Mining Law: A Study in Perpetual Motion (Resources for the Future) - Hardcover
In this highly entertaining as well as profoundly scholarly study of the 1872 Mining Law, John Leshy has produced both a legal treatise and a history of the West written from the vantage point of mineral exploration and production. The Mining Law illuminates some of the more obscure corners of Western history, federal land and resource policy, and the relationships among various branches of government in making and carrying out policy.
For more than a century the mining of hard-rock minerals in the United States has been carried out under this law, which was written to promote mineral development in the age of the pick-and-shovel prospector. It is the last important survivor of the great laws undergirding the westward expansion. The Mining Law has never been changed to reflect modern mining technologies or newer social values that question whether mineral extraction is the best use of the land and its resources. From its enactment, the Mining Law's inadequacies have given rise to illegal abuse, litigation, and patchwork regulation by federal agencies and judge-made law. Leshy explains how the law has survived by a combination of executive and judicial manipulation in the face of legislative paralysis. Today, as concern mounts about economic efficiency, government regulation, environmental protection, the rebuilding of the nation's industrial base, and competing uses of the land and its resources, the argument for reform of the law becomes compelling. The present law not only obstructs the very mineral development it was designed to promote; it may no longer be in the national interest. Certainly any future attempts to rewrite or amend the Law will start off with Leshy's exposition and analysis of its origins, operation, and implementation, and his detailed examination of the issues surrounding the law, its interpretation by courts and administrative agencies, and the attempts to adapt the law to changing conditions and social goals. Assessing the prospect for reform in today's political climate, he suggests arrangements regarding the law's reform that might be concluded by industry, small operators, and environmental protection advocates as well as creative measures that might be taken by Congress, the president, and the courts.
For more than a century the mining of hard-rock minerals in the United States has been carried out under this law, which was written to promote mineral development in the age of the pick-and-shovel prospector. It is the last important survivor of the great laws undergirding the westward expansion. The Mining Law has never been changed to reflect modern mining technologies or newer social values that question whether mineral extraction is the best use of the land and its resources. From its enactment, the Mining Law's inadequacies have given rise to illegal abuse, litigation, and patchwork regulation by federal agencies and judge-made law. Leshy explains how the law has survived by a combination of executive and judicial manipulation in the face of legislative paralysis. Today, as concern mounts about economic efficiency, government regulation, environmental protection, the rebuilding of the nation's industrial base, and competing uses of the land and its resources, the argument for reform of the law becomes compelling. The present law not only obstructs the very mineral development it was designed to promote; it may no longer be in the national interest. Certainly any future attempts to rewrite or amend the Law will start off with Leshy's exposition and analysis of its origins, operation, and implementation, and his detailed examination of the issues surrounding the law, its interpretation by courts and administrative agencies, and the attempts to adapt the law to changing conditions and social goals. Assessing the prospect for reform in today's political climate, he suggests arrangements regarding the law's reform that might be concluded by industry, small operators, and environmental protection advocates as well as creative measures that might be taken by Congress, the president, and the courts.
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Review:
'A definitive account of federal mining policy from the era of the California Gold Rush to the present. Major legislative reform is urgently needed. . . and Leshy concludes this lucid and judicious legal study with some constructive policy recommendations.' Western Library 'In this comprehensive and quite readable volume [the author] relates how, if not entirely why, the mining law became, in the words of an early critic, a perpetual motion machine seemingly designed to promote litigation, create controversy, and occasional difficulties.' Amicus Journal 'Sufficiently technical and scholarly to be useful for lawyers and at the same time sufficiently free of jargon and clearly organized so as to be understandable to nonlawyers.' Rural Development Perspectives
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- PublisherRFF Press
- Publication date1987
- ISBN 10 0915707268
- ISBN 13 9780915707263
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages542
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The Mining Law: A Study in Perpetual Motion
Published by
Resources for the Future, Inc, Washington D. C
(1987)
ISBN 10: 0915707268
ISBN 13: 9780915707263
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
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Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine condition. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine dust jacket. NOT a library discard (illustrator). Washington D. C: Resources for the Future, Inc, 1987. NOT a library discard. Fine condition in a bright and shiny Near Fine dust jacket. The jacket would also be FINE but for a small mark (paper clip impression?). NO chips, tears, or fading. Sharp corners. Bright, shiny, clean, square and tight. NO owner's name or bookplate. NOT a remainder. Pages are fresh, crisp, clean and unmarked -- apparently seldom if ever read. List of chapter notes. Name index. Subject index. Bound in the original black cloth, stamped in bright copper on front cover and spine. From the dust jacket: "In this highly entertaining as well as profoundly scholarly study of the 1872 Mining Law, John Leshy has produced both a legal treatise and a history of the West written from the vantage point of mineral exploration and production. THE MINING LAW illuminates some of the more obscure corners of Western history, federal land and resource policy, and the relationships among various branches of government in making and carrying out policy. For more than a century the mining of hard-rock minerals in the United States has been carried out under this law, which was written to promote mineral development in the age of the pick-and-shovel prospector. It is the last important survivor of the great laws undergirding the westward expansion. The mining law has never been changed to reflect modern mining technologies or newer social values that question whether mineral extraction is the best use of the land and its resources. From its enactment, the mining law's inadequacies have given rise to illegal abuse, litigation, and patchwork regulation by federal agencies and judge-made law. Leshy explains how the law has survived by a combination of executive and judicial manipulation in the face of legislative paralysis. Today, as concern mounts about economic efficiency, government regulation, environmental protection, the rebuilding of the nation's industrial base, and competing uses of the land and its resources, the argument for reform of the law becomes compelling. The present law not only obstructs the very mineral development it was designed to promote; it may no longer be in the national interest. Certainly any future attempts to rewrite or amend the law will start off with Leshy's exposition and analysis of its origins, operation, and implementation, and his detailed examination of the issues surrounding the law, its interpretation by courts and administrative agencies, and the attempts to adapt the law to changing conditions and social goals. Assessing the prospect for reform in today's political climate, he suggests arrangements regarding the law's reform that might be concluded by industry, small operators, and environmental protection advocates as well as creative measures that might be taken by Congress, the president, and the courts.". 1st ed? (No additional printings listed). Hardcover. Fine condition/Near Fine dust jacket. Illus. by NOT a library discard. 8vo. xvii, 521pp. Great Packaging, Fast Shipping. 1st ed? (No additional printings listed). Seller Inventory # 027129
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The Mining Law: A Study in Perpetual Motion.
Published by
Resources for the Future,
(1986)
ISBN 10: 0915707268
ISBN 13: 9780915707263
Used
Hardcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. From the library of Anthropologist Robert J. Squier. 519pp Robert Squier's tidy name stamp, else very good plus condition with text clean & binding tight / slightly ruffled, very good plus dust jacket. Seller Inventory # 163204
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