Chasing the Wind: Regulating Air Pollution in the Common Law
State. By Noga Morag-Levine. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2003. 264p. $35.00.
This book covers an impressive array of topics: the contrasting
styles of air pollution regulation in the United States and Europe; the
English common law of “noxious vapours” from 1611 to 1900;
the origin of the highly effective British Alkali Inspectorate; the
development of the common law of nuisance in Pennsylvania from 1869 to
1970; American regulation of “smoke” and
“odors” over the past century; and a detailed examination
of contemporary regulation of odor at foundries in four American
cities. The author is to be commended for the extensive research packed
into nine dense chapters.