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The Making of Environmental Law

The Making of Environmental Law. By Richard J. Lazarus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 312p. $35.00. Richard Lazarus brings rich experience to this book. In the 1980s, he served as a litigator in the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and as an assistant to the solicitor general, in the Department of Justice. He has represented environmental groups and local, state, and federal governments in numerous cases before the Supreme Court. Given this extensive legal background, one might expect the book to be a dense treatise on environmental law. Yet it is written for a much broader audience, with an engaging narrative style that is accessible for those not trained as lawyers. It is also interdisciplinary, covering everything from ecological theory in the opening chapters to the historical, economic, and political contexts of environmental law in the United States. While this interdisciplinary effort is admirable, the strength of the book clearly lies in the author's legal interpretations. Political scientists will be less impressed with his discussion of topics like public opinion and interest group behavior. Yet what matters more than relatively minor shortcomings with respect to any one discipline is that Lazarus has produced an engaging and articulate book that strives to reach a broad audience beyond law schools. For this reason, The Making of Environmental Law would make a wonderful addition to upper-division and masters level environmental policy courses. It is not sufficiently theoretical for most doctoral seminars, but it certainly deserves a central location on the shelves of environmental policy scholars.