Law Commons^™

Legal And Institutional Foundations Of Adaptive Environmental Governance, J.B. Ruhl, Daniel A. Decaro, Brian C. Chaffin, Edella Schlager

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Legal and institutional structures fundamentally shape opportunities for adaptive governance of environmental resources at multiple ecological and societal scales. Properties of adaptive governance are widely studied. However, these studies have not resulted in consolidated frameworks for legal and institutional design, limiting our ability to promote adaptation and social-ecological resilience.We develop an overarching framework that describes the current and potential role of law in enabling adaptation. We apply this framework to different social-ecological settings, centers of activity, and scales, illustrating the multidimensional and polycentric nature of water governance. Adaptation typically emerges organically among multiple centers of agency and authority in society …