The Changing Legal Environment of Northern Forest Policy Making
Errol Meidinger, "The Changing Legal Environment of Northern Forest Policy Making." In Sustaining Ecosystems, Economies, and a Way of Life in the Northern Forests, Washington, D.C.: The Wilderness Society (1993)
University at Buffalo School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1993-003
29 Pages Posted: 3 Nov 2017
Date Written: 1993
Abstract
This paper reviews recent developments in federal "takings" law, administrative law, and federalism, and discusses their implications for Northern Forest policy making. It describes a growing tendency to structure legal authority for natural resource decision making in a system of unilateral rather than correlative rights. Decision making powers receive differential levels of privilege, with private property rights first, centralized government second, and public involvement third. These trends are likely to make it difficult to evolve Northern Forest policy making structures, and suggest that they may have to be built either in opposition to current legal developments or in separate political institutions.
Keywords: Administrative Hierarchy, Northern Forest, Legal Culture, L;egal Ratchet, Takings, Standing, Federalism, Environmental Democracy
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