The Earth on Trial: Environmental Law on the International Stage

by Paul Stanton Kibel

Overview

The Earth on Trial examines the degree to which the law has accommodated an increased understanding of the natural environment. Paul Stanton Kibel provides a clear assessment of what conceptual and practical changes are needed to reconcile law to the limits of ecology. By moving the debate between law and the environment beyond specialists, and towards a public forum, The Earth on Trial acknowledges that a healthy environmental future depends not so much on our ability to alter nature to accommodate society, as our ability to alter society to accommodate nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135962586
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/01/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	235 KB

About the Author

Paul Stanton Kibel is an environmental lawyer based in San Francsico, and teaches at Golden Gate University School of Law and the Monterey Institute of International Studies. His articles have appeared in many publications, including In These Times, UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, NYU Environmental Law Journal, and Georgetown International Environmental Law Review.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Sharp Teeth PART I. THE AMERICAN BACKYARD Chapter 1: City Limits: Urban Ecology and Economic Justice Open Space and the City Brownsfields Under Superfund Who is Reclaimed? Metropolitan Vantage Point The City Frontier Chapter 2: Roughshod: Northwest Forests and the Constitution The Independence of the Courts A Bad Decision Revisited Chapter 3: Blaming Wildlife: The Endangered Endangered Species Act Scapegoating the Owl The Nature of Reform Chapter 4: Words to Choke On: Free Speech and Environmental Debate Misinformation in the Marketplace Facts and Fair Comment Controlling the Debate Chapter 5: Ignorance Aboard: International Projects Under National Law Relocating the Issue Lack of Recourse Information and Responsibility PART II. FOREIGN SOIL Chapter 6: Axe to the Myth: Canadian Logging and International Law Forests Under International Law The Fiction of Compliance Ottowa in the Woods Chapter 7: Ecology After the USSR: Hard Times for Russian Environmental Law The State of the Environment The State of the Economy A Difficult Legacy On the Page and On the Ground Solutions Beneath the Surface

Editorial Reviews

[Kibel's goal was] "to develop new writing strategies to bring the law-ecology debate into the public space" and, thus, to help the general public understand that natural resources, pushed too far, exact their own revenge on societies that refuse to accommodate nature or to curb overreaching public and private institutions....While common environmental standards and enforcement techniques would be welcome...they are surely less important...than addressing the urgent social, economic, and institutional challenges...
—Journal of Buddhist Ethics

Stephen L. Kass