Constitutional Environmental Rights and Liabilities

Environmental Liability, Vol. 3, p. 75, 2012

Widener Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No. 13-11

13 Pages Posted: 22 Feb 2013

See all articles by Erin Daly

Erin Daly

Widener University Delaware Law School

James R. May

Washburn University - Washburn University School of Law; Widener University Delaware Law School; Haub School of Law at Pace University

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

This article surveys the types of remedies courts have developed in the environmental cases where they have found liability for violation of constitutional rights. Part I explores liabilities and state obligations under the international legal framework and Part II examines the range of remedies that courts have used. Despite the challenges, courts have been extraordinarily creative in designing remedies that are ambitious enough to be effective in remedying the environmental damage, yet defined and limited enough that defendants can implement them. Still, defendants – both official and private – can be recalcitrant, and we consider in the second part of this article the challenges that courts face in enforcing the remedies they have ordered. Although the cases span the globe, the majority of cases in which the courts are so heavily engaged that their remedial orders go beyond the typical are from the Philippines, a few countries in Latin America, and the Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh and Nepal.

Keywords: environmental law, constitutional law, constitutions, constitutional rights

JEL Classification: K32

Suggested Citation

Daly, Erin and May, James, Constitutional Environmental Rights and Liabilities (2012). Environmental Liability, Vol. 3, p. 75, 2012, Widener Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No. 13-11, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2221561

Erin Daly

Widener University Delaware Law School ( email )

4601 Concord Pike
Wilmington, DE 19803-0406
United States
302-477-2143 (Phone)
304-477-2257 (Fax)

James May (Contact Author)

Washburn University - Washburn University School of Law ( email )

1700 SW College Ave.
Topeka, KS 66621
United States

Widener University Delaware Law School ( email )

4601 Concord Pike
Wilmington, DE 19803-0406
United States

Haub School of Law at Pace University ( email )

78 N. Broadway
White Plains, NY 10603
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
219
Abstract Views
1,681
Rank
286,974
PlumX Metrics