Journal of Environmental Law Lecture Abstracts
Environmental Law, Regulation and Governance: Shifting Architectures
Neil Gunningham
Fenner School of Environment and Regulatory Institutions Network, Australian National University and BRASS, Cardiff University.
Environmental Law and Policy has come a long way since the UK Clean Air Act of 1956, the birth of the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and the launch of the EU’s first environmental policy in 1972. Today law is no longer centre stage but simply one instrument amongst others in the environmental regulator’s toolkit. And talk of regulation is itself giving way to the broader concept of environmental governance.
This paper examines these developments in environmental law, regulation and governance spanning five decades. It explores the major initiatives of that period and the lessons that can be learned from them, it maps the shifting regulatory architectures and explains what has worked and why, and it considers the changing nature of the environmental challenge itself. Finally it asks whether, to what extent and in what circumstances the New Environmental Governance, epitomized in the EU Water Framework Directive, can overcome the limitations of markets and hierarchies.
Amongst many other works, it draws on some of the writer’s own books on these themes: Pollution, Social Interest and the Law (1974); Smart Regulation: Designing Environmental Policy (with Grabosky) 1998; Leaders and Laggards: Next Generation Environmental Regulation (with Sinclair) 2002; and Shades of Green: Business, Regulation and Environment (with Kagan and Thornton) 2003.