Environmental Law in a Nutshell

by Roger W. Findley, Daniel A. Farber

Findley and Farber’s Environmental Law in a Nutshell provides a foundation for understanding environmental law. Expert text includes coverage of various areas, from acid rain and atomic energy, to waste disposal and wetlands. Touches upon the many statutory and common-law regulations shaping the world in which we live.

Genres: Law

291 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1992

Reviews

[Frank Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sure it's just as dense review of the state of modern environmental law, but as environmental statutes become ever more opaque and extensive, one needs such an overview just to understand what all those acronyms in the daily paper mean (NAAQS, NSPS, BAT, MACT, BPT etc. etc. etc.) This book gives that overview and then some, and though reading it straight through can make your head swim with all the court cases and numbered sections and subparagraphs, it also tells environmental law as the story of a gradual historical unfolding, and thus manages to place its evolution in time.

To me the most interesting part of the book was how the Supreme Court interpreted statues that forcefully demanded the almost complete abatement of air and water pollution but then refused to tell the EPA how much cost it should impose to achieve that (Could it shut down the whole coal industry? All automobile manufacturers?) In 1980 and 1981 two cases involving OSHA told the EPA to read legislative language like "unreasonable risk" as a call for some form of cost-benefit analysis, but other cases seem to require agencies to do a delicate pas de deux, where they cannot look at the costs imposed as relevant but must only consider what is "feasible." Thus uncertainty breads uncertainty.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a riveting read on a car ride from Miami to St. Pete.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I once used this as a tool in teaching a class in Environmental Law. This does a nice job outlining key cases and key principles in environmental law. Accessible and not overly detailed. . . .