Environmental economics: a market failure approach to the commerce clause.

Yale Law Journal, November, 2006 by Lee, Mollie

Congressional authority to enact environmental legislation has been called into question by recent Supreme Court cases suggesting that Commerce Clause regulation is valid only if Congress is regulating economic activity. This Note proposes a market failure approach to guide the new economic inquiry. Under this approach, statutes that correct market failures should be understood as economic in nature. The proposed approach draws on the insights of environmental economics to explain how environmental regulation targets market failures, and it supports upholding environmental statutes--in particular, the Endangered Species Act--as a permissible exercise of Commerce Clause authority.

NOTE CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I. THE COMMERCE CLAUSE THREAT TO THE ENDANGERED...

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