Abstract
Legal transplantation has globalised environmental law. Domestic environmental laws have incorporated international law principles, such as the principle of ecologically sustainable development. There has also been a high degree of borrowing or cross-fertilization of legal approaches from countries with apparently advanced regimes for pollution control, conservation, and natural resource use and exploitation, to those with more nascent governance arrangements. This chapter questions the ongoing value of such a legal transplantation model in a future of rapid anthropogenic environmental change. It maps the aspects of environmental regulation and governance that are the product of transplantation before outlining the ways in which those approaches and principles are challenged by the speed and scale of change portended for the future. The chapter concludes with suggestions for how environmental law should develop when there is no historical analogue for the future ahead.
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Notes
- 1.
Kotze, L.J. (2014). ‘Rethinking Global Environmental law and governance in the Anthropocene.’ J Energy and Natural Resources Law 32, 121–156, 135.
- 2.
Fox, D. (2007). ‘Back to the no-analog future?.’ Science, 316(5826), 823–825.
- 3.
See, e.g., Reimann, M. and Zimmermann, N. (eds.) (2007). The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law, Oxford University Press; M. Bussani, M. and Mattei, U. (eds.) (2012). The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Law, Cambridge University Press.
- 4.
Tarlock, D. & Tarak, P. (1983). ‘An Overview of Comparative Environmental Law’. Denver J. Int’l Law and Policy 13(1), 85–108.
- 5.
Ibid.
- 6.
These include the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development; Agenda 21; the United Nations Program of Action for the twenty-first century; the Convention on the Conservation of Biological Diversity; the Framework Convention on Climate Change; and the Statement of Forest Principles. In addition, the Convention on Desertification was concluded in 1994 and 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea came into force in the same year. See Boer, B. (2000). ‘The globalisation of environmental law.’ Australian Law Reform Commission Reform Journal 76, 33, http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ALRCRefJl/2000/7.html (accessed 26 March 2019).
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
Watson, A. (1993). Legal Transplants: An Approach to Comparative Law, 2nd ed. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. See Cairns, J.W. (2013). ‘Watson, Walton, and the History of ‘Legal Transplants” Ga J Intl & Comp L, 41(3), 637–96 [643]–[644].
- 9.
Twining, W. (2006). ‘Diffusion and Globalisation Discourse.’ Harv Intl LJ, 472, 489, 510–511.
- 10.
Watson n 8., 19.
- 11.
Morgera, E. (2015). ‘Global Environmental Law and Comparative Legal Methods.’ RECIEL, 24(3), 254, 257.
- 12.
Ibid., 260.
- 13.
Boer, n 6. Boer notes that this cross-fertilization is also occurring in respect of constitutional drafting of variously constructed environmental guarantees or rights and in environmental litigation, with courts hearing environmental legal actions beginning to draw on the jurisprudence of other countries.
- 14.
T. Yang & R.V. Percival. (2009). ‘The Emergence of Global Environmenta Law’. Ecology LQ, 36, 615.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Morgera, n 11., 255.
- 17.
Berkowitz, D., Pistor, K. & Richard, J-F. (2003). ‘Economic Development, Legality, and the Transplant Effect’. Am J Comp L, 51(1), 163, 164–165.
- 18.
Twining, W. (2005). ‘Social Science and Diffusion of Law’. Journal of Law and Society 32(2), 203, 203–205.
- 19.
Morgera, n 11, 258, quoting, Orücü, E. (2002). ‘Law as Transposition.’ International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 51(2), 205.
- 20.
Redclift, M. (2005). ‘Sustainable development (1987–2005): an oxymoron comes of age’. Sustainable Development 13(3), 212–227.
- 21.
Howes, M., Wortley, R., Potts, R., Dedekorkut-Howes, A., Serrao-Neumann, S., … Nunn, P., (2017). ‘Environmental Sustainability: A case of policy implementation failure?’ Sustainability, 9(2) doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/su9020165
- 22.
Gillespie, J. (2001). ‘Globalisation and legal transplantation: Lessons from the Past’. Deakin Law Review, 6(2), 286.
- 23.
Steffen, W. (2007). ‘The Anthropocene: Are humans now overwhelming the great forces of nature?’ Ambio 36(8), 614; Rockström, J et al. (2009). ‘Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity’. Ecology and Society, 14(2), 32; Steffen, W., Rockström, J, Richardson, K., Lenton, T., Folke., Liverman, D.…Schellnhuber, H-J. (2018). ‘Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene.’ PNAS. 115(33), 8252–8259.
- 24.
Steffen et al., n 23.; Rockström et al., n 23.
- 25.
Fox, n 2.
- 26.
Kammer, S.M., (2017). ‘No-Analogue Future: Challenges for the Laws of Nature in a World without Precedent.’ Vermont Law Rev, 42, 227.
- 27.
Robinson, N., (2014). ‘Fundamental principles of law for the Anthropocene?’ Environmental Policy and Law, 44, 13.
- 28.
Macintosh, A., Foerster, A., and McDonald, J. (2014). ‘Policy Design, Spatial Planning and Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study from Australia’. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 57, 1–22.
- 29.
Foerster, A., Macintosh, A., and McDonald, J., (2015). ‘Trade-offs in Adaptation Planning: Protecting Public Interest Environmental Values’. Journal of Environmental Law, 17, 1.
- 30.
Wiersema, A., (2008). ‘A Train without Tracks: Rethinking the Place of Law and Goals in Environmental Law and Natural Resources Law’. Environmental Law Journal, 38, 1239, 1250–52.
- 31.
Doremus, H. (2010). ‘Adapting to Climate Change with Law that Bends without Breaking’. San Diego Journal of Climate Energy Law, 2, 45; Craig, R.K. (2010). ‘Stationarity is Dead – Long Live Transformation: Five Principles for Climate Change Adaptation Law’. Harvard Environmental Law Review, 34, 9; Ruhl, JB. (2010). ‘Climate Change Adaptation and the Structural Transformation of Environmental Law’. Environmental Law, 40, 363.
- 32.
Craig, n 31.; Ruhl, n 31.; Arnold, C. and Gunderson, L. (2013). ‘Adaptive Law and Resilience.’ Environmental Law Reporter, 43, 10,436–443; Garmestani, A. and Allen, C., Social-ecological Resilience and Law (Columbia University Press, 2013); Odom Green, Garmestani, A., Allen, C., Gunderson, L., Ruhl, JB, Arnold, C. …Holling CS, (2015). ‘Barriers and Bridges to the Integration of Social-Ecological Resilience and Law’. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, 13(6), 332–37.
- 33.
Adler, J. (2015). ‘Dynamic Environmentalism and Adaptive Management: Legal Obstacles and Opportunities’. Journal of Law, Economics & Policy, 11, 133.
- 34.
This term is coined from the emerging field of science and technology studies, known as anticipatory governance. See Guston, D., (2014). ‘Understanding anticipatory governance.’ Social Studies of Science, 44(2) 218; Foley, R., Guston, D. and Sarewitz, D. (2018). ‘Towards the anticipatory governance of geoengineering’., in Blackstock, J. & Low, S. (eds.) (2018). Geoengineering our climate? Ethics, Politics and Governance., Earthscan, 223.
- 35.
Craig, R.K. and Benson, M., (2013). ‘Replacing Sustainability’. Akron Law Review, 46., 841–80; Odom Green et al., n 32, Arnold and Gunderson, n 32, Garmestani and Allen, n 32.
- 36.
Walker, B., and Salt, D. (2016). Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World., Island Press, 9–10; Folke, C., (2016). ‘Resilience (Republished).’ Ecology and Society, 21(4), [44], 1; Folke, C., (2006). ‘Resilience: The Emergence of a Perspective for Social-Ecological Systems Analyses’. Global Environmental Change, 16(3), 253–67, 259.
- 37.
Holling, C.S., (1973). ‘Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems.’ Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 4, 1–23, 14; Gunderson, L.H. and Allen, C.R. (2010). ‘Why Resilience? Why Now?’ in Gunderson, L.H., Allen, C.R. and Holling, C.S. (eds.) (2010) Foundations of Ecological Resilience, Island Press, xiii-xxv.
- 38.
Walker, B. et al., ‘Resilience, Adaptability and Transformability in Social-Ecological Systems’. (2004). Ecology and Society, 9(2) 5, [3]; Nelson, D., Adger. N., and Brown, K., ‘Adaptation to Environmental Change: Contributions of a Resilience Framework’. (2009). Annual Review of Environment & Resources, 32, 395–419.
- 39.
Folke (2006), n 36., 259.
- 40.
Walker & Salt, n 36., 32–34; Walker, B. et al., (2006). ‘A Handful of Heuristics and Some Propositions for Understanding Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems’. Ecology and Society 11, [1], at 3, 6.
- 41.
Walker & Salt, n 36., 75.
- 42.
Ibid., 55, 59.
- 43.
Holling, C.S., Gunderson, L., and Peterson, G.D, (2002). ‘Sustainability and Panarchies,’ in Gunderson, L.H. and Holling, C.S. (eds.), (2002). Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, Island Press, 63–102, 72–4.
- 44.
Holling, Gunderson, and Peterson,, n 43., 63–102, 75–6.
- 45.
Walker and Salt, n 36., 90.
- 46.
Biggs, R., Schlüter, M., & Schoon, M.L., (eds.). (2015). Principles for Building Resilience: Sustaining Ecosystem Services in Social-Ecological Systems, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- 47.
Ruhl 2010, n 31.
- 48.
Biber, E., and Ruhl, J.B., (2014). ‘The Permit Power Revisited: The Theory and Practice of Regulatory Permits in the Administrative State’. Duke Law Journal, 64, 133.
- 49.
McDonald, J. and Styles, M. (2014). ‘Legal Strategies for Adaptive Management under Climate Change’. Journal of Environmental Law, 17, 1.
- 50.
Ibid.
- 51.
McDonald, J., McCormack, P., Fleming, A., Harris, RMB., Lockwood, M. (2016). ‘Rethinking Legal Objectives for Climate-Adaptive Conservation.’ Ecology and Society, 21, 25.
- 52.
Stafford Smith, M., Stafford Smith, M., Horrocks, L., Harvey, A., Hamilton, C., ‘Rethinking Adaptation for a 4 Degree Centigrade World.’ (2011). 369 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 196.
- 53.
McDonald, J., (2011). ‘The Role of Law in Adapting to Climate Change’. WIREs: Climate Change, 2(2), 283; McDonald and Styles, n 49.; Cosens, B., Gunderson, L, and Chaffin, B. (2018) ‘Introduction to the Special Feature Practicing Panarchy: Assessing Legal Flexibility, ecological resilience, and adaptive governance in regional water systems experiencing rapid environemntal change’. Ecology and Society, 23.
- 54.
Macintosh, Foerster and McDonald., (2014). n 28.
- 55.
Glasser, R., (2019). Special Report: preparing for the era of disasters, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, https://www.aspi.org.au/report/preparing-era-disasters (accessed 23 March 2019).
- 56.
Peel, J., and Fisher, D., (2016). ‘International Law at the Intersection of Environmental protection and disaster risk reduction.’ in Peel, J., and Fisher, D. (eds.) (2016). The Role of International Environmental Law in Disaster Risk Reduction, The Netherlands: Brill, 1; Peel, J., (2018). ‘International environmental law and climate disasters’ in Lyster R., and Verchick, R., (eds.) (2018). Research Handbook on Climate Disaster Law. Edward Elgar, 77, 78; McDonald, J and Telesetsky, A., (2019). ‘Disaster by degrees: the implications of the IPCC 1.5 °C report for disaster law’., Yearbook of International Disaster Law, 1 (forthcoming).
- 57.
Foerster, Macintosh, and MacIntosh, n 29.
- 58.
Morgera, n 11, 263.
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McDonald, J. (2019). From Transplantation to Anticipation: Challenges for Environmental Law in a No-Analogue Future. In: Farrar, J., Lo, V., Goh, B. (eds) Scholarship, Practice and Education in Comparative Law. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9246-7_9
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