William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review
Abstract
The energy independence approaches by two popular democracies, the United States and India, have recently been the center of attention. This Article examines whether two Democratic leaders, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, have maintained constitutionalism in light of executive orders and ordinances that focus on energy independence by way of promoting coal-fired power plants rather than focusing on the environment and human health. Based on constitutional underpinnings, this Article concludes that although both leaders and their administrations may not have violated their respective constitutions, they have certainly violated notions of environmentalism. This Article then broadly defines what environmentalism is through different discussions and concludes that the Trump administration and Modi administration have violated environmentalism because both ignored many norms of global and national pollution control mandates and environmental justice concerns related to coal mining. This Article then explains and concludes with whether the judiciary will be able to save the day.
Repository Citation
Vidhya V. Iyer, Two Popular Democracies' "Energy Independence" Initiatives Through the Lenses of Constitutionalism, Environmentalism, and Judicial Activism Oeuvres--A Comparative Study of the Trump and Modi Administrations, 44 Wm. & Mary Envtl L. & Pol'y Rev. 163 (2019), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmelpr/vol44/iss1/4Included in
Administrative Law Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Environmental Law Commons