Environmental Law: An Overview

Throughout the years, environmental law has developed into a place to be called one of the major categories of law. There are many sections of the law. Some sections are nuisance, trespass, and strict liability.

A nuisance can be any activity like polluting the water or air so that it diminishes an owner's enjoyment of his land. Trespass is the physical invasion of an owner's property. Strict liability is when someone engages in an abnormally dangerous activity like blasting, maintaining wild animals or damming the water. There are consequences that come with these activities the can cause damage to others.

To fight pollution, environmentalists have lobbied to change environmental policy at national and state levels. They have passed laws that affect the environment like federal emission control of automobiles. There are laws that mandate the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. The law also requires that developers file environmental impact statements before proceeding with their plans.

Through education either public, formal, or political, people have become sensitive to environmental issues. In order to educate, you have to research. A lot of products deemed harmless have now been discovered to be toxic. This knowledge is quite useful to environmental lawyers. They need to know scientific methods and fields of scientific research in order to represent their clients.

Because this nation runs on energy, America depends on power sources that affect the environment. Consequences come from the use of these powers. It can be an oil spill to a nuclear meltdown. Toxic torts are a fairly new area with in environmental law. The is very important because contamination can potentially hurt thousands to millions of people.

Another area of environmental law is land use planning. It involves making decisions that affect how land use is allocated in a large community. It also controls zoning ordinances to limit building. It involves regulations of wetlands, rivers, and bays.

Environmental law is also multinational. Environmental issues like acid rain and nuclear meltdowns have no geographical boundaries. The practices used will be international. Funding is limited for environmental activities. Most money for jobs in environmental law are tied up width companies and people being sued.

There are two sides to environmental representation. All companies are not bad nor are all citizens groups good. The people have to choose who they want to represent. It is possible to move from one side to another. People move back and forth between private and government.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_law