Environmental Law Scholarship Research Articles

Policies, Places and Practices: Why Environmental Law Scholars Should Care About the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act 2023

Abstract The Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act 2023 has marked major reforms in how planning law legally conceptualises policies, places and practices. These reforms have an impact not only on the scope of planning law but also on the shape of environmental law in England and Wales. In particular, the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act 2023 changes how different forms of national and local policy legally interact, creates new administrative regulation for protected landscapes and establishes a new framework for environmental impact assessment called the Environmental Outcome Reports. This introduction to the legislation illustrates the importance of understanding the planning law reform for environmental law scholarship more generally.

Environmental law and systems theory

AbstractIn 1985, German sociologist Niklas Luhmann published a monograph on ecology, which appeared in English translation in 1989 as Ecological Communication. It contained many original insights for ecological thinking and, despite being well‐reviewed upon publication, has had a relatively minor impact on Anglophone environmental discourse. This inattention is also present in environmental law, which has recently seen an increase in legal theories that challenge its mainstream. This contribution first investigates why Ecological Communication has received scant attention, pointing to changes in the climatic context in which it first appeared and the reactionary nature of its arguments. Recognising that the work nevertheless contains critical theoretical insights for environmental law scholarship, the second aim of the article is to spotlight what from Ecological Communication remains relevant at the hand of three common claims progressive researchers level against mainstream environmental law: The critique of law's marriage to Cartesian dualism, that law should be better informed by climate science,of and law's anthropocentrism. Finally, environmental lawyers are called upon not to ignore Ecological Communication but to engage with it fruitfully.

Developing China's Hydrogen Economy: National Regulation Through Local Experimentation

AbstractHydrogen is playing an increasingly important role in China's energy and climate policy, with significant implications for the development of a global hydrogen industry. However, China's approach to the regulation of hydrogen, and, in particular, the role of local authorities in promoting hydrogen refuelling stations and fuel cell vehicles, has so far received limited scholarly attention. This article aims to contribute to the literature on hydrogen regulation and to the transnational environmental law scholarship on decentralization by examining how China promotes hydrogen at the national and local levels. The case of China shows how, in jurisdictions with a sufficient degree of decentralization, local initiatives can play a key role in driving the development of hydrogen. By testing different approaches to hydrogen regulation, local experimentation helps to manage the uncertainties associated with this new energy source. At the same time, China's experience confirms the ‘environmental federalism’ theory on the importance of regulatory harmonization to reduce transaction costs and local protectionism. As the Chinese government develops its national regulatory approach on hydrogen, it has the opportunity to take into account both local and international experience and engage with other major economies in an effort to promote an internationally harmonized regulatory landscape.

We Need To Talk About Method: A Call for More and Better Empirical Environmental Law Scholarship

We Need To Talk About Method: A Call for More and Better Empirical Environmental Law Scholarship

The Methodologies of Transnational Environmental Law Scholarship

The Methodologies of Transnational Environmental Law Scholarship

Energy Geopolitics and Climate Law: Interdisciplinary Environmental Law Scholarship in a Geopolitical World

Abstract Energy geopolitics has received limited attention in the climate law scholarship, despite the importance of the energy sector for climate change and the impact of energy crises on the effectiveness of decarbonisation mechanisms. The shock caused by the current war in Ukraine shows that, in a geopolitical world, geopolitical analysis must be integrated into climate, and more generally environmental, law analysis.

The Evolution and Emergence of Environmental Law Scholarship—A Perspective from Three Journals

Abstract In the attempt to lay the foundations for a better understanding of environmental law scholarship, this article offers a local perspective of environmental law scholarship in the UK. Through a study of more than 1,400 articles published in three leading UK environmental law journals over the course of three decades, the article considers the ways in which environmental law scholarship has changed over time by reference to gender and geographical location of authors. The article also interrogates the ways in which the topics of scholarship have changed over time, as well as the extent to which environmental law scholars make use of empirical methods and external sources of funding for their research. Finally, the article explores the extent to which environmental law scholarship is published in generalist law journals.

The Evolution and Emergence of Environmental Law Scholarship- A Perspective from Three Journals

The Evolution and Emergence of Environmental Law Scholarship- A Perspective from Three Journals

The Role of Narrative in Environmental Law: The Nature of Tales and Tales of Nature

Abstract While narrative is a much-used term in environmental law scholarship, it is often used rather indiscriminately and interchangeably with other terms such as framing and discourse. The current article sets out to examine the various ways in which narrative features in the existing literature with a view to encouraging more critical and reflective usage. It also advocates for narrative, both to connect with the marginalised and to inject passion and emotion into environmental law – elements that can easily be lost in a discipline heavy with legislation and case law turning on fine aspects of legal doctrine. However, in the end it argues the need for a careful balance, with narrative and emotion playing a part, but not stealing the show.

Situating the Inter-American Human Rights System in the Oscillation of International Law

This article considers the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) as a response to the general assessments of some critical scholarship on international law. It employs the concept of “oscillation of international law” to organize different views of the international human rights and environmental law (IHREL) scholarship, two legal regimes that speak loudest to the IAHRS’ interests. These views are distributed within a spectrum that goes from utopian demands placed on IHREL, to apologist defenses of these legal regimes. I put forward a third strand of critical intervention by framing the IAHRS as a space of political and legal contention that promises to address some of the IHREL’s shortcomings. I caution, however, that, although the IAHRS functions as an enabling platform for subaltern polities that redraw the boundaries of legal meanings, the system may fall short in tackling challenges that are contingent on global capitalist logics.

The Theory of Worldviews from an Environmental Law Perspective

It emerges from this article that the concept of worldviews has the potency of different applications for environmental law scholars. Firstly, it can serve as an excellent theoretical framework for environmental law research. Secondly, environmental law can be further improved. Thirdly, the concept draws attention to the importance of inner/subjective factors of environmental policy and legislation. Fourthly, the concept supports the importance of an authentic deep transformation in our societies, and the promotion of an integrative worldview in order to help this transformational process. Finally, while an integrative worldview is strengthened, basic human rights shall be respected.

Charting Environmental Law Futures in the Anthropocene, edited by Michelle Lim Springer, 2019, 245 pp, €124.79 hb, €96.29 ebk ISBN 9789811390647 hb, 9789811390654 ebk

As wildfires, biodiversity loss, plastic pollution, and climate change increasingly impact upon ecosystems and human livelihoods around the world,1 a growing number of scholars are emphasizing the importance of hope. Hope can mitigate the paralysis of helplessness and catalyze ambitious efforts towards sustainability.2 Charting Environmental Law Futures in the Anthropocene, edited by Michelle Lim, carves out its place in that context, as an ambitious and forward-facing contribution to environmental law scholarship. The book presents a diverse series of case studies and conceptual analyses. In doing so, it proposes a roadmap for improving the capacity of environmental laws to promote desirable futures in a period of unprecedented global change.

Public Interest Regarding Nature Protection Pursued by the Municipal Government

The article contains an analysis of the issue of public interest pursued by the municipal government in the field of nature conservation, demonstrated on the example of individual forms of nature conservation, the latter term being the concept used by environmental law scholars. Moreover, it covers natural monuments, documentation stands, ecological grounds and natural and landscape complexes, which are established through a resolution of the municipal council, which constitutes an act of local law. On the other hand, administrative prohibitions introduced for this purpose in an act of local law must have statutory authorisation and they should take into account the constitutional principle of sustainable development and the principle of proportionality. This is because these prohibitions restrict the right of ownership of immovable property situated in their area. Moreover, such an act of local law shall also be subject to the judicial review by an administrative court, having been challenged by the addressee of such act, provided that the addressee has also a legal interest, not only a factual interest.

Curriculum Design for the Anthropocene: Review of Meinhard Doelle & Chris Tollefson, Environmental Law: Cases and Materials, Third Edition

The Anthropocene poses a fundamental challenge to the traditional approaches of environmental law, policy, and governance. The rapid maturation of new and innovative ways of studying climate change and sustainability – including the planetary boundaries framework, socio-ecological systems modeling, and the transdisciplinary imagination of “good anthropocenes” – calls into question the relevance of monodisciplinary, statist, static, and siloed understandings of environmental law. In this article I draw out the Anthropocene’s implications for environmental law by critically assessing the third edition of Canada’s leading environmental law casebook, Environmental Law: Cases and Materials, written and edited by Meinhard Doelle and Chris Tollefson. I argue that the shortcomings of this otherwise impressive text reflect the limitations of traditional environmental law scholarship and pedagogy more generally, particularly its insufficient attention to Earth-system dynamics, the underrepresentation of society’s most marginal members, an uncritical acceptance of the neoliberal norm of perpetual economic growth, and the failure to advance our understanding of how to rapidly enact and implement transformative laws and policies capable of enhancing socio-ecological resilience and sustainability. I conclude by sketching a new approach that integrates teaching and research and imagines what it might mean to think like an Anthropocene lawyer.

Governing Energy Transitions: Unconventional Gas, Renewables and their Environmental Nexus

Achieving a radical and swift transition to low carbon renewable energy is a pressing global challenge. Yet, energy transitions continue to confront numerous obstacles. Dominant private and public players persistently slow or block change. Controversial hydrocarbon bridging fuels, like unconventional gas, also continue to expand in the name of energy reliability and affordability. And even where renewable developments shift from being niche to mainstream power sources, concerns are increasingly raised about their impacts on the environment, biodiversity, food and water. At the heart of all these issues are law and governance, which have been intense sites of contestation over the nature and outcomes of regulating energy transitions. This Special Issue brings together leading environmental law scholars to take a hard look at key energy experiences in Australia and globally, and to map out how to use law and governance to achieve swift and more environmentally sustainable energy transitions. This article sets the scene for the Special Issue by outlining some core challenges for energy transitions, before laying out two key questions explored in the subsequent nine articles, namely: what has been the role of law in governing energy transitions; and what law and governance mechanisms might be needed to better govern energy transitions and their nexus with the environment? The article concludes by summarising and synthesising responses to these questions.

Transnational Environmental Law's Missing People

AbstractLegal scholars rely heavily on vocabularies of ‘actors’, ‘agents’, and ‘experts’ to account for the fact that law does not develop by itself. However, the identities, idiosyncrasies, and individual professional contributions of law'speopleare rarely illuminated. This article suggests that the relative absence of people in transnational legal scholarship helps to explain some of its gaps. The task of bringing ‘human actors back on stage’ creates some new opportunities for transnational environmental law scholarship. It invites attention to both dominant and excluded voices. It offers a way of bridging the gap between the bureaucratic language of law and its lived reality. It also provides an understanding of why, despite ferocious attempts to roll back the advances of environmental law in some places, many scholars and practitioners find reason to be optimistic about the future of environmental law.

Of Density and Decline: State of the Nation Reflections on the Teaching of Environmental Law in the UK

In this paper, we use data from the top 100 UK law school websites and survey responses from environmental law scholars to show a decline in the provision of environmental law teaching in the UK and stasis in student numbers over time. We explore perceptions that environmental law is soft, asking if this is because environmental law scholars are seen as liberal ‘tree huggers’ and/or because environmental law is thought to be more about values than about law. We look at employability as a mission of modern universities, asking if studying environmental law at university can only ever be a ‘nice to have’ in this context. And we look at the feminisation over time in those who teach environmental law, asking if this says something broader about our discipline. We ask more questions than we can answer, but hope this piece is the start of an important debate.

Public Service, Environmental Law Academics and Brexit

This paper shall reflect on the potential role of environmental law academics in public service. It is based to a large degree on personal experience working on the environmental implications of Brexit, as well as the considerable literatures on ‘impact’ and on legal and environmental law scholarship. I shall explore some of the key challenges of engaging as advocates in public policy debates. I frame this work as ‘public service’, in the hope of articulating a desire to use academic knowledge and expertise to do good beyond the university.

Thoughts on ‘Theory’, International Law and Environmental Law Scholarship

Thoughts on ‘Theory’, International Law and Environmental Law Scholarship

Three Essays on Climate Law

These essays deal with aspects of climate change law that cut across national borders. Governance Principles and Climate Disasters examines how climate disasters present relate to general issues in public law such as federalism, emergency authority, protection of property rights, and administrative transparency and rationality. The Unifying Force of Climate Change Scholarship argues that climate change is a unifying theme for the sprawling field of environmental law, providing a focal point for environmental law scholarship. Historical Responsibility for Environmental Harms examines the issue of climate compensation through the lens of U.S. and EU tort law principles. It argues that the tort law background supports providing some form of compensation for harms caused by past carbon emissions, whether via litigation or otherwise.