The Transformation Of Environmental Law And Governance

This cutting-edge book considers the functional inseparability of risk and innovation within the context of environmental law and governance. Analysing both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ innovation, the book argues that approaches to socio-ecological risk require innovation in order for society and the environment to become more resilient.

ÔThis book is a novel, sophisticated, broad ranging and insightful study of the idea of global environmental governance but from a legal dimension and perspective. While recognising that concepts and ideas used to describe governance are generally abstract, vague and slippery, this project brings clarity to the field by being theoretically informed, contextually sensitive and pragmatically circumscribed. Its conclusions and arguments open up a field of inquiry that has to be genuinely interdisciplinary and in that sense has great potential to contribute to a better understanding of environmental themes and issues. This book is destined to become a landmark for legal academics who will write about environmental governance in that its concern is with the global governance of nature rather than a text that uses the environment as a pretext for understanding governance. It is well written, easy and enjoyable to read and while it traverses through diverse bodies of literature it manages to effectively communicate with a variety of scholarly communities.Õ Ð Afshin Akhtarkhavari, Griffith Law School, Australia ÔFourth generation global environmental regulation attempts to address the complex realities of an interconnected environment, global environmental problems and collective regulatory responses. It merits conceptual clarity. Louis KotzŽ reveals the legal contours and content of global environmental governance by chipping away such parts of the conceptual marble block as are not needed. For the environmental lawyer, it is a welcome Ð and much needed Ð process of elimination. This book provides a toolkit for lawyers to engage critically with the extra-legal concept of environmental governance. Its scrutiny and careful analysis contribute meaningfully to the environmental discourse.Õ Ð Christine Voigt, University of Oslo, Norway ÔGlobal Environmental Governance is a truly important book. Drawing on a multitude of disciplines, award-winning environmental law Professor Louis KotzŽ masterfully explains the emerging concept of Òglobal environmental governanceÓ and its elements of globalism, environmental law, regulation, and governance theory. He makes a compelling case that the world has outgrown the ÒsustainabilityÓ model and moved toward this more all-encompassing approach to environmental regulation. This admirable book makes global environmental governance theory understandable and pertinent so environmental leaders, lawyers, and regulators can engage comfortably with this new vision for an ecologically and economically healthy world.Õ Ð George (Rock) Pring, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, US ÔThis book, in examining the relationship between global environmental governance and environmental law, provides an important and timely contribution to the quest to fashion a more viable approach to regulating the relationship between humanity and the environment. While the term ÒgovernanceÓ is much employed in international environmental law scholarship, its conceptual underpinnings have not, on the whole, been adequately addressed in the legal sphere and understanding of the symbiotic relationship between the two areas has suffered as a result. This book makes a welcome start to tackling these issues and, it is to be hoped, will trigger renewed vigour in this socially and legally vital area of inquiry.Õ Ð Karen Morrow, University of Swansea, Wales, UK ÔFor years, scholars of international law and international relations have developed parallel literatures. In Global Environmental Governance, Louis KotzŽ offers a common conceptual, theoretical, and normative ground in the global environmental field. As a skillful lawyer, he dissects terminology, explains core assumptions, and constructs causal chains. But he does not stop there. His shrewd analysis of power and authority, individual incentives and collective action, management and regulation builds a bridge between law and politics as disciplines concerned about what global environmental governance is and how it can be improved.Õ Ð Maria Ivanova, University of Massachusetts, US ÔIn search of shelter from the buffeting blasts of climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, famine and disease, states and public agencies, community representatives, resource users, advocacy networks and citizens huddle together under the vast and varied institutional umbrellas of environmental governance. Louis KotzŽÕs innovative study systematically describes the role of environmental law as the springs, stretchers, ribs and handles of the decision-making umbrellas we so desperately hope will hold firm when they are opened up in times of need.Õ Ð Jamie Benidickson, University of Ottawa, Canada ÔThe concept of Òglobal environmental governanceÓ has been part of the lexicon in accounts of global environmental politics for some time. Yet to date it has escaped comprehensive assessment from a legal perspective. This groundbreaking work fills this gap in the literature. It offers a masterful analysis of the theoretical underpinnings of the environmental governance, and highlights the critical importance of environmental regulation in ensuring that environmental governance lives up to its promise as a means for achieving truly ecologically sustainable development.Õ Ð Tim Stephens, University of Sydney, Australia This timely book brings much-needed clarity to the concept of Ôenvironmental governanceÕ as manifested in the global regulatory domain. The author argues that despite being used as a fashionable term by many Ð including economists, political scientists, environmentalists and, increasingly, lawyers Ð its theoretical contours and conceptual content remain unclear, incoherent, and inconsistent. In addressing this problem, the book begins by describing globalization as a general context of governance. It comprehensively interrogates and clarifies both the governance and global governance concepts, and then explains aspects and components of global environmental governance. Finally it investigates the role of law in global environmental governance. Providing a much-needed definition of environmental governance and global environmental governance, this comprehensive study will appeal to academics and researchers, post-graduate and under-graduate students, intergovernmental organizations such as UNEP, WTO, IUCN, as well as governments and governmental agencies involved with environmental regulation.

This book investigates how sustainability informs key principles and concepts of domestic and international law. It calls for the recognition of ecological sustainability as a fundamental principle to guide the entire legal system rather than just environmental legislation. To this end, the book makes a contribution to global environmental constitutionalism, a rapidly growing area within comparative and international environmental law and constitutional law. This 2nd edition has been fully revised and updated to take account of recent developments and new case law. The book will be a valuable resource for students, researchers and policy makers working in the areas of environmental law and governance.

This publication present in-depth study of the very topical subject-matter of legal powers of Conferences of the Parties established on the basis of Multilateral Environmental Agreements. The book deals with the legitimacy and efficiency of the decisions of such bodies.

Environmental law and governance are the cornerstones of global efforts to conserve the environment, protect resources and ensure fair and equitable outcomes for all of the planet's inhabitants. This book presents a series of thought-provoking chapters which consider the place of governance and law in the defence against imminent and ongoing threats to ecological, social and cultural integrity. Written by an international team of both established and early-career scholars from various disciplines and backgrounds, the chapters cover the most pressing and contemporary issues in environmental law and governance. These include access and benefit-sharing; the right to food and water; climate change coping and adaptation; human rights; the rights of indigenous communities; public and environmental health; and many more. The book has a general focus on environmental governance and law in the European Union and offers points of comparison with Canada and North and South America.

This book proposes a holistic transdisciplinary approach to sustainability as a subject of social sciences. At the same time, this approach shows new ways, as perspectives of philosophy, political science, law, economics, sociology, cultural studies and others are here no longer regarded separately. Instead, integrated perspectives on the key issues are carved out: Perspectives on conditions of transformation to sustainability, on key instruments and the normative questions. This allows for a concise answer to urgent and controversial questions such as the following: Is the EU an environmental pioneer? Is it possible to achieve sustainability by purely technical means? If not: will that mean to end of the growth society? How to deal with the follow-up problems? How will societal change be successful? Are political power and capitalism the main barriers to sustainability? What is the role of emotions and conceptions of normality in the transformation process? To which degree are rebound and shifting effects the reason why sustainability politics fail? How much climate protection can be claimed ethically and legally e.g. on grounds of human rights? And what is freedom? Despite all rhetoric, the weak transition in energy, climate, agriculture and conservation serves as key example in this book. It is shown how the Paris Agreement is weak with regard to details and at the same time overrules the growth society by means of a radical 1,5-1,8 degrees temperature limit. It is shown how emissions trading must – and can – be reformed radically. It is shown why CSR, education, cooperation and happiness research are overrated. And we will see what an integrated politics on climate, biodiversity, nitrogen and soil might look like. This book deals with conditions of transformation, governance instruments, ethics and law of sustainability. The relevance of the humanities to sustainability has never before been demonstrated so vividly and broadly as here. And in every area it opens up some completely new perspectives. (Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Club of Rome, Honorary President) Taking a transdisciplinary perspective, the book canvasses the entire spectrum of issues relevant to sustainability. A most valuable and timely contribution to the debate. (Prof. Dr. Klaus Bosselmann, University of Auckland, Author of “The Principle of Sustainability”) This books breathes life into the concept of sustainability. Felix Ekardt tears down the barriers between disciplines and builds a holistic fundament for sustainablility; fit to guide long-term decision-making on the necessary transformation and societal change. (Prof. Dr. Christina Voigt, Oslo University, Dept. of Public and International Law)

This timely book examines the role of environmental principles in changing international environmental law and politics, and argues for the importance of integrating environmental principles in the global governance of the environment. Afshin Akhtarkhavari includes both theoretical and jurisprudential analyses of the concept of environmental principles, as well as detailed case studies to examine their function and role in courts, and the differing approaches taken to soft law and regulation in international politics. Global Governance of the Environment concludes with succinct and insightful considerations of the role of environmental principles in changing international law and politics This topical book will appeal to researchers, academics and students of international environmental law and politics, international relations, as well as domestic environmental law.

A unique publication that examines emerging and cutting-edge environmental issues from no less than seven countries including Africa and China. These issues are examined mainly from a trans-disciplinary environmental governance perspective that includes law, ecology, economics, policy and management. The contributors to the book include some exceptional young scholars. They, together with other contributors who are distinguished environmental legal experts, have advanced the scholarship of environmental governance. Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore This timely volume provides fascinating insights into emerging developments in the field of legal governance of the environment at a time when environmental governance is increasingly concerned with far more than legal doctrine. The expert contributors are concerned with the totality of arrangements through which power and resources are deployed to protect and restore natural resources, and how the costs and benefits of this are allocated. They explore key issues such as: how the community exercises its democratic rights; how government responds to the needs of current and future generations and balances the interests of the powerful with the powerless; the freedoms and responsibilities of commerce and the holders of property; and the ways in which laws and policies are informed by science and other perspectives. The various ways in which legal scholarship is pivotal to good governance are thus highlighted, as is the extent of innovation being generated by current ecological, economic and social challenges. Clearly demonstrating the increasing breadth and depth of environmental law scholarship, this thought-provoking book will prove an invaluable reference tool for academics, students and researchers focusing on environmental law and development.