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An Extinction Of Transparency: The Opaque Endangered Species List, Benjamin W. Cramer

Benjamin W. Cramer

This article reconstructs the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as an informational statute with unresolved problems of transparency and disclosure. The article introduces the informational requirements of modern American environmental legislation, including the ESA. The article then examines the conflict between the substantive goals of the ESA and the procedural focus of American administrative jurisprudence. This is followed by a case history of the informational requirements of the ESA in general and the official endangered species list in particular, with coverage of political manipulation of the list and whether or not it is a truly transparent item of government-held information. The …