This book argues that environmental law must be seen as a historical product of surprising antiquity and considerable sophistication.

A proposal for a philosophical foundation and a realistic deliberative mechanism for creating a transnational common law for the environment. In Global Democracy and Sustainable Jurisprudence, Walter Baber and Robert Bartlett explore the necessary characteristics of a meaningful global jurisprudence, a jurisprudence that would underpin international environmental law. Arguing that theories of political deliberation offer useful insights into the current “democratic deficit” in international law, and using this insight as a way to approach the problem of global environmental protection, they offer both a theoretical foundation and a realistic deliberative mechanism for creating effective transnational common law for the environment. Their argument links elements not typically associated: abstract democratic theory and a practical form of deliberative democracy; the legitimacy-imparting value of deliberative democracy and the possibility of legislating through adjudication; common law jurisprudence and the development of transnational environmental law; and conceptual thinking that draws on Deweyan pragmatism, Rawlsian contractarianism, Habermasian critical theory, and the full liberalism of Bohman, Gutmann, and Thompson. Baber and Bartlett offer a democratic method for creating, interpreting, and implementing international environmental norms that involves citizens and bypasses states—an innovation that can be replicated and deployed across a range of policy areas. Transnational environmental consensus would develop through a novel model of juristic democracy that would generate legitimate international environmental law based on processes of hypothetical rule making by citizen juries. This method would translate global environmental norms into international law—law that, unlike all current international law, would be recognized as both fact and norm because of its inherent democratic legitimacy.

In this book, the author examines the history of ideas that has produced the conflict between Western environmentalism and other Western traditions.

"Although the task of formulating an appropriate policy response to the problem of anthropogenic climate change is one that raises a number of very difficult normative issues, environmental ethicists have not played an influential role in government deliberations. This is primarily due to their rejection of many of the assumptions that structure the debates over policy. This book offers a philosophical defense of these assumptions, in order to overcome the major conceptual barriers to the participation of philosophers in these debates. There are five important barriers: First, the policy debate presupposes a stance of liberal neutrality, as a result of which it does not privilege any particular set of environmental values over other concerns. Second, it assumes ongoing economic growth, along with a commitment to what is sometimes called a weak sustainability framework when analyzing the value of the bequest being made to future generations. Third, it treats climate change as fundamentally a collective action problem, not an issue of distributive justice. Fourth, there is the acceptance of cost-benefit analysis, or more precisely, the view that a carbon pricing regime should be guided by our best estimate of the social cost of carbon. And finally, there is the view that when this calculation is undertaken, it is permissible to discount costs and benefits, depending on how far removed they are from the present. This book attempts to make explicit and defend these presuppositions, and in so doing offer philosophical foundations for the debate over climate change policy"--

Introducing an exciting new approach to the teaching of environmental law:ENVIRONMENTAL, LAW AND POLICY, by Peter Menell & Richard Stewart. The authors' focus on policy & theory, rather than the minutia of environmental law, gives students the analytical tools they need to examine any given law or statute. This comprehensive policy-oriented casebook covers all the essential topics you'll want to address in class. It begins with a theoretical overview, introducing key environmental problems. The second chapter presents different problem-solving approaches: economic analysis, cost-benefit analysis, & the pursuit of social goals other than efficient resource allocation. Other chapters address: the role of common law, the regulation of hazardous waste, the administrative law doctrines that govern environmental law, NEPA, natural resources, & the future of environmental law & policy. The authors' approach is analytical & balanced, offering the full range of theoretical perspectives that affect current & future laws & statutes: public policy analysis the integration of law, science, & policy the philosophical foundations of environmental law the political dimensions of environmental law & policy Professors Menell & Stewart also pay careful attention to pedagogy. Each chapter is divided into units that can be taught in one class session & includes lively problems to spark classroom discussion. ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY is a manageable length for teaching. Its in-depth Teacher's Manual provides helpful author insight (especially helpful for professors who are new to the area), & an accompanying Statutory Supplement collects important statutes in one convenient place.

From cover: "Wild law is a groundbreaking approach to law that stresses human interconnectedness and dependence on nature. It critiques existing law for promoting environmental harm and seeks to establish a mutually enhancing human-Earth relationship. For the first time, this volume brings together voices fromt he leading proponents of wild law around the world. It introduces readers to the idea of wild law and considers its relationship to environmental law, the rights of nature, science, religion, property law and international governance."