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Must a state in which gay marriage is not legal recognize such a marriage performed in another state? The Constitution does not require recognition in all cases, but it does forbid states from nullifying family relationships based in other states, or from making themselves havens for people who are trying to escape obligations to their spouses and children. In this book, Andrew Koppelman offers workable legal solutions to the problems that arise when gay couples cross state borders. Drawing on historical precedents in which states held radically different moral views about marriage (for example, between kin, very young individuals, and interracial couples), Koppelman shows which state laws should govern in specific situations as gay couples travel or move from place to place.Americans are profoundly divided over same-sex marriage, and now that gay civil unions and marriages are legal in some states, the issue has become increasingly urgent. Koppelman offers a sensible approach that will appeal to the best instincts of both sides.

Examines intergovernmental efforts within the United States to manage the nation's water supply. Long taken for granted, water resources are rapidly becoming a contentious issue within American politics. Continuing population growth and rapid development, coupled with environmental events such as droughts, have led to increasing water shortages in sections of the nation. In Interstate Water Compacts author Joseph F. Zimmerman highlights the growing importance of water issues within the United States and a device that has been instrumental in facilitating interstate cooperation to solve water-related problems: the interstate compact. This groundbreaking work is the first to devote itself exclusively to interstate and federal-interstate compacts pertaining to controversies including the abatement of water pollution, apportionment of river waters, economic development, flood control, inland fisheries, marine fisheries, and restoration to rivers of anadromous fish, such as salmon and shad. The process for entering into interstate and federal-interstate compacts is explained in detail, as is the exercise of original jurisdiction by the US Supreme Court to resolve intractable interstate controversies involving interpretation of provisions of compacts, water apportionment, and water pollution abatement. Zimmerman concludes by calling for the President, Congress, governors, state legislatures, and local governments to devote more attention and resources to finding solutions for water-related problems. \"... a well-researched, detailed reference of interstate compacts with an emphasis on water-related compacts. The text's strength is in its detailed description of the legal justification of interstate compacts and their role in horizontal federalism and intergovernmental relations ... worth a read for any student of federalism looking to gain knowledge in this subfield of federalism.\" -- Publius \"Zimmerman provides a thorough description of the use of interstate compacts and other intergovernmental efforts to manage water resources ... Readers who want well-documented source material on the role of interstate compacts, with particular attention to water-related agreements, will find this book valuable.\" -- CHOICE Joseph F. Zimmerman is Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His many books include Horizontal Federalism: Interstate Relations; Interstate Cooperation, Second Edition: Compacts and Administrative Agreements; and State-Local Governmental Interactions, all published by SUNY Press.

Zimmerman places in perspective the important roles played by interstate compacts and interstate administrative agreements in the governance systems of the United States. Compacts are identified and classified by type. Particular emphasis is placed on federal government promotion of compacts, including the U.S. Congress enactment of federal-state compacts in which the federal government joins member states as partners to achieve stated goals. Formal and informal interstate administrative agreements have increased in number dramatically during the past six decades and relate to both minor and very important issues. Credit for many interstate administrative agreements must be ascribed to associations of state government officers which encourage their members to promote interstate cooperation and also draft model state laws and administrative agreements. Although compacts and agreements have lubricated the functioning of the United States governmental system, as Zimmerman makes clear, the full potential of compacts and agreements has not been achieved to date, and he makes recommendations to improve the level of interstate cooperation. An important resource for scholars and students of American government—federal, state, and local—as well as administrators and policymakers.

The proposed model water compact, drafted by lawyers and scientists from across the U.S. and documented here, will assist state agencies in alleviating resource disputes and avoiding litigation for years to come.

This paper examines compacts used by U.S. western states to engage in shared governance of interstate rivers. Compacts are viewed as inflexible, rigid governance structures incapable of responding to changing environmental and institutional settings because of the use of unanimity rules and the inability to directly regulate water users. Using data from a study of 14 western interstate river compacts we examine this claim. In particular, we explore the response of compacts to water conflicts. We find that members of compacts, closely related water agencies, and compact governments are capable of responding to conflicts. To better understand this finding, we identify the conditions under which compacts are likely to address conflicts, as well as the types of conflict solutions compact governments adopted.

Interstate compacts are one of the primary institutional mechanisms that states use for addressing regional issues such as sharing and management of transboundary rivers. However, state compliance with compacts can be challenging and costly. This article asks: how do conflict resolution venues and the design of state administrative systems affect the distribution of compliance costs? Through a study of western interstate water compacts we find that compliance costs are more equally shared among states in voluntary conflict resolution venues compared to compulsory venues. In addition, centralized administrative systems result in state governments bearing the costs of compliance actions, whereas polycentric administrative systems distribute costs between the state and water users. Finally, we explore the applicability of our findings to other interstate settings.

The relationship between state sovereignty and state territory in the United States is more complex, interesting, and unstable than the reassuring familiarity of an American map might suggest. State borders move as a result of wandering rivers, interstate border compacts, and even newly discovered surveying errors. States and the federal government also buy and sell proprietary interests in vast tracts of public land, while effectively leasing their sovereign functions to private parties. This Article argues that those threads-mobile state borders and active markets for public land and sovereign functions-can and should be woven together to create an interstate market for sovereign territory.

\"Sponsored by The Utton Transboundary Resources Center, University of New Mexico School of Law.\"

Law plays a critical role in all stages of a public health emergency, including planning, response, and recovery. Public health emergencies introduce health concerns at the population level through, for example, the emergence of a novel infectious disease. In the United States, at the federal, state, and local levels, laws provide an infrastructure for public health emergency preparedness and response efforts: they grant the government the ability to officially declare an emergency, authorize responders to act, and facilitate interjurisdictional coordination. Law is perhaps most visible during an emergency when the president or a state's governor issues a disaster declaration establishing the temporal and geographic parameters for the response and making financial and other resources available. This legal authority has increasingly been used during the last decade.