Environmental Audit Privilege
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Environmental Audit Privilege
Environmental audit privilege, or environmental privilege, in United States environmental law, is an evidentiary privilege created under state statute. The privilege protects the results of companies' internal environmental compliance audits from disclosure at trial, or in pretrial discovery. The environmental audit privilege is meant to incentivize companies to evaluate their own compliance with environmental regulations. Proponents of such laws further argue that it is necessary to encourage such self-evaluations, because regulatory agencies lack the resources to police all the polluters in their jurisdiction. Environmental audit privilege statutes have been promoted by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, which circulates a model statute known as the "Uniform State Environmental Audit Privilege Act". However, most state environmental privilege laws are non-uniform, and vary greatly in their scope, exceptions and effect. The United States Environmental ...
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United States Environmental Law
United States environmental law concerns legal standards to protect human health and improve the natural environment of the United States. Scope The United States Congress has enacted federal statutes intended to address pollution control and remediation, including for example the Clean Air Act (air pollution), the Clean Water Act (water pollution), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund) (contaminated site cleanup). There are also federal laws governing natural resources use and biodiversity which are strongly influenced by environmental principles, including the Endangered Species Act, National Forest Management Act, and Coastal Zone Management Act. The National Environmental Policy Act, governing environmental impact review in actions undertaken or approved by the U.S. federal government, may implicate all of these areas. Federalism in the United States has played a role in the shape of national environmenta ...
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Evidence (law)
The law of evidence, also known as the rules of evidence, encompasses the rules and legal principles that govern the proof of facts in a legal proceeding. These rules determine what evidence must or must not be considered by the trier of fact in reaching its decision. The trier of fact is a judge in bench trials, or the jury in any cases involving a jury. The law of evidence is also concerned with the quantum (amount), quality, and type of proof needed to prevail in litigation. The rules vary depending upon whether the venue is a criminal court, civil court, or family court, and they vary by jurisdiction. The Quantum meruit, quantum of evidence is the amount of evidence needed; the quality of proof is how reliable such evidence should be considered. Important rules that govern Admissible evidence, admissibility concern hearsay, Authentication (law), authentication, Relevance (law), relevance, privilege (evidence), privilege, witnesses, opinions, Expert witness, expert tes ...
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Statute
A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed will of a legislative body, whether that be on the behalf of a country, state or province, county, municipality, or so on. Depending on the legal system, a statute may also be referred to as an "act." Etymology The word appears in use in English as early as the 14th century. "Statute" and earlier English spellings were derived from the Old French words ''statut'', ''estatut'', ''estatu,'' meaning "(royal) promulgation, (legal) statute." These terms were in turn derived from the Late Latin ''statutum,'' meaning "a law, decree." Publication and organization In virtually all countries, newly enacted statutes are published and distributed so that everyone can look up the statutory law. This can be done in the form of a government gazette, whi ...
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Compliance Audit
Quality audit is the process of systematic examination of a quality system carried out by an internal or external quality auditor or an audit team. It is an important part of an organization's quality management system and is a key element in the ISO quality system standard, ISO 9001. Purpose Quality audits are typically performed at predefined time intervals and ensure that the institution has clearly defined internal system monitoring procedures linked to effective action. This can help determine if the organization complies with the defined quality system processes and can involve procedural or results-based assessment criteria. With the upgrade of the ISO9000 series of standards from the 1994 to 2008 series, the focus of the audits has shifted from purely procedural adherence towards measurement of the actual effectiveness of the Quality Management System (QMS) and the results that have been achieved through the implementation of a QMS. Audits can also be used for safety pur ...
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Pretrial Discovery
Discovery, in the law of common law jurisdictions, is a phase of pretrial procedure in a lawsuit in which each party, through the law of civil procedure, can obtain evidence from other parties. This is by means of methods of discovery such as interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for admissions and depositions. Discovery can be obtained from nonparties using subpoenas. When a discovery request is objected to, the requesting party may seek the assistance of the court by filing a motion to compel discovery. Conversely, a party or nonparty resisting discovery can seek the assistance of the court by filing a motion for a protective order. History Discovery evolved out of a unique feature of early equitable pleading procedure before the English Court of Chancery: among various requirements, a plaintiff's bill in equity was required to plead "positions". These were statements of evidence that the plaintiff assumed to exist in support of his pleading ...
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Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause harm. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. Although environmental pollution can be caused by natural events, the word pollution generally implies that the contaminants Human impact on the environment, have a human source, such as manufacturing, Extractivism, extractive industries, poor waste management, transportation or Agricultural pollution, agriculture. Pollution is often classed as point source pollution, point source (coming from a highly concentrated specific site, such as a factory, Environmental effects of mining, mine, construction site), or nonpoint source pollution (coming from a widespread distributed sources, such as microplastics or agricultural runoff). Many sources of po ...
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American Legislative Exchange Council
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization of conservatism in the United States, conservative state legislature (United States), state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share Model act, model legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States. ALEC provides a forum for state legislators and private sector members to collaborate on Model act, model bills—draft legislation that members may customize and introduce for debate in their own state legislatures. ALEC has produced model bills on a broad range of issues, such as reducing regulation and individual and corporate taxation, combating illegal immigration to the United States, illegal immigration, loosening environmental regulations, tightening voter ID laws, voter identification rules, weakening Labor unions in the United States, labor unions, and opposing gun control. Some of these bills dominate legislative agendas in states that include Ariz ...
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Model Statute
A model act, also called a model law or a piece of model legislation, is a suggested example for a law, drafted centrally to be disseminated and suggested for enactment in multiple independent legislatures. The motivation classically has been the hope of fostering more legal uniformity among jurisdictions, and better practice in legislative wording, than would otherwise occur; another motivation sometimes has been lobbying disguised under such ideals. Model laws can be intended to be enacted verbatim, to be enacted after minor modification, or to serve more as general guides for the legislatures. Model laws are especially prevalent in federations because the federal subjects (for example, states, provinces, or other subjects) are autonomous or semi-autonomous but nonetheless can benefit from a substantial degree of uniformity of laws among jurisdictions. For example, in the United States, because the country consists of 50 semi-autonomous states, each with its own legislature and ...
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United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. The agency is led by its administrator, who is appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. The current administrator is Lee Zeldin. The EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the administrator is normally given cabinet rank. The EPA has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. There are regional offices for each of the agency's ten regions, as well as 27 laboratories around the country. The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education. It has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultat ...
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Delegation
Delegation is the process of distributing and entrusting work to another person.Schermerhorn, J., Davidson, P., Poole, D., Woods, P., Simon, A., & McBarron, E. (2017). ''Management'' (6th ed., pp. 282–286). Brisbane: John Wiley & Sons Australia. In management or leadership within an organisation, it involves a manager aiming to efficiently distribute work, decision-making and responsibility to subordinate workers in an organization. Delegation may result in creation of an accountable chain of authority where authority and responsibility moves down in an organisational structure. Inefficient delegation may lead to micromanagement. There are a number of reasons someone may decide to delegate. These include: * To free themselves up to do other tasks in the pace of their own * To have the most qualified person making the decisions * To seek another qualified person's perspective on an issue * To develop someone else's ability to handle the additional assignments judiciously and ...
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Office Of Enforcement And Compliance Assurance
The Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance is the law enforcement arm of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is made up of attorneys, special agents, scientists and other employees. Organization The Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance consists of eight component offices. Office of Administration and Policy The Office of Administration and Policy recommends national policy on issues pertaining to enforcement and compliance, and provides a range of administrative support services which includes: human resources, labor relations, budget, finances, contracts, grants, records management and management of the compliance and enforcement information on the Agency's website. :*Administrative Management Division :*Budget and Financial Management Division :*Information Technology Division :*Policy and Legislative Coordination Division Office of Civil Enforcement The Office of Civil Enforcement develops and prosecutes administrative civil and jud ...
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Minnesota
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the south, and North Dakota and South Dakota to the west. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 12th-largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd-most populous, with about 5.8 million residents. Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes"; it has 14,420 bodies of fresh water covering at least ten acres each. Roughly a third of the state is Forest cover by state and territory in the United States, forested. Much of the remainder is prairie and farmland. More than 60% of Minnesotans (about 3.71 million) live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, known as the "Twin Cities", which is Minnesota's main Politics of Minnesota, political, Economy of Minnesota, economic, and C ...
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