This insightful book explores why implementation of environmental law is too often ineffective in achieving effective environmental governance. It provides careful analysis and innovative proposals to help improve the practical effectiveness of legal i
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.
Constitutions can play a central role in responding to environmental challenges, such as pollution, biodiversity loss, lack of drinking water, and climate change. The vast majority of people on earth live under constitutional systems that protect the environment or recognize environmental rights. Such environmental constitutionalism, however, falls short without effective implementation by policymakers, advocates and jurists. Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism: Current Global Challenges explains and explores this 'implementation gap'. This collection is both broad and deep. While some of the essays analyze crosscutting themes, such as climate change and the need for rule of law that affect the implementation of environmental constitutionalism throughout the world, others delve deeply into geographically contextual experiences for lessons about how constitutional environmental law might be more effectively implemented. This volume informs global conversations about whether and how environmental constitutionalism can be made more effective to protect the natural environment.
Practical Environmental Law is a comprehensive, practical introduction to environmental law written exclusively for paralegal students. The concise, well-written text focuses on a broad understanding of the sources of environmental law and offers students numerous practical exercises as well as concrete methods for researching the law. It also includes methods for conducting due diligence in real estate transactions, a real-world concern of paralegals and a topic ignored by other textbooks. The Second Edition offers thoroughly updated exercises, websites, government forms and laws, and includes a new chapter on mining law. Features: Accessible, practical approach to environmental law, specifically designed for the paralegal student. Comprehensive coverage includes the basics of the judicial concepts, policies, agencies and institutions that shape environmental law. A brief overview of legal research and how it applies to environmental law. Intuitive organization starts with the implementation and sources of Environmental Law and moves on to specific statutes. Emphasis on conducting due diligence in real estate transactions, a real-world concern of paralegals and a topic no other book addresses. Engaging hands-on assignments, exercises and website resources teach students how to research local laws and access vital information. Strong pedagogical features reinforce the material, including crossword puzzles, key terms, review questions, and practice exercises. Features employment opportunities and ethical issues. Thoroughly updated, the revised Second Edition includes: New chapter on mining law
Because environmental problems do not respect borders, their solutions often require international cooperation and agreements. The contributors to this book examine how international environmental agreements are put into practice. Their main concern is effectiveness -- the degree to which such agreements lead to changes in behavior that help to solve environmental problems. Their focus is on implementation -- the process that turns commitments into action, at both domestic and international levels. Implementation is the key to effectiveness because these agreements aim to constrain not just governments but a wide array of actors, including individuals, firms, and agencies whose behavior does not change simply because governments have made international commitments. The book is divided into two parts. Part I looks at international systems for implementation review, through which parties share information, review performance, handle noncompliance, and adjust commitments. Part II looks at implementation at the national level, with particular attention to participation by governmental and nongovernmental actors and to problems in states with economies in transition. The book includes fourteen case studies that cover eight major areas of international environmental regulation: conservation and preservation of fauna and flora, stratospheric ozone depletion, pollution in the Baltic Sea, pollution in the North Sea, trade in hazardous chemicals and pesticides, air pollution in Europe, whaling, and marine dumping of nuclear waste. ContributorsSteinar Andresen, Juan Carlos di Primio, Owen Greene, Ronnie Hjorth, Vladimir Kotov, John Lanchbery, Elena Nikitina, Kal Raustiala, Alexei Roginko, Jon Birger Skj�rseth, Eugene B. Skolnikoff, Olav Schram Stokke, David G. Victor, J�rgen Wettestad.Copublished with theInternational Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Environmental law is the law concerned with environmental problems. It is a vast area of law that operates from the local to the global, involving a range of different legal and regulatory techniques. In theory, environmental protection is a no brainer. Few people would actively argue for pollution or environmental destruction. Ensuring a clean environment is ethically desirable, and also sensible from a purely self-interested perspective. Yet, in practice, environmental law is a messy and complex business fraught with conflict. Whilst environmental law is often characterized in overly simplistic terms, with a law being seen as be a magic wand that solves an environmental problem, the reality is that creating and maintaining a body of laws to address and avoid problems is not easy, and involves legislators, courts, regulators and communities. This Very Short Introduction provides an overview of the main features of environmental law, and discusses how environmental law deals with multiple interests, socio-political conflicts, and the limits of knowledge about the environment. Showing how interdependent societies across the world have developed robust and legitimate bodies of law to address environmental problems, Elizabeth Fisher discusses some of the major issues involved in environmental law's: nation statehood, power, the reframing role of law, the need to ensure real environmental improvements, and environmental justice. As Fisher explains, environmental law is, and will always be, necessary but inherently controversial. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
This Handbook discusses the main issues, research, and theory on business and the natural environment, and how they impact on different business functions and disciplines
This volume examines the impact of globalization on international environmental law and the implementation of sustainable development in the Global South. Comprising contributions from lawyers from the Global South or who have experience in the Global South, this volume is organized into three parts, with a thematic inquiry woven through every chapter to ask how law can enable economies that can be sustained, given the limited carrying capacity of the earth. Part I describes and characterizes the status quo of environmental and economic problems in the Global South during the process of globalization. Some of those problems include redistribution of environmental burden on the public through over-reliance on the state in emerging economies and the transition to public-private partnerships, as well as extreme uncontrolled economic expansion. Building on Part I, Part II takes an international perspective by presenting some tools that are in place during the process of globalization that lead to friction and interfaces between developed and developing economies in environmental law. Recognizing the impossibility of a globalized Northern economy, the authors in Part III present some alternatives through framework ideas of human and civil rights, environmental rights, and indigenous persons’ rights, as well as concrete and specific legal tools to strengthen justice and rule of law institutions. The book gives new perspectives to familiar approaches through concrete examples by professional practitioners and theoretical discourse by academic researchers, and can thereby form the basis for changes in practices, as well as further discussions and comparisons. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental law, sustainable development, and globalization and international relations, as well as legal professionals and practitioners.