Governmental Environmental Action: Legal Bases and Restraints

Governments are environmental actors, both as regulators and as contributors to environmental impacts. In both capacities, governmental action tends to be regulated by, and based on, different legal bases as compared to private action. Since governments are capable of acting in ways that individuals cannot (for instance through the exercise of police power), governmental action is held to different standards and has to take place within specific mandated parameters. However, as the distinguishing differences between ‘public’ and ‘private’ actors and actions are becoming less pronounced, we may need to reconsider the existing restrains on public and private actors and actions.