Books on Hawai‘i Environmental Law

Making Your Voice Count is a workbook published in 2001 by the Law School's Environmental Law Program Founder Professor M. Casey Jarman as a companion to her video “Presenting Your Case: Highlights of an Agency Hearing.” Together, the workbook and video provide two powerful tools to citizens interested in representing themselves or community groups in a quasi-judicial (contested case) hearing before an administrative agency in Hawai‘i.  The workbook focuses on three important Hawai‘i state agencies: the Land Use Commission (LUC), the Commission on Water Resources Management (Water Commission), and the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR).

The workbook is divided into three major chapters.  The first chapter explains what quasi-judicial hearings are and how they work.  The second discusses the information citizens need to present to administrative agencies in such proceedings.  The third chapter describes how to develop the skills necessary for effective advocacy in presenting a case.  Each chapter of Making Your Voice Count contains practical exercises to help the reader apply the material.  The workbook's appendices provide selected laws and rules, agency contact information, and sample forms.

Professor Jarman has served on the State LUC for the past eight years and teaches Administrative Law and Environmental Law.  Her project was supported by a grant from the Hawai‘i Community Foundation.  To obtain a hardcopy of the workbook and/or video or for more information, contact Professor Jarman.

The Third Edition of the the Hawaii Environmental Law Handbook was published in 2002 by Lisa Woods Munger, partner at the Honolulu law firm of Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel LLP.  The Handbook "is intended to provide a general guide to the complex series of statutes and regulations that make up Hawai‘i's environmental laws."

The emphasis of the Handbook is on the provisions of Hawai‘i environmental law that affect the private sector, including businesses and real property owners.  The Handbook is an excellent reference tool.  To obtain a copy of the Handbook ($89), contact the publisher Government Institutes at giinfo@govinst.com.

Published in 1997 by David Kimo Frankel (Richardson Law School, Class of 1991) and the Sierra Club, Protecting Paradise: A Citizen's Guide To Land & Water Use Controls in Hawai‘i provides a short and practical overview of the laws that protect Hawai‘i's environment.  The Guide explains how the public can participate in environmental decision-making and protection and focuses on environmental and development issues.

The Guide provides a handy index to Hawai‘i's environmental laws and is an important reference tool for anyone interested in the land use and environmental challenges facing Hawai‘i.  Mr. Frankel is currently the Legal Chair of the Hawai‘i Chapter of the Sierra Club and can be reached at frankel@lava.net. Copies of the Guide can be obtained through the Honolulu Office of the Sierra Club, P.O. Box 2577, Honolulu, HI 96803, (808) 538-6616.

Kupa‘a Ma Hope O Ka ‘Aina: A Workbook for Environmental Justice for Native Hawaiians, by M. Casey Jarman, Mia S. Oana, and Kekailoa Perry, discusses the major environmental laws that affect Hawaiians and provides guidance for Hawaiian communities who want to participate in Hawai‘i's environmental decision making process.  This Workbook consists of ten chapters, each discussing a particular law, including the Hawai‘i Administrative Procedure Act and laws designed to protect public health and the environment from pollution.

E Alu Like Mai i Ka Pono: Coming Together For Justice, authored by Moses Kalei Nahonoapi‘ilani Haia, M. Casey Jarman, Joyce E. McCarty, and Elizabeth Ann Ho‘oipokalaena‘auaookalani, is the second Workbook of this two book set.  It is intended to assist Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiian) individuals and communities in their endeavors to exercise greater self-determination over matters within their own homeland.  E Alu Like Mai i Ka Pono covers a variety of issues related to the State of Hawai‘i's social and political decision-making processes.  Several chapters focus on different aspects of the legal system of particular relevance to native Hawaiians.

Articles and Papers

"Modernizing Public Nuisance" by Professor Antolini

In 2002, Ecology Law Quarterly published an article by Professor Antolini called "Modernizing Public Nuisance:  Solving the Paradox of the Special Injury Rule."  The article discusses the legal history and jurisprudence of the special injury rule, a longstanding procedural barrier to plaintiffs seeking to bring public nuisance actions.  Of all the states, Hawai‘i's interpretation of the rule is the most liberal, dating to a decision written by then-Supreme Court Justice William S. Richardson in the Akau v. Olohana case (1982).  The article places this Hawai‘i decision in a broad national context, reviews the lively debates in the American Law Institute, analyzes the contributions to this issue by tort law giants William Prosser and John Wade, and proposes a new approach that solves the paradox of the rule.

2001 Symposium on Managing Hawai‘i's Public Trust Doctrine

ELP Director Denise Antolini, Associate Professor at the Law School, recently published with the Hawai‘i Law Review a Foreword to the proceedings of the 2001 Symposium on Managing Hawai‘i's Public Trust Doctrine, a conference held at the University of Hawai‘i in October 2001.  Professor Antolini served as a Co-Chair for the Symposium and as Proceedings Editor.  The Symposium featured leading public trust doctrine experts Professor Joseph Sax (Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley) and Jan Stevens (Assistant Attorney General State of California, retired).  Attended by over 200 participants, the Symposium provided a public forum for the continued important discussion in Hawai‘i about the vital issue of appropriate use of Hawai‘i's freshwater resources.  The Hawai‘i Law Review web site provides a full version of the Symposium Proceedings.

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