Concept

Environmental law

Overview

Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment. The term "environmental law" encompasses treaties, statutes, regulations, conventions, and policies designed to protect the natural environment and manage the impact of human activities on ecosystems and natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries. It addresses issues such as pollution control, resource conservation, biodiversity protection, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development. As part of both national and international legal frameworks, environmental law seeks to balance environmental preservation with economic and social needs, often through regulatory mechanisms, enforcement measures, and incentives for compliance.

The field emerged prominently in the mid-20th century as industrialization and environmental degradation spurred global awareness, culminating in landmark agreements like the 1972 Stockholm Conference and the 1992 Rio Declaration. Key principles include the precautionary principle, the polluter pays principle, and intergenerational equity. Modern environmental law intersects with human rights, international trade, and energy policy.

Internationally, treaties such as the Paris Agreement (2015), the Kyoto Protocol (1997), and the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) establish cooperative frameworks for addressing transboundary issues. Nationally, laws like the UK's Clean Air Act 1956 and the US Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 establish regulations to limit pollution and manage chemical safety. Enforcement varies by jurisdiction, often involving governmental agencies, judicial systems, and international organizations. Environmental impact assessments are a common way to enforce environmental law.

Challenges in environmental law include reconciling economic growth with sustainability, determining adequate levels of compensation, and addressing enforcement gaps in international contexts. The field continues to evolve in response to emerging crises such as biodiversity loss, plastic pollution in oceans, and climate change.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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In their case, therefore, the moral law is an imperative, which commands categorically, because the law is unconditioned; the relation of such a will to this law is dependence under the name of obligation, which implies a constraint to an action, though only by reason and its objective law; and this action is called duty, because an elective will, subject to pathological affections (though not determined by them…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Practical Reason
States what Environmental law is.
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And these principles are common both to natural and statute law. But there are also other divisions of law; for there is both the written and the unwritten law,--each of which is maintained by the rights of nations and the customs of our ancestors. Again, written law is divided into public law and private law. Public law is laws, resolutions of the senate, treaties; private law is accounts, covenants, agreements…
Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4
States what Environmental law is.
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10. That the law of nature taketh place after security from others to observe the same. 11. The right of nature not to be taken away by custom, nor the law of nature abrogated by any act. 12. Why the dictates of nature are called laws. 13. Whatsoever is against conscience in a man that is his own judge, is against the law of nature. 14. Of _malum pœnæ, malum culpæ_; virtue and vice. 15. Aptitude to society…
Thomas Hobbes, The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04
States what Environmental law is.
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Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Environmental ethics.

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