This chapter for the Handbook of Law and Economics provides an economic perspective of environmental law and policy. We examine the ends of environmental policy, that is, the setting of goals and targets, beginning with normative issues, notably the Kaldor-Hicks criterion and the related method...

This paper provides an economic perspective of environmental law and policy with regard to both normative and positive dimensions. It begins with an examination of the central problem in environmental regulation: the tendency of pollution generators in an unconstrained market economy to...

The fundamental question that needs to be addressed by public policy in the area of environmental protection as we move into the next century is, "what is the appropriate role of government?" This question emerges along three fundamental dimensions in relation to environmental protection, which...