Faure, Michael G. --- "Instruments for Environmental Governance: What Works?" [2012] ELECD 264; in Martin, Paul; Zhiping, Li; Tianbao, Qin; Du Plessis, Anel; Le Bouthillier, Yves; Williams, Angela (eds), "Environmental Governance and Sustainability" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Environmental Governance and Sustainability

Editor(s): Martin, Paul; Zhiping, Li; Tianbao, Qin; Du Plessis, Anel; Le Bouthillier, Yves; Williams, Angela

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781000472

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Instruments for Environmental Governance: What Works?

Author(s): Faure, Michael G.

Number of pages: 21

Extract:

1. Instruments for environmental
governance: what works?
Michael G. Faure

1.1 INTRODUCTION

I would like to thank the Academy for the great honour of inviting me to speak
at the colloquium to my distinguished colleagues and subsequently contribut-
ing to this volume. Apparently a keynote speaker is supposed to present two
rather than one keynote speech. However, since I was also to present a paper
on environmental criminal law in China with two Chinese colleagues, I was
afraid that three times Faure would have been too much for the audience.
If I were to give two lectures, I would probably have structured it as
follows: first, I would have presented (on the basis of legal and economic
scholarship) what theoretical assumptions exist about the functioning of vari-
ous instruments intended to reduce environmental harm and to promote
sustainable development. The second lecture would have considered the
empirical evidence of the extent to which the theoretical assumptions, on
which much of our environmental governance is based, do work in practice.
Since the organisation agreed that I would only give one keynote presentation,
I will integrate the two approaches and briefly look at what theory tells us
about how environmental law should work and spend most of my time at look-
ing at the empirical evidence.
My contribution hence does not deal directly with doctrinal environmental
law, but I give some insights into the empirical evidence about the effective-
ness of environmental law. To a large extent, this evidence is not ...