Law Commons^™

Resilience Theory And Wicked Problems, Robin Kundis Craig

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article posits, first, that resilience theory offers important insights into our understanding of wicked problems and, second, that to understand the value of resilience theory to wicked problems, we should start by going back to the context of Rittel’s and Webber’s 1973 delineation of the ten characteristics of a “wicked problem.” Rittel and Webber were in fact among the vanguard of researchers beginning to articulate the realization that social and ecological systems — now social-ecological systems, or SESs — do not follow the predictable and mechanistic rules of Newtonian physics. As a result, SESs do not yield, at least …

Designing Law To Enable Adaptive Governance Of Modern Wicked Problems, J. B. Ruhl, Barbara A. Cosens A. Cosens, Niko Soininen, Lance Gunderson

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article contributes to the development of adaptive governance theory by articulating and situating the role of formal law and government as the facilitator, but not central controller, of adaptive governance. To advance the understanding of adaptive governance, we argue that it can be understood in the broader context of scholarship covering the observed emergence of new governance, the efforts to develop theoretical understandings through decentered theory, and the refinement of constitutional understanding through democratic experimentalism. Synthesis of these three themes in turn informs the role of law and government in working with emergent governance responses to complexity to manage …

Fostering Adaptive Marine Aquaculture Through Procedural Innovation In Marine Spatial Planning, Robin Kundis Craig

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Worldwide, as wild-caught commercial fisheries plateau and human demands for protein increase, marine aquaculture is expanding. Much marine aquaculture is inherently adaptable to changing climatic and chemical conditions. Nevertheless, siting of marine aquaculture operations is subject to competing environmental, economic, and social demands upon and priorities for ocean space, while some forms of marine aquaculture can impose other externalities on marine systems, such as pollution from wastes (nutrients) and antibiotics, consumption of wild fish as food, and introduction of non-native or genetically modified species. As a result, governmental policy decisions to promote both marine aquaculture that can adapt to a …

Trickster Law: Promoting Resilience And Adaptive Governance By Allowing Other Perspectives On Natural Resource Management, Robin Kundis Craig

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The Anthropocene requires a new approach to natural resources law and policy, an approach that this short article terms "trickster law." Trickster law incorporates insights from resilience theory, adaptive governance scholarship, and cultural/anthropological studies of trickster tales to create a legal approach to natural resource management that is precautionary, engaged in proactive planning, based in principled flexibility, and pluralistic. This article focuses on the "pluralism" component, presenting three examples of how law modified to be more inclusive and respect different value systems has generated new approaches to natural resources management that better promote social-ecological resilience to climate change and other …

Introduction To The Special Feature Practicing Panarchy: Assessing Legal Flexibility, Ecological Resilience, And Adaptive Governance In Regional Water Systems Experiencing Rapid Environmental Change, Barbara Cosens

Articles

This special feature presents articles on the cross-scale interactions among law, ecosystem dynamics, and governance to address the adaptive capacity of six watersheds in the United States as they respond to rapid environmental change. We build on work that assesses resilience and transformation in riverine and wetland social-ecological systems across the United States at a variety of scales, levels of development, and degrees of degradation, focusing specifically on the Anacostia River, Central Platte River, Klamath River, Columbia River, Middle Rio Grand River, and the Everglades wetlands. All of these cases involve complex institutional systems, histories involving ecological and social regime …

Regime Shifts And Panarchies In Regional Scale Social-Ecological Water Systems, Barbara Cosens

Articles

In this article we summarize histories of nonlinear, complex interactions among societal, legal, and ecosystem dynamics in six North American water basins, as they respond to changing climate. These case studies were chosen to explore the conditions for emergence of adaptive governance in heavily regulated and developed social-ecological systems nested within a hierarchical governmental system. We summarize resilience assessments conducted in each system to provide a synthesis and reference by the other articles in this special feature. We also present a general framework used to evaluate the interactions between society and ecosystem regimes and the governance regimes chosen to mediate …

Adaptive Water Governance Project: Assessing Law, Resilience And Governance In Regional Socio-Ecological Water Systems Facing A Changing Climate, Barbara Cosens

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Decade Of Adaptive Governance Scholarship: Synthesis And Future Directions, Barbara Cosens

Articles

Adaptive governance is an emergent form of environmental governance that is increasingly called upon by scholars and practitioners to coordinate resource management regimes in the face of the complexity and uncertainty associated with rapid environmental change. Although the term “adaptive governance” is not exclusively applied to the governance of social-ecological systems, related research represents a significant outgrowth of literature on resilience, social-ecological systems, and environmental governance. We present a chronology of major scholarship on adaptive governance, synthesizing efforts to define the concept and identifying the array of governance concepts associated with transformation toward adaptive governance. Based on this synthesis, we …

The Principle Of Resilience, Lia Helena Monteiro De Lima Demange

Dissertations & Theses

This article departs from the observation of accentuated degradation of ecosystems worldwide to stress the urgency in changing the patterns of occupation of the land, production, consumption and the ecological and ethical goals of environmental conservation. Aiming to achieve these ends, this article proposes the acknowledgement of the principle of resilience in international environmental law. The principle of resilience is articulated herein based on the concept of ecological resilience; the values of land ethic; and the existing principles of international environmental law. Later, the article explains how the principle can be applied to adaptive governance; adaptive management; environmental impact …

Slides: Adapting To Climate And To Climate Change, Roger S. Pulwarty

Climate Change and the Future of the American West: Exploring the Legal and Policy Dimensions (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

Presenter: Roger S. Pulwarty, Research Scientist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/CIRES, Boulder.

50 slides.