Student abstract from Prof. Mae Quinn's course:

Issues in the Law: Problem-Solving Courts Advocacy Program Seminar

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Lillian Blackshear

What’s Black and White and Green All Over?: Using the Problem-Solving Approach of Environmental Courts to Stop Environmental Racism

In this paper, I will examine the structure of environmental courts and offer the proposition that the problem-solving approach of environmental courts could be used to promote environmental justice. First, I will discuss the emergence of problem-solving courts in America and how the environmental court fits into this picture. Next, I will give an overview of the history of environmental courts and present the arguments as to why specialized environmental courts are needed. I will then detail the specifics of one environmental court in particular, describing how it works in practice and how it compares to other problem-solving courts.

After the initial examination of environmental courts, I will discuss environmental racism and the environmental justice movement. Here, I hope to show the significance of environmental racism in America and why traditional criminal courts have been unresponsive to environmental justice issues. I will then argue that the environmental court’s ability to partner with the community, to travel to the actual sites of the environmental disputes, to develop intimate expertise in complex environmental matters, to understand the gravity of obscure environmental issues, and to promulgate uniform binding precedent in environmental cases uniquely situate it to serve an indispensable role in the fight to end environmental injustice. Finally, I will assert that, to the extent that problem-solving features are being ignored by many environmental courts and the focus of many environmental courts is exclusively on compliance, the problem-solving model should be fully incorporated and the focus of these courts should be shifted.

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