Welcome to the Government Regulations Learning Section

GOVERNMENTAL REGULATIONS - Environmental law is a collective term describing international treaties (conventions), statutes, regulations, and common law or national legislation (where applicable) that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity.

The topic may be divided into two major subjects: pollution control and remediation, and resource conservation, individual exhaustion. The limitations and expenses that such laws may impose on commerce, and the often unquantifiable (non-monetized) benefit of environmental protection, have generated and continue to generate significant controversy.

Given the broad scope of environmental law, no fully definitive list of environmental laws is possible. The following discussion and resources give an indication of the breadth of law that falls within the "environmental" metric.

Considered in terms of historical precedence and worldwide emulation, the United States has been a world leader in the development and implementation of environmental law. While subject to criticism at home and abroad on issues of protection, enforcement, over-regulation, and imposition of externalities, the United States remains an important source of environmental legal expertise and experience.