We analyze the conditions under which a legal intervention can be compared to a regulatory framework in the context of a political economy model of environmental policy. The first part of the paper describes the characteristics of the different instruments we want to compare: first, an...

We analyze the conditions under which a legal intervention can be compared to a regulatory framework in the context of a political economy model of environmental policy. The first part of the paper describes the characteristics of the different instruments we want to compare: first, an...

This Article challenges the influential claim that primary responsibility for environmental regulation should be assigned to the federal government because public choice pathologies cause systematic underrepresentation of environmental interests at the state level. The Article first disputes the...

We consider a model of polluting firms subject to tax on emissions, monitoring, and penalties in case of underreporting and which face a choice between a more expensive clean and a less expensive dirty technology. Moreover, emissions are subject to random events.We show that the optimal...

We analyze a model where firms chose a production technology which, together with some random event, determines the final emission level. We consider the coexistence of two alternative technologies: a "clean" technology, and a "dirty" technology. The environmental regulation is based on taxes...

When our pollution control statutes were drafted in the 1970s, smokestack sources sat squarely in these laws' regulatory cross hairs. Over the past few decades, however, manufacturing's relative importance has declined while the service sector has ascended to the point where services now...

This chapter deals with the application of economic theories of criminal law to environmental pollution. The chapter starts by addressing why environmental pollution needs to be enforced at all by using the criminal law. Attention is also paid to the question whether in certain circumstances...

This article surveys contemporary issues in defining and protecting the environment. It stresses the continuing relevance of common law methodology and doctrine. It reviews the development and imprecision of the term "environment," together with the influence of various philosophical and...

In recent years, one of the most salient aspects of environmentalism has been the environmental justice movement and its complaints of discrimination against the poor and racial minorities in the administration and enforcement of the nation's environmental laws. One of the most severe criticisms...

The existing environmental regulatory architecture, largely erected in the 1970s, is outdated and ill-suited to address contemporary environmental concerns. Any debate on the future of environmental protection, if it is to be meaningful, must span the political spectrum. Yet there is little...