Conflicts Between Legal and Ecological Principles:
Cultural Origins of American Environmental Law

by Robert H. Lloyd

Chairperson of the Supervisory Committee
Professor Iain Robertson

2001

This thesis explores the conflict between contemporary United States environmental laws, and current principles of ecological science. Environmental legislation aims to protect valued nature by delimiting natural areas in which human development is prohibited. This approach implies that valued aspects of nature can be contained within geographically limited locations. This is anathema to the ecological view of nature which focuses on the interconnectivity of all natural systems. The ecological view suggests the impossibility of protecting patches of a natural system without considering the effects of human development in linked areas.

With this conflict as a starting point, the thesis examines current regulatory structure as an historical product, reflecting America’s emphasis on nature as a commodity to be regulated through traditional property law. It is suggested that effective environmental legislation can only be written when legal principles are reframed to reflect the interconnections implied in the ecological view of nature.