US Legislation update

On March 30, 2009, President Obama signed into effect new legislation aimed at increasing ocean and coastal research in 5 key areas: ocean acidification, ocean exploration, ocean observation, undersea research, and ocean and coastal mapping. Read more about the legislation at the website of the American Institute of Biological Sciences: http://www.aibs.org/public-policy-reports/2009_03_30.html#010122

Texas Coastal Law Recent History

In the Courtroom:
Severance v. Patterson
485 F.Supp.2d 793
S.D.Tex.,2007.
May 02, 2007
Holdings: The District Court, Hoyt, J., held that:

(1) under the doctrine of Ex parte Young, sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment did not bar landowner's action;
(2) landowner's claims founded on possibility that one or more of her houses might be removed in an OBA enforcement action were not ripe for review;
(3) landowner's claims founded on alleged continuing physical invasion resulting from imposition of beach easement were not ripe for review; and
(4) Texas's recognition of public beach easement that expanded and contracted with natural boundaries of the beach did not violate landowner's rights to due process or just compensation.

Defendants' motion to dismiss granted, with memorium opinion.

Potential Resources

Here is a list of the sponsors for the most recent Texas Coastal Law conference on June 4, 2009: Caring for the Coast 2009 conference. I am listing these because it seems like they might be useful contacts in the future for students seeking coastal law resources:

American Shore & Beach Preservation Association
America's WETLAND Foundation
Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program
Coast & Harbor Engineering
CrowderGulf
City of Port Aransas
Coastal Technology Corporation
Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation
Galveston Island Convention and Visitor's Bureau
HDR Engineering, Inc.
Sullivan Land Services
Port of Houston Authority
Apache Ecological Service, Inc.
Chambers County Commissioners Court
Shelmark Engineering, LLC
Surfrider Foundation: Texas Upper Coast Chapter
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
The Nature Conservancy
Brazoria County Shoreline Restoration Task Force
Coastal Solutions Inc.
Ducks Unlimited
Gahagan & Bryant Associates, Inc.
Hach Environmental
Leap Engineering, LLC
Restore America's Estuaries
The Trust for Public Land
URS Corporation
West Galveston Island Property Owners Association

Welcome to Texas Coastal Law blog!

This blog is created to be a central station for Coastal Law at the University of Texas School of Law, in Austin, Texas. Coastal Law is currently a course taught at the University of Texas School of Law by a visiting professor, Professor A.R. "Babe" Schwartz. This blog has been begun by a law student, Shannon Sims, who is interested in developing the discipline of Coastal Law at the University of Texas.

To further that interest, in the future this blog will include links to relevant news articles related to coastal law, especially coastal law in Texas. The blog will also serve to assist future students interested in Coastal Law in networking and finding different topics in the discipline that are of interest to them. The site will also include a list of links to useful resources related to Coastal Law, in Texas, the United States, and International as well.

If you are interested in Coastal Law in Texas, or if you are a University of Texas student interested in Coastal Law, you've come to the right place! Please leave a comment identifying yourself and the nature of your interest in Coastal Law, and please be sure to include your email so that you can stay connected to the developing Texas Coastal Law Community!