Environmental Justice: Legal Theory and Practice

• Date: 01 March 2015

45 ELR 10236 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 3-2015

Environmental

Justice: Legal

Theory and

Practice

by Barry E. Hill

Barry E. Hill is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Vermont Law

School, where he has taught an environmental justice and

sustainable development course for 20 years. From 1998-

2007, he was Director of the Oce of Environmental Justice

of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. e views

expressed in the Article are solely those of the author. No

ocial support or endorsement by EPA or any other agency

of the federal government is intended or should be inferred.



is Article is adapted from B E. H,

E   J: L  T 

P  (3d ed. 2014), published by ELI Press. is

textbook /handbook explores how environmental

justice concerns a re fra med, add ressed, and resolved

in the United States through acts of civil disobedience;

federal, state, and local government initiatives;

litigation and alternative dispute resolution;

and/or mediation. e Article describes the

relationsh ip between environmenta l justice and

sustainable development, and surveys the history of

the environmental justice movement.

I. Environmental Justice, Sustainable

Development, and the Human Right to

a Clean and Healthy Environment

My book, E  J: L T 

P, focuses on two interrelated but distinct con-

cepts: environmental justice and sustainable development.

With respect to environmental justice, the book examines

the issue not only from an environmental law perspective,

but also from a civil rights law and a human rights law per-

spective. e complex dynamic of environmental justice

comprises environmental, social, economic, health, and

political problems in minority and/or low-income com-

munities. e concept of environmental justice involves a

discussion of various substantive areas, including, but not

limited to, the following:

•฀ Environment al Law

•฀ Constituti onal Law

•฀ Human฀Right s฀Law

•฀ Environment al Policy

Development and

Implement ation

•฀ History

•฀ Sociology

•฀ Health฀Scie nces

•฀ Economics

•฀ Political Scie nce

•฀ Public Policy

•฀ Media Relatio ns

•฀ Urban Planni ng

•฀ Race Relations

•฀ Community Or ganizing/

Empowerment

•฀ Land Use Plann ing

•฀ Civil Rights M ovement

•฀ Environment al Movement

•฀ Climate Change /Global

Warming

With respect to sustainable development, the book

examines how environmental law is an essentia l tool for a

national, state, or local government to achieve “sustainable

communities.”1 Environmental law provides the founda-

tion for governmental policies and actions for the preser-

vation/protection of the environment and human health,

and for ensuring that the use of natural resources is both

equitable and sustainable.

e book also examines the community sentiment for a

human right to a clean and healthy environment. Accord-

ing to Prof. Stephen M. Johnson, the human right to a

clean a nd healthy environment could be an aspect of the

U.S. market-based environmental protection regulatory

programs which could, in turn, address environmental jus-

tice concerns. Professor Johnson has stated that:

1. As stated by EPA:

Sustainable communities are places that provide homes working

families can aord; safe, reliable, and economical transportation

options; and access to jobs, schools, parks, shopping, and cultural

destinations. Not only do all of their residents enjoy the same pro-

tection from environmental and health hazards, but they also share

in the economic and social benets that come from development.

U.S. EPA, P  S C: S-

 E J  E

D 1 (EPA-

231-F-10-002) (Dec. 2010).

Copyright © 2015 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.