Law and Ecology: New Environmental Foundations – Edited by Andreas Philippopoulos‐Mihalopoulos

• Author: Benjamin J. Richardson
• Date: 01 July 2012
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9388.2012.00750.x
• Published date: 01 July 2012

Book Reviews

Law and Ecology:

New Environmental

Foundations, edited by

Andreas Philippopoulos-

Mihalopoulos, published by

Routledge, 2011, 240pp.,

$135.00, hardback.

One of the most fascinating

scholarly books about environ-

mental law that I have read in some

years is Law and Ecology: New

Environmental Foundations. A col-

lection of essays edited by Andreas

Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, a

University of Westminster Professor

of Law, this pithy volume offers

radical and theoretically sophisti-

cated perspectives from critical legal

studies to ecofeminism to help rede-

fine the relationships between law

and ecology. Attempting to anchor

environmental law to more robust

jurisprudential foundations, and to

challenge the traditionally human-

centred frameworks and concerns

of legal theory, Philippopoulos-

Mihalopoulos and his ten co-

contributors offer refreshing

perspectives on a number of im-

portant topical debates, ranging

from the ethics of genetically modi-

fied organisms to the postcolonial

geographies of pollution.

In the opening two chapters,

Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos seeks

to forge a new theoretical base

for what he terms a ‘Critical Envi-

ronmental Law’ that addresses

‘environmental law’s foundational

paradox: that its conceptual limits

are both potentially all-inclusive

(since every societal problem can be

seen as more or less environmental)

and devoid of any content (since

environmental law can no longer

distinguish its “object”, namely

environment per se)’ (at 7). Drawing

on his considerable research on Nik-

las Luhmann’s theory of autopoie-

sis, Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos

pleads for critical reflection on the

mechanisms of environmental law

in a milieu where the boundaries

between the human and the natural

worlds are disintegrating. The hall-

marks of his vision of environ-

mental law, which would aim to

unseat its unrealistic prescriptive

and teleological regulation of

nature, are rooted in a scholarly

attitude that is multidisciplinary,

non-anthropocentric and inclusive

of a plurality of perspectives.

These ideas are elaborated and

contextualized in nine further chap-

ters, beginning with Bettina Lange’s

chapter on ‘Foucauldian inspired

discourse analysis’, which examines

several theoretical impulses in the

emerging field of critical environ-

mental law. Illustrating her analysis

in relation to European Union (EU)

regulation of transgenic agricultural

products, Lange sees critical legal

studies and socio-legal studies as

among the most seminal theoretical

influences that are helping to desta-

bilize the prevailing understandings

of environmental law and to open

up a larger discursive space for criti-

cal enquiry. Many other chapters

in Law and Ecology are similarly

informed by these alternative theo-

retical schools, as well as related

scholarship on postmodernism and

poststructuralism.

Environmental risk is an important

theme of several chapters that seek

to critique the goals and methods of

environmental regulation. Jo Good-

ie’s chapter investigates ‘The eco-

logical narrative of risk and the

emergence of toxic tort litigation’.

Drawing on her experience from

Australia, Goodie provides a

nuanced understanding of toxic risk

litigation and reveals how courts

legally frame pollution hazards in

deciding toxic tort claims. Her con-

tribution is valuable for demonstrat-

ing how sometimes the notion of

‘risk’ has become more salient than

moral culpability in environmental

law. The notion of ‘risk’ is also rel-

evant to John Paterson’s chapter

on the status of the precautionary

principle – about which much has

been written in the environmental

law literature. Alain Potage’s chap-

ter builds on these understand-

ings of risk and precaution in his

analysis of biotechnology regulation

with particular regard to develop-

ments in the EU.

Karen Morrow’s chapter offers an

ecofeminist perspective in assessing

the prospects for a truly inclusive

environmental policy making. In

exploring relationships between

ecology and gender, Morrow is

critical of those who might assume

that the growing rhetoric of pub-

lic participation and heightened

professional nongovernmental

organizations’ involvement in envi-

ronmental law-making – as evident,

for example, in the opportunities

created by the Aarhus Convention –

are a sufficient democratic basis

to environmental law governance.

Sceptical of participation ‘predi-

cated on status’, Morrow sees resis-

tance movements at the margins

of society as vital sources for new

knowledge and values to infuse a

critical environmental law.

A somewhat quaint contribution to

this book is Piyel Haldar’s chapter

‘Animals and the future salvation

of the world’. In a novel attempt

to show the ‘primacy of law over

nature’ and how it might be chal-

lenged (at 154), Halder examines

bs_bs_banner

Review of European Community & International Environmental Law

RECIEL 21 (2) 2012. ISSN 0962 8797

© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

154