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Vanderbilt University Law School

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Environmental response

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Regulation By Adaptive Management--Is It Possible?, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2005

Regulation By Adaptive Management--Is It Possible?, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Today's voluminous literature on adaptive management traces its roots to Professor C.S. Holling's seminal work, Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management. Although almost thirty years have passed since he and his colleagues first described the adaptive management methodology, no work on the topic has improved on their core theory. Its essence is an iterative, incremental decisionmaking process built around a continuous process of monitoring the effects of decisions and adjusting decisions accordingly. It is in other words, far more suited to the needs of future regulatory challenges than is prescriptive regulation. My focus, however, is not on what adaptive management should …


The Plight Of The Passive Past Owner: Defining The Limits Of Superfund Liability, J.B. Ruhl Jan 1991

The Plight Of The Passive Past Owner: Defining The Limits Of Superfund Liability, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

These days, if you want to stir up high emotions in Congress, statehouses, corporate boardrooms or citizen group meetings, mention the word Superfund. That alias for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) evokes strong reactions from industry, environmentalists, bankers, politicians, and just about everyone else. CERCLA, a relative latecomer to the present-day body of federal environmental law, was enacted in 1980 to fill a gap in then existing law by creating the authority and liability for cleanup of abandoned facilities contaminated with hazardous substances. In the short time it has been with us, CERCLA has …