Fairness Versus Efficiency in Environmental Law

Fairness Versus Efficiency in Environmental Law PDF Author: Shi-Ling Hsu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Like many other areas of law, the development of environmental law has been strongly influenced by notions of fairness. This should not be surprising, since environmental law has been developed by lawyers, who are self-selected to be fairness-oriented and trained to think in terms of fairness. While large environmental gains have been achieved in the thirty-year history of environmental law, progress seems to have reached a plateau. Partisanship has poisoned the debate on how best to proceed in making further environmental progress. I attribute the failings and the current stalemate in environmental law to our obsession with fairness. Fairness-thinking has created a culture where stakeholders are conditioned to make self-serving arguments, not considered judgments about the public interest. While this is true in many areas of law, this has become especially troubling in environmental law. I propose that environmental law and policymakers pay more attention to efficiency arguments and efficiency-thinking. While I do not propose a tyranny of economists to supplant fairness-thinking, I argue that efficiency-thinking can provide an important complement to the fairness-thinking that has dominated environmental law and policy. This article explores the theoretical arguments for fairness-based and efficiency-based programs, and examines the empirical support for some of these arguments. The theoretical arguments for an increased role for efficiency-thinking are quite clear. The evidence for more efficiency-based environmental regulation is somewhat thin, but with some important caveats, vindicates the economic theory in support of efficiency-based regulation.

Fairness Versus Efficiency in Environmental Law

Fairness Versus Efficiency in Environmental Law PDF Author: Shi-Ling Hsu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Like many other areas of law, the development of environmental law has been strongly influenced by notions of fairness. This should not be surprising, since environmental law has been developed by lawyers, who are self-selected to be fairness-oriented and trained to think in terms of fairness. While large environmental gains have been achieved in the thirty-year history of environmental law, progress seems to have reached a plateau. Partisanship has poisoned the debate on how best to proceed in making further environmental progress. I attribute the failings and the current stalemate in environmental law to our obsession with fairness. Fairness-thinking has created a culture where stakeholders are conditioned to make self-serving arguments, not considered judgments about the public interest. While this is true in many areas of law, this has become especially troubling in environmental law. I propose that environmental law and policymakers pay more attention to efficiency arguments and efficiency-thinking. While I do not propose a tyranny of economists to supplant fairness-thinking, I argue that efficiency-thinking can provide an important complement to the fairness-thinking that has dominated environmental law and policy. This article explores the theoretical arguments for fairness-based and efficiency-based programs, and examines the empirical support for some of these arguments. The theoretical arguments for an increased role for efficiency-thinking are quite clear. The evidence for more efficiency-based environmental regulation is somewhat thin, but with some important caveats, vindicates the economic theory in support of efficiency-based regulation.

Fairness in Law and Economics

Fairness in Law and Economics PDF Author: Lee Anne Fennell
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781781005293
Category : Cost effectiveness
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Although the relationship between fairness and the economic concept of efficiency is usually cast as an adversarial one, this collection demonstrates the robust and diverse ways in which economics engages - and cannot avoid engaging - with fairness. Part I contains papers presenting positive analyses of fairness preferences and beliefs, which are fundamental means through which fairness matters for economic models. Part II turns to normative analysis and the broad question of how law should reconcile fairness and efficiency considerations. Part III presents a sampling of legal and policy applications in which both fairness and efficiency considerations prove important. Along with an original introduction by the editors this is a must-have volume that will appeal to students, academics and practitioners who are interested in this exciting field.

Efficiency and Fairness in Nuisance Law

Efficiency and Fairness in Nuisance Law PDF Author: Peter M. Watt-Morse
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law and economics
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description


International Environmental Law

International Environmental Law PDF Author: James Crawford
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Environmental Law and Policy

Environmental Law and Policy PDF Author: Richard L. Revesz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Environmental law
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
This chapter for the Handbook of Law and Economics provides an economic perspective of environmental law and policy. We examine the ends of environmental policy, that is, the setting of goals and targets, beginning with normative issues, notably the Kaldor-Hicks criterion and the related method of assessment known as benefit-cost analysis. We examine this analytical method in detail, including its theoretical foundations and empirical methods of estimation of compliance costs and environmental benefits. We review critiques of benefit-cost analysis, and examine alternative approaches to analyzing the goals of environmental policies. We examine the means of environmental policy, that is, the choice of specific policy instruments, beginning with an examination of potential criteria for assessing alternative instruments, with particular focus on cost-effectiveness. The theoretical foundations and experiential highlights of individual instruments are reviewed, including conventional, command-and-control mechanisms, market-based instruments, and liability rules. Three cross-cutting issues receive attention: uncertainty; technological change; and distributional considerations. We identify normative lessons in regard to design, implementation, and the identification of new applications, and we examine positive issues: the historical dominance of command-and-control; the prevalence in new proposals of tradeable permits allocated without charge; and the relatively recent increase in attention given to market-based instruments. We also examine the question of how environmental responsibility is and should be allocated among the various levels of government. We provide a positive review of the responsibilities of Federal, state, and local levels of government in the environmental realm, plus a normative assessment of this allocation of regulatory responsibility. We focus on three arguments that have been made for Federal environmental regulation: competition among political jurisdictions and the race to the bottom; transboundary environmental problems; and public choice and systematic bias.

Fair Weather

Fair Weather PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030916852X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Decades of evolving U.S. policy have led to three sectors providing weather servicesâ€"NOAA (primarily the National Weather Service [NWS]), academic institutions, and private companies. This three-sector system has produced a scope and diversity of weather services in the United States second to none. However, rapid scientific and technological change is changing the capabilities of the sectors and creating occasional friction. Fair Weather: Effective Partnerships in Weather and Climate Services examines the roles of the three sectors in providing weather and climate services, the barriers to interaction among the sectors, and the impact of scientific and technological advances on the weather enterprise. Readers from all three sectors will be interested in the analysis and recommendations provided in Fair Weather.

International Environmental Law

International Environmental Law PDF Author: Vasilka Sancin
Publisher: Masa Kovic Dine
ISBN: 9789612472191
Category : Environmental law, International
Languages : en
Pages : 616

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Book Description


Economy, Society and Public Policy

Economy, Society and Public Policy PDF Author: The Core Team
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198849841
Category : Economic policy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Economy, Society, and Public Policy is a new way to learn economics. It is designed specifically for students studying social sciences, public policy, business studies, engineering and other disciplines who want to understand how the economy works and how it can be made to work better. Topical policy problems are used to motivate learning of key concepts and methods of economics. It engages, challenges and empowers students, and will provide them with the tools to articulate reasoned views on pressing policy problems. This project is the result of a worldwide collaboration between researchers, educators, and students who are committed to bringing the socially relevant insights of economics to a broader audience.KEY FEATURESESPP does not teach microeconomics as a body of knowledge separate from macroeconomicsStudents begin their study of economics by understanding that the economy is situated within society and the biosphereStudents study problems of identifying causation, not just correlation, through the use of natural experiments, lab experiments, and other quantitative methodsSocial interactions, modelled using simple game theory, and incomplete information, modelled using a series of principal-agent problems, are introduced from the beginning. As a result, phenomena studied by the other social sciences such as social norms and the exercise of power play a roleThe insights of diverse schools of thought, from Marx and the classical economists to Hayek and Schumpeter, play an integral part in the bookThe way economists think about public policy is central to ESPP. This is introduced in Units 2 and 3, rather than later in the course.

The Effectiveness of Environmental Law

The Effectiveness of Environmental Law PDF Author: Sandrine Maljean-Dubois (juriste))
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781780684673
Category : Environmental law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book is the third volume in the European Environmental Law Forum (EELF) book series. The EELF is a non-profit initiative of environmental law scholars and practitioners from across Europe aiming to support intellectual exchange on the development and implementation of international, European and national environmental law in Europe. One of the activities of the EELF is an annual conference. This book is comprised of fifteen contributions presented at the Third EELF Conference in Aix-en-Provence, hosted by the Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium, at Aix-Marseille University, September 2015. The central topic of the book is the effectiveness of environmental law. The impressive development in environmental law has not always been matched by corresponding improvements in environmental quality. The threats to our environment and, by extension, to our health have never been so numerous or serious. But paradoxically, the effectiveness of environmental law has been a long-neglected issue. This book offers a fruitful and stimulating dialogue between practitioners and academics, from varied countries and varied fields, combining empirical and theoretical approaches. The contributions go from classical-but still necessary-tools (control, criminal, administrative, civil sanctions, liability rules, strengthening of the regulatory structure, and the role of judges), to more innovative ones (public participation, effectiveness of instrument mixes, collaborative governance, hybrid governance, and private environmental enforcement). (Series: European Environmental Law Forum, Vol. 3) Subject: Environmental Law, European Law]

Fairness in Practice

Fairness in Practice PDF Author: Aaron James
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199846154
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
In this book, the author argues that to achieve a fair global economy, there must be compensation of people harmed by their exposure to the global economy, but also equal division of the "gains of trade" across societies.