Law & Policy

Congratulations to the graduates!

Nicholas Battista, joint degree student and recipient of the 2008 Marine Affairs Achievement Award
Alison Bruenjes, Sustainability Fellow
Tory Randall, joint-degree student and Sea Grant Law Fellow

Sea Grant Law Fellow update

Heath Hixson
Hixson is working with attorneys from the Nature Conservancy on a series of follow-ups to a recent report, Exploring a New Strategy for Marine Protection, which was written in collaboration with Roger Williams University School of Law last year. The legal section of this report assesses state and local laws, policies, and practices to determine the potential to use private ownership and encumbrance of tidelands for conservation purposes, or in other words, to occupy a tideland to set it aside for non-use.

Hixson is conducting an assessment of coastal municipal bylaws needed to identify opportunities at the local level. As town waters are often co-terminous with state waters in Massachusetts (three miles offshore), some towns have initiated bylaws for “watersheet zoning” where they seek to limit or zone for compatible uses in their offshore environment.

Hixson is researching coastal town municipal bylaws in Massachusetts to develop a framework to compare and contrast coastal town bylaws for watersheet or offshore zoning, reviewing bylaws for current clear provisions applied to the nearshore or watersheet area, and reviewing bylaws for their potential to include watersheet zoning (i.e. do they suggest a conservation tone or have other language that seems to limit other uses to pave the way toward a watersheet zoning approach?).

Alicia Schaffner
For 2008-2010, the Nature Conservancy (TNC) received a Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program mini grant to review submerged land issues in Connecticut and Rhode Island. In 2006-2007, TNC commissioned a study of leasing opportunities for submerged lands in Rhode Island, through the URI IGERT program. The current grant seeks to review private ownership opportunities for submerged lands in Rhode Island.

Schaffner will be assisting in assessing law and policies for fee-title and less than fee-title ownership of privately owned submerged lands in Rhode Island as well as federal submerged lands in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone off the coast of Rhode Island.

The conservation benefits are considerable. Private conservation organizations have traditionally taken educational, watchdog, research, and advocacy roles in ocean and coastal conservation efforts. By assuming a proprietary role through leasing or ownership, conservation organizations can assume the responsibility for conservation success and protect their conservation investments in submerged lands and resources, such as shellfish. Submerged lands can be a useful part of a conservation, restoration, and management toolbox.

Tom Murphy
Murphy is working with the Northeast Regional Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service to develop a report summarizing the findings of the most effective way to reserve authority and to utilize reserved authority to prescribe fishways under Section 18 of the Federal Power Act. The federal fisheries agencies (National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) have the ability to reserve their authority to prescribe fishways under Section 18 of the Federal Power Act. This reservation of authority is to provide the fisheries agencies the ability to request that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reopen existing hydropower licenses to require the licensee to construct, operate, and maintain fishways as may be prescribed by the fisheries agencies during the term of the license. Over time, the fisheries agencies have reserved this authority in a variety of ways and through several different processes, have invoked this authority at different times throughout the process, and have met with both positive and negative responses from FERC. The purpose of this project is to research the various ways in which the federal fisheries agencies have reserved their authority and to determine under which circumstances FERC has granted such reservation. In addition, this project is to determine when and under what circumstances the fisheries agencies have utilized their reservation of authority to prescribe fishways for existing licenses and whether or not FERC accepted such prescriptions. Although national in scope, the research should prioritize Northeast activities.

Brian Eisenhower
Eisenhower researched Part IV of the majority opinion in the recently decided case of New Jersey v. Delaware, 128 S. Ct. 1410, 2008 WL 833218 (2008). Specifically, he considered the impact of this decision on Weaver’s Cove Energy’s proposed offshore LNG berth in Mount Hope Bay, concluding that it does not appear that New Jersey v. Delaware has altered the regulatory hierarchy for the Weaver’s Cove project.

RWU School of Law’s Sustainability Committee newsletter
The premier issue of the law school’s new sustainability newsletter is now online!  In the fall of 2007, the Marine Affairs Institute/Sea Grant Legal Program hired its first Sustainability Fellow, Alison Bruenjes. Bruenjes, along with members of the Sustainability Committee, has been working diligently to raise awareness about “going green” at the law school. To see their efforts, click on: law.rwu.edu/sites/marineaffairs/sustainability/.

Admiralty moot court team
The 2008 Judge John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court Competition was held on March 6-8 at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. RWU entered two teams in the three day competition at which fifteen law schools competed. Returning member Brendan Sullivan (3L) and Brian Eisenhower (2L), supported by A.J. Evans (3L) as its brief writer, advanced to the Quarterfinal round, which culled the competitors from 24 teams to eight. Team 2 members were Daniel Orchard and Ben Susman, both 2Ls. Daniel Orchard received the Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams Award as the Best Oral Advocate in the competition. The overall winner of the 2008 Competition was South Texas College of Law.

Global marine renewable energy
Megan Higgins attended the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference: Achieving Renewable Goals with Ocean Energy Resources in New York City. The conference attracted over 200 participants from all over world who are focusing on wave and current power technologies (tidal, ocean, and river currents) as solutions for the global problems of energy security, supply, and climate change. The conference was very useful in planning for the upcoming Marine Law Symposium: A Viable Marine Renewable Energy Industry: Solutions to Legal, Economic, and Policy Challenges, which will be held at Roger Williams University School of Law on October 23-24, 2008.