Jan G. Laitos – författare

The Right of Nonuse provides a fresh and remarkably different perspective on the real causes of the ills plaguing the world's resources and environment. It re-examines the very nature of nature, and from this new perspective, argues that what is needed is for humans to grant to natural resources a legal right to be left alone - a right of nonuse. In the process, it explores the following questions: Why do natural resources continue to be depleted and removed at an alarming rate? Why are species becoming extinct at a pace that may be unprecedented? Why does the environment continue to be polluted? Why do the weather and climate seem to be changing? Perhaps most important, why have laws, legal institutions and governments been unable to address and correct these problems? Jan Laitos reviews the history of our relationship with the natural environment and develops new ways of thinking about nature and its protection. Instead of proceeding with human-based goals, Laitos argues that we should protect environmental resources for their own intrinsic value. Instead of giving humans more and more rights to clean up the environment, and to halt resources depletion, a right of nonuse held by the resource itself should be created. Natural resources have always possessed this parallel nonuse function, and society should recognize and legitimize it.

The Right of Nonuse provides a fresh and remarkably different perspective on the real causes of the ills plaguing the world''s resources and environment. It re-examines the very nature of nature, and from this new perspective, argues that what is needed is for humans to grant to natural resources a legal right to be left alone - a right of nonuse. In the process, it explores the following questions: Why do natural resources continue to be depleted and removed at an alarming rate? Why are species becoming extinct at a pace that may be unprecedented? Why does the environment continue to be polluted? Why do the weather and climate seem to be changing? Perhaps most important, why have laws, legal institutions and governments been unable to address and correct these problems? Jan Laitos reviews the history of our relationship with the natural environment and develops new ways of thinking about nature and its protection. Instead of proceeding with human-based goals, Laitos argues that we should protect environmental resources for their own intrinsic value. Instead of giving humans more and more rights to clean up the environment, and to halt resources depletion, a right of nonuse held by the resource itself should be created. Natural resources have always possessed this parallel nonuse function, and society should recognize and legitimize it.

The Right of Nonuse provides a fresh and remarkably different perspective on the real causes of the ills plaguing the world's resources and environment. It re-examines the very nature of nature, and from this new perspective, argues that what is needed is for humans to grant to natural resources a legal right to be left alone - a right of nonuse. In the process, it explores the following questions: Why do natural resources continue to be depleted and removed at an alarming rate? Why are species becoming extinct at a pace that may be unprecedented? Why does the environment continue to be polluted? Why do the weather and climate seem to be changing? Perhaps most important, why have laws, legal institutions and governments been unable to address and correct these problems? Jan Laitos reviews the history of our relationship with the natural environment and develops new ways of thinking about nature and its protection. Instead of proceeding with human-based goals, Laitos argues that we should protect environmental resources for their own intrinsic value. Instead of giving humans more and more rights to clean up the environment, and to halt resources depletion, a right of nonuse held by the resource itself should be created. Natural resources have always possessed this parallel nonuse function, and society should recognize and legitimize it.

In Rethinking the Law of Private Property, eminent legal scholars consider how private property rights might be transformed and realigned to better cope with modern challenges. They rethink current paradigms around private property and natural resource ownership in light of police power regulations, health rules and expanded land-use regulations.Vicki Been, Daniel Cole, Robin Craig, Richard Epstein, Jan Laitos, Roger Pilon, J.B. Ruhl, James Salzman and Ilya Somin are among America’s leading scholars on private property rights. Their chapters consider three critical issues facing private property owners in the 21st century. (1) To what extent may constitutional protections of private property resist police power limits restricting property uses? (2) Do developers of property for housing have the ability to provide affordable housing and rental properties when the government wishes to advance social policies that may impede that development? (3) Can notions of private property adapt to accommodate demands for more efficient allocation of scarce but much needed natural resources, such as water and ecosystem services?Students and academics in property law and government law will greatly benefit from this vital resource. Its discerning insights will also interest legal practitioners and teachers of property law, land use planning, environmental law, constitutional law, water law and natural resources law.

In Rethinking the Law of Private Property, eminent legal scholars consider how private property rights might be transformed and realigned to better cope with modern challenges. They rethink current paradigms around private property and natural resource ownership in light of police power regulations, health rules and expanded land-use regulations.Vicki Been, Daniel Cole, Robin Craig, Richard Epstein, Jan Laitos, Roger Pilon, J.B. Ruhl, James Salzman and Ilya Somin are among America's leading scholars on private property rights. Their chapters consider three critical issues facing private property owners in the 21st century. (1) To what extent may constitutional protections of private property resist police power limits restricting property uses? (2) Do developers of property for housing have the ability to provide affordable housing and rental properties when the government wishes to advance social policies that may impede that development? (3) Can notions of private property adapt to accommodate demands for more efficient allocation of scarce but much needed natural resources, such as water and ecosystem services?Students and academics in property law and government law will greatly benefit from this vital resource. Its discerning insights will also interest legal practitioners and teachers of property law, land use planning, environmental law, constitutional law, water law and natural resources law.

Challenging historic assumptions about human relationships with nature, Jan G. Laitos examines how environmental laws have addressed environmental problems in the past, and the reasons for the laws' inability to successfully prevent environmental contamination and alterations of critical environmental systems. This forward-thinking book offers a creative and organic alternative to traditional but ultimately unsuccessful environmental rules, highlighting that established approaches to existential threats impacting our natural environment cannot be relied upon.Calling for a rethinking of how science is best used in environmental law, it explains the need for a new generation of environmental laws grounded in the universal laws of nature which might succeed where past and current approaches have largely failed. Proposing a new algorithm for the formulation of workable environmental laws, Laitos explores the ways in which these should be linked to the laws of connection, simplicity, economy, and symmetry. This innovative book illustrates examples of this new class of laws, based not on regulations and rules, but on rights and duties.Rethinking Environmental Law will be an illuminating read for students and scholars of environmental law and policy. Suggesting an alternative role for science in developing environmental policy, it will also be of value to environmental policy makers.