The Demise of Environmentalism in American Law by Michael S. Greve

From the Publisher

During the environmental era - the 1970s and the better part of the 1980s - the courts assumed that a fragile, uniquely complex ecosystem required special judicial protection. This ecological paradigm entailed a dilution of private present rights, a vast expansion of standing, and aggressive judicial review on behalf of regulatory beneficiaries. Michael S. Greve argues that these presumptions have ceased to play a formative role in American public law: breaking with the ecological paradigm, the courts have returned to more traditional, common-law-like doctrines. The ecological paradigm, Greve shows, induced or exacerbated much-criticized failures of environmental regulation. The emerging legal doctrines, in contrast, should contribute to more efficient and sensible regulation. Greve cautions, however, that much-needed, wholesale regulatory reforms cannot come from the courts but can come only from Congress.

Booknews

Greve (executive director, Center for Individual Rights) argues that the "environmental era" of the 1970s and 1980s created an ecological paradigm diluting private property rights and engendering an aggressive judicial review on behalf of regulators which has ceased to play a formative role in 1990s American public law. The ecological paradigm, he persuades, has threatened the legal doctrine of common- law, contributing to its own failure. Greve's argument suggests that emerging legal doctrines will contribute to a more sensible regulation but cautions that much-needed, wholesale regulatory reforms can only come from Congress. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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