The Economic Analysis of Environmental Policy and Law: An Introduction

Although many books focus on law and economics, and environmental economics, this is one of the first to combine the two topics in a fully integrated and comprehensive manner. The authors successfully bridge the gap between the disciplines of environmental law and traditional economics in a lucid and highly accessible style.

The Economic Analysis of Environmental Policy and Law covers many of the recent advances in the field and attempts to integrate some of the most crucial legal and economic instruments which, in the authors' view, have not yet been subjected to proper analysis. These include zoning, expropriation, licensing, third party liability, safety regulation, mandatory insurance and criminal sanctions. The authors pay particular attention to the interrelationships of these instruments and their various economic effects. Using a comparative law and economics methodology, they are also able to incorporate environmental law with international policy and investigate the many diverse rules of the legal system and their implementation in different countries. Crucially, the authors do not consider economics as the exclusive determinant in legal rule-making. They also highlight the need for ethical considerations and illustrate the potential limitations of pure economic analysis.

The book assumes no prior knowledge of economics and will prove informative and rewarding for students of law and the social and natural sciences, especially those with an interest in environmental policy. With an extensive reference list and detailed notes on further reading material, this book will also serve as a stimulating introduction to the discipline of law and economics for environmental, political and legal practitioners.

Michael Faure, Professor, Maastricht University and Erasmus School of Law, the Netherlands and Chairman of the Flemish High Council of Environmental Enforcement (VHRM), Brussels, Belgium and the late Göran Skogh, formerly Professor of Economics, University of Linköping, Sweden