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Law in Contemporary Society
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The World Is My Oyster?-- By SarahKim - 11 Mar 2022 A few weeks ago, I went out to dinner with a couple law school friends: we were determined not to let out a peep about law school, landlord-tenant law, or contributory negligence – all of which had pretty much been consuming our lives. It was through this conscious effort to steer the conversation away from whining and complaining that I first learned of the Billion Oyster Project: a non-profit that has been working to restore the once-robust but now-barren oyster reefs across New York City, with the specific goal of restoring 1 billion oysters by 2035. Reading more about this project put a smile on my face – it gave me the tingly, heart-warming feeling that good news does sometimes.History of Oysters in NYCAs Mark Kurlansky, author of The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell said: “The history of the New York oyster is a history of New York itself—its wealth, its strength, its excitement, its greed, its thoughtfulness, its destructiveness, its blindness, and—as any New Yorker will tell you—its filth.” In the early 17th Century, oysters were far from a luxury in the city. They were so cheap and ubiquitous that they could easily be found bought and sold at cheap eateries, oyster cellars, or even on the streets at all hours. The demand was so high that eventually the oyster population went on a decline, and in 1715, the legislature had to ban harvesting in the city’s oyster reefs in the spring and summer to allow enough time for the ecosystem to replenish every year. By the early 20th century, with urbanization and exponentially-growing Manhattan landfills, oyster beds in the city suffered degradation by over-harvesting, sewage pollution, and toxicity in the Hudson River. New York Harbor began to build a reputation for its filth and disease, and the oysters from the harbor became inedible. Oysters were no longer cheap foods of widespread consumption; New York City was no longer an “oyster capital.” In 1927, the city closed its last commercial oyster bed in Raritan Bay.What the Project DoesThe Billion Oyster Project was founded by Murray Fisher and Pete Malinowski; both worked at the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School as a director and aquaculture instructor, respectively. The two recognized the communal and environmental benefits of bringing oyster reefs back to New York Harbor. Water quality in the city began to steadily improve after the Clean Water Act of 1972, and now, despite still being polluted and unsanitary, New York Harbor is deemed clean enough for oyster reefs and other similar ecosystems to survive. Such a large-scale revival, however, is not one that can be undertaken by just two passionate advocates. Fisher and Malinowski thus adopted a unique approach to the Billion Oyster Project: to focus on education and outreach to get the community—ranging from students to volunteers to local restaurants—engaged in the ongoing effort to restore oyster beds in New York City. A huge benefit of this approach is that it raises local awareness about the benefits of oyster reefs unknown to many. Aside from being a greatly loved source of food for the people in the city, oysters also serve as the foundation for the growth of many other species and marine wildlife. They are also essential for further improvements in the quality of water sources around the city – a single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Finally, large oyster reef ecosystems can act as natural storm barriers by softening the damage caused by large waves, as well as preventing flooding and erosion. Since its founding, the Billion Oyster Project has restored 75 million oysters in the New York Harbor area. Oysters, and the project, are now symbols of resilience for the city: “a rare hopeful sign amid ominous news about New York waterways in the age of rapid climate change.” While it is true that the restored reefs are not safe to eat from for at least another few decades (or even centuries), the hope is that the project will carry on for generations to eventually bring vibrant marine life, cheap oyster eateries, and clean water back to New York City.What Does This Mean For Me?What started as an active avoidance of a discussion of the doom that is law school ironically got me thinking more about it. I thought about why hearing about the Billion Oyster Project particularly resonated with me, why I found it to be so much of a heart-warming and happy story. Was it the community? Sure, it’s nice to see local business owners and students and residents all working toward an environmental cause. Was it the morality of the work? Maybe, it’s always nice to hear something good in the midst of terrible, troubling things going on in the world. But I think what struck me most was the fact that so many people were working so vigorously for a large-scale project whose effects they probably will not even live to see. The oysters being brought to New York Harbor now won’t be edible within my lifetime. Restoration of marine life, clean (enough) water in the Hudson, and reversal of erosion all take time and patience to manifest, as do many other environmental changes. I’ve always thought of myself as a result-oriented person. I’ve found tangible representations of my work product to be one of the biggest motivating factors – which is why I’m interested in IP, as there’s almost always going to be a patent or product that I can visualize. But the law doesn’t always work that way. Of course, I’ll see immediate results for the clients I work for. The more important changes, though – the systematic changes I hope to see in the world – won’t be immediate. To me, the Billion Oyster Project symbolizes the need for good work, even if the product of that work doesn’t manifest until much later.I think this is a fine first draft. It gets out the material and gives us wonderful ways to think about it. One needed improvement is substantial tightening of the backstory. You have good sources and they're already linked so the reader can find out as much as she wants with two clicks. Therefore all you need is capsule summaries, barely more than 100 words. The space made will allow you to write about your real question: why does the restoration of our shellfish commons make you feel good, and why should that matter to someone thinking about IP practice? Oysters are the biological intersection of fisheries and groundwater, two of the great examples of natural resources commons. One possibility is that you are experiencing the discovery that managing commons makes human beings feel good and monopoly makes them feel bad. The first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Economics, Elinor Ostrom, was the greatest thinker about commons in the 20th century. You might be interested in a little cartoon made by her Prize Trust. Because I am in the cartoon you can understand the relationship of Ellie's work to what I did in free software, and also why it makes me smile, as it makes me smile to think that I helped to destroy the world's most profitable pharmaceutical patent in 2006, costing Pfizer $84 billion and its CEO his job, among other such acts of intellectual anti-property. Perhaps, just perhaps, those billion oysters are telling you that you too will be happier as an anti-IP lawyer, for commons and against government monopolies on ideas, after all. You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:
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