This book examines the courts' interpretation of NEPA in its first three years, defeats and successes of citizens' actions in key cases, and implication of court rulings for the act's future effectiveness. Originally published in 1973

In recent years, the power of American judges to make social policy has been significantly broadened. The courts have reached into many matters once thought to be beyond the customary scope of judicial decisionmaking: education and employment policy, environmental issues, prison and hospital management, and welfare administration—to name a few. This new judicial activity can be traced to various sources, among them the emergence of public interest law firms and interest groups committed to social change through the courts, and to various changes in the law itself that have made access to the courts easier. The propensity for bringing difficult social questions to the judiciary for resolution is likely to persist. This book is the first comprehensive study of the capacity of courts to make and implement social policy. Donald L. Horowitz, a lawyer and social scientist, traces the imprint of the judicial process on the policies that emerge from it. He focuses on a number of important questions: how issues emerge in litigation, how courts obtain their information, how judges use social science data, how legal solutions to social problems are devised, and what happens to judge-made social policy after decrees leave the court house. After a general analysis of the adjudication process as it bears on social policymaking, the author presents four cases studies of litigation involving urban affairs, educational resources, juvenile courts and delinquency, and policy behavior. In each, the assumption and evidence with which the courts approached their policy problems are matched against data about the social settings from which the cases arose and the effects the decrees had. The concern throughout the book is to relate the policy process to the policy outcome. From his analysis of adjudication and the findings of his case studies the author concludes that the resources of the courts are not adequate to the new challenges confronting them. He suggests

Environmental Law: Cases and Materials, Third Edition is designed to reflect the vital and symbiotic connection between land-use regulation and the more traditional scope of environmental law. In addition it recognizes the importance of administrative agency decision-making in environmental law. The book begins with a look at the judicial review process of agency decisions and important issues. It examines the common-law remedy of nuisance, the matrix of so much of environmental law and still a significant cause of action, and goes on to look at land-use controls, with particular emphasis on critical areas-landmarks, wetlands, coastal resources-and the de facto taking issue. Air and water quality, waste, toxics and the other areas of comprehensive statutory control, the National Environmental Policy Act, electric generation, and the increasingly important area of international environmental law are also discussed. Since the Third Edition was published three years ago, much has occurred in this fast-shifting field. Several important decisions have dealt with air and water quality and international issues such as global warming have expanded. The Third Edition reflects these recent events.