Allocating the Earth: A Distributional Framework for Protecting Capabilities in Environmental Law and Policy

This book offers a framework for improving both the substantive outcomes of environmental policies, and the decision-making processes that produce those outcomes. Both aspects of environmental policy create important inequities that the dominant economic approach to evaluating and designing environmental policies cannot adequately address. Holland draws on the ‘capabilities theory’ of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum to develop an approach to evaluating and designing environmental policies that is grounded in ideals of social justice rather than economic efficiency. She applies this framework to demonstrate its potential to improve current valuation of environmental goods, justification of environmental protection, and inclusion of citizens in the decisions about environmental protection. While richly informed by both philosophy and economic reasoning, the book is highly accessible and suitable for non-specialists interested in understanding the theory and practice of environmental protection in the United States.