Lessons from Federal Pesticide Regulation on the Paradigms and Politics of Environmental Law Reform

Abstract

Although reform of federal pesticide regulation is often described as a simple choice between "scientific risk assessments" and "mere politics," such reductionism assumes away perhaps the fundamental challenge facing progressive reformers: how to improve political and market institutions that minimize trade-offs among deeply held public values. Professor Hornstein argues that an improved framework for environmental law reform, a "cause-oriented approach," vastly improves the prospects for developing workable incentive structures that can promote a more sustainable agriulture. More broadly, Professor Hornstein develops a positive political theory of pesticide regulation capitalizing on both public choice and public purpose explanations of collective political behavior, to argue that effective regulatory design must openly acknowledge the full complexities of both the "politics" and "science" of environmental protection.