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The Economic Theory Of Nuisance Law And Implications For Environmental Regulation, Keith N. Hylton
The Economic Theory Of Nuisance Law And Implications For Environmental Regulation, Keith N. Hylton
Faculty Scholarship
In this article, I will explore in detail the structure of nuisance law as a mechanism for regulating environmental interferences and suggest a modernized enforcement regime. The modem regime would retain public enforcement primarily in identifying environmental harms. Public enforcement might also be retained in the discovery of sources of harm, as long as it is more efficient than private enforcement in that task. However, enforcement efforts in the proposed regime would largely be delegated to private enforcers. Moreover, the decentralized approach would permit tougher environmental rules than under the public enforcement approach in some areas, and perhaps weaker regulations …
When Should We Prefer Tort Law To Environmental Regulation?, Keith N. Hylton
When Should We Prefer Tort Law To Environmental Regulation?, Keith N. Hylton
Faculty Scholarship
There are two broad models of regulation: statutory schemes carried out by administrative agencies with the help of public enforcement agents, and highly discretionary common law rules developed over time through litigation. Environmental regulation is dominated by the first model, with relatively little of it done through litigation of tort claims. The reason may be largely historical: tort law has always been viewed as local in design and impact, while environmental law has always had a global aim. But it need not be this way. More than anything, tort law has been flexible, and thus capable of responding to new …