73 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Framing fracking: which frames are heard in English planning and environmental policy and practice?
Fracking in England has been the subject of significant controversy and has sparked not only public protest but also an associated framing war with differing social constructions of the technology adopted by different sides. This article explores the frames and counter-frames which have been employed by both the anti-fracking movement and by government and the oil and gas industry. It then considers the way in which the English planning and regulatory permitting systems have provided space for these frames within the relevant machinery for public participation. The article thus enables one to see which frames have been allowed a voice and which have been excluded
Recommended from our members
Republican ecological citizenship in the 2015 Papal Encyclical on the environment and climate change
The current article explores the treatment of ecological citizenship in the 2015 Papal Encyclical on the environment and climate change, the Laudato Si’. The Encyclical, although rich in its political theory, is (understandably) light in its explicit reliance on academic sources in the area. The article therefore aims to connect the two. In doing so, it argues that the Laudato has significant similarities with civic republican versions of ecological citizenship
Recommended from our members
Law, courts and populism: climate change litigation and the narrative turn
Climate change litigation has become an increasingly common feature of the modern legal landscape. Populism has, likewise, become commonplace within the political landscape, and the interaction between populism and the courts is the subject of a growing literature. This chapter considers the connections linking the two fields, considering in particular whether climate change litigation can be said to be populist in nature. Based on a survey of relevant cases, I develop two categories – populist legalism and legal populism – the former relating to the nature of the parties involved in litigation and the latter to narrative style employed in legal submissions. I argue that there are both benefits and distinct risks in borrowing from the populist playbook. While the chapter is focused on climate change litigation, its framework and conclusions are likely to be more broadly applicable to other policy fields examined by law and courts scholars
Recommended from our members
Litigation against fracking bans and moratoriums in the US: exit, voice and loyalty
A number of US states, counties and municipalities have responded to the public health and environmental concerns surrounding fracking by imposing bans or moratoriums on unconventional oil and gas drilling. These restrictions have, in recent years, given rise to litigation challenges by oil and gas companies and by property owners deprived of potential revenues. The current article begins by examining precisely who has litigated. Have large companies dominated or is it mostly smaller independents? Is there a difference in litigation rates between private and public companies? The article then considers how Hirschman’s ideas of exit, voice and loyalty might apply in the context of bans and moratoriums and further explores some of the factors that may have driven litigation in the area
Recommended from our members
Sensitivity in the law of nuisance: should people in glass houses expect voyeurs? Fearn v Tate Gallery
The case Fearn v Tate Gallery involved claims brought by luxury London flat owners for breach of privacy in relation to the Tate Modern’s nearby viewing platform. One of the key issues in the case, heard by Mann J in the High Court, was whether the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the flats – through which members of the public on the viewing platform could easily gaze – meant the residents were unduly sensitive users of the land for the purposes of the tort of nuisance. This case note considers this question along with the principle in nuisance that it is normally no defence to say that the claimant came to the nuisance. Both sensitivity and the coming to the nuisance (non-) defence are important elements of nuisance as an environmental tort and hence the case is worthy of note for environmental lawyers
Recommended from our members
Framing time in climate change litigation
Time is of the essence in relation to climate change. However, there have been few studies of how time features as a frame in legal mobilization against climate change. The current paper explores temporal framing in pleadings and judgments in a number of high profile climate litigation cases, including Urgenda, Kivalina, Kingsnorth, and the current US Our Children’s Trust proceedings. I argue that there is a tension between a future-looking scientific framing of time and both an environmentalist policy framing of time and a present-based scientific time frame. Under future-looking scientific framing, the effects of dangerous climate change have not yet occurred and remain some way off in the 'modelled’ future. Under an environmentalist policy time frame, action is needed immediately, now in the present, and with a present scientific time frame climate harm is already happening or is imminent. However, the environmentalist policy frame and the present scientific time frame potentially challenge certain received legal doctrines and could therefore prove legally disruptive
Recommended from our members
The visibility of environmental rights in the EU legal order: eurolegalism in action?
The current article responds to a key puzzle and a question. First, why, given the potential for ‘rights talk’ that has been seen in other countries and other policy areas, have environmental rights in the EU legal order been relatively invisible until recently? And second, with Daniel Kelemen’s influential work on Eurolegalism arguing that the EU has become much more reliant on US-style adversarial legalism, including a shift towards rights-based litigation, do EU environmental rights fit the picture Kelemen has painted, or are they an exception? The article explores the visibility of EU environmental rights at EU level and then seeks to explain the possible reasons for visibility/invisibility
Recommended from our members
The role of narrative in environmental law: the nature of tales and tales of nature
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
- …