A report published recently ‘Comparative Recent Developments in Environmental Law’ by the Law Library of Congress explores recent updates to post-Brexit UK law and recent developments in U.S. law during the Biden administration, Library of Congress (LOC) reports said.
Co-authored by Carson Lloyd, the report focuses on two of the major aspects of environmental protection: clean air and clean water, and includes an overview of recent executive, legislative, and judicial approaches to environmental law from each country.
While the U.S. portion of the report focused on international cooperation from the U.S. perspective and on developments in air and water quality stemming from the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts respectively, the focus of the United Kingdom (UK) portion of the report was on the its influence on both water and air quality, withdrawal of the UK from the European Union (Brexit), the recently passed Environment Act of 2021.
Beginning with an introduction of the general environmental legal framework for each jurisdiction, the report then proceeds into a more in-depth analysis of recent legal developments.
While highlighting the recent Supreme Court of the United States decision, West Virginia v. EPA, which dealt with the Clean Air Act, the U.S. report also looked at several district court and appellate court decisions under the Clean Water Act.
The report on the UK side looks at the effect of the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, according to which all EU environmental provisions previously in force in the UK became nullified as a result of Brexit.
The Environmental Act of 2021 was passed by the UK to ensure there would still be environmental protection laws. This section of the report explains the responsibility of the executive (secretary of state) for providing regulations and guidance for the implementation of the 2021 Act.
This report is an addition to the Publications of the Law Library of Congress, Law Library’s Legal Reports collection includes over 3,000 legal reports covering a variety of jurisdictions, researched and written by foreign legal specialists with expertise in each area.
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