The Role of Bureaucratic Practice in U.S. Environmental Law: The Case of the National Environmental Policy Act

I propose a re-interpretation of the late-1960s' and early-1970s' burst of U.S. federal environmental legislation, focusing on the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act. These laws inaugurated contemporary U.S. environmental law and influenced environmental law abroad. Departing from the conventional understanding, my project will develop an account of these laws' combination of (1) energetic administrative capacity for environmental protection and (2) a deep epistemic humility, sometimes dissuading anthropogenic management altogether. The project explicates a founding vision of environmental-bureaucratic governance, and, beyond the academy, would advance courts/agencies' understanding of these major environmental laws.