Environmental Law

Environmental law covers international treaties, statutes, regulations and common law that operations to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment. Environmental law’s purpose is to reduce the impacts of human activity. It is divided into two major subjects: pollution control and remediation, and resource conservation, individual exhaustion. Due to this broad scope, no fully definitive list of environmental laws is possible.

Environmental law is often the course of controversy. Critics often raise concerns regarding the need for such laws and the costs involved in implementing them. The necessity of directly regulating a particular activity due to the activity’s environmental consequences is often a debate.

In Canada, the Department of the Environmental Act establishes the Department of the Environment in the Canadian government as well as the position Minister of the Environment. The duties of the Minister include the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the natural environment, renewable resources, meteorology and the Environmental Protection Act.

The United States has historically been a world leader in the development and implementation of environmental law. The federal and state judiciaries have played an important role in the development of environmental law in the United States. The responsibilities for the administration of environmental laws are divided between numerous federal and state agencies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the most well-known federal agency. It has jurisdiction over many of the country’s national air, water and waste hazardous substance programs.

International environmental agreements are generally multilateral treaties. The majority of such conventions deal directly with specific environmental issues. Today, there are approximately 1000 environmental law treaties in existence. This area of law has generated the largest body of conventions.