Environmental Protection, Law and Policy: Text and Materials

Citation

Holder, J., & Lee, M. (2007). Environmental Protection, Law and Policy: Text and Materials. Cambridge University Press.

Chapter Summary

The book is a text-and-materials work of about 770 pages with seventeen chapters, grouped in five parts, each opening with a short introduction. It is the revised edition of Sue Elworthy and Jane Holder's Environmental Protection (1997). The first three parts place environmental law in its context: the wider setting of the subject, the European Union and the international framework. The last two parts deal with the main mechanisms of regulation, pollution control and controls over land use and development. Two cases run through the book, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which are introduced in Part I and returned to in Part II, and wind farm development, which closes it.

Part I (Chapters 1–3): Introduction: Law in Context

Chapter 1, "Environmental law in context", is about fifty pages. It sets environmental law against the role of science and risk assessment, the use of economics and cost-benefit analysis, the political and popular dimensions of protection, and alternative ecological theories such as deep ecology and ecofeminism. Chapter 2, "Genetically modified organisms: introducing a dilemma", takes GMOs as a first case study of the issues. Chapter 3, "Public participation in environmental decision making", examines the role of the public in decisions.

Part II (Chapters 4–5): The EU Context

Chapter 4, "The development and state of EU environmental law and policy", describes the EU framework. Chapter 5, "Multi-level decision making: the EU and GMOs", returns to GMOs to show how decisions are made across levels of government.

Part III (Chapters 6–7): The International Context

Chapter 6, "Sustainable development: quality of life and the future", and Chapter 7, "'Globalisation' and international trade", each roughly fifty pages long, treat the international dimension through the idea of sustainable development and through the relationship between environmental protection and trade.

Part IV (Chapters 8–11): Mechanisms of Regulation I: Pollution Control

Four chapters on how pollution is controlled: "The institutional architecture of pollution control"; "Licensing as a regulatory technique: the example of integrated pollution prevention and control"; "Enforcement and implementation of direct regulation"; and "Regulatory techniques: beyond licensing".

Part V (Chapters 12–17): Mechanisms of Regulation II: Controls Over Land Use and Development

The longest part, six chapters: "Historical context of land use and development controls"; "Planning and environmental protection"; "Environmental assessment" (the longest chapter in the book, about sixty pages); "Nature conservation and biodiversity: the technique of designation"; "Nature conservation and biodiversity: beyond designation"; and "Wind farm development and environmental conflicts", which applies the preceding chapters to a single contested form of development.

Key Concepts

Context and participation (Part I)

• Law in context: the idea that environmental law is read against science, economics and the political and ecological arguments about the environment.
• GMOs as a dilemma: a case study used to introduce questions of risk and decision making.
• Public participation: the role of the public in environmental decisions.

EU and international frameworks (Parts II and III)

• Multi-level decision making: decisions taken across EU and national levels, studied through GMOs.
• Sustainable development: the principle linking quality of life and the interests of future generations.
• Globalisation and trade: the relationship between international trade and environmental protection.

Regulation of pollution and land use (Parts IV and V)

• Licensing and IPPC: licensing as a regulatory technique, illustrated by integrated pollution prevention and control.
• Enforcement and implementation: how direct regulation is put into effect.
• Planning and environmental assessment: controls over land use and the assessment of development.
• Designation: the use of designation as a technique for conserving nature and biodiversity, and the approaches that go beyond it.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Law placed in context. The opening part, and the word "context" in three of its five part titles, show a book that treats environmental law as part of wider debates and not only as a set of rules.
• Case studies carried across chapters. GMOs appear first in Part I and again in Part II, and the wind farm chapter closes the book, so the same issues are seen at different levels and through different mechanisms.
• A balanced split between pollution control and land use. Each of the two regulatory parts has a short introduction and several chapters, so the two main systems of control are treated on a comparable scale.
• Substantial treatment of environmental assessment and conservation. The longest chapters in the book are environmental assessment (about sixty pages) and the first of two chapters on nature conservation (about fifty-nine pages).

Limitations

• Date. The text is from 2007, so the later EU and international developments, and later domestic reforms, are not covered; the contents have no chapter on climate change.
• Scope of pollution control. The pollution chapters concentrate on institutions, licensing, enforcement and other regulatory techniques, not on individual media such as air, water or waste.
• Size and format. A text-and-materials book of this length mixes commentary with extracts and takes more time to work through than a conventional textbook.

Where It Fits in the Course

Holder and Lee is a thematic, context-led book: it takes the EU, international and regulatory levels in turn and uses case studies to show how environmental law works. Bell and others' Environmental Law is a more recent and more sector-by-sector textbook, with separate chapters on air pollution, water, waste and climate change, and fits well after Holder and Lee or beside it for a course that needs those sectors. Sands and Peel's Principles of International Environmental Law and Mayer's The International Law on Climate Change go much deeper into international law than Part III does. Lazarus's The Making of Environmental Law gives an American account of how environmental law developed.

A sensible order is Holder and Lee for the framework and the arguments, Bell for the current sector regimes, and the international books once the domestic framework is clear.

How to Use This Book

The book suits undergraduates in environmental law and policy courses, particularly those that treat the subject in its wider context and want extracts of primary and academic material alongside commentary.

A practical reading plan:

• Core: Chapter 1 (context), Chapter 3 (participation), Chapters 6–7 (sustainable development and trade), Chapters 8–10 (pollution control).
• For a planning or land-use emphasis: Part V in order, from the historical context to environmental assessment and conservation.
• Case studies: Chapters 2 and 5 together for GMOs, and Chapter 17 for the wind farm case, as a way to see how the legal tools work on a particular controversy.

Use the Part introductions to orient yourself before each part, and read the extracts critically as arguments as well as sources. Check the current position on each topic in more recent sources, since the text dates from 2007.