Environmental Policy-Making: Reflections on the Process of Technology Assessment

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1973

Publication Title

Santa Clara Lawyer

Keywords

environmental policy, technology assessment

Abstract

The limitations on the nature of our technologically oriented decisions are in large part a response to fundamental assumptions contained in our legal system. The legal and economic systems have existed within a symbiotic relationship from which each derives the ability to define itself through the interaction of theory and control. Issues of "business" costs of an exterprise and "non-business" costs of technological proposals exist simply because the "law" creates such a dichotomy. These cost definitions arise, not from some command of natural law, but because the power of economic self-interest and shared class identities have dominated both courts and legislators. However, in the same manner as legal definitions are created, they can be redefined.

Volume

13

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