environmental law: an overview

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was passed in 1970 along with the Environmental Quality Improvement Act, the Environmental Education Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The main objective of these federal enactments was to assure that the environment be protected against both public and private actions that failed to take account of costs or harms inflicted on the eco-system.

The EPA was supposed to monitor and analyze the environment, conduct research, and work closely with state and local governments to devise pollution control policies. NEPA (really enacted in 1969) has been described as one of Congress's most far reaching environmental legislation ever passed. The basic purpose of NEPA is to force governmental agencies to consider the effects on the environment of their decisions.

State laws also reflect the same concerns and common law actions in nuisance allow adversely affected property owners to seek a judicial remedy for environtal harms harms.

• See also:
  • Energy
  • Land use (http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/topics/land_use.html)
  • Natural resources

menu of sources

Federal Material

Federal Statutes

• 7 U.S.C., Chapter 6 - Insecticides and Environmental Pesticide Control
• 16 U.S.C. -Conservation
• 22 U.S.C. § 274a - International Biological Program for the Earth's Ecology
• 22 U.S.C. § 2151p - International Environmental and Natural Resources
• 22 U.S.C. § 2151p-1 - Tropical Forests
• 22 U.S.C. § 2151q - Endangered Species
• 26 U.S.C., Chapter 38 - Environmental Taxes
• 33 U.S.C., Chapter 9 - Protection of Navigable Waters
• 33 U.S.C., Chapter 26 - Clean Water Act
• 33 U.S.C., Chapter 27 - Ocean Dumping
• 33 U.S.C., Chapter 33 - Prevention from Pollution from Ships
• 33 U.S.C., Chapter 40 - Oil Pollution
• 42 U.S.C. § 300g-1 - National Drinking Water Regulations
• 42 U.S.C., Chapter 23 - Atomic Energy
• 42 U.S.C., Chapter 55 - National Environmental Policy
• 42 U.S.C., Chapter 65 - Noise Pollution
• 42 U.S.C., Chapter 73 - Development of Energy Sources
• 42 U.S.C., Chapter 82 - Solid Waste Disposal
• 42 U.S.C., Chapter 85 - Clean Air Actl
• 42 U.S.C., Chapter 103 - Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)

Code of Federal Regulations

• 40 C.F.R. (http://lula.law.cornell.edu/cfr/cfr.php?title=40) - Protection of Environment

Federal Judicial Decisions

• U.S. Supreme Court: Recent Environmental Law Decisions (http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/search/index.html?query=environment+or+(resoruce+and+conservation)+or+EPA)
• U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals: Recent Environmental Law Decisions (http://www.law.cornell.edu/usca/search/index.html?query=environment%20epa)

State Material

State Statutes and Regulations

• Dealing with Natural Resources (http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/state_statutes.html#natural_resources)
• Dealing with Water (http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/state_statutes.html#water)
• State Environmental Regulations (http://www.clay.net/statag.html)
• Uniform Laws:
  • Uniform Transboundary Pollution Reciprocal Access Act (adopted by Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon,and Wisconsin)
  • Uniform Conservation Easement Act (adopted by Alaska, Arizona, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin)

State Judicial Decisions

• N.Y. Court of Appeals:
• Environmental Cases (http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/search/index.html?query=environmental+or+conservation+not+liibulletin)
• Commentary from liibulletin-ny (http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/search/index.html?query=liibulletin+and+(environmental+or+conservation+or+zoning))
• Appellate Decisions from Other States (http://www.law.cornell.edu/states/)

International Material

Conventions and Treaties

• Dealing with Biodiversity, Marine and Coastal Areas, and Other Environmental Topics (http://fletcher.tufts.edu/multilaterals.html)

Other References

Key Internet Sources

• Federal Agencies:
• Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov/)
• ENVIROFACTS (EPA Database) (http://www.epa.gov/enviro/)
• Department of the Interior (http://www.doi.gov/)
• US Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture (http://www.fs.fed.us/)
• National Resources Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture (http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Department of Commerce (http://www.noaa.gov/)
• Office of Environment, Safety, and Health of the U.S. Department of Energy (http://www.eh.doe.gov/)

• ABA Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law (http://www.abanet.org/sonreel/home.html)
• Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (http://www.elaw.org/)
• Elsevier Environmental Directory (http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/homepage.cws_home)
• Policy Instruments Database (http://www.ids.ac.uk/eldis/data/d016/e01624.html)
• WWW Index of Environmental Law Material (Indiana Univ. Law School) (http://www.law.indiana.edu/envdec/envirolaw.html)
• ECOGopher (Environment) (http://web.bilkent.edu.tr/History/einet/hytelnet/GOP033.html)
• Greenpeace (http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/)
• Pace Global Environmental Law Network (http://joshua.law.pace.edu/env/environ.html)
• ELI Online (http://www.eli.org/)
• National Association of Environmental Law Societies (http://www.naels.org/)

Useful Offnet (or Subscription - $) Sources

• Good Starting Point in Print: Celia Campbell-Mohn, Barry Breen, & J. William Futrell, Hornbook on Environmental Law, West Group (http://www.westgroup.com/) (1994)

other topics

Category: Property & Natural Resources