environmental discourses in public and international law
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Environmental Discourses in Public andInternational LawBen Christmana
a School of Law, Queen's University BelfastPublished online: 28 Oct 2013.
To cite this article: Ben Christman (2013) Environmental Discourses in Public and International Law, Journalof Environmental Policy & Planning, 15:4, 579-581, DOI: 10.1080/1523908X.2013.850233
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2013.850233
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supersede the triangular conceptual framework and demand to establish clearertheoretical linkages that bring order to the emerging and rapidly growing fieldof food planning. The range of topics that fall into the food planning debate inevi-tably complicate conceptual developments, by and large hindering the identifi-cation of a research agenda that moves beyond the study of innovativeinitiatives lead by civil society and policy makers. In this urgent quest, thisbook makes an essential step toward envisaging new research and practice direc-tions which underpin the development of the sustainable food planning field, andconsequently, of more just and sustainable food systems.
References
Rhodes, R. A. W. (2007) Understanding governance: Ten years on, Organization Studies, 28(8),pp. 1243–1264.
Wiskerke, J. S. (2009) On places lost and places regained: Reflections on the alternative food geographyand sustainable regional development, International Planning Studies, 14(4), pp. 369–387.
Ana Moragues-FausResearch Associate, School of Planning and Geography, Cardiff University
# 2013 Ana Moragues-Faushttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2013.850232
Environmental Discourses in Public and International LawB. Jessup & K. Rubenstein (Eds)Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012. 558 pp., £95.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-107-01942-3
A discourse is a group of widely held beliefs which allows its subscribers to makesense of the world. Roughly defined, they are frameworks comprising sets ofideas, theories and practices; resting on assumptions and beliefs which providethe basis for analysis and argument (Benton & Short, 2000). Environmental dis-courses such as ecocentrism, ecomodernism and environmental justice allowsociety to frame and interpret its relationship to the environment, affording a start-ing point for solutions to the environmental problems facing humanity. These dis-courses infuse public and international law, yet discourse analysis is perhaps notgiven the attention which it deserves in legal research, remaining a pursuit ofother social sciences. The ability to identify and understand environmental dis-courses allows a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the challenges facedwhen designing and applying law to solve environmental problems.
Environmental Discourses in Public and International Law provides a stimulatingaddition to existing conversations on environmental discourses in law. This collec-tion of 18 diverse essays analyses a variety of discourses surrounding environ-mentally related legal issues, heavily influenced by John Dryzek’s book onenvironmental discourses (Dryzek, 1997). Topics range from classical environ-mental concerns such as land stewardship to contemporary debates on the regu-lation of novel climate change mitigation techniques such as ‘geoengineering’ inthe oceans.
The book is divided into five sections. The first section examines environ-mental discourses grounded in theory or rights in international and domestic
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laws, analysing discourses surrounding intergenerational justice, environmentaljustice and property. In Chapter 2, Jessup tracks the development of the ‘radicaldiscourse’ of environmental justice through public and international law, notingthe reluctance of environmental laws to properly address distributional justiceissues. Jessup observes the evolution of ‘ecological justice’ as a facet of environ-mental justice; an ecocentric discourse which has seen its development limitedby the dominance of the perception that the environment is a resource. This is evi-denced by the recent rise of ‘wild law’, a concept that has had limited practicalapplication and remains at the fringes of environmental law.
Part 2 explores environmental decision-making, considering international,European and national perspectives. Rough’s chapter shows the influence ofenvironmental discourses in the peculiar evolution of British nuclear energypolicy. During the 1950s and 1960s nuclear energy was characterized as apromising technology providing a cheap and safe supply of energy. Discoursesof totalitarianism, environmental risk and the Chernobyl catastrophe led tonuclear energy being perceived as a threat in the late twentieth century.However, the twenty-first century has seen a return to the ‘promise discourse’,with nuclear energy now perceived as a solution to climate change. This is seenin the recent decision by the UK government to grant planning permission for anuclear power station at Hinkley Point, a decision partly framed as a means oftackling climate change.1 Rough describes this turnaround as, ‘remarkable . . .
co-produced by a previously unthinkable discourse coalition’ (p. 188), includinggovernment, citizens, industry and environmentalists.
Part 3 considers environmental decisions in legal institutions. Stephens’chapter gives an overview of the development of the concept of sustainable devel-opment by international legal flora. The fluidity and contested nature of sustain-able development provides fertile ground for analysis of the discourses of justice,preservation of wildlife, intergenerational equity and the more nebulous ‘commu-nity of interest’ concept. Despite Judge Weeramantry’s best efforts, Stephens notesa lack of willingness of international jurists to engage with sustainable develop-ment. He argues that the structural defects of international adjudication, particu-larly the consensual nature of international adjudication and the considerablelevels of party control, will limit the ability of judges to give the concept much con-sideration in the future.
Discourses in climate law are covered in Part 4, a topic which permeates thebook. Australia’s approach to international climate law, emissions trading,environmental limits and market discourses are given careful contemplation.Chapters 13 and 14 on the influence of market liberalism discourse in forminglegal solutions to climate change demonstrate the tensions which exist in inter-national climate regimes; a critical topic given the uncertainty over the future ofthe global response to climate change and the pervasive influence of market mech-anisms in international climate change agreements. McGee and Taplin unravel theAsia-Pacific Partnership (APP); a ‘soft law’ agreement inspired by the USA andAustralia on climate, environment, development and energy. They show howthe APP’s voluntary approach to climate change mitigation, which avoids theimposition of limits on the greenhouse gas emissions of its signatories in favourof facilitating trade in green technologies and sharing of management practices,represents the deepening of a ‘market discourse’ in global responses to climatechange. This deregulatory agenda threatens any hope of avoiding dangerousclimate change. Bogojevic scrutinizes the emissions trading discourse and the
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EU’s emissions trading scheme. She cautions against the practice of ‘globalgazing’, which mistakenly presumes uniformity of results of emissions tradingschemes regardless of the context in which they are used.
The final section investigates discourses in the commons; attending to themanagement of the polar regimes, the regulation of heritage, and the final twochapters focus on novel carbon mitigation techniques in the oceans. Chapters 17and 18 examine geoengineering, highlighting the tension between the opposingviews on geoengineering as either an environmental hazard or a solution toclimate change. Akhtarkhavari explores the discourse of precaution in the inter-national ocean dumping regime in relation to the disposal of carbon dioxide intothe seabed, showing how precaution has shaped the legal response to this technol-ogy. Mayo-Ramsay identifies four broader discourses surrounding ocean fertiliza-tion: the promethean discourse advocating a techno-fix for climate change, humandominion over the commons, potential markets for environmental protection andthe need for precaution due to the potential for irreversible harms. The prevailingopinion from both chapters is that, as regulation of geoengineering evolves, thedominant discourse will be the potential of these technologies to mitigateclimate change, with other discourses playing only a subsidiary or tempering role.
The book seeks to demonstrate that legal decisions and changes in the law arein part driven by environmental discourses; and that there exists a dynamicconnection between international and public law. Whilst perhaps not the most out-landish thesis, the arguments are convincing; the book is instructive in revealingthe dialogue and frames which underpin environmental laws, and the synergisticrelationship between international and public laws. It is climate discourse-heavy,perhaps a reflection of the omnipresence of climate change on the environmentalagenda rather than any conscious editorial bias, making it a recommended text forconsideration of how public and international legal systems react to climatechange. For those interested in environmental law in a broader sense, the book illu-minates environmental discourses in a range of contexts, provides insights into theunderlying dynamics in international and public environmental law and stimu-lates thought on environmental discourses in other fields.
Note
1. See ‘Oral statement to Parliament: Edward Davey statement on Hinkley Point C nuclear powerstation’ (19 March 2013). Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/edward-davey-statement-on-hinkley-point-c-nuclear-power-station (accessed 20 March 2013).
References
Benton, L. M. & Short, J. R. (Eds) (2000) Environmental Discourse and Practice: A Reader (Malden,MA: Blackwell).
Dryzek, J. (1997) Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Ben ChristmanSchool of Law, Queen’s University Belfast
[email protected]# 2013 Ben Christman
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2013.850233
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