Does the green movement remain a transformative force in American life? In Environment in the Balance Jonathan Cannon interprets a wide range of U.S. Supreme Court decisions over four decades and explores the current ferment among activists, to gauge the practical and cultural impact of environmentalism and its future prospects.
The Supreme Court and the Environment discusses the body of federal statutory law amassed to fight pollution and conserve natural resources that began with the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. Instead of taking the more traditional route of listing court decisions, The Supreme Court and the Environment puts the actual cases in a subsidiary position, as part of a larger set of documents paired with incisive introductions that illustrate the fascinating and sometimes surprising give-and-take with Congress, federal administrative agencies, state and local governments, environmental organizations, and private companies and industry trade groups that have helped define modern environmental policy. ? From the author: When one views the body of modern environmental law—the decisions and the other key documents—the picture that emerges is not one of Supreme Court dominance. In this legal drama, the justices have most often played supporting roles. While we can find the occasional, memorable soliloquy in a Supreme Court majority, concurring, or dissenting opinion, the leading men and women are more likely found in Congress, administrative agencies, state and local legislatures, nongovernmental organizations, private industry, and state and lower federal courts. ? What one learns from studying the Supreme Court’s environmental law output is that the justices for the most part seem more concerned about more general issues of deference to administrative agencies, the rules of statutory interpretation, the role of legislative history, the requisites for standing, and the nature of the Takings Clause than the narrow issues of entitlement to a clean environment, the notion of an environmental ethic that underlies written statutes and regulations, and concerns about ecological diversity and other environmental values. When we widen the lens, however, and focus on the other documents that make up essential parts of the story of the Supreme Court and the environment—complaints by litigants, briefs by parties and by friends of the court, oral argument transcripts, the occasional stirring dissent, lower court decisions, presidential signing statements and press conference transcripts, media reports and editorials, and legislative responses to high court decisions—we discover what is often missing in the body of Supreme Court decisions. --Michael Allan Wolf
"Do trees have legal rights? What risks to the environment should we legally try to control or prevent? In this updated edition of Green Justice, the authors further explore the interrelationship betwe"
This discerning book examines the challenges, opportunities and solutions for courts adjudicating on environmental cases. It offers a critical analysis of the practice and judgments of courts from various representative and influential jurisdictions.
This book provides a critical assessment of the New South Wales Land and Environmental Court (NSWLEC). Effective adjudication has become a key consideration for environmental lawyers. One of the most important questions is whether environmental law frameworks need their own courts, with the conclusion being: yes they do. Here, a pioneer of such a court, the NSWLEC is forensically examined to see what it might teach other such courts. Showing a court 'in action' it suggests models that practitioners and policy makers might follow. It also speaks to the environmental law scholars, setting out a conceptual framework for studying such courts as legal institutions. This multi-faceted collection is invaluable to scholars and practitioners alike.
The passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 signaled a new era for American law, when both proponents and opponents of strict safeguards on the environment looked more and more to the courts to settle their disputes. Lettie M. Wenner examines the role of the federal judiciary in implementing environmental laws in the ten years after the passage of the NEPA. Her major focus is on the overall policy patterns that emerged from court decisions on environmental issues during this period, demonstrating the function of the courts as a public policy maker. The author concludes that, in general, the federal courts have proven to be more environmentally oriented when they have faced specific enforcement demands in the context of pollution control laws than when they have been asked to make broad policy decisions based on discretionary laws.
A renowned Supreme Court advocate tells the inside story of Massachusetts v. EPA, the landmark case that made it possible for the EPA to regulate greenhouse gasses--from the Bush administration's fierce opposition, to the internecine conflicts among the petitioners, to the razor-thin 5-4 victory.
The unprecedented expansion in environmental regulation over the past thirty years—at all levels of government—signifies a transformation of our nation's laws that is both palpable and encouraging. Environmental laws now affect almost everything we do, from the cars we drive and the places we live to the air we breathe and the water we drink. But while enormous strides have been made since the 1970s, gaps in the coverage, implementation, and enforcement of the existing laws still leave much work to be done. In The Making of Environmental Law, Richard J. Lazarus offers a new interpretation of the past three decades of this area of the law, examining the legal, political, cultural, and scientific factors that have shaped—and sometimes hindered—the creation of pollution controls and natural resource management laws. He argues that in the future, environmental law must forge a more nuanced understanding of the uncertainties and trade-offs, as well as the better-organized political opposition that currently dominates the federal government. Lazarus is especially well equipped to tell this story, given his active involvement in many of the most significant moments in the history of environmental law as a litigator for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, an assistant to the Solicitor General, and a member of advisory boards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Environmental Defense Fund. Ranging widely in his analysis, Lazarus not only explains why modern environmental law emerged when it did and how it has evolved, but also points to the ambiguities in our current situation. As the field of environmental law "grays" with middle age, Lazarus's discussions of its history, the lessons learned from past legal reforms, and the challenges facing future lawmakers are both timely and invigorating.
This important book investigates the environmental legal frameworks, court structures and relevant jurisprudence of nineteen countries, representing legal systems and legal cultures from a diverse array of countries situated across the globe. In doing so, it distils comparative trends, new developments, and best practices in adjudication endeavours, highlighting the benefits and shortcomings of the judicial approach to environmental governance.
Over the last 30 years, we have made great progress in curbing the most obvious pollution largely due to effective enforcement of federal and state environmental statutes. Now, however, there is increasing skepticism of the efficiency and even the constitutionality of our bedrock environmental laws from all branches of the federal government, including the courts. This book is the result of lively debate at the conference Alternative Grounds: Defending the Environment in an Unwelcome Judicial Climate, held on November 11, 2004, and co-sponsored by the University of Florida's Levin College of Law and the Environmental Law Institute. Topics ranged from U.S. Supreme Court trends in environmental law jurisprudence, to innovative federal and state constitutional and statutory arguments that defend environmental protections, to federal provisions most vulnerable to attack on federalism, takings, and separation-of-powers grounds. This thought-provoking and insightful collection of essays provides smart, realistic solutions to the profound and complex legal challenges facing defenders of our environmental protections. With contributions by: Richard J. Lazarus, Sean H. Donahue, Paul Boudreaux, William W. Buzbee, Robert L. Glicksman, Alyson C. Flournoy, Christopher H. Schroeder, Douglas T. Kendall, Susan George, J.B. Ruhl, Donald W. Stever, and Mary Jane Angelo.