2/24/00
AU ECONOMIST INVITED TO DUKE FORUM ON ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
AUBURN -- An Auburn University professor is the only economist invited to the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum at the Duke University Law School on March 2-3.
Duke invited several attorneys and one economist -- AU's Andy Barnett - - to present papers at the two-day conference on citizen lawsuit provisions in environmental law.
"These provisions in the law are used by environmental groups to acquire standing to bring suits against polluters," says Barnett, who is also director of the College of Business' Auburn Policy Research Center. "This is a very important and controversial feature of the law. Environmental laws are the only laws with the citizen suit features."
The Supreme Court has addressed the issue several times over the past decade. A high court ruling in January on Friends of the Earth vs. Laidlaw Environmental Services was a landmark ruling that will have far-reaching implications for private and public enforcement of environmental law, says Barnett.
The Laidlaw ruling -- won by Friends of the Earth -- appears to be a dramatic departure from other rulings by the tribunal during the 1990s, said Barnett, a professor in AU's Department of Economics.
"The Laidlaw ruling makes it much easier for any citizen to sue those who violate an emission permits, reporting requirements, or in any other way run afoul of environmental law," said Barnett. "In effect, the ruling makes it much easier for citizens to privately enforce environmental law.
The lawyers who argued the Laidlaw case before the Supreme Court, along with several professors, have been invited to present papers at the conference. The papers will be published by Duke after the conference.
Barnett is coauthoring with Timothy Terrell, a former PhD students in economics at AU, a paper titled "Economic Observations on Citizen Suit Provisions of Environmental Legislation."
feb00:AU-duke
CONTACT: Barnett, 334- 844-2933.