Adjunct Prof. Paul Schlauch and LLM Graduate Leonardo Rodríguez Headline Mining Law Seminar in Buenos Aires, Argentina

University of Denver Sturm College of Law Adjunct Prof. Paul J. Schlauch and 2008 LLM graduate Leonardo G. Rodríguez recently headlined a seminar on International Mining Agreements held at the offices of Marval, O’Farrell & Mairal in the city of Buenos Aires.

The seminar was attended by 115 participants from various mining companies operating in Argentina, government offices and private entities. The seminar was also attended by the Secretary of Mining of Argentina, Eng. Jorge Mayoral, who pointed out that mining exports will grow exponentially throughout the upcoming years.

Prof. Schlauch, who teaches International and Comparative Mining Law at the Sturm College of Law, is of counsel with Holland & Hart in Denver. Mr. Rodríguez, who was the "Outstanding LLM Student of the Year" in 2008 is an associate attorney at Marval.

Masters of Resources Law Studies Student Sherry Manning Reports on the Upcoming "Rebel With a Cause" Event

On June 9th the Colorado Environmental Coalition (CEC) will be hosting their annual "Rebel" With a Cause Gala.

CEC is the oldest state wide conservation non-profit in Colorado and has been working actively to preserve the beautiful Colorado landscape for 45 years. With more than 400 attendees, CEC’s “Rebel With a Cause” is one of the largest annual events for the environmental community in Colorado. This year's "Rebel" is Terry Tempest Williams, an author and passionate advocate for the preservation of the American Western wilderness. This event attracts supporters, elected officials, and community and business leaders from across the state. Our goal is to achieve a zero waste and carbon neutral event.

I am working with CEC as a development intern this spring helping organize the silent auction for this event. If you would like to donate an item for the silent auction, please click here.

Event Details:

Date: Wednesday June 9th, 2010
Time: Start time 5:30 pm Dinner, Live and Silent Auction
Location: Seawell Grand Ballroom at the Denver Center for Performing Arts
Address: 101 13th St. Denver, CO 80204
Cost: $100 regular, $150 VIP

--Sherry Manning

Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts (CCLT) – 2010 Conference: LLM Student Kate Williams-Shuck Reports on Conference

I attended the CCLT 2010 conference on March 15, 2010. As an LLM student this was a wonderful way to network with people in the land conservation community and learn more about current topics in the Colorado conservation easement world.

The conference began with a review of current state and federal tax incentive legislation. Representatives from both Senator Mark Udall’s and Senator Michael Bennet’s offices spoke briefly and answered questions about current legislation and their conversations with the IRS that are extremely relevant to Colorado’s conservation easement future.

Some of the highlights from outside the regular conference sessions included a few inspiring words from Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, and a presentation on how the dioramas, an artist’s 3-D depiction of a scene, at the Museum of Nature and Science have changed when compared to pictures of the same landscapes today. After listening to a few words from Mayor Hickenlooper, I was encouraged about the future of Colorado. Mayor Hickenlooper said that he wants this campaign to be all positive with zero negative ads, as his campaign was when he ran for mayor. He told a story about starting the Wynkoop Brewery where he would advertise for other restaurants in his restaurant but his own staff thought he was crazy for promoting other businesses. However, his idea was simple. If you can draw more people to the area for dinner and lunch it is good for everyone in the community. Having never heard Mayor Hickenlooper speak before this event, I found it refreshing to hear a very uplifting, positive, and encouraging message, given what is going on these days in Washington.

From my perspective, the most educational part of the conference was the last session where a panel discussed what the Western Governors' Association (“WGA”) was doing to plan renewable energy development in the 16 western states. Because I am writing my LLM thesis on renewable energy development, it was extremely informative. It was great to see that there planning at all levels of government. The panel noted that the WGA struggled to find data on where conservation easements exist in order to plan around them for siting transmission lines. Gathering data on the location of conservation easements and presenting it in a searchable and readily available format will be critical in the coming years if there is any hope of convincing states and the federal government to plan around conservation easements. Attending the CCLT conference gave me a lot more ideas for researching possible solutions to the problem of siting renewable energy to include in my thesis.

For anyone wanting to learn more about conservation easements I highly recommend taking Prof. Jessica Jay’s Land Conservation Transactions course. It touches on property law, water law, contracts, and environmental law to name a few. It is the most practical 3-credit course I took in either law school or the grad program at DU.

Kate Williams-Shuck
LLM Student 2010

DU Law Prof. Emeritus John A. Carver Jr. Remembers Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, 1920-2010

Stewart Udall, its youngest member, joined a cabinet of experienced and well-known public servants in January, 1961. In January, 1969, when the former Arizona Congressman who had become Kennedy’s Interior Secretary yielded his post to a Nixon appointee he was one of only two members of the original cabinet to have served all of those eight tumultuous years. [Stewart Udall on right in picture, John A. Carver Jr. on left.]

Now, nigh fifty years later, he is honored and revered and remembered as none of the others in the Johnson and Kennedy cabinets has been, indeed as no prior Secretary of the Interior in history.

I served under him in that Department for six years. How he managed to retain his post for eight years, and how only eight years as Interior Secretary could account for him becoming the acknowledged leader of the modern environmental movement, will be studied by Udall’s biographers for years to come.

I can only offer clues. For example, succeeding in pleasing two such different Presidents may have been aided by his close collaboration with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in her remaking of the White House followed by an equally close collaboration with First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in her drive to beautify America, starting with planting wild flowers along the interstate highways.

Udall’s now being recognized as patriarch and patron saint of the modern environmental movement is explained not by his management of the fractious bureaucracy of Interior but by how, in that office he could and did change the way people think. As his son, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, wrote this week in Time magazine, his father’s book, The Quiet Crisis warned Americans against the overuse of natural resources and the loss of open spaces. He argued that preservation of wilderness be given the same values as the exploitation of resources. The latter was fundamentally the mission of Interior before Udall took over.

I watched him as he drew about him the intellectual and inspirational leaders of the emerging environmental movement. He drew upon the Leopolds, Aldo and Luna, and upon Wallace Stegner. He tramped the C&O canal path with former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. The leaders of the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society saw him as a fair arbiter in their conflicts with grazing and other private use of the public lands.

The Quiet Crisis, inspired by Rachel Carson, was followed with many more over the years.

Stewart’s genuine understanding and sympathy with the Native Americans he knew from his own experience led him to look to leaders like W. W. Keeler and Philleo Nash for improvements in Indian policy during his administration. Since leaving office, much of his work has been on behalf of the native peoples, including those in Hawai’i.

I cannot say that he and I agreed on everything, but from the first day I recognized that he had “it” in the very real sense of being a national leader. I am proud of my association with him.

John A. Carver, Jr.
Professor of Law Emeritus
University of Denver Sturm College of Law
Assistant Interior Secretary and Under-
Secretary 1961-1966

Denver, Colorado
2 April 2010

French President Sarkozy Drops Plan for French Carbon Tax; Seeks Similar Tax at European Union Level

French President Nicholas Sarkozy has abandoned plans for a French national carbon tax. The decision, announced last week, came in the wake of regional French elections in which President Sarkozy's party suffered enormous electoral losses.

Now, however, President Sarkozy wants the European Union -- as opposed to several individual countries -- to impose a carbon tax to protect EU firms' competitiveness in a world market where almost no other countries have taken firm stands to reduce carbon emissions.

According to Jean-Francios Cope, a spokesman for the president's party, "The [carbon] tax will be European or it won't be at all," the BNA International Environment Daily reported ("French Government Abandons its Attempt at National Carbon Tax, Will Focus on EU Tax," March 24, 2010).

There is no doubt that European firms are concerned about the competitive disadvantage that the EU Emissions Trading Scheme puts on economic sectors operating on the continent. But enacting an EU-wide carbon tax is easier said than done. First, it would need to be proposed by the European Commission, which is the only EU institution that can propose legislation. Second, it would need unanimous approval from the 27 member state governments, a task that is hardly easy even in the best of times.

Does the pronouncement by President Sarkozy make headlines? Yes. Is it very practical? No. On the other hand, it is reassuring to know that politics is much the same everywhere. High aspirational goals made by some local political actors seeking approval in their own constituency often come to nothing on a larger stage in the end. This is likely to be the case in this instance.

--Don Smith