William Rodgers, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, has entitled his new book simply Environmental Law, holding out the promise to the reader of comprehensive coverage of an expansive, evolving, and amorphous body of law. A first reading of the book reveals that Rodgers has succeeded in imposing some structure on the masses of material involved and in producing an insightful analysis of the field. He has done so by limiting the scope of the book, however, consciously avoiding discussion of certain topics and concentrating his analysis of the material under several broad subject headings.

The treatise is well researched and documented and is, at the same time, a highly personal exposition of environmental law. Often, after analyzing the current state of the law, Rodgers adds a reasoned opinion of what the law should be or indicates his approval of a particular trend. The organization of the material clearly reflects the author's view that common-law concepts underlie most statutory provisions, administrative action, and judicial interpretations in the environmental field. The text draws parallels between statutory and common law where they exist, and it points out the ways that the statutes deviate from or revise common-law principles. In short, the changing substance of a highly administrative body of law is projected against a background of legal principles and techniques which, as the author says, "are not subject to summary overruling in tomorrow's Federal Register."