Environmental law and policy in the European Union and the United States

This book seeks to compare how the US and the EU tackle the wide range of environmental consequences of their rapid development and considerable prosperity. Both are developed democracies sharing many of the same values and, to some extent, similar political and administrative structures and demographic trends. However, this study also shows that there are many differences at all levels of actors, institutions, and instruments.

The book begins with a detailed consideration of the two political entities under study: the United States and the European Union. The next section focuses on the changing nature and adequacy of international law and treaties in the context of environmental management. Following that is a section which considers environmental law and policy in more detail in the EU and in the US. In the final section the focus shifts to a more detailed, case-study basis, examining first the issue of air quality management and then water quality management. The final case study considers the issues of waste and packaging: natural by-products of the two richest areas on earth.