Information Environmentalism: A Governance Framework for Intellectual Property Rights by Robert Cunningham Published by Edward Elgar, 2014, 320 pp., £85.00, hardback.

• Published date: 01 November 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12222
• Date: 01 November 2017

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of people displaced as a result of climate change. After outlining the

numerous and varied implications of climate change for the people of

the Asia- Pacific region, the chapter goes on to consider potential in-

ternational responses and suggests the reasons as to why these have

not yet been utilized. This chapter is highly effective in emphasizing

the definitional issue that arises in relation to displaced persons as

well as the perpetual nature of the problem which causes them to be

displaced. As such, it elucidates the major challenges in this regard

which are acutely felt in, but not exclusive to, the Asia- Pacific region.

These chapters add considerable insight to this field, since this region

is often omitted by authors owing to a lack of binding institutions

for implementation and enforcement in the region. As Boer himself

notes, this is reflected in the differing pace of development in relation

to the application of human rights to environmental law in this region,

which is somewhat behind that of Europe, the Americas and Africa,

but it is this very fact that makes the research forming the basis of

these chapters so important.

The final chapter of the book is a revision of an article published in

2012 by Boyle. The chapter is an apt conclusion to a book that high-

lights a number of issues in specific geographical regions and contexts

with the application of human rights to environmental law. Adopting

a broader approach, Boyle considers the next steps in furthering this

convergence of legal fields, and in doing so raises the necessity to

address issues highlighted in more specific contexts in the foregoing

chapters. In relation to the field as a whole, he reiterates the challenges

of accounting for corporate and economic interests, the non- territorial

nature of and variance in climate change impacts, and procedural dif-

ficulties to be overcome. By doing so, he maps the future of the field

and what must be done to ensure it continues to develop in a fitting

end to the book.

In a field with a plethora of potential avenues for discussion,

Environmental Law Dimensions of Human Rights collates a series of

viewpoints on its future which reflect its complex range of both juris-

dictions and stakeholders. Boer was evidently aware of the potential

for this to be a collection of unrelated pieces on a broad theme and has

arranged a collection which avoids this pitfall whilst maintaining suffi-

cient depth of insight. The inclusion of the often- omitted Asia- Pacific

region and its connection to broader debates in the field is reason

alone for those interested in it to procure a copy, but its contribution

stretches far beyond this.

John Pearson

University of Manchester

DOI: 10.1111/reel.12222

INFORMATION ENVIRONMENTALISM:

A GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK FOR

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS by

Robert Cunningham

Published by Edward Elgar, 2014, 320 pp., £85.00, hardback.

In Information Environmentalism, Robert Cunningham sets out on the

task of constructing a governance framework for the protection of

the information commons. In doing so, Cunningham explores four dis-

tinct analytical frameworks drawn from the environmental protection

arena, and applies them to the constructed information environment.

These frameworks are welfare economics, the commons, ecological

governance and public choice theory. The book’s structure corres-

ponds to these four frameworks.

In Part I, Cunningham takes a critical view of intellectual property

rights, primarily through the articulation and examination of the costs

of propertization of information – specifically arguing that the intel-

lectual property regime understates a variety of costs and hides them

behind the veil of property, ultimately leading to a situation where the

maximum social good has not been achieved.

Cunningham then proceeds in Part II to articulate the contours

of the information commons, which ‘is a unifying theme of the four

envir onmental analytical frameworks’ (at 63). The commons, in

Information Environmentalism, is used as a concept that combines

the intellectual commons and public domain, while holding the ‘key

attribute … that no single person or organisation has exclusive control

over use of disposition of a particular resource’ (at 72). It is in em-

ploying this concept of the commons, and evaluating the intellectual

property framework in contrast to it, that Cunningham ‘promote[s]

the idea that [intellectual property rights] dialogue move beyond a

private property/commons dichotomy towards a more nuanced di-

alogue which recognised the efficiencies arising from the dynamic

interaction between private and commons usages of informational

resources’ (at 92).

Part III examines an information environment through the frame-

work of ecology drawing on the concepts in ecological governance,

namely interrelationalism, resilience, diversity and modularity. It

is within this part that the author introduces and explores the con-

cepts of ‘information commons rights’, ‘information ecological impact

statements’ and ‘informational national parks’. In support of this ap-

proach, Cunningham posits that rational truths, reasonable arguments

and rhetorical imagination must be employed, which are explored in

Chapter 8 of Part III.

In Part IV, Cunningham explores public choice theory, centring the

criticism greatly on the idea that ‘[d]ecision[s] in a democracy are made

badly when they are primarily made by and for the benefit of a few

stakeholders, be they landowners or content providers’ (at 147), and

suggests the value of ‘social production’ to counteract these incum-

bent issues.

Part V consists of Cunningham’s conclusions, and outlines the

main points and principles articulated throughout the work. Indeed, I

suggest that the reader begin with Part V so as to receive a roadmap to

the book before embarking on a comprehensive read- through.