Role of the courts in the development of the National Environmental Policy Act

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:5857242

Traylor, M M

The problem addressed by this article is a study of judicial activity which makes policy, instead of or in addition to the traditional role of judicial activity in the US legal system; i.e., interpretation of enacted law. To do this an examination is made of reported judicial decisions concerning the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) from 1970 to 1980 from the federal District Courts and the federal Courts of Appeal. The making of policy is, in the American system, traditionally assigned to the legislature. However, in practice , much policy is also made in the judicial system in the process of interpretation of statutes. Such policy making action often goes beyond discretion of the court and creates substantive law as important to the functioning of the legal system as that made by legislative activity. The data base for this study consists of all cases having a count based in NEPA which were decided by the Federal District Courts and the Federal District Courts of Appeal from 1970 through 1980. All cases falling into this category were read and evaluated, and then selected cases were chosen from each year and their judicial activity analyzed to illustrate characteristic judicial policy making activity for that year. Each case studied in depth illustrates, in the judgment of the author, an example of judicial policy making, and worthy of scrutiny in such a study.

• OSTI ID: 5857242
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
COURTS
DECISION MAKING
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
LAWS
LAWSUITS
LEGAL ASPECTS
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT