a socially proactive manner; after all, business entities typically exist to maximize profits for their constituent shareholders. The social obligations of corporations have been shifting, however, as increasingly stringent laws, regulations, and social norms require that entities mitigate the environmental damage they do in order to survive. Much of the public's attention focuses on the regulation of emitting entities especially where that regulation applies to minimizing large-scale contributions to the "greenhouse effect," which occurs when increased quantities of heat-trapping gases enter the atmosphere as a direct byproduct of industrialization. The natural environment is humanity's most valuable resource. Sovereign nations, including the United States, must take steps to preserve the environment's integrity or else risk irreversible damage to global socioeconomic stability and perhaps even the existence of life itself. Statutes and regulations represent some of the best mechanisms available for ensuring such preservation. A delicate balancing act comes into play during the formation of environmental regulations, however, as legislators and regulators must take care to avoid the excessive restriction of economic activity. Economic prosperity is needed to ensure liberty and social mobility for individuals on a global scale, and excessive regulation risks damaging the livelihood of those whose prosperity depends on a healthy global economy. Legislators and regulators are thus charged with protecting the environment from damage while simultaneously avoiding the imposition of excessive regulatory burdens upon emitting entities. The challenge of strengthening environmental protections without imposing excessive burdens upon emitting entities is referred to herein as the "regulatory-economic balance." The totality of the regulatory-economic balance is far too immense to be condensed into a brief Comment, especially after considering the number of moving parts and the expanse of underlying policy implications. However, the United States Environmental Protection Agency's regulations on Greenhouse Gas Reporting Requirements offer a foundational regulatory scheme through which the regulatory-economic balance may be analyzed. 3 The EPA's revision of reporting requirements under Subpart A of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.), Section 98 may provide an avenue to fortify environmental protections while simultaneously minimizing the burdens placed upon emitting entities relative to those protections. 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z