Environmental Law and the Values of Nature

This casebook provides students in introductory environmental law courses with the broad understanding necessary to practice in the field and a firm foundation for subsequent course work in specialized environmental subjects. In addition to covering many standard topics such as NEPA and the Clean Water Act, this book emphasizes natural resources law, including water allocation, species conservation, and federal public land management. Unlike many casebooks, it also examines energy issues, climate change, sustainable development, and the environmental movement.

This distinctive book uses the historical development of environmental and natural resources law as a helpful context within which to understand the modern law in these fields. It also incorporates eight engaging case studies showing the application of environmental law in the real world. The volume includes significant excerpts from the major environmental statutes so that it is not necessary to assign a statutory supplement. Thought-provoking readings from, for example, Lewis and Clark, Marsh, Muir, Udall, Wilkinson, Sax, Lazarus, Rodgers, Shabecoff, Hays, E.O. Wilson, Leopold, Reisner, and Speth, enhance student insight. One theme of the casebook — which promotes enthusiastic class discussion — is that the environment possesses a wide range of values, or characteristics of worth, and that an appreciation of these values illuminates the objectives, strengths, and limitations of contemporary law.