Editors' Summary: Nongovernmental organizations and other critics of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have raised serious environmental concerns about Mexico's participation in NAFTA. The U.S. EPA has attempted to address these concerns by evaluating Mexican environmental laws, regulations, and standards. This Article is based on EPA's evaluation and provides a general overview of Mexico's environmental legal system, although its does not review Mexico's state and local environmental laws or its federal mechanisms for environmental law enforcement.

For over a decade, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) "mixture rule" clarified the status under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act¹ (RCRA) of mixtures containing listed hazardous waste and nonhazardous solid waste.² But the rule's recent vacatur and repromulgation have created a significant gap in the rule's coverage. Because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated it ab initio, the rule does not cover conduct that occurred before EPA's 1992 repromulgation.

On May 2, 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court joined -- but certainly did not end -- a debate about the disposal of ash produced from burning municipal solid waste in waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerators. In City of Chicago v.

Editors' Summary: On May 20, 1994, a three-member dispute panel of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) held that the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which provides authority for the United States to embargo tuna from other countries, violates GATT.

Editors' Summary: In 1980, Congress adopted the Bevill Amendment, which amends RCRA to exempt temporarily from Subtitle C regulation solid waste from ore and mineral extraction, beneficiation, and processing. The Amendment directed EPA either to promulgate Subtitle C regulations for the waste or determine that the exemption should continue. This Article examines EPA's regulatory response to this directive and the major court cases that have addressed that response.

Editors' Summary: Modern environmental law has relied almost exclusively on either mandating or forbidding certain conduct in order to reduce pollution. In addressing pollution that causes acid rain, the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act adopted a new approach: Encouraging pollution reduction through market-based incentives. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD or the District), which is responsible for regulating air pollution in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, adopted this approach in its Regional Clean Air Incentives Program (RECLAIM).

The U.S. Supreme Court handled an all-time high of over 7,700 cases in the 1993-1994 Term.¹ The number and variety of environmental law cases on which the Court acted reflects this achievement.

Editors' Summary: Under the Maastricht Treaty, the nations that are members of the European Union (EU) together must develop common European environmental policies. Toward this end, the European Commission has proposed EU-wide environmental laws that are meant to harmonize the various and diverging environmental laws and policies of EU member states. The laws attempt to overcome the various trade, environmental, and sovereignty concerns of member states that are obstacles to environmental unification. To date, these laws exist in essentially two forms: Mandatory and voluntary.

It is generally the responsibility of cities and other local governments — not states or the federal government — to provide residents with essential services such as sewage treatment, garbage disposal, drainage, and drinking water.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) "mixture rule for hazardous waste was vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Shell Oil Co. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.¹ The case took 12 years to litigate. The organizations involved in the litigation included EPA, environmental groups, and a large portion of American industry.