Environmental Law Commons^™

Nepa: Lessons Learned And Next Steps: Hearing Before The Task Force On Updating The National Environmental Policy Act Of The H. Comm. On Resources, 109th Cong., Nov. 17, 2005 (Statement Of Professor Robert G. Dreher, Geo. U. L. Center), Robert G. Dreher

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

Risking It All, Lisa Heinzerling

Georgetown Law Faculty Lectures and Appearances

Thank you for inviting me here today. I feel privileged to deliver this lecture honoring Daniel Meador, a beloved alumnus, former Dean, and colleague.

I congratulate the organizers of this year's three-part lecture series for choosing the topic "Risk and the Law." The topic is timely, full of rich possibilities for analysis, and as contentious as any matter in legal academics today. If you attend all of the lectures - mine, plus those by Professors Simon and Sunstein - I believe you will begin to see why issues of risk are so important and so hard, and I am certain …

Applying Cost-Benefit To Past Decisions: Was Environmental Protection Ever A Good Idea?, Lisa Heinzerling, Frank Ackerman, Rachel Massey

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this Article, however, we do not mount a critique from outside the technique of cost-benefit analysis. Instead, we examine an argument that proponents of cost-benefit analysis have offered as a linchpin of the case for cost-benefit: that this technique is neither anti- nor pro-regulatory, but rather a neutral tool for evaluating public policy. In making this argument, these proponents have often invoked the use of cost-benefit analysis to support previous regulatory decisions (their favorite example involves the phase down of lead in gasoline, which we shall shortly discuss) as a sign that this technique can be used to support …

Property And Environment: Thoughts On An Evolving Relationship, J. Peter Byrne

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Private property is a necessary but insufficient tool for environmental regulation. Why is it necessary? There are several reasons. First, it settles who controls a resource, making rational management possible. While this may sound trivial, countries with weak or fragmented systems of ownership--or where enforcement of law is tainted by corruption--find it impossible even to begin to preserve resources or prevent pollution. This is especially the case when different individuals make conflicting claims to the same plot of land.

Second, private property owners have the incentive to preserve the capital value of their land. They can reap where they (or …

Human Nature, The Laws Of Nature, And The Nature Of Environmental Law, Richard J. Lazarus

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The essay is divided into three parts. Part I considers the ways in which the need for environmental law derives from the tendency of human nature to cause adverse environmental consequences and the ways in which the laws of nature make it more difficult to prevent those consequences absent the imposition of external legal rules. Part II describes how our nation's lawmaking institutions are similarly challenged by the laws of nature. This includes a discussion of how the kinds of laws necessary to bridge the gap between human nature and the laws of nature are systematically difficult for our lawmaking …