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University of California Press

About the Book

Written by two internationally respected scholars, this unique primer distills European Union environmental law and policy into a practical guide for a nonlegal audience, as well as for lawyers trained in other jurisdictions. The first part explains the basics of the European legal system, including key actors, types of laws, and regulatory instruments. The second part describes the EU’s overarching legal strategies for environmental management and delves into how the EU addresses the specific environmental issues of pollution, ecosystem management, and climate change. Chapters include summaries of key concepts and discussion questions, as well as informative "spotlights" offering brief overviews of topics. With a highly accessible structure and useful illustrative features, A Guide to EU Environmental Law provides a long-overdue synthetic resource on EU environmental law for students and for anyone working in environmental policy or environmental science. This text can also be read with the authors’ A Guide to US Environmental Law for a comparative look at how two important jurisdictions in the world deal with key environmental problems.

About the Author

Josephine van Zeben is Professor of Law and Chairholder of the Law Group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Arden Rowell is Professor of Law at the University of Illinois.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Spotlight Boxes

Preface

Part One. Building Blocks of EU Environmental Law
1. Regulating Environmental Impacts
2. Key Actors
3. Types of Law
4. Regulatory Instruments

Part Two. EU Environmental Law
5. Contextualizing EU Environmental Law
6. Pollution Control
Air Pollution
Water Pollution
Soil Pollution
Chemical Substances
Waste Management
7. Ecosystem Management
Biodiversity
Wildlife
Special Ecosystems Management: Habitats
Agriculture
8. Climate Change
Mitigation
Adaptation and Natural Hazards

Conclusions

Acknowledgments
Appendix 1. Time Line of EU Environmental Law
Appendix 2. Membership of the EU
Additional Resources
Glossary
Index

Reviews

"van Zeben and Rowell have provided an accessible interdisciplinary resource that helps readers to understand three major environmental issues and the laws intended to regulate their causes and effects. . . . With or without a background in law, readers can quickly and easily engage with the book content."
Technical Communication

"This highly accessible and thoroughly informed account covers all the key themes and pressure points of EU environmental law. If you are looking for a compact yet sophisticated introduction to the field, this is the book for you."—Veerle Heyvaert, author of Transnational Environmental Regulation and Governance: Purpose, Strategies, and Principles and Professor of Law at the London School of Economics

"A very strong introduction to EU environmental law. Written for lawyers and nonlawyers alike, it is engaging, accessible, and well suited for readers beyond the EU. A joy to read!"—Edwin Woerdman, coeditor of Essential EU Climate Law and Professor of Markets and Regulation at the University of Groningen