The Use of Contingent Valuation Methodology in Natural Resource Damage Assessments: Legal Fact and Economic Fiction

The creation of comprehensive statutory schemes for protection of the environment has required the legal system to focus on the definition problems associated with environmental goods and with the physical, tmeporal, and aesthetic considerations related to such goods. Clearly, the events of the twentieth century have taught us that individual physical components of the natural environment, such as streams, forests, wildlife, and biota, do not exist in isolation. Instead, these components are part of the interrelated environmental systems that may, in turn, impact other environmental systems. Likewise, damage to one or more of the components of a system can result in a loss to humans of these environmental goods or the "Uses" provided by the system.