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Full-Text Articles in Law
Cultural Cognition Of Scientific Consensus, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Hank Jenkins-Smith
Cultural Cognition Of Scientific Consensus, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Hank Jenkins-Smith
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Why do members of the public disagree - sharply and persistently - about facts on which expert scientists largely agree? We designed a study to test a distinctive explanation: the cultural cognition of scientific consensus. The "cultural cognition of risk" refers to the tendency of individuals to form risk perceptions that are congenial to their values. The study presents both correlational and experimental evidence confirming that cultural cognition shapes individuals' beliefs about the existence of scientific consensus, and the process by which they form such beliefs, relating to climate change, the disposal of nuclear wastes, and the effect of permitting …
Developing Substantive Environmental Rights, Dinah L. Shelton
Developing Substantive Environmental Rights, Dinah L. Shelton
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Human rights tribunals facing claims of violations stemming from environmental degradation are increasingly incorporating and applying national and international environmental standards to assess whether or not the government in question has complied with its legal obligations. The government is required to comply with whatever environmental laws it has enacted as well as treaties to which it is a party. Furthermore the tribunals will assess, albeit with considerable deference, whether or not the environmental laws set the level of protection too low to allow the enjoyment of guaranteed human rights, in some instances drawing on the precautionary principle and other concepts …