The Regulation of Environmental Space

Herbert, Steve; Derman, Brandon Barclay; Grobelski, Tiffany

doi:10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-102612-134034

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…This kind of reform ultimately will require a distinct streamlining of responsibilities (Hubbard, 2020) and greater separation between regulating and accountable authorities. As Herbert, Derman, and Grobelski (2013, p. 235) propose, “the scope and scale of environmental harm suggest the need for new and more nimble regulatory structures, ones that transcend traditional jurisdictional boundaries.” If the national environmental regulator could be coordinated to work in‐step with the other regulatory bodies, then it could go some way to combatting the issues with multiple jurisdictions and accountability that have been observed in this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is also generally possible to isolate the practice that caused the contamination, allowing the identification of the contaminated party (or parties). These factors suggest it will be easier to regulate than, for example, climate change, which is caused by myriad local practices all around the world and which has effects at multiple scales (Herbert, Derman, & Grobelski, 2013).…”

Section: A Legal Geography Of Contaminated Landmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A legal geography of the regulation of contaminated land in Williamtown, New South Wales

Legg

2020

Geographical Research

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Legal geographers have recently been interested in interlegality: the interactions between different legal orders governing one particular space. Contaminated land is one such space governed by multiple legal orders; however, it is yet to receive great attention in legal geography. In Australia, different authorities and bodies cooperate together in a responsive regulatory framework to prevent contamination and then manage cases where contamination has occurred, although this process is mostly coordinated at the level of the state. This article evaluates the framework by reference to a case where the contamination, by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), has crossed jurisdictional boundaries in Williamtown, in New South Wales, Australia. This cross‐boundary incursion has complicated management responses, and may have resulted in contradicting forms of regulatory implementation by different legal orders and a break down in accountability. Ultimately, such findings point to the need for the current regulatory framework to be adapted to better deal with situations of spatial and legal complexity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Legal Geography Of Contaminated Landmentioning

confidence: 99%

A legal geography of the regulation of contaminated land in Williamtown, New South Wales

Legg

2020

Geographical Research

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“…In this paper we explore environmental regulation through an LG lens, cognizant of the strong associations with PE but also with a particular curiosity about gendered dynamics. Although not expressed as an explicitly LG paper, Herbert et al (2013) explain, using concepts of 'scope' and 'scale', how law can be too cumbersome to deal adequately with environmental problems; especially for problems that extend beyond traditional jurisdictional boundaries. This need to pay attention to scale-sensitive environmental governance is evident in LG scholarship (Gillespie, 2016) and is a core concern of PE literature.…”

Section: Producing a Feminist Legal Geographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Feminist political ecology and legal geography: A case study of the Tonle Sap protected wetlands of Cambodia

Gillespie¹,

Perry

2018

Environ Plan A

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Legal geography (LG) unravels the co-constitutive relationship between law, space and society. Much LG scholarship has focused on urban issues situated in the Global North, but there is an emerging scholarship that explicitly extends this effort to the Global South and to rural locations. For example, Gillespie's LG research in Southeast Asia exposes problems in governance institutions and decision-making processes that can unintentionally exacerbate existing socioeconomic disadvantage. The feminist political ecology (FPE) approach, as conceptualized by Rocheleau et al. and more recently expanded upon by Elmhirst provides a useful additional framework for considering the intersectionality of social and environmental factors which constitute identity, and the mutual dependency between identity and ecological processes. In this paper we argue that marrying an LG perspective with FPE results in a more nuanced understanding of complex legalhuman-environment dynamics. Our focus on lore/law plus gendered identity as a lens for analysis blends an emergent LG literature with insights from FPE. This paper draws on research from a pilot project on the formal and informal regulatory mechanisms that enable and/or disable sustainable conservation in the protected wetlands of the Tonle Sap (lake) in central Cambodia.

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“…The concept of scalar dynamics, essential to the work of geographers, is of critical importance in this context for environmental outcomes can be contingent upon the scale upon which they are framed (Andrews and McCarthy, 2013;Herbert et al, 2013). The legal geography perspective aids analysis about this protected area lakescape: the lake is fragmented into distinct, legally discrete, spatialised zones and divided and regulated according to resources and responsibility.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a need to understand this complex dynamic; it is a multidimensional lakescape with associated governance intricacy. The concept of scalar dynamics, essential to the work of geographers, is of critical importance in this context for environmental outcomes can be contingent upon the scale upon which they are framed (Andrews and McCarthy, 2013;Herbert et al, 2013). Uncovering the people-place dynamic reveals a scalar mismatch between regulatory approaches emanating from 'above' and the on-the-ground placebased realities of a complex socio-environmental lakescape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Catch 22: wetlands protection and fishing for survival

Gillespie

2015

Geographical Research

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Environmental regulation of biodiversity hotspots, including wetlands, is of increasing importance in an era when species and habitat loss is common. A number of global environmental protection regimes attempt to set up processes that protect vulnerable species and their habitats. One such regulatory regime, the Ramsar Convention (Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat), provides overarching protection for hundreds of wetlands around the world. In this paper, one Ramsar listed wetland, Southeast Asia's and Cambodia's largest freshwater lake, the Tonle Sap, is subject to a legal geographical analysis. A legal geography approach – one that puts front and centre an examination of both the environmental protection regulations for the wetlands and the people subject to them – enables the complexity of the legal‐human–environment dynamic in this unique wetlands to be revealed. Measuring the success, or otherwise, of environmental protection regulations requires an understanding of both the biophysical and social dynamics of the place subject to that protection. Geographers, particularly legal geographers, are well placed to document the human–environment dimensions of place and to expose fragilities or disconnections between regulations and place. Regulations that do not take adequate account of complex people–place dynamics are likely to fall short of expectations and run the risk of becoming self‐defeating, giving rise to a potential catch‐22 scenario.

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The Regulation of Environmental Space

Cited by 10 publications

References 118 publications

A legal geography of the regulation of contaminated land in Williamtown, New South Wales

A legal geography of the regulation of contaminated land in Williamtown, New South Wales

Feminist political ecology and legal geography: A case study of the Tonle Sap protected wetlands of Cambodia

Catch 22: wetlands protection and fishing for survival

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