Regulating a Thousand Cuts : Global Law and Policy Solutions to Cumulative Environmental Problems

Applying findings from interdisciplinary research, this book offers an optimistic, solution-oriented resource for researchers, policymakers and advocates working to improve our laws for the environment. Laws can help us to clarify what we care about, reveal cumulative threats to it and do something about those threats – together.

Cumulative environmental problems are complex, insidious, slow-motion tragedies that are all too common, from biodiversity loss, to urban air pollution, to environmental injustice. Taking an interdisciplinary, comparative and applied approach, this book offers a new framework for designing solutions using four integrated regulatory functions: Conceptualization, Information, Regulatory intervention and Coordination (the CIRCle Framework). Rules that deliver these functions can help us to clarify what we care about, reveal the cumulative threats to it and do something about those threats – together. Examples from around the world illustrate diverse legal approaches to each function and three major case studies from California, Australia and Italy provide deeper insights. Regulating a Thousand Cuts offers an optimistic, solution-oriented resource and a step-by-step guide to analysis for researchers, policymakers, regulators, law reformers and advocates. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.