What Is Environmental Law ?
Environment law is a complex and interlocking body of treatise, conventions, statutes, regulations and common law principles that broadly govern the interaction of human with natural environment in order to protect, both the natural environment and the human being itself. |
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Environmental law is derived and is influenced by principles of environmentalism, and covers several areas such as air pollution, water pollution, hazardous waste, forests, endangered species, global warming, protection of natural ecosystem, natural resources and ozone depletion.
Environmental laws are broadly categorized into two areas, namely pollution control laws, and resource conservation laws. Pollution control laws are designed to protect and preserve both the natural environment and human health. Pollution control laws deals with air, water (surface water and ground water) and land, and controls the emissions of pollutants into the medium within the permissible limits.
Resource conservation and management laws generally balance the human interaction with natural resources.
These laws set a state of equilibrium between the human being and natural resources, and thus, protecting the natural resources from economic exploitation and exhaustion. Laws involving resource conservation generally focus on single resource such as forests and forest products (including wood), mineral deposits and endangered species of both flora and fauna.
Environmental laws are enforced by Environment Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA and local agencies work closely with states for enactment of such laws. Besides this, there are numerous federal statutes that regulate human interaction with environment. For example, in the US there are federal laws such as Clean Water Act (CCA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), Atomic Energy Act (AEA), Noise Pollution Act (NPA) and Clean Air Act (CAA), and Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
At international level, environmental laws are enacted by legally binding international agreements. International environment agreements are generally multilateral and include treaties, protocol and conventions etc. These agreements cover wider issues such as marine pollution, terrestrial pollution, global warming, depleting ozone layers, atmospheric pollution and pollution in outer space.
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What Is Environmental Law
