Regulation of Hazardous Wastes
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Description
This essay focuses on three issues that are central to a law and economic analysis of the regulation of hazardous wastes: the choice between ex ante and ex post instruments for transmitting incentives, the extension of liability to several types of parties, and the impact of the liability regime on land transactions. To set the stage for this discussion, the essay begins with a brief description of the legal regime in the United States under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), popularly known as the Superfund statute. This background is useful because a great deal of the essay focuses on the design of liability rules, and because the Superfund statute has provided a model for the European Union's proposed directive on civil liability for damage caused by waste, and for liability regimes in many European nations. The essay does not consider issues that are common to most regulatory programmes, such as the valuation of benefits or the choice of discount rates, and does not dwell on issues common to most liability regimes, such as the consequences of joint and several liability.
Source Publication
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law
Source Editors/Authors
Peter Newman
Publication Date
1998
Volume Number
3: P - Z
Recommended Citation
Kornhauser, Lewis A. and Revesz, Richard L., "Regulation of Hazardous Wastes" (1998). Faculty Chapters. 1940.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1940
