Business funded a two-decade intellectual pipeline to change environmental law

Evidence

Simon, Mellon, and others funded industry-sympathetic research by think tanks and independent scholars. Walter Wriston, then the chief executive officer of Citibank, explained: “It takes about twenty years for a research paper at Harvard to become a law. There weren’t any people feeding the intellectual argument on the other side.” More conservative, pro-business philanthropic foundations, such as the Olin and Mellon Foundations, sponsored research and scholarship by establishing chairs and fellowships at the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, and Murray Weidenbaum’s Center for the Study of American Business at Washington University, all of which were heavily funded by business donations. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 439

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the deliberate engineering of legal change through funding an academic pipeline over decades — a case study in how ideas become law slowly, relevant across Legal Systems/Environmental law.
• QUESTION: Wriston’s ‘twenty years from Harvard paper to law’ timing claim — is there a way to verify or quantify that lag across other areas of law?
• XREF: connects to: Business-funded ideas took about twenty years to become law — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 545; Post-1970s business philanthropy deliberately funded think tanks and intellectuals to reverse environmental regulation. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 436; Business opposition to environmental law built its own foundation-backed intellectual apparatus — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 437 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Business opposition to environmental law built its own foundation-backed intellectual apparatus #corroborates (0.95) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 437
• Ecotourism and recreation businesses formed new economic allies for environmental law. #complicates (0.75) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 724