International, EC and US environmental law. A comparative selection of basic documents (2 vols)

Book abstract:

Environmental issues now touch upon so many areas of human activity that environmental law may be considered to be the fastest growing branch of the legal community. That growth rate received a kick-start in the European Community in 1973 following adoption of the first Environmental Action Programme, and similarly in the United States the 1970s saw a rapid expansion in environmental Acts.

This work responds to that expansion of law making and has a twofold aim. Firstly it seeks to collect the most important Treaties and statutes at the international, European and US level, as the editors put it: 'simply so as not to miss the forest for the trees'. Secondly to arrange these texts in a thematic order to assist comparative analysis and consequently encouraging better law making.

The ten most important points of today's environmental policy form the basis of the thematic classifications and these are:

General principles; Environmental information, participation and justice; Environmental and safety reports and classified installations; Prevention and management of waste; Atmospheric pollution; Water pollution; Noise pollution; Nature conservation; Environment and trade; Environmental liability; Labels and management systems.

The work will interest student, scholars and practitioners in international, European and/or US environmental law.

Kurt Deketelaere is Professor of Environmental and Energy Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Leuven, Belgium.

Jan Gekiere is currently working as a lawyer-linguist at the Court of Justice of the European Communities and is also a voluntary Scientific Collaborator at the Institute for Environmental and Energy Law.