APA Newsletters
Fall 1999
Volume 99, Number 1

Newsletter on Philosophy and Law

Abstracts:
Recent Law Review Articles of Interest

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Wiener, Jonathan Baert. "Global Environmental Regulation: Instrument Choice in Legal Context," Yale Law Journal 108 (1999): 677–790

Anyone interested in environmental law or international law will find this important essay worth careful scrutiny. The author proceeds from within the social choice theory perspective in evaluating the rules that have been proposed for regulating the global environment. He has lengthy accounts of the dispute between those who favor a property model and those who favor a liability model, as well as between those who favor emission taxes and those who favor tradeable emissions allowances. In the midst of this careful analysis and critique, Wiener considers what he calls the "moralist claim." According to this objection to his view, moral theorists might claim "that one should not buy or sell the right to pollute." Wiener rejects this position arguing ultimately that morality may be irrelevant to the the global community, since in that community right behavior cannot be compelled. Wiener also points out that there are multiple moral perspectives. If one of these perspectives is chosen to criticize pollution, the charge of "ecoimperialism" will be justified. Finally, in this section of the paper, Wiener argues that moral restraints on pollution will simply raise the costs of pollution control. This article is a good illustration of how the arguments of moral philosophy can be applied to international legal contexts, and also how those arguments are often misuderstood.

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APA Newsletters Fall 1999 Volume 99, Number 1

APA Newsletters
Fall 1999
Volume 99, Number 1