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Introduction: Social-Ecological Resilience and Law
Citation:
Garmestani, A., C. Allen, C. Arnold, AND L. Gunderson. Introduction: Social-Ecological Resilience and Law. Chapter 00, Social Ecological Resilience and Law, ISBN9780231160599. Columbia University, New York, NY, , p.1-14, (2014).
Impact/Purpose:
The rigidity of our current legal framework is not well-suited to the complexity of social-ecological systems (Garmestani et al. 2009). To account for resilience in social-ecological systems, environmental law likely must evolve in response to changing environmental conditions (Garmestani et al. 2009). Law is incremental by design, and thus broad-scale change is unlikely (Lazarus 2004). Thus, the law will likely have to evolve in an incremental manner, interspersed with dramatic change, in response to environmental problems.
Description:
Environmental law envisions ecological systems as existing in an equilibrium state, reinforcing a rigid legal framework unable to absorb rapid environmental changes and innovations in sustainability. For the past four decades, "resilience theory," which embraces uncertainty and nonlinear dynamics in complex adaptive systems, has provided a robust, invaluable foundation for sound environmental management. Reforming American law to incorporate this knowledge is the key to sustainability. This volume features top legal and resilience scholars speaking on resilience theory and its legal applications to climate change, biodiversity, national parks, and water law.
