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2011 Resilience and Law Panel Session
Citation:
GARMESTANI, A., M. Benson, AND C. R. Allen. 2011 Resilience and Law Panel Session. Presented at the Resilience 2011- 2nd International Science and Policy Conference: Resilience, Innovation, and Sustainability: Navigating the Complexities of Global Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, March 11 - 16, 2011.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform EPA
Description:
Resilience is the capacity of a complex system of people and nature to absorb perturbations without collapsing. It provides a conceptual framework for the integration of natural resource management with ecological responses. Achieving the goal of sustainability is complicated by uncertainty in the drivers of change, by non-linear responses in complex systems, and by the fragmentation of management and legal jurisdictions. Climate change, resource consumption patterns, deteriorating ecosystems and concomitant loss of services, the demand for energy, and aging infrastructure all have the capacity to trigger rapid non-linear change, as well as social and economic instability. Uncertainty in these factors challenges traditional approaches to governance that relies on the assumption that historic data can be used to predict the future. In the face of uncertainty, greater flexibility for management across jurisdictional boundaries and among multiple sectors will be needed to foster resilience. Administrative law governs the process of agency decision making and actions taken to implement substantive law. It is through administrative law that an agency might be given authority to, for example, coordinate and share information with other entities at the same or another hierarchical level. Research to translate resilience theory into specific administrative actions may provide a road map to improve our ability to foster resilience. Critical is the certainty and inflexibility of current laws to govern systems with high uncertainty and “no-analog” futures. To address the challenges faced in developing laws to foster resilience, our panel will consist of three 15 minute framework presentations, and three panelist responses of 5 minutes each. This initial hour of the panel session will be followed by 30 minutes of open discussion with the audience. The three 15 minute presentations will be by legal scholars, and the responses by ecologists and social scientists familiar with resilience theory.