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by James Huffman
Stanford University
But we should not be surprised. Something resembling the non-regression principle explains the riots in Athens and the staunch resistance to reforming an unsustainable welfare state across most of Europe. Never mind, for example, that 20% of Italys population is 65 or older while nearly one in three young adults is unemployed. (The comparable numbers are 13% and one in five in the United States.) It seems many in Europe will sooner bankrupt their governments than agree to a little regression in their entitlements. The European Parliament is apparently blind to the obvious and direct link between their financial and economic crises and their demand that all nations be forbidden by international law to amend or repeal environmental laws. Environmental regulation is no different than any other type of regulation. If the costs of regulation exceed the benefits, the regulation makes no sense. And regulations that once made sense may later prove counter-productive. Theres no mystery why the principle of non-regression is so appealing to many environmentalists. It would exempt existing environmental regulations from review, reform and repeal, even if the costs have proven to be greater than the benefits. The mystery is why the parliament of an economically struggling continent would agree.
James Huffman is the Erskine Wood Sr. Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark Law School in Oregon. He served as dean of the law school from 1993 to 2006. Huffman serves on the boards of the National Crime Victims Law Institute, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, the Classroom Law Project, and the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. He is a member and former chair of the Executive Committee of the Environment and Property Rights Practice Group of the Federalist Society. His research interests include natural resource, property, environmental, and constitutional law.
Reprinted by permission of the Wall Street Journal. 2011 Dow Jones & Co. All Rights Reserved.
Hoover Institution
Stanford University