The Limited Effects of Federal Environmental Justice Policy on State Enforcement

The federal government adopted several measures during the mid-1990s to address concerns about race-based and class-based disparities in environmental protection. This article examines whether these measures affected the pattern of state enforcement of three federal pollution control laws. Using differences-in-differences models to estimate the effects of the federal policy adoption, I find evidence of increases in state enforcement of the Clean Air Act in large African-American communities, but declines in enforcement in communities with large poor and Hispanic populations. Similarly, there is evidence that state enforcement of the Clean Water Act decreased in poor and African-American communities, but there were no real changes in enforcement of facilities regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Collectively, the analysis suggests that the federal policy had minimal positive effects on state regulatory enforcement.     

Indigenous Environmental Justice: Comparing the United States and Canada’s Legal Frameworks for Endangered Species Conservation

Canada and the United States are both committed to the protection of endangered species. This article examines how the legal frameworks created around the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Canadian Species at Risk Act (SARA) intersect with Indigenous environmental justice (EJ). Specifically, the distribution of benefits and burdens is examined since critical habitat designations can limit activity on Native American and First Nation tribal lands. Legal documents and recent court cases also give insight into Indigenous inclusion and recognition in conservation approaches in North America. Overall, it is argued that Canada’s approach comes closer to EJ, but neither legal framework meets the criterion of genuine EJ for Native Americans and First Nations.     

Political Commitment,Policy Ambiguity,and Corporate Environmental Practices

A lack of clear political commitment together with confusing rules and enforcement often characterize the institutional context of policy implementation and regulatory compliance in developing countries. By connecting such contextual features to existing models of policy implementation and regulatory compliance, we examine how regulatory factors are related to basic and proactive corporate environmental management practices in the Pearl River Delta region in China. Drawing on data derived from both a survey and in‐depth interviews, we show that a perception of clear political commitment to environmental protection across multiple government levels and units is positively associated with business efforts in basic environmental practices, regardless of the specific enforcement intensity. Nevertheless, a perception of clear political commitment is not related to proactive environmental practices. Conversely, a perception of policy ambiguity, in the form of confusing regulatory standards and enforcement, is negatively associated with corporate efforts in both basic and proactive environmental practices; yet, intensive inspections mitigate these negative associations with policy ambiguity.     

Performance Goal Achievement in Fiscal Federalism: The Influence of State Partisan Environments and Regulatory Regimes

With tight budgets and hyper‐partisan interactions within and between the states and federal government, attention is being paid to the implementation of federal programs. This is particularly important because, as the recently implemented American Recovery and Reinvestment Act suggests, state administrators are often the implementers of federal policy. This study integrates the fiscal federalism literature with that on implementation and bureaucratic response to examine the effect that within‐state factors have on the degree of performance goal achievement in federally funded, state implemented programs. The findings suggest that, when implementing federal programs, state administrators face conflicting political incentive structures and policy‐specific capacity and capability deficits that influence their motivation and ability to achieve performance goals.     

Water, technology, and the courtroom: negotiating reclamation policy in territorial New Mexico

Historical investigation of arid landscapes and communities in the American West has long focused on the pivotal influence of federal reclamation policy, typically characterizing its implementation as the application of scientific and technological methods to a variety of water resource management issues. This paper departs from traditional views of reclamation by highlighting the highly variable and contingent ways in which new science-based forms of water management were proposed and negotiated in specific local places with particular cultural, legal, and historical geographies. Drawing theoretically from literature on the ‘geography of science,’ the paper probes the ways in which authority for a scientific approach to water management was created, negotiated, and expressed in local and regional contexts in the Territory of New Mexico, where authoritative systems of practical resource use and administration had been in long use before the U.S. government initiated its federal water reclamation program in 1902. Specifically, the paper examines two disputes entered and argued in front of northern New Mexico’s Rio Arriba District Dourt between 1903 and 1905. By departing from the geographical and scalar perspectives typically applied to environmental histories of the West and its reclamation landscapes, this ‘microgeographical’ approach promises a fresh perspective that emphasizes the highly contingent ways in which science-based water policy was implemented in multiple and complex environments.     

美国1882年排华法的前奏:1875年《佩奇法》实施的背景及影响

论文探讨了1875年《佩奇法》出台背景及其影响。在种族偏见、文化差异以及政治机会主义等因素的共同作用下,美国国会议员绕开中美之间自由移民的法律,将限制华人女性入境的立法解释成为一场维护美国传统家庭和婚姻道德的保卫之战。以加州联邦众议员佩奇名字命名的《佩奇法》,在美国国会开创了针对特定群体立法进行移民限制的先例。从法律出台到1882年《排华法案》之间的七年间,移民美国的华人超过了之前的任何一个以七年划分的时间段,《佩奇法》虽没有达到阻止苦力华工赴美目的,但在阻止华人女性移民美国方面相当成功,基本切断了华人女性赴美的渠道,也为七年后的美国全面排华铺平了道路。     

Tribal Sovereignty and the Problem of Difference in Environmental Regulation: Observations on “Measured Separatism” in Indian Country

Abstract: The legal and juridical sovereignty of American Indian nations is supposed to help Native peoples maintain their own distinct political and cultural communities. In the context of environmental issues, this means that tribal governments have both the inherent and statutory right to set their own environmental standards, which have the potential to protect tribal peoples and their natural resources in culturally relevant ways. In the past, the US Supreme Court has sought to curtail this kind of sovereignty when the due process of non‐Indians might be hindered. In this article, we look at why tribal environmental sovereignty can and should address the issues of due process in the context of environmental regulation in tribal borders, and make a call for this to be done in a way that supports American Indian tribal sovereignty. Moreover, we connect these issues to the current legal and juridical struggles of other environmental justice groups and the need for more meaningful participation in environmental regulation within the nation‐state for all cultural minorities.     

The Department of the Interior's Appeals Process and Native American Natural Resource Policy, 1970–94

Department of the Interior (DOI) administrative appeals involving Native American lands and resources were studied to find out whether these cases or their outcomes had changed during the "self-determination" era of US. Indian policy. This policy's stated intention has been greater Native American control of lands and resources, but in the DOI arena this research indicates the opposite as a policy outcome     

1943年美国废除排华法分析

194 3年 12月 17日 ,美国总统富兰克林·D·罗斯福正式签署了一个由美国参众两院通过的《废除排华法律、规定移民配额及其他事项的法案》 ,废除了自 1882年以来美国政府所实施的一系列排华法律。本文拟就 194 3年美国废除排华法的历史背景、经过及其评价作些探讨     

PERSPECTIVES ON THE SAGEBRUSH REBELLION

The Sagebrush Rebellion began in the late 1970s with the objective of transferring various categories of federally owned lands to the states. The movement was centered in western “public lands” states, where nearly half the total land area is in federal ownership. Within a relatively short period of time this objective was changed to one of “privatizing” federal lands, of selling these land into private ownership. While the Sagebrush Rebellion has been highly political in its activities, the movement can be viewed in the perspective of historical land disposition policies in the U.S. These policies were changed near the turn of the century from alienating public lands into private ownership to their retention and management by the federal government. Confusion over the economics of building a free enterprise system based on private property rights, and the costs associated with building such as system, appear to have been major factors in changing land policies. Two important aras in which this occurred were the Homestead Act of 1862 and timber. The provisions of the Homestead Act imposed heavy costs on settlers, and these costs caused a reaction against the economic system that was being built.     

Fools Crow Versus Gullett: A Critical Analysis of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act

Historically, American Indian religions have been repressed in the United States out of the conviction that traditional indigenous beliefs would hinder the Indian's "progress toward civilization." While the First Amendment protects the freedom of religion, it has not done so for American Indian religions. In 1978, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), which was designed to protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right to believe, express and exercise their traditional religions. This paper will analyze the effectiveness of AIRFA through an examination of one court case, Fools Crow v. Gullett, which involved a Cheyenne and Lakota sacred place, Bear Butte. It will conclude that AIRFA cannot prevent the desecration of a sacred place. It will also extend some arguments of legal scholar Ellen Sewell to the Fools Crow case, arguing that the courts misunderstand the unique nature of American Indian religions and disregard the trust relationship between American Indians and the federal government. It will conclude with further observations about liberalism, justice and property rights in the judicial system.     

The “Weakened Spring of Government” and the Executive Branch: The Department of Justice in the Late 19th Century

Recent research on American government and public life in the late 19th century suggests that the extensive growth of the American state during this time did not necessarily involve a corresponding expansion of national authority or effective executive bureaucratic administration. Rather, the American polity was characterized by what Wallace Farnham termed the “weakened spring of government,rdquo; a government that “failed to use the powers it had.” This study examines how the late 19th century Department of Justice exemplified this problem. Despite increased personnel, resources, and responsibilities, effective law enforcement by the department was often frustrated by corruption, partisan political activity by department personnel, and by traditional reliance on local, decentralized responsibility for law enforcement. Examples of this were the attempts by the Justice Department to protect federal timber lands and enforce the federal election statutes in the south. Moreover reforms within the department were little more than “patchwork” efforts to achieve effective enforcement capacities.     

Facilitating native land reacquisition in the rural USA through collaborative research and Geographic Information Systems

A large proportion of American Indian reservation lands are owned by non‐Indian entities. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a powerful tool for visualising land tenure changes, and public participation GIS (PPGIS) is one approach for using spatial technologies to facilitate the identification and reacquisition of reservation lands by tribes. While some tribes have successfully harnessed GIS for land management and for systematically identifying lands for reacquisition, others struggle to implement land management systems such as GIS for these purposes. This paper situates PPGIS in relation to other forms of participatory action research and outlines our use of a PPGIS framework to engage undergraduate geography students in the mapping of land tenure status on ten rural Minnesota Indian reservations as part of a collaborative partnership with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF). A PPGIS framework allowed us to collaboratively define research goals in response to tribal community needs and provided structure for student work with partner reservations to develop and implement tailored mapping and analysis techniques. Two sets of findings are significant. First, the assembly of a standardised set of maps for American Indian reservations in Minnesota provides a tremendous visual and analytical resource for ILTF and individual tribes to pursue land reacquisition within reservation boundaries. Second, from a PPGIS perspective, we found that working with a coordinating or ‘bridging’ organisation provided key benefits by enabling education of both the student–faculty partners and the individual tribes. The PPGIS model empowered both partners by allowing tribes to harness a powerful technology to assist in visualising land‐based assets and allowing students to contribute to native land reacquisition efforts through application of their GIS skills. This mapping helps facilitate economic and cultural viability in tribal communities by providing an important visual catalogue of existing land‐based assets, in support of future land acquisition and economic development planning.     

20世纪美国残疾人就业权利的缘起、制度化与困境

在某种意义上,20世纪的美国历史也是一部残疾人的民权运动史。如果说经济大萧条初步唤醒了残疾人的就业权利意识,两次世界大战开启了美国伤残军人康复与就业援助的机制建设,第三次科技革命则加速了残疾人就业权利保障的制度化进程。从公共就业计划、残疾人社会保障保险计划、补充收入保障计划,到《1973年残疾人康复法》,再到《1990年美国残疾人法》,残疾人的就业权利经历了被漠视、依附于福利救济、向实现平等权利转变等阶段,给美国的政治、经济、社会、思想领域留下了诸多挑战和值得思考的问题。由于法律在解决社会问题上存有局限、残疾人对各种福利保障资助的依赖、根深蒂固的偏见等因素,美国残疾人争取平等权利之路仍任重而道远。     

"Must not their languages be savage and barbarous like them?" Philology, Indian removal, and race science

This article highlights the federal government's role as a collector and arbiter of scientific knowledge of "the Indian," in projects directed by Lewis Cass, Albert Gallatin, and Henry R. Schoolcraft; examines the linguistic precursor to biological essentialism; demonstrates white philologists' reliance on Native tutors, some of whom also entered scientific and policy debates; and suggests why the federal government began moving toward English-only instruction even as biological notions of race gained ascendance. During the removal debates, Indian languages focused the attention of men of letters, statesmen, and the broader public. Peter S. Du Ponceau and Cass argued over the grammatical character of the "American languages," with the former praising them and the latter attacking those tongues and the "philanthropic" philology. At stake was the future of Indian affairs and inquirers explored Native languages for evidence of Indians' intellectual and moral capacity to be assimilated into U.S. society. In denying that language corresponded to social condition, Du Ponceau suggested that all Indians spoke according to a uniform, unchanging, and unique "plan of ideas." He and other participants in the debate, such as Wilhelm von Humboldt and Schoolcraft, began to define, linguistically, a distinct and fixed "Indian mind." Scholars of the early republic and antebellum era who wish to study scientific definitions of race must come to terms with linguistic ideas, which requires confronting the intercultural encounters, intellectual exchanges, and institutions through which they emerged.     

Policy Climates,Enforcement Rates,and Migrant Behavior: Is Self‐Deportation a Viable Immigration Policy?

U.S. immigration policy has been the subject of considerable debate in recent years. Previous research has focused on how temporal variation in federal policy has altered the migratory behavior of immigrants. The effect of spatial variation in enforcement remains untested. Relying on the criminological distinction between general and specific deterrence, we argue that high rates of enforcement are unlikely to encourage undocumented immigrants to self‐deport. We also examine the effects cultural and economic immigration policies adopted by the states. Previous research suggests that migrants will choose to remain in states with favorable environments, but this claim has not been directly tested. We draw on data from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) to address these gaps. MMP data are supplemented with government data on federal enforcement obtained from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and measures of state policy. Our findings suggest that higher rates of enforcement and the establishment of negative policy environments do not encourage undocumented immigrants to leave the United States at a higher rate than their documented counterparts do. Rather, high enforcement contexts exaggerate the differences between documented and undocumented migrant behavior, with undocumented migrants staying longer. Liberal state policies have no discernible effect.     

Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence: An International History

This article focuses on Australia's response to the joint Anglo-American effort to expand military facilities on the island of Diego Garcia in early 1970s. The primary emphasis will be on the Whitlam government's rationale behind its diplomatic manoeuvre towards great power rivalries in the Indian Ocean and its supportive position towards the concept of building the Indian Ocean as a peace zone. It argues that the Whitlam government's policy towards the international diplomacy around Diego Garcia contributed to the shaping of a unique Australian foreign policy, one free from attachment to British and American considerations, although still mindful of the need to factor the interests of the UK and the USA into Australia's calculations of its own best interests.     

Mixed messages & bounded rationality: The perverse consequences of real ID for immigration policy

Policies concerning undocumented immigrants are inevitably ambivalent, creating uncertainty and confusion in the implementation process. We identify a clear example of this ambivalence —U.S. law setting standards for determining the credibility of asylum seekers—that resulted in an increase in asylum grants despite policymakers' intention to make it harder for individuals to obtain the status. We argue that this law, The REAL ID Act of 2005, sent mixed messages to immigration judges (IJs), street-level bureaucrats who implement immigration policy. It increased IJ discretion, but set vague limits. We theorize that IJs, behaving in a bounded rationality framework, use their professional legal training as a short-cut and look primarily to the courts for guidance. Our evidence supports our argument. After the passage of the REAL ID Act, IJ decision-making is more closely aligned with the preferences of their political and legal principals, and, in the final score, the federal circuit courts are the winners.     

Energy and Environmental Politics in Post-Corporatist Mexico

No government that is serious about environmental protection will imitate the Mexican model. The undrinkable waters and defiled deserts of Mexico's northern border towns and the poisoned air of its capital city are infamous. But there are noticeable changes in Mexican politicians' and lawmakers' attitudes toward the country's environmental ills, in no small part because of changing public attitudes toward these problems. As Mexico's political system becomes more open and democratic, policy elites are increasingly attentive to environmental problems, as ordinary citizens, and especially urbanites, vent their frustration at the ballot box. Perhaps ironically, Mexico's hydrocarbon industries are potential leaders in the nascent environmental reform process. Inducements for better environmental behavior by the oil and natural gas industries are new, municipal and federal environmental regulations, stepped-up enforcement, and local and cross-border markets for Mexico's gas.