Environmental Law And The Law Of Economics

520 Words2 Pages

Impact of environmental law on the law of economics

Environmental law primarily aims to internalise an externality, by forcing or incentivizing the polluter to take into account the pollution it is causing in its decision making process. Hence, environmental law and economic principles are deeply intertwined in order to better tackle environmental problems in a cost effective way. In fact, environmental law is viewed through the lens of economic efficiency by many economists and legislation-making bodies. Important economic principles apply to environmental law which shall be briefly discussed in this article.
As it is well known, law and economics is based on the principles, amongst others, of “efficiency criterion” which is also intertwined with the “wealth maximization” principle. In other words, law and regulations should aim at the development of appropriate policies, but emphasis should be put on the right strategies and instruments which would ultimately lead to a sustainable development criterion. For these reason, economic literature has been heavily influenced by enviro...

Open Document