BOOKS RECEIVED.

THE TAKINGS ISSUE: CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS ON LAND USE CONTROL AND ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION

Robert Meltz, et al. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1999. (202) 232-7933. 595 pp. $60.00 Clothbound.

The Takings Issue examines all aspects of the takings issue under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which provides that when private property is "taken" by government action, just compensation must be paid. The Fifth Amendment has become the battleground for the fight, between proponents of restrictive land use and environmental controls on one side, and landowners on the other. The Takings Issue introduces and explains issues surrounding regulatory takings on the local, state, and federal level for anyone involved with private land and government limitation of its permissible use. This book also addresses procedural hurdles involved in getting a takings issue heard by a court, examines what does and does not constitute a taking, and considers remedies available to landowners involved in takings actions. The authors also consider state and federal issues involving industrial site approval, endangered species and wetland protection, restrictions on access to resources on federal lands, and other topics.

Robert Meltz is legislative attorney with the Congressional Research Service in Washington, DC. Dwight H. Merriam, AICP, is partner with the law firm of Robinson and Cole, LLP in Hartford, Connecticut and adjunct professor at the Vermont School of Law. Richard M. Frank is senior Assistant Attorney General with the California Department of Justice.

REUNITING ECONOMY AND ECOLOGY IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Russ Beaton and Chris Maser. Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers, 1999. (800) 272-7737. 108 pp. $9.95 Paperbound.

Reuniting Economy and Ecology in Sustainable Development is a recent contribution to the series on the various aspects of sustainable development, where "community" focuses on the primacy and quality of relationships among people sharing a particular place in their environment. The book attempts to meld ecology and economy into a unifying concept of social-environmental sustainability. Reuniting Economy and Ecology discusses how biological sciences have all but lost their spiritual foundation and explains how our view of the world is fragmented and distracted from the processes that produce and maintain the viability of the ecosystems on which we depend for survival. The authors also show that the cause of environmental...