This Land is your land…this Land is my land….this Land is made for you and me.
This Land is Your Land
I re-started my Master Degree studies in Sustainability Management this month. I will be writing at least three papers a week for these classes on environment, economics, and social equity.
I plan to share some of these writings on this webpage through out the next year.
In my Sustainability Law class this week, I was introduced to public trust doctrine. Here’s one of this week’s discussion questions answered:
“ This modest patrimony ever yet inherited by any people must be husbanded and preserved with care in such manner that future generations shall not reproach us for having squandered what was justly theirs.” -The Whig Almanac (1843)
Public trust doctrine is an environmental ethic that reasons that certain resources are important to past, present, and future humans. The public trust doctrine recognizes that not only are certain resources important to you and your ancestors, but these resources will most certainly be important to the future of humanity.
Public trust doctrine recognizes that we individually and collectively have a responsibility to preserve environmental and cultural resources for future generations.
Public trust doctrine has roots in ancient Roman law and common law. Common law principles can include trespassing, negligence, and statutory liability. The public trust doctrine is applied in both statutes and non-statutory jurisprudence. The doctrine recognizes that there are cultural values beyond just market values in society. The doctrine argues that there are public/common resources that should be preserved from destruction. The doctrine also acknowledges that there are resources that should not be privately owned
One foundational public trust doctrine case is Illinois Central Railroad v. Illinois, 146 U.S. 387 (1892) where the Supreme Court rules that there are limits of ownership to submerged lands (in this case was a 1000-acre aquatic area next to the Chicago harbor) because of the public trust doctrine.
The Supreme Court’s decision considered the impact to public use and the impact on navigation and public use of that body of water. Because of cases such as this, our country has been able to protect public resources from privatization while also holding people accountable for the destruction of public resources.
Here’s “public trust doctrine” explained in song. Woody Guthrie:
