Editors' Summary: Institutional controls are a mechanism for providing a certain degree of safety in the absence of technology that could clean contaminated sites thoroughly. Institutional controls come in a variety of forms, each of which can be designed to meet specific site needs. Flexible but long-lasting mechanisms such as institutional controls can be used to ensure that land uses continue to be compatible with the level of cleanup at a site. If Congress amends CERCLA to require EPA to take future land use into account in selecting the type and level of cleanup required at particular sites, institutional controls will become an important and integral element of many remedial actions. This Article describes how institutional controls have been used at contaminated sites and in analogous situations. The author concludes that understanding the lessons offered by past experience with institutional controls will provide valuable knowledge to CERCLA policymakers addressing how best to protect humans from long-term risks at contaminated sites. The use of institutional controls in the broad variety of situations examined in this Article confirms that they can be useful tools for managing risk, but also confirms that no institutional control can eliminate risk entirely.