Nature's Trust
Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age

This book exposes the dysfunction of environmental law and offers a transformative approach based on the public trust doctrine.

Mary Christina Wood (Author)

9780521195133, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 September 2013

462 pages, 1 table
23.1 x 15 x 2.8 cm, 0.75 kg

'… Mary Christina Wood in Nature's Trust calls for a revolution in environmental law grounded in the public trust doctrine. … the largest value of Nature's Trust is likely its arguments in support of the need to establish expanded public trust responsibilities of government officials … the book should help civil society understand why the revolution is worth fighting for and what reforms in environmental law are necessary.' Donald A. Brown, Center for Environmental Philosophy

Environmental law has failed us all. As ecosystems collapse across the globe and the climate crisis intensifies, environmental agencies worldwide use their authority to permit the very harm that they are supposed to prevent. Growing numbers of citizens now realize they must act before it is too late. This book exposes what is wrong with environmental law and offers transformational change based on the public trust doctrine. An ancient and enduring principle, the trust doctrine asserts public property rights to crucial resources. Its core logic compels government, as trustee, to protect natural inheritance such as air and water for all humanity. Propelled by populist impulses and democratic imperatives, the public trust surfaces at epic times in history as a manifest human right. But until now it has lacked the precision necessary for citizens, government employees, legislators, and judges to fully safeguard the natural resources we rely on for survival and prosperity. The Nature's Trust approach empowers citizens worldwide to protect their inalienable ecological rights for generations to come.

Part I. Environmental Law: Hospice for a Dying Planet?: 1. 'You are doing a great job'
2. The great legal experiment
3. The politics of discretion
4. Behind the grand façade
5. The administrative tyranny over nature
Part II. The People's Natural Trust: 6. The inalienable attribute of sovereignty
7. The ecological res
8. Fiduciary standards of protection and restoration
9. From bureaucrats to trustees
10. Beyond borders: shared ecology and the duties of sovereign co-tenant trustees
11. Nature's justice: the role of the courts
Part III. The Public Trust and the Great Turning: 12. Nature's trust and the heart of humanity
13. Using Earth's interest, not its principal
14. The public trust and private property rights
15. The new world: a planetary trust.

Subject Areas: Environment law [LNKJ], Law [L]