Property Rights In The Defence Of Nature

First published in 1995. In this study, the author provides a lively and accessible account of the failure of the legal regime to protect the environment. Elizabeth Brubaker explores how legal reliance on property rights has been useful in opposing pollution of land and water. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental Studies, as well as to all those interest in a more secure future for the environment.

First published in 1995. In this study, the author provides a lively and accessible account of the failure of the legal regime to protect the environment. Elizabeth Brubaker explores how legal reliance on property rights has been useful in opposing pollution of land and water. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental Studies, as well as to all those interest in a more secure future for the environment.

This book offers a unique and thought provoking exploration of how property concepts can be substantially reshaped to meet ecological challenges. It takes the discussion beyond its traditional parameters and offers new insights into conceptualizing and justifying property systems, in an age of ecological consequences.

The idea of human dominion over nature has become entrenched by the dominant rights-based interpretation of private property. Accordingly, nature is not attributed any inherent value and becomes merely the matter of a human property relationship. Earth Jurisprudence: Private Property and the Environment explores how an alternative conception of property might be instead grounded in the ecocentric concept of an Earth community. Recognising that human beings are deeply interconnected with and dependent on nature, this concept is proposed as a standard and measure for human law. This book argues that the anthropocentric institution of private property needs to be reconceived; drawing on international case law, indigenous views of property and the land use practices of agrarian communities, Peter Burdon considers how private property can be reformulated in a way that fosters duties towards nature. Using the theory of earth jurisprudence as a guide, he outlines an alternative ecocentric description of private property as a relationship between and among members of the Earth community. This book will appeal to those researching in law, justice and ecology, as well as anyone pursuing an interest more particularly in earth jurisprudence.

This book explores the current notion and definition of property, and its interpretation and implementation in relation to the environment. The author examines two primary problems: the degradation of land, natural resources and animal abuse; and the increasing erosion of private property rights from property owners by the arbitrary interference of state governments. Examining texts from antiquity to contemporary legislation, it portrays the historical development of the understanding of "nature" as "property" and discusses our obligations towards the environment. Drawing on the most influential political-philosophical texts from all periods of property rights history, the author analyzes modern national and international legislation and case law to offer legally-grounded evidence and explanations. This book advocates the incorporation of a formula that guarantees the protection of property rights into the legal system, and imposes clear and effective responsibility on property owners to limit the use of natural resources and the abuse of animals. This book will appeal to practitioners, researchers and students with an interest in environmental and private property law.--

Legal regulation of the environment is often construed as a collection of legislated responses to the problems of modern living. Treated as such, 'environmental law' refers not to a body of distinctive juristic ideas (such as one might find in contract law or tort) but to a body of black-letter rules out of which a distinct jurisprudence might grow. This book challenges the accepted view by arguing that environmental law must be seen not as a mere instrument of social policy, but as a historical product of surprising antiquity and considerable sophistication. Environmental law, it is argued, is underpinned by a series of tenets concerning the relationship of human beings to the natural world, through the acquisition and use of property. By tracing these ideas to their roots in the political philosophy of the seventeenth century, and their reception into the early law of nuisance, this book seeks to overturn the perception that environmental law's philosophical significance is confined to questions about the extent to which a state should pursue collective well-being and public health through deliberate manipulation and restriction of private property rights. Through a close re-examination of both early and modern statutes and cases, this book concludes that, far from being intelligible in exclusively instrumental terms, environmental law must be understood as the product of sustained reflection upon fundamental moral questions concerning the relationship between property, rights and nature.

The idea of human dominion over nature has become entrenched by the dominant rights-based interpretation of private property. Accordingly, nature is not attributed any inherent value and becomes merely the matter of a human property relationship. Earth Jurisprudence: Private Property and the Environment explores how an alternative conception of property might be instead grounded in the ecocentric concept of an Earth community. Recognising that human beings are deeply interconnected with and dependent on nature, this concept is proposed as a standard and measure for human law. This book argues that the anthropocentric institution of private property needs to be reconceived; drawing on international case law, indigenous views of property and the land use practices of agrarian communities, Peter Burdon considers how private property can be reformulated in a way that fosters duties towards nature. Using the theory of earth jurisprudence as a guide, he outlines an alternative ecocentric description of private property as a relationship between and among members of the Earth community. This book will appeal to those researching in law, justice and ecology, as well as anyone pursuing an interest more particularly in earth jurisprudence.

Over the last four decades emissions trading has enjoyed a high profile in environmental law scholarship and in environmental law and policy. Much of the discussion is promotional, preferring emissions trading above other regulatory strategies without, however, engaging with legal complexities embedded in conceptualising, scrutinising and managing emissions trading regimes. The combined effect of these debates is to create a perception that emissions trading is a straightforward regulatory strategy, imposable across various jurisdictions and environmental settings. This book shows that this view is problematic for at least two reasons. First, emissions trading responds to distinct environmental and non-environmental goals, including creating profit-centres, substituting bureaucratic control of resources, and ensuring regulatory compliance. This is important, as the particular purpose entrusted to a given emissions trading regime has, as its corollary, a particular governance structure, according to which the regime may be constructed and managed, and which trusts the emissions market, the state and rights in emissions allowances with distinct roles. Second, the governance structures of emissions trading regimes are culture-specific, which is a significant reminder of the importance of law in understanding not only how emissions trading schemes function but also what meaning is given to them as regulatory strategies. This is shown by deconstructing emissions trading discourses: that is, by inquiring into the assumptions about emissions trading, as featuring in emissions trading scholarship and in debates involving law and policymakers and the judiciary at the EU level. Ultimately, this book makes a strong argument for reconfiguring the common understanding of emissions trading schemes as regulatory strategies, and sets out a framework for analysis to sustain that reconfiguration.