The Volokh Conspiracy
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Tarnished Gold: The Endangered Species Act at 50
My article surveying the effectiveness of the ESA is now in print as part of an FIU symposium.
The FIU Law Review has just published my article Tarnished Gold: The Endangered Species Act at 50. Here is the abstract:
The ESA is arguably the most powerful and stringent federal environmental law on the books. Yet for all of the Act's force and ambition, it is unclear how much the law has done much to achieve its central purpose: the conservation of endangered species. The law has been slow to recover listed species and has fostered conflict over land use and scientific determinations that frustrate cooperative conservation efforts. The Article aims to take stock of the ESA's success and failures during its first fifty years, particularly with regard the conservation of species habitat on private land. While the Act authorizes powerful regulatory tools for species conservation, there are serious questions as to whether such tools are the most effective means of conserving species and the habitats on which they rely. Given that most species rely upon private land for their survival, the Act's ability to foster private land conservation is will affect the law's overall success.
This article is based upon a presentation that I made at the 2nd Annual Environment Forum: Science and Public Choice, sponsored by the Environmental Finance and Risk Management Program (EFRM) of Florida International University's Institute of Environment on March 8, 2023. The same issue of the FIU Law Review features other articles on environmental law and policy from the interdisciplinary symposium, including the transcript of remarks by Bret Stephens and articles by Matthew Burgess, Michael Buschbacher, Henrique Schneider, Nancy McLaughlin, Mario Loyola and Joanne Spalding and Andres Restrepo.
