The Conservation Constitution

Reviews / Votes

The Conservation Constitution provides the first in-depth account of the constitutional developments surrounding conservation policies during the long Progressive Era. No book until now has focused on the intersection between the conservation policies and the constitutional conflicts of the time. By combining these two themes, Kim Smith skillfully identifies the unique doctrinal strategies that helped establish the constitutionality of conservation, in particular wildlife and forest preservation. The book fills a long-missing piece in US environmental-legal history, and it does so with erudition, originality, and sensitivity to the nuances of evolving legal doctrine." - Noga Morag-Levine, professor of law and the George Roumell Faculty Scholar, College of Law, Michigan State University

"Kimberly Smith has written the rare work that will become as vital to students of American political development as to students of environmental policy and law. Her study of the constitutionalization of conservation policy at the turn of the twentieth century fills a vital gap in the literature on American constitutional development while challenging conventional narratives about the weaknesses of the American state and the conservatism of federal judges." - Mark Graber, University System of Maryland Regents Professor, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

"Professor Smith's simple but brilliant aim is to unearth the constitutional developments that grounded the twentieth-century conservation regime. The surprising story she tells highlights the generative role of the early twentieth-century courts, usually perceived as hidebound opponents of progress on every front. By reading conservation policy into constitutional history, Smith demands a reconsideration of twentieth-century constitutional development. A must-read for scholars of constitutionalism, environmental politics, and political development." - Julie Novkov, author of Racial Union: Law, Intimacy, and the White State in Alabama, 1865-1954

"Kim Smith's The Conservation Constitution tells the story of how constitutional doctrine has evolved to provide some Measure of support for conservation and environmental protection laws. Using extensive legal and archival research, she explains how key government leaders, their lawyers, and others attempted to justify particular legal approaches; how courts have evaluated these approaches; how those justifications changed over time; and what all of this means for current issues such as biodiversity loss and climate change. The book is essential reading for anyone working at the intersection of constitutional law and environmental policy." - John C. Dernbach, Commonwealth Professor of Environmental Law and Sustainability, Widener University Commonwealth Law School

"Contrary to most popular and many scholarly assumptions, environmental policy did not begin in the 1960s. The constitutional framework for federal environmental authority was forged in the Progressive Era. We have long needed a complete and authoritative account of the conservationist movement's legal strategies and constitutional accomplishments, and this is that book." - Sarah Phillips, author of This Land, This Nation: Conservation, Rural America, and the New Deal