Environmental regulation has come of age in recent decades as the blunt methods of command-and-control have been subjected to trenchant criticism from both economists and lawyers in the United States and Europe.
As a result of this intellectual development, as well as continuing and increasing severity of environmental problems, there is a need for fresh thinking about regulatory methods that are rational from both economic and legal points of view.
This book focuses on the viability of one particular regulatory innovation--the use of agreements or contracts for environmental regulation--as it has been practised in the United States and Europe. The various contributions explore the general idea that certain kinds of environmental problems may best be addressed through contracts among interested parties, including representatives of various levels of government, business, local community and employment representatives, and public interest groups.
The parties get together to discuss a particular problem and then agree to an agreement or contract designed to address key issues and interests. At least in some situations, this approach may yield greater flexibility, stronger commitment, and more creative outcomes than traditional command-and-control regulation.
Experiments in the use of environmental contracts have begun on both sides of the Atlantic, a fact which makes the comparative study offered here especially timely and valuable.
List of Contributors, Acknowledgments, Preface,
Daniel C. Esty 1.
Introduction: Environmental Contracts and Regulatory Innovation
Eric W.
Orts and Kurt Deketelaere PART I ENVIRONMENTAL CONTRACTS AND REGULATORY
INNOVATION IN THE UNITED STATES 2. Bargaining, Politics, and Law in
Environmental Regulation
Jon Cannon 3. Environmental Contracts
in the United States
Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. and Eric W. Orts 4.
Is Consensus an Appropriate Basis for Regulatory Policy?
Cary Coglianese
5. Understanding Project XL: A Comparative Legal and Policy Analysis
Dennis D. Hirsch 6. The Quest for Cooperative Environmental
Management: Lessons from the 3M Hutchinson Project XL in Minnesota
Alfred
A. Marcus, Don Geffen, and Ken Sexton PART II ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS
AND REGULATION IN EUROPE 7. Environmental Contracts: A Flemish Law and
Economics Perspective
Michael Faure 18. Legal Aspects of
Environmental Agreements in the Netherlands, in Particular the Agreement on
Packaging and Packaging Waste
René Seerden 9. The Use of
Voluntary Agreements in the European Community’s Environmental Policy
Geert Van Calster and Kurt Deketelaere 10. Competition Law and the
Use of Environmental Agreements: The Experience in Europe, an Example for the
United States?
Hans H.B. Vedder PART III THE LAW AND ECONOMICS OF
ENVIRONMENTAL CONTRACTS AND REGULATION 11. The Law and Economics of
Environmental Contracts
Jason Scott Johnston 12. The New
Political Economy of Regulation: Looking for Positive Sum Change in a Zero Sum
World
David B. Spence and Lekha Gopalakrishnan 13. An
Institutional Analysis of Environmental Voluntary Agreements in the United
States
John W. Maxwell and Thomas P. Lyon 14. Voluntary
Agreements for the Environment: Institutional Constraints and Potential for
Innovation
Magali A. Delmas and Ann Terlaak 15. Environmental
Voluntary Agreements: Participation and Free Riding
Kathleen Segerson and
Na Li Dawson 16. Third-Party Inspection as an Alternative to
Command-and-Control Regulation
Howard C. Kunreuther, Patrick J. McNulty,
and Yong Kang PART IV A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY: ELECTRICITY AND
CONTRACTS 17. Environmental Voluntary Contracts between Individuals and
Industry: An Analysis of Consumer Preferences for Green Electricity
Matthew
J. Kotchen, Michael R. Moore, and Christopher F. Clark 18. Your
Contribution Counts! An Empirical Analysis of the Decision to Support Solar
Energy
Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Index
