Publication Date

2019

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

Sturm College of Law

Keywords

Principle of Universality, Utilitarian science, Law of symmetry, Economy of means

Abstract

This Article makes the case that for environmental laws to succeed, they must reflect and conform to the universal scientific truths of nature. The mantra for policymakers is simple: successful environmental laws, as well as the policies that structure and cabin these laws, should adhere to the fundamental laws of the natural world and our biosphere. What are these universal truths? What laws, or rules, do physical, biological, and chemical systems all follow? Scientists have begun to unravel nature’s secrets, the principles which all natural phenomena obey, and which comprise nature’s master plan. This Article urges that our environmental policies should closely follow the basic workings that nature employs, which resonate throughout all the operating systems of the universe.

Publication Statement

Originally published as Jan G. Laitos, How Science Has Influenced, but Should Now Determine, Environmental Policy, 43 WM. & MARY ENVTL. L. & POL'y REV. 759 (2019).

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Jan G. Laitos

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

48 pgs

File Size

335 KB

Publication Title

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Volume

43

First Page

759

Last Page

805

ISSN

1943-1104

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