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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Myth Of What Is Inevitable Under Ecosystem Management: A Response To Pardy, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2004

The Myth Of What Is Inevitable Under Ecosystem Management: A Response To Pardy, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article, second in a five-part dialogue appearing in the Pace ELR, responds to Professor Bruce Pardy's initial evaluation of ecosystem management. I defend ecosystem management, arguing it is not directed at changing nature as Pardy suggests.


From Smokestack To Suv: The Individual As Regulated Entity In The New Era Of Environmental Law, Michael P. Vandenbergh Jan 2004

From Smokestack To Suv: The Individual As Regulated Entity In The New Era Of Environmental Law, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

A debate between advocates of command and control regulation and advocates of economic incentives has dominated environmental legal scholarship over the last three decades. Both sides in the debate implicitly embrace the premise that regulatory measures should be directed almost exclusively at large industrial polluters. This Article asserts that for many pollutants the premise is no longer supportable, and that much of the focus of regulation in the future should turn to individuals and households. Examining a wide range of empirical data, the Article presents the first profile of individual behavior as a source of pollution. The profile demonstrates that …


The Battle Over Endangered Species Act Methodology, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2004

The Battle Over Endangered Species Act Methodology, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The substantive contours of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have been largely worked out for quite some time. Starting in the mid-1990s, however, opponents of Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service decisions realized that the methodological contours of the ESA were not nearly as settled as their substantive kin. Industry and environmental interests alike appreciate that how these methodological rules get worked out could revolutionize the ESA for decades to come, and during the 1990s they opened the debate over ESA methodology and have been going strong at it ever since. This Article explores the breadth and …


Taking Adaptive Management Seriously: A Case Study Of The Endangered Species Act, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2004

Taking Adaptive Management Seriously: A Case Study Of The Endangered Species Act, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

If one compares the way in which the ESA was implemented in 1982 to the way it is today, the list of differences would far outweigh the similarities. Indeed, the ESA has been transformed so much through administrative reform toward the ecosystem management model, I have dared to suggest elsewhere that it has earned the seal of eco-pragmatism. In this Article, I explore the related question such an assertion necessarily begs-has the ESA also earned the seal of adaptive management?... Part I of the Article provides the legal and ecological background necessary to appreciate the need for ecosystem management, and …


Past, Present, And Future Trends Of The Endangered Species Act, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2004

Past, Present, And Future Trends Of The Endangered Species Act, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

this article is designed to convince readers that the past, present, and future trends of the ESA are all the same. To provide context, Part I presents a brief overview of the structure of the statute and the kinds of decisions that must be made under it. Part II delves more deeply into each of the topics covered in the NR&E issues, eight in all, providing in each case the necessary legal background followed by a discussion of how the topic played out in the two NR&E issues. Finally, I conclude with a brief summary of my own perspectives on …


Prescribing The Right Dose Of Peer Review For The Endangered Species Act, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2004

Prescribing The Right Dose Of Peer Review For The Endangered Species Act, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

....what I examine here is whether scientific-style peer review, depending on how it is dosed out, could be counterproductive for environmental law.The use of peer review as a component of regulatory procedure has not received much discrete attention in environmental law literature, but it is truly the sleeping dog of the "sound science" movement. Understanding this concept requires some background on science and administrative law. The "sound science" movement, as its name suggests, advocates that environmental law decisions be based principally on scientific information and conclusions that have been derived through the rigorous, unbiased practice of science. Science is generally …