Conflict of Laws

Read Environmental Law updates, alerts, news, and legal analysis from leading lawyers and law firms:

News & Analysis as of May 24, 2013

Native Village Of Kivalina Files Its Petition For Certiorari - A Five-Year Climate Change Litigation Marathon That Has Yet To...

by J. Wylie Donald | McCarter & English: Climate Change &... on 3/18/2013

One day short of five years since the case was originally filed, on February 25, 2013 the plaintiffs in Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. attempt once more to get out of the starting blocks, this time with a...more

Western Pa.'s Take On Carbon Dioxide Liability Claims

by J. Wylie Donald | McCarter & English, LLP on 12/20/2012

Originally published in Law360 on December 17, 2012. Left open by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, 131 S. Ct. 2527 (2011), was the question of whether state law nuisance...more

U.S. District Court Holds that Federal Clean Air Act Preempts Pennsylvania State Law Common Law Tort Claims

by Cozen O'Connor on 11/6/2012

On October 12, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania issued an opinion and order in Kristie Bell v. Cheswick Generating Station, GenOn Power Midwest, L.P., No. 2:12-cv-929, holding that state...more

Last Federal Climate Change Case Dismissed by Ninth Circuit

by Matt Bingham | Lewis and Roca LLP on 9/28/2012

Last Friday, the Ninth Circuit dismissed the last climate change lawsuit still pending in the federal courts to the best of my knowledge. Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. was a lawsuit by a small Alaskan village...more

Ninth Circuit Displaces Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Climate Change Liability Case

by McCarter & English: Climate Change &... on 9/24/2012

In litigation concerning liability for the emission of greenhouse gases, the federal common law of nuisance is displaced by the Clean Air Act. This is not news. It was established by the Supreme Court over a year ago in...more

Supreme Court Issues Decision in: American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut - Clean Air Act Displaces Federal Common Law Claims...

by King & Spalding on 6/21/2011

Today, the Supreme Court issued a decision rejecting an attempt to hold private companies liable in tort for greenhouse gas emissions alleged to contribute to global climate change. In an 8-0 decision, the Court held that...more

Supreme Court Rejects States’ Nuisance Claims But Leaves Door Open to Future Climate Change Lawsuits

by Morrison & Foerster LLP on 6/21/2011

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in American Electric Power v. Connecticut that federal common law nuisance claims cannot be used to address harms arising from climate change. In 2004, eight states, New York City, and...more

Supreme Court to Hear Appeal of Connecticut v. American Electric Power

by McDermott Will & Emery on 12/12/2010

The Supreme Court of the United States has granted certiorari in the Second Circuit's Connecticut v. American Electric Power decision, which allowed federal common law nuisance claims to proceed against several utilities...more