Six Flags over Champlain
Ann Arbor, MI — Six legal régimes have jurisdiction over the environment of the Lake Champlain Basin—the states of New York and Vermont, the province of Québec, the federal governments of the United States and Canada, and the regime of international law administered by the International Joint Commission. Joint efforts to address the environmental needs of the Lake must work within—or around—these six legal systems and their similarities and differences. The similarities arise from the historic origins of much of the law of the six régimes in the law of England. The differences also have historic roots. Differences have developed in the laws of New York and Vermont despite their common origins. The private law of Québec is founded in the civil law brought by Québec’s French founders. The federal constitutions of the United States and Canada allocate powers differently among the branches of government and between the national and state or provincial governments, in part because the Canadian Constitution evolved from the British parliamentary form of government against which the American Revolution was fought.
The paper summarizes the legal provisions that apply to Lake Champlain in order to provide a starting point for comparative analysis of their similarities and differences. This analysis can facilitate development of coordinated trans-boundary solutions to the environmental problems of the Lake that may also be applicable to other shared international and interstate/provincial waters. The paper concludes with a critical look at a recent case in point—the interplay of the six régimes in addressing the Lake’s most pressing environmental need, the reduction of phosphorus.
Original Publication Information
Results of this study, "Six Flags over Champlain: Starting points for a comparative analysis," are reported by L. Kinvin Wroth in the special issue on Lake Champlain, of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, published by Elsevier, 2011.
Contacts
For more information about the study, contact L. Kinvin Wroth, Land Use Institute, Vermont Law School, 164 Chelsea Street, South Royalton, VT 05068, USA; kwroth@vermontlaw.edu, (802) 656-2515.
For information about the Journal of Great Lakes Research, contact Marlene Evans, Editor, National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada; jglr@ec.gc.ca; (306) 975-5310.
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