Law questions and essay analysis

¶ … intrinsic relationship between common law doctrines of public and private nuisance and certain elements of contemporary legislation that pertain to public and private injury. Examples of the latter legislation include the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and other such mandates set up by the Environmental Protection Agency (McAdams, 2008, p. 57-58). In both of these instances, there is legislation regarding the infringement on the rights and access to quality of life for people. One of the primary distinctions between the aforementioned common law doctrines and official standards set by governmental agencies such as federal, state and municipal authorities is that the latter are recent or ongoing developments in legislation, whereas the former legislation was generally created and adopted significantly earlier.

When comparing these two different types of legislation that are germane to the quality of life and the rights thereof of both individuals and communities, it is necessary to note that in many instances, official standards regulations appear much more specific than those related to common law doctrines. For example, definitions of common law mandates such as trespass, negligence, and both private and public nuisance include fairly ambiguous terminology, such as "substantial and unreasonable" (McAdams, 2008, p. 63), "intentional," (McAdams, 2008, p. 65) "carelessly," (McAdams, 2008, p.66) and other wording that allows for interpretation and is generally more subjective than official standards which, due to the high level of their specificity, are much more objective.

Furthermore, when examining the specificity of the regulations imposed upon public and private areas via official standards, it is extremely revealing to note that in many cases, specific areas will actually impose regulations that are more strident that what is federally mandated. Due to what is known as the police power of a state -- in which a state attempts to maintain its welfare by imposing measures that go beyond those that are federally required (McAdams, 2008, p. 57) -- several areas of the U.S. have mandated goals designed to improve the quality of life that meets their own standards. An excellent example of this fact is the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which essentially states that the mayor of a number of cities have pledged that their cities will reduce greenhouse emissions within their municipalities until they are seven percent below the levels in 1990 (No author, 2012). In attempting to reach this goal by 2012, a number of the different municipalities are enforcing standards that are stricter than those implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency. Austin, Texas, is requiring new single family home residents to use at least 60% less energy than that found by contemporary standards, and has targeted 2015 as the date by which this goal should be met.