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Environmental Law and Policy: Nature, Law, and Society
To give your students a solid foundation in environmental law doctrine as well as experience building their analytical skills, you can depend on this user-friendly casebook, now in its Third Edition.
Broad topical coverage is augmented by a reference section, including a Statutory Capsule Appendix and an annotated Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations.
Extensive author-written explanations are reinforced by a selection of visuals, including charts, graphs, and photographs.
The legal-process approach builds on a base of common law and constitutional law, then continues on to statutory and administrative law to show both the structure and the operation of the law.
Statutory and regulatory materials show the various ways in which statutes address environmental problems and point out the strengths and weaknesses of each generic statutory type to ensure that student knowledge does not become obsolete as statutes and regulations change.
In addition to traditional environmental law staples, the authors address hot topical areas, such as "brownfielding" of contaminated sites, risk assessment,
regulation of toxics, hazardous materials, and discussion of the ongoing politics of environmental protection law.
The casebook is accompanied by a Teacher's Manual, an annual Professor's Update, and a website with supplementary materials for adopters.
Two completely new chapters: International Law as a Backdrop for Domestic Law and Cost-Benefit Procedures for Standard Setting.
Expanded coverage of market-enlisting approaches and government-industry partnerships for achieving environmental quality, the debates over command-and control, and the political history of environmental law.
Important new cases, including the Supreme Court's regulatory takings decisions in Palazzolo v. Rhode Island and Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council,
Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, American Trucking, Norfolk & Western Ry., Laidlaw Environmental Services, Solid Waste of Northern Cook County, and Borden Ranch, plus international arbitral decisions under NAFTA, including the first successful citizen-initiated fact finding procedures in the Migratory Bird treaty Act inquiry.
Environmental Law and Policy: Nature, Law, and Society is noted for its comprehensive legal-process approach to the depth and complexity of modern environmental law:
Broad topical coverage is augmented by a reference section, including a Statutory Capsule Appendix and an annotated Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations.
Extensive author-written explanations are reinforced by a selection of visuals, including charts, graphs, and photographs.
The legal-process approach builds on a base of common law and constitutional law, then continues on to statutory and administrative law to show both the structure and the operation of the law.
Statutory and regulatory materials show the various ways in which statutes address environmental problems and point out the strengths and weaknesses of each generic statutory type to ensure that student knowledge does not become obsolete as statutes and regulations change.
In addition to traditional environmental law staples, the authors address hot topical areas, such as "brownfielding" of contaminated sites, risk assessment,
regulation of toxics, hazardous materials, and discussion of the ongoing politics of environmental protection law.
The casebook is accompanied by a Teacher's Manual, an annual Professor's Update, and a website with supplementary materials for adopters.
Significant changes and improvements for the third edition include:
Two completely new chapters: International Law as a Backdrop for Domestic Law and Cost-Benefit Procedures for Standard Setting.
Expanded coverage of market-enlisting approaches and government-industry partnerships for achieving environmental quality, the debates over command-and control, and the political history of environmental law.
Important new cases, including the Supreme Court's regulatory takings decisions in Palazzolo v. Rhode Island and Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council,
Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, American Trucking, Norfolk & Western Ry., Laidlaw Environmental Services, Solid Waste of Northern Cook County, and Borden Ranch, plus international arbitral decisions under NAFTA, including the first successful citizen-initiated fact finding procedures in the Migratory Bird treaty Act inquiry.
From the common law foundation to globalization and convergence,
Environmental Law and Policy: Nature, Law, and Society, Third Edition,
will keep your course at the forefront of the ever-developing body of environmental law.
An author website to support classroom instruction using this title is available at http://www.aspenlawschool.com/plater3
998 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 16, 2025
EDUCATORS BEWARE. (THE SIXTH EDITION)
Book is extremely poorly written. It's plain blabby. The information is in there, just clouded behind meaninglessly cluttered text that could be so, so much more straightforward. Nothing I could say is as damaging as the text itself. I have included some awful quotes from the text:
"NEPA2 is a statute that provokes a wide diversity of reactions. To some, it is a paper
tiger, of awesome but toothless aspect. To others, it is a ringing statutory declaration of environmental protection and rational human governance that sets a precedent of international significance. To some it is an unproductive attempt to intrude on productive public-private enterprises. To others, it is a legislative accident (whether fortunate or unfortunate) that was created and continues to evolve by happenstance."
"The ecosystem hit by the Exxon-Valdez spill was extraordinarily rich. Afected species included herring, black cod, cutthroat trout, dolly varden, shark, halibut, rock fish, shell fish, fin fish, several species of salmon, sea otters, fur seals, steller’s sea lions, harbor porpoises, dall porpoises, killer whales, humpback whales, minke whales, fin whales, blue whales, gray whales, deer, fox, coy-otes, black bears, brown bears, bald eagles, several species of gulls, hundreds of thou-sands of sea birds (such as kittiwakes, puffins, hawks, guillemots, murres, murrelets, loons, grebes, and diving ducks), dungeness crabs, pot shrimp, trawl shrimp — and these were just the upper layers of the ecological pyramid. The waters and wildlife of the Gulf of Alaska were among the most fertile coastal communities on earth, built upon a confluence of ocean currents rich in microorganisms, zooplankton, and phytoplankton. "
Cool information! Put it in a footnote or link it, I don't care. Also, notice the repetitious phrasing of the first and last sentence? It's like it was written by AI with the prompt to fluff the text out as much as possible.
This was an awful reading experience. I hated every moment of it. All the actual information is valuable and it's obviously extremely well researched, but it fails to effectively communicate those findings to the reader. I love the subject, I appreciate the effort put into synthesising information, but the text's end result is nearly as great of a trajedy as the oil spill mentioned above.
Book is extremely poorly written. It's plain blabby. The information is in there, just clouded behind meaninglessly cluttered text that could be so, so much more straightforward. Nothing I could say is as damaging as the text itself. I have included some awful quotes from the text:
"NEPA2 is a statute that provokes a wide diversity of reactions. To some, it is a paper
tiger, of awesome but toothless aspect. To others, it is a ringing statutory declaration of environmental protection and rational human governance that sets a precedent of international significance. To some it is an unproductive attempt to intrude on productive public-private enterprises. To others, it is a legislative accident (whether fortunate or unfortunate) that was created and continues to evolve by happenstance."
"The ecosystem hit by the Exxon-Valdez spill was extraordinarily rich. Afected species included herring, black cod, cutthroat trout, dolly varden, shark, halibut, rock fish, shell fish, fin fish, several species of salmon, sea otters, fur seals, steller’s sea lions, harbor porpoises, dall porpoises, killer whales, humpback whales, minke whales, fin whales, blue whales, gray whales, deer, fox, coy-otes, black bears, brown bears, bald eagles, several species of gulls, hundreds of thou-sands of sea birds (such as kittiwakes, puffins, hawks, guillemots, murres, murrelets, loons, grebes, and diving ducks), dungeness crabs, pot shrimp, trawl shrimp — and these were just the upper layers of the ecological pyramid. The waters and wildlife of the Gulf of Alaska were among the most fertile coastal communities on earth, built upon a confluence of ocean currents rich in microorganisms, zooplankton, and phytoplankton. "
Cool information! Put it in a footnote or link it, I don't care. Also, notice the repetitious phrasing of the first and last sentence? It's like it was written by AI with the prompt to fluff the text out as much as possible.
This was an awful reading experience. I hated every moment of it. All the actual information is valuable and it's obviously extremely well researched, but it fails to effectively communicate those findings to the reader. I love the subject, I appreciate the effort put into synthesising information, but the text's end result is nearly as great of a trajedy as the oil spill mentioned above.
Displaying 1 of 1 review