Growing awareness of irreversible environmental harms transformed law’s treatment of time

Evidence

At least in the nonquantum world of classic Newtonian mechanics where people live their lives, time goes only in one direction. Time itself cannot be reversed. Yet the consequences of actions taken at one time often can be reversed at some point in the future. The ability to reverse consequences falls far short of reversing time, but it does both offer the possibility of a fresh start and significantly reduce the stakes of making an initial mistake. … In the second half of the twentieth century, however, more and more environmental effects such as the Santa Barbara oil spill seemed irreversible in character and more extreme in scope. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 301

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the core conceptual distinction between irreversible consequences and irreversible time that underlies environmental law’s precautionary structure.
• XREF: connects to: Delayed environmental harms create regulatory cost-asymmetry and uncertainty — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 306; Environmentalism transformed the content of a dozen unrelated fields of American law — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 28; Legal systems change in response to social and technological shifts — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 118 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Legal systems change in response to social and technological shifts #corroborates (0.85) — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 118
• The common law adapts to social and economic change #corroborates (0.80) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1311
• Landmark environmental statutes aspired to constitutional-level transformation, not ordinary lawmaking #exemplifies (0.78) — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere, 640