Environmental Law and International Assistance: The Challenge of Strengthening Environmental Law in the Developing World

All too often there is a disturbing gap between what governments say and what governments do The same appears to be true for international donors During the past 10 years the developing world has been awash with donorfunded national environmental action plans and national environmental programs national conservation strategies national biodiversity strategies national agricultural programs and national forestry action plans These documents generally recognize that longterm economic development can only be sustained on an ecologically sound base Many also purport to recognize that the policies and strategies that they set forth will remain empty pronouncements unless appropriate laws and institutional arrangements are put into placeLaw reform however is a difficult proposition New laws are seldom written on a clean slate Dozens of pertinent laws may already exist and a large number of government agencies may be responsible for their implementation There are often serious regulatory gaps and overlapping grants of authority laws which are not sensitive to local conditions and in many instances a lack of administrative and legal capacity Often these problems have not been thoroughly analyzed Legal drafting cannot take place in a vacuum Accurate background studies must be prepared and some consensus must be reached as to the kinds of reform that should be pursued Otherwise fine laws may be written only to gather dust Unfortunately donors and governments often pursue law reform in just such a vacuum In fact law reform appears to be just an afterthought in many cases an exercise that is lightly staffed and lightly financedThis must change Law reform cannot be divorced from the process in which national environmental policy is articulated Legal and institutional issues must inform that debate and law reform in turn must be informed and guided by the resulting policy In this way environmental management can become an integrated whole rather than just a diverse collection of pieces And through such a comprehensive approach institutions can be shaped and strengthened in such a way that they will give life to the resulting legal regimeThe article discusses various elements of a legal reform process including the choice among framework statutes comprehensive statutes and sectoral legislationand the article also contains an extensive discussion of the elements of an effective approach to Environmental Impact Assessmen

Success and Backlash: The Remarkable (Continuing) Story of the Clean Water Act

The Clean Water Act has produced a tremendous amount of progress over the past forty years Both municipal and industrial discharges have declined sharply the loss of wetlands has been cut decisively and water quality has broadly improved Much more work however remains to be done Not surprisingly given the limits of human forethought and political capacity the original statutory design was not perfect Furthermore the statutes implementation has not been perfect due in large part to often straitened budgets instances of bureaucratic timidity and lethargy and the hostility that some administrations and some Congresses have exhibited towards strong environmental protection Although more robust administrative action can improve the effectiveness of the Act in a number of ways it will take contressional action to fully address the jurisdictional budgetary and structural problems that are obstructing efforts to fully restore and maintain the chemical physical and biological integrity of the nations waters The prospects for such comprehensive congressional action are slight at the present time In fact we are enduring yet another backlash on Capitol Hill against regulation as well as against the protections provided by the Clean Water Act It will take renewed and stronger efforts to inform and galvanize public opinion not only to defeat the current backlash but to build the level of support necessary to complete the task that the nation so boldly embarked upon in 1972 This article discusses both the Acts major successes as well as the problems that remain In addition the article explores the most recent congressional backlash against the Acts regulatory structure and proposes a number of steps aimed toward turning generalized public support for clean water into legislative actio