"Who Ya Gonna C(S)ite?" Ghostbusters and the Environmental Regulation Debate

The author has cleverly used the motion picture, Ghostbusters, to examine the law and policy likely to be invoked when governments and individuals face an unexpected and undefined environmental threat. Several of the questions that may be raised include who decides which procedures will be followed to meet the threat; by what process; who determines whether those procedures should be abandoned in favor of another approach; should competing regulatory schemes be allowed to muddy the waters; and course of action might various parties take to enjoin a violator's activities? The author first discusses the parties and the issues involved in the film. This is followed with a review of environmental problems unique to ghostbusting.

The author then highlights causation, liability and remedy issues, followed by an overview of regulations to prevent environmental accidents. The author also evaluates how emergency problems are handled and then discusses the symbolic pollution presented in Ghostbusters II. The essay concludes by discussing the distrust of government, which results in the vigilante ghostbusting, and more generally, vigilante action in the environmental arena.