The Constitution Of The Environmental Emergency

This book argues for a reframing of environmental law. It starts from the premise that all environmental issues confront lawmakers as emergencies. Environmental issues pose a fundamental challenge to law because it is impossible to reliably predict which issues contain the possibility of an emergency and what to do in response to such an unforeseen event. These features undermine the conventional understanding of the rule of law. This book argues that approaching environmental issues from the emergency perspective leads us to an understanding of the rule of law that requires public justification. This requirement recentres the debates in environmental law around the question of why governance under the rule of law is something worth having in the environmental context. It elaborates what the rule of law requires of decision-makers in light of our ever-present vulnerability to catastrophic environmental harm. Controversial, compelling and above all timely, this book presents an important new perspective on environmental law.

This book argues for a reframing of environmental law. It starts from the premise that all environmental issues confront lawmakers as emergencies. Environmental issues pose a fundamental challenge to law because it is impossible to reliably predict which issues contain the possibility of an emergency and what to do in response to such an unforeseen event. These features undermine the conventional understanding of the rule of law. This book argues that approaching environmental issues from the emergency perspective leads us to an understanding of the rule of law that requires public justification. This requirement recentres the debates in environmental law around the question of why governance under the rule of law is something worth having in the environmental context. It elaborates what the rule of law requires of decision-makers in light of our ever-present vulnerability to catastrophic environmental harm. Controversial, compelling and above all timely, this book presents an important new perspective on environmental law.

Canada has abundant natural wealth, beautiful landscapes, vast forests, and thousands of rivers and lakes. The land defines Canadians as a people, yet the country has one of the industrialized world's worst environmental records. Building on his previous book, The Environmental Rights Revolution (2012), David R. Boyd describes how recognizing the constitutional right to a healthy environment could have a transformative impact by empowering citizens, holding governments and industry accountable, and improving Canada's green record. This important and provocative book provides a road map to protect human health, the well-being of the planet, and the interests of future generations.

Reflecting a global trend, scores of countries have affirmed that their citizens are entitled to healthy air, water, and land and that their constitution should guarantee certain environmental rights. This book examines the increasing recognition that the environment is a proper subject for protection in constitutional texts and for vindication by constitutional courts. This phenomenon, which the authors call environmental constitutionalism, represents the confluence of constitutional law, international law, human rights, and environmental law. National apex and constitutional courts are exhibiting a growing interest in environmental rights, and as courts become more aware of what their peers are doing, this momentum is likely to increase. This book explains why such provisions came into being, how they are expressed, and the extent to which they have been, and might be, enforced judicially. It is a singular resource for evaluating the content of and hope for constitutional environmental rights.

This book shows why a fundamental right to an adequate environment ought to be provided in the constitution of any modern democratic state. It explains why the right to an environment adequate for one's health and well-being is a genuine human right and why it ought to be constitutionalised.

The Law of Emergencies: Public Health and Disaster Management, Second Edition, introduces the American legal system as it interacts with disaster management, public health and civil unrest issues. Nan Hunter shows how the law in this area plays out in the context of real life emergencies where individuals often have to make split-second decisions. This book covers the major legal principles underlying emergency policy and operations and analyzes legal authority at the federal, state and local levels, placing the issues in historical context but concentrating on contemporary questions. The book includes primary texts, reader-friendly expository explanation and sample discussion questions in each chapter, as well as scenarios for each of the three major areas to put the concepts in to action. Prior knowledge of the law is not necessary in order to use and understand this book, and it satisfies the need of professionals in a wide array of fields related to emergency management to understand both what the law requires and how to analyze issues for which there is no clear legal answer. The book features materials on such critical issues as how to judge the extent of Constitutional authority for government to intervene in the lives and property of American citizens. At the same time, it also captures bread-and-butter issues such as responder liability and disaster relief methods. No other book brings these components together in a logically organized, step by step fashion. Updated with expanded coverage and several new chapters Re-organized to improve topic focus, with sections covering The President, Congress, and the Courts; Governance on the Ground; The Rights of Individuals; Disaster Management and Reconstruction; Health Emergencies; Preserving the Social Fabric; and Liability Includes a new disaster scenario (a dirty bomb explosion in Washington, DC) to illustrate the application of key concepts Features two new appendices that provide key excerpts from the U.S. Constitution and the Stafford Act Includes a new glossary of legal and legislative terms

"Although environmental laws are rarely able to provide the simple solutions that people want from them, they are essential for the future of our planet. This book explores how legal responses are shaped in response to the problems facing the environment today, and the socio-political conflicts facing environmental legislation."--Publisher's description.