The Nature of Environmental Law and the U.S. Supreme Court

摘要

With his customary eloquence and intellectual rigor, Prof. Richard Lazarus tracks general trends in the U.S. Supreme Court's approach to environmental law cases and reveals what he claims is a failure of the Justices to appreciate the nature of environmental law to such an extent that they are stifling environmental law making. He analyzes the October Term 2003, during which the Court not only heard a large number of environmental cases but rendered decisions overwhelmingly favorable to those who support less-stringent environmental protection requirements. He concludes with a challenge for more scholarship and effective advocacy to articulate the role federal courts can play in evolving environmental law making.