Lawsuits With Environmental Relevance
| Lawsuit(s) | Environmental asset(s) and subject(s) of lawsuit(s) |
Court(s) of decision(s) | Year(s) of decision(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. (United Kingdom v. Iran) | Oil fields: licence to extract oil | International Court of Justice of the United Nations, based in The Hague, Netherlands | 1952 |
| Arizona v. California | Water: supply from Colorado River | Supreme Court of the United States | 1931, 1934, 1936, 1963, 1964, 1968, 1979, 1983, 1984, 2000 and 2006 |
| Babbitt v. Sweet Home Chapter of Communities for a Great Oregon | Wildlife: interpretation of law protecting fish and wildlife | Supreme Court of the United States | 1995 |
| Bamford v Turnley | Aesthetics: smoke from brick kiln | 1860 | |
| Baldwin v. Fish and Game Commission of Montana | Wildlife: elk hunting | Supreme Court of the United States | 1978 |
| BG Checo International Ltd. v. British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority | Electromagnetic fields: terms regarding clearing of land | Supreme Court of Canada | 1993 |
| Bowoto v. Chevron Corp. | Oil fields (offshore): injuries and human rights violations | United States District Court for the Northern District of California | 2008 |
| Burford v. Sun Oil Co. | Oil fields: complex geology and multiple users | Supreme Court of the United States | 1943 |
| Carter v. Carter Coal Company | Land: regulating the coal mining industry | Supreme Court of the United States | 1936 |
| Case Concerning Maritime Delimitation between the Republic of Peru and the Republic of Chile (Peru v. Chile) | Water: sea border between Chile and Peru | International Court of Justice of the United Nations, based in The Hague, Netherlands | unresolved |
| Celotex Corp. v. Catrett | Workplace: asbestos exposure | Supreme Court of the United States | 1986 |
| C&A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown, New York | Recycling: interstate exportation restriction | Supreme Court of the United States | 1994 |
| Department of Interior v. Klamath Water Users Protective Assn. | Water: federal legislation | Supreme Court of the United States | 2001 |
| Diamond v. Chakrabarty | Genetics and water: patent for GMO for cleaning oil spills | Supreme Court of the United States | 1980 |
| Dimmock v Secretary of State for Education and Skills | Climate: providing documentary An Inconvenient Truth (about climate change) to English state schools | High Court of Justice of England and Wales | 2007 |
| English v. General Electric | Workplace: work table contaminated with uranium | Supreme Court of the United States | 1990 |
| Farley v Skinner | Soundscape: aircraft noise | House of Lords of the United Kingdom | 2001 |
| Funk Brothers Seed Co. v. Kalo Inoculant Co. | Leguminous plants: patent for product for promoting nitrogen fixation | Supreme Court of the United States | 1948 |
| Georgia v. South Carolina (1990) | Water: interstate boundary | Supreme Court of the United States | 1990 |
| Hunt v. T&N plc | Workplace: asbestos exposure | Supreme Court of Canada | 1993 |
| Keystone Bituminous Coal Ass'n v. DeBenedictis | Land: coal mining causing damage to buildings, etc. | Supreme Court of the United States | 1987 |
| McDonald's Restaurants v Morris & Steel | Water and rainforests: waste and destruction, respectively | European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France | 2005 |
| Minister of Public Works v Kyalami Ridge Environmental Association | Conservation: housing for flood victims | Constitutional Court of South Africa | 2001 |
| Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians | Wildlife: hunting, fishing, and gathering rights | Supreme Court of the United States | 1999 |
| Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission | General environment: disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear reactors | Supreme Court of the United States | 1983 |
| Peevyhouse v. Garland Coal & Mining Co. | Land: restoration after coal mining | Supreme Court of Oklahoma | 1962 |
| Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon | Land: coal mining under a habitation | Supreme Court of the United States | 1922 |
| R. v. Marshall | Fisheries: right of Aboriginals to catch and sell eels | Supreme Court of Canada | 1999 |
| RJW & SJW v The Guardian newspaper & Person or Persons Unknown | Environment of Ivory Coast: publishing toxic waste dumping | 2009 | |
| Rindge Co. v. County of Los Angeles | Land: expropriation for highway | Supreme Court of the United States | 1923 |
| Transco plc v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council | Land: water pipe leaking and washing away land | 2003 | |
| United States v. Causby | Biophony and scotobiology: aircraft flying low | Supreme Court of the United States | 1946 |
| United States v. Louisiana (1965) | Natural resources: entitlement to Gulf of Mexico seabed | Supreme Court of the United States | 1965 |
| United States v. Shoshone Tribe of Indians | Land: mineral and timber rights | Supreme Court of the United States | 1938 |
| United States v. The Progressive | General environment: publishing the "secret" of the hydrogen bomb | 1979 | |
| Vaughan v Menlove | General environment: spontaneous ignition of hay, causing fire to spread to adjacent land | 1837 | |
| Village of Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment | Environmental protection: door-to-door solicitation | Supreme Court of the United States | 1980 |
| Wik Peoples v Queensland | Land: removal of land from Aboriginal reserve for bauxite mining | High Court of Australia | 1996 |
| Willson v. Black-Bird Creek Marsh Co. | Water: sailboat breaking through a dam | Supreme Court of the United States | 1829 |
| Wiwa family lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell | Oil fields: human rights abuses | United States District Court for the Southern District of New York | 2009 |
| Yarmirr v Northern Territory | Water: native title to seas, sea-bed and sub-soil | Federal Court of Australia | 2001 |
Read more about this topic: List Of Environmental Lawsuits
Famous quotes containing the word relevance:
“... whatever men do or know or experience can make sense only to the extent that it can be spoken about. There may be truths beyond speech, and they may be of great relevance to man in the singular, that is, to man in so far as he is not a political being, whatever else he may be. Men in the plural, that is, men in so far as they live and move and act in this world, can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and to themselves.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)