Law & Policy

Law Fellow wins award for presentation at national conference
Amanda Argentieri, Sea Grant Law Fellow, received the Sea Grant Association Student Award for outstanding student presentation for her talk on expanding public lateral access rights along the Rhode Island shoreline at the Coastal Society’s 21st Biennial Conference in California earlier this summer.

2008 Marine Law Summer Program offers courses, field (boat) trips
The third annual Marine Law Summer Program got underway on June 8 at Roger Williams University School of Law.  The program offers law students a suite of maritime and ocean and coastal law courses taught by recognized faculty members in these fields. Classes this year included Energy, Development & Climate Change; Law of the Sea; Marine Salvage Law; Maritime Legislation & Regulatory Law; and Mediation Skills. Coursework is complemented by marine-related field trips and lectures by leaders in maritime law and ocean and coastal law.  Students in the first session of the program took a commercial trawl aboard URI’s fishing vessel, the Cap’n Bert, and received guidance from Rhode Island Sea Grant’s Dave Beutel on fisheries management from the fishing perspective.  Students in the second session toured upper Narragansett Bay aboard the Providence Piers with Frank Dugan, captain of the boat, providing a history of the waterfront, the history of Roger Williams’ settlement of Providence and a waterside view and history of the port of Providence.  Austin Becker, Coastal Management extension specialist with the Coastal Resources Center and Rhode Island Sea Grant, was also aboard to provide information related to his work on the inventory of the bay and its working waterfront.  This year’s lecturers were Kristen M. Fletcher, Director of the Coastal States Organization, who gave a presentation on “Reauthorization (and Rethinking) of Coastal Zone Management” and David Farrell, a maritime lawyer from Massachusetts, who gave a presentation on July 16 entitled “Challenges and Opportunities Practicing Maritime Law in New England.” The summer program is open to law students in good standing who have completed one year of full-time study before the start of the program.

Energy conference examines offshore energy in Maine
Megan Higgins attended the “Power of the Gulf, Considering Ocean Energy in Maine” energy conference in Northport, Maine on June 12, 2008. The conference brought together Maine regulators, alternative
energy entrepreneurs, attorneys, the economic development community, representatives of the marine community, and environmental advocates to discuss offshore energy. The conference addressed the environmental and regulatory issues regarding siting facilities in the ocean environment.

Research counsel addresses sea level rise, policy, and the law
Higgins published her paper “Legal and Policy Impacts of Sea Level Rise to Beaches and Coastal Property” in the inaugural issue of the National Sea Grant Law Center’s Sea Grant Law & Policy Journal. In the paper, Higgins argues that states must manage their coastlines through policies that anticipate and account for sea level rise, not merely address the status quo. The paper focuses on policies that have proven successful in litigation. The full paper is available at www.olemiss.edu/orgs/SGLC/National/SGLPJ/Vol1No1/3Higgins.pdf.