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Extraterritorial Environmental Protection Obligations Of Foreign Affairs Agencies: The Unfulfilled Mandate Of Nepa, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article will focus on the initial Department of State position, as set forth in a legal memorandum which interpreted NEPA as not requiring compliance by a foreign affairs agency. It will then examine the language of the Act and its legislative history. Finally, the article will reveal a pattern of official self-insulation from national environmental policy, illustrated by the Export-Import Bank's continuing refusal to comply with NEPA's requirements. It will suggest that much remains to be done if NEPA is to be fully effective in governing the extraterritorial consequences of the federal government's actions.