Document Type
Article
Abstract
Commercial-property leases as a means for private environmental governance routinely get overlooked despite their noticeable presence. The applicable theoretical models used in environmental law and the standards that typically measure legal activity fail to detect the commercial-property lease as a regulatory action as well. Moreover, the public and positive law and policy approach of the past that heavily relied on administrative authority now follows more of a private law and governance approach. The private law and governance approach responds to the marketplace where standards are set, enforcement occurs, and dispute resolution takes place between parties involved in the transaction outside of the supervision of the legislative process, the governmental agencies, or the courts. This approach toward private environmental governance in commercial-property leases occurred in response to legislation that imposed liability on landlords and other parties for a tenant’s ecological transgressions and mounting pressure from highly publicized unethical and irresponsible behavior that stimulated a heightened corporate consciousness to embrace sustainability benchmarks. This article evaluates and provides evidence that the private activities of the parties involved in commercial-property leases fit within the paradigm of a new model tied to environmental governance. To this end, commercial-property leases offer a unique insight into the motivations and approaches taken by the engaging parties while providing guidance as to how best to encourage and craft ecological and sustainable solutions under a private environmental-governance model for land use.
Recommended Citation
Darren A. Prum,
Commercial-Property Leases as a Means for Private Environmental Governance,
35
Ga. St. U. L. Rev.
(2019).
Available at:
https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol35/iss3/5