In this introduction to the special issue of <em>Sustainability</em> on environmental laws and sustainability, we attempt to synthesize key lessons from the issue’s ten substantive articles. These lessons involve the use of law to achieve integrated decision-making, the use of pre-existing laws to...

The first part of this Article suggests a framework for understanding Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania constitution. This second and final part of the Article outlines ways in which that framework should be applied.The Article argues that the environmental rights and public trust...

This article is a critique of Bjoslash;rn Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist (2001) from the perspective of sustainable development. While the author often uses the language of sustainable development, the book would turn sustainability on its head. It is generally true, as Lomborg says,...

This book addresses two questions. First, what progress did the United States make toward sustainable development between the 1992 (the date of the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, or Earth Summit) and 2002? Second, what should the United States do next, particularly in the next 5...

This paper provides a brief assessment of the ethical issues raised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Working Group III report, Mitigation of Climate Change. It argues that energy efficiency and conservation are not simply two more options that can be employed to address...

This article explains why industrial waste that is not legally hazardous must be given greater attention and regulatory oversight. Industrial waste (including coal ash) may represent as much as 94 percent of municipal, hazardous, and industrial wastes combined. The article explores the existing...

Few energy issues in recent decades have proven as contentious as shale gas. Supporters and opponents often speak in such strikingly divergent terms that they seem to be describing different activities. Typically, supporters point to the economic and security impacts of shale gas, and minimize...

This is the introduction to the first book systematically exploring the relationship between shale gas and sustainable development, Shale Gas and the Future of Energy: Law and Policy for Sustainability (Edward Elgar 2016). It describes the growing importance of unconventional shale gas and the...

The sudden and unexpected development of shale gas has the potential to accelerate or hinder the transition to sustainability, depending on how it is handled. Sustainable development is a useful evaluative framework for shale gas development. It would have us analyze its environmental, social,...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision in Robinson Township v. Commonwealth, 803 A.3d 901 (Dec. 19, 2013) has prompted enormous interest in the history and text of Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. This legislative history is a response to that interest.Amendments to the...