On November 10th, 2016, the United States District Court Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the climate change lawsuit brought by 21 youth plaintiffs can proceed. Judge Aiken’s opinion states: “This action is of a different order than the typical environmental case. It alleges that the deefendants’ actions and inactions–whether or not they violate any specific statutory duty–have so profoundly damaged our home planet that they threaten plaintiffs’ fundamental constitutional rights to life and liberty.”
The opinion cites publications by Professor Mary Wood, faculty director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center (ENR) at Oregon Law and a leading expert in the public trust doctrine. The doctrine fosters the idea that natural resources are held in trust by the government and that the government must manage them responsibly in order to ensure continued use by future generations. Wood’s cited book Nature’s Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age, published in 2014, asserts that in addition to public lands, wildlife, and water, the atmosphere is a resource held in trust by the government. The opinion also cites the work of former ENR Center fellow Nathan Bellinger (’14) and Professor Gerald Torres of Cornell Law School.
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Originally published by UO School of Law, ENR Center