(Oxford) Environmental Law Comprehensive Notes 2025

“Environmental justice is our cry of defiance against the
onslaught of oppressive toxins and toxic oppressions that
threaten to submerge our homes.”


“Fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people
regardless of race, color, national origin or income with respect
to the development, implementation and enforcement of
environmental laws, regulations and policies.

Fair treatment means that no group of people, including racial,
ethnic or socioeconomic groups, should bear a disproportionate
share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from
industrial, municipal and commercial operations or the execution
of federal, state, local and tribal programs and policies.”

• Based on the idea that communities of color are typically
disproportionately subjected to higher levels of
environmental risk than white communities
• Intersection of laws (environmental, civil rights, human
rights, constitutional principles)
• Includes: natural disasters, location of hazardous sites,
building of public transportation systems, etc.
• Applied on a global scale (i.e. transportation of waste from
Northern to Southern countries)


Explain that environmental racism is a SUBSET of environmental
justice - “environmental RACISM is environmental injustice that
occurs in practice and in policy within a racialized context”

,PRIMARY CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM
1. CHEAP LAND
2. LACK OF POLITICAL POWER
3. LACK OF MOBILITY
4. POVERTY


Storytelling and Counter Storytelling Ask the

class - which theme is this most like?


Equal Protection

• There are more remedies available if race IS implicated in
the claim
• One large category is Equal Protection Claims
• BUT, the burden of proof requires Plaintiffs to find intent to
discriminate (See Washington v. Davis; Arlington Heights)
o Need to find discriminatory purpose
o Although statistics might provide a clear pattern, the
use of statistics in environmental injustice claims has
been unsuccessful in the past
o Typically deference to governmental agencies
• This makes it very hard to win these claims
Sultan will go further into how this remedy fails



Civil Rights Act, Title VI

• Supreme Court suggested the availability of a cause of
action under disparate impact standards in 1971
• Later, did not expressly find an implied right of action under
602
• leading to circuit split



Failure of Federal Statutory Remedies

,1994: Clinton signed Executive Order 12898, requiring each
federal agency to make environmental justice part of its miss
omission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate,
disproportionately high and adverse human health or
environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on
minority populations and low-income populations ..., [and to] ...
develop an agency-wide environmental justice strategy, ... that
identifies and addresses disproportionately high and adverse
human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies,
and activities on minority populations and low-income
populations.
• OCR created to respond to and investigate Title VI
complaints specifically
• Meant to be one of EPA’s highest priorities
• HOWEVER, no guidance on new Title VI complaints
• EPA highly influenced and controlled by politica forces

, Environmental Permitting (England and
Wales) Regulations
2007 (SI 2007 No. 3538

These regulations came into force on 6 April 2008 and introduce a substantial change to the
system of 'environmental permitting'.
They introduce a single 'environmental permitting' system in England and Wales by replacing the
waste management licensing requirements under Part II of the Environmental Protection Act
1990 and the majority of Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 (as amended). They
also replace the permit requirements for installations contained within the Pollution Prevention
and Control (England and Wales) Regulations 2000 (as amended).
The 2009 amending regulations of the same name (SI 2009/1799) made a great deal of technical
changes and inserted a new schedule, to accommodate provisions for mining waste (to implement
the Mining Waste Directive 2005/35/EC).
These regulations have also been amended by the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations
2009 (SI 2009/890).

Revocation and Repeals

These regulations revoke and repeal a number of legislative provisions. The most notable
regulations that have been revoked in their entirety are:
 The Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) Regulations
1991 and associated amendments (as they apply to England and Wales).
 The Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) (Amendment)
(Hazardous Waste Incineration) Regulations 1998 (as they apply to England and Wales).
 The Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) (Amendment)
(Petrol Vapour Recovery) Regulations 1996 (as they apply to England and Wales).
 The Environmental Protection (Applications, Appeals and Registers) Regulations 1991 and
associated amendments (as they apply to England and Wales)
 The Waste Management Regulations 1996 and associated amendments (as they apply to
England and Wales).
 Pollution Prevention and Control (England and Wales) Regulations 2000 and associated
amendments.
 Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002 and associated amendments.
 Large Combustion Plants (England and Wales) Regulations 2002.
 Waste Incineration (England and Wales) Regulations 2002.
 Solvent Emissions (England and Wales) Regulations 2004.
 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Waste Management) Licensing (England
and Wales) Regulations 2006.
 Pet Cemeteries (England and Wales) Regulations 2007.
The majority of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 and associated
amendments have also been replaced with the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007.