Few if any U.S. environmental laws explicitly consider sustainable development as their goal or objective. At most, a few U.S. laws may be said to be partial or imperfect reflections of sustainable development theory and to incorporate portions of the concept of sustainable development. Nonetheless, recent quantitative indicators on a cross-national basis suggest that U.S. law and policy has been reasonably effective at promoting sustainable development. The United States was ranked 11th among countries on a quantitative index of sustainable development in 2001 and scores well on most indicators except energy usage and climate change.
In this Article, the anomaly of a system of law that achieves a goal that is not a conscious design principle for the law is explored at a theoretical level with reference to principles of evolutionary biology. It is argued that legal systems, at least in common-law countries, reflect two different kinds of intelligence: conscious design and unconscious incorporation of cultural norms. A variety on nonlegal drivers are considered that may cause businesses to adopt sustainable development principles, even if they are legally required. It is concluded, however, that the U.S. system of environmental laws could be improved by making sustainable development an explicit guiding principle as well as an incidental byproduct of the legal system. At the end of the Article, suggestions are presented for how to incorporate sustainable development principles into the U.S. legal system.
E. Donald Elliott is Professor (Adjunct) of Law, Yale Law School and Georgetown University Law Center, and a partner at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Washington, D.C. Elliott was formerly Assistant Administrator and General Counsel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Julien and Virginia Cornell Professor of Environmental Law and Litigation, Yale Law School. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University in 1970 and 1974, respectively.
Dr. Tarifi is the recently retired Director of Health, Safety, and Environment (HS&E) at P&G-Clairol in Stamford, Connecticut. He is a strong advocate of beyond compliance and sustainable development. Under his leadership, all Clairol facilities around the world have gained certification under both International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 and ISO 14001. He has been a strong promoter and proactive partner in all state and federal voluntary programs including StarTrack, ClimateWise, National Performance Track, and Energy Star. He is one of the driving forces behind transforming the HS&E program at Bristol-Myers Squibb from a reactive and compliance-driven to one that is guided by sustainable development principles. Tarifi is a member of the Board of Directors at SoundWaters and Chairman of the Environmental Business Committee. He is the co-founder and Chairman of the Environment, Health, and Safety forum at SACIA, a member of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, a past Chairman and Co-Founder of South Western Connecticut Environmental Council, and a past member of the Board of Directors of Connecticut Environmental Entrepreneurial Center.
