Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson and Cleveland-Marshall 2L Isaac M. Bleich have published Toledo’s Doomed Lake Erie Bill of Rights and the Future of Environmental Protection, as a Featured Article in the October issue of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Journal.  You may access the CMBA Journal’s October edition here: https://indd.adobe.com/view/06937daf-ff6c-45c2-8caa-a2dd9ed6ffc1.  Robertson and Bleich’s article is on pages 18-19. 

It explains that the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, known as LEBOR, is an example of the growing trend of local jurisdictions adopting community bills of rights (CBRs) — assertions of rights in defense of nature and in nature itself.  Although these CBRs are generally believed to be unenforceable, their continued proliferation belies a frustration with the ability of existing environmental laws to protect the environment and citizens’ efforts to look elsewhere for effective tools. 

Robertson is the Steven W. Percy Distinguished Professor of Law at C|M|LAW, and Professor of Environmental Studies at the Levin College of Urban Affairs.