The Art of the Unsolvable: Locating the Vital Center of Science for Environmental Law & Policy

Abstract

The image of science that has emerged from debates over environmental policy is distorted by expectations that are simultaneously too great and too modest. By clinging to a classical vision of science, critics set environmental science up for failure; by presuming that scientific results are primarily the product of ideology, they risk trivializing their value. This Article looks beyond the domain of environmental law to identify appropriate benchmarks for the role of science in environmental policymaking. A unique contribution of the Article is identification of finance theory and modeling as an exemplar for effective application of sophisticated scientific methods.

Keywords: law and science, environmental science, statistics, scientific uncertainty, risk

JEL Classification: K32