Acting for Endangered Species: The Statutory Ark
- ISBN-10
- 070061172X
- ISBN-13
- 9780700611720
- Category
- Law / Legal History
- Pages
- 168
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2002
- Publisher
- University Press of Kansas
- Author
- Shannon Petersen
Description
When Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, it did so in the belief that threats to emblematic creatures like bison or commercial crops such as fish could be resolved simply by placing limits on hunting and trade. Few lawmakers could have foreseen how the implementation of that law would change over the years, as the directive to save seemingly insignificant species would extend to the protection of entire ecosystems. As the courts have interpreted the law in the light of a better understanding of science, the ESA increasingly has become a tool used to block development projects and restrict private land use.
Environmental attorney Shannon Petersen has written a political and legal history of the Endangered Species Act that explains how and why this piece of legislation has become so controversial: a law hailed by many as one of the most intelligent ever written, reviled by as many as an ill-conceived impediment to progress. Others have recorded the ESA's relation to the emergence of modern environmentalism; Petersen now addresses the legal history of the Act, showing how the courts created a far more powerful law than Congress originally envisioned and profoundly influenced environmental policy during the last decades of the twentieth century.
Acting for Endangered Species demonstrates that litigation and judicial decision-making have played a far more important role in shaping the modern environmental movement than has been previously thought. It focuses on two major controversies that developed over the implementation of the Act: a Supreme Court-ordered delay in dam construction when a fish called the snail darter was declared endangered and a threat to logging in the Northwest in the interest of saving the spotted owl. In reviewing these seminal cases, Petersen demonstrates the complex interplay among government, science, environmentalism, and natural resource industries in shaping endangered species policy in America.
The ESA is now over a quarter-century old and remains the broadest and most powerful law in the world for the protection of species; yet, as Petersen observes, it remains unclear whether the law has been successful. Acting for Endangered Species is a story of strategic lawsuits, broad judicial interpretations, and administrative retrenchment that have left the ESA itself on the brink of extinction, and it demonstrates the extent of environmental policy dilemmas in America today.
Get the book
Similar books
-
Endangered Species Act, Washington, DC: Oversight Hearing Before the Task Force on Endangered Species Act of the Committee on Resources,...
By United States. Congress. House. Committee on Resources. Task Force on Endangered SpeciesEndangered Species Act, Washington, DC: Oversight Hearing Before the Task Force on Endangered Species Act of the Committee on Resources,...
-
Endangered species recovery act of 1997
By John H. ChafeeWitnesses: Jamie Clark, Dir., U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Terry Garcia, Acting Assist. Sec., NOAA; Marc Racicot, Gov., State of Montana; Michael Bean, dir., Environmental Defense Fund, James A. McClure, Nat.
-
Endangered Species Act, Washington, DC: Oversight Hearing Before the Task Force on Endangered Species Act of the Committee on Resources,...
By United States. Congress. House. Committee on Resources. Task Force on Endangered SpeciesEndangered Species Act, Washington, DC: Oversight Hearing Before the Task Force on Endangered Species Act of the Committee on Resources,...
-
Endangered Species and Wetlands: Oversight Hearings Before the Task Force on Endangered Species and Task Force on Wetlands of the...
By United States. Congress. House. Committee on Resources. Task Force on Endangered SpeciesEndangered Species and Wetlands: Oversight Hearings Before the Task Force on Endangered Species and Task Force on Wetlands of the...
-
Endangered Species
By Randy T. SimmonsInternet Sites Virginia Campbell , “ Elephants in the Balance : Conserving Africa's Elephants , ” World Wide Fund for Nature . www.panda.org . D.S. Wilcove et al . , “ Rebuilding the Ark.
-
The Endangered Species Act
By Stanford Environmental Law SocietyThe handbook includes the text of the Act, as well as a bibliography of related legislative materials, case law, and legal scholarship. "This handbook is a comprehensive roadmap to our nation's most powerful environmental law.
-
Endangered Species Recovery: Finding the Lessons, Improving the Process
By Richard Reading, Tim Clark, Alice ClarkeThe book features a unique integration of case studies with theory, and provides sound, practical ideas for improving endangered species policy implementation.
-
Balancing on the Brink of Extinction: Endangered Species Act And Lessons For The Future
By Kathryn A. KohmBalancing on the Brink of Extinction presents a comprehensive overview of the Endangered Species Act -- its conception, history, and potential for protecting the remaining endangered species.
-
There's Still Time: The Success of the Endangered Species Act
By Mark A. GalanChildren can see firsthand that environmental action works, in this photo-essay featuring plants and animals that have been brought back from the brink of extinction, primarily because of the Endangered Species Act.
-
Endangered: Biodiversity on the Brink
By Mitch TobinThese are but a few of the problems facing animal and plant species throughout the United States and the world. One law, the Endangered Species Act, serves as the primary safety net for protecting wildlife driven to the brink.