Environmental Governance: The Role of Institutions in Causing and Confronting Environmental Problems

This article describes and explains in accessible terms major findings arising from the work of the long-term international research project on the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC). In analyzing the roles institutions play in both causing and confronting environmental problems, the project directs attention to three analytic themes – known as the problems of fit, interplay, and scale – and seeks to illuminate these concerns through empirical studies of marine, terrestrial, and atmospheric systems. IDGEC science has highlighted the pervasiveness of institutional misfits and begun to identify the reasons why misfits often prove difficult to eliminate, even when their existence becomes widely known. Research conducted under the auspices of the project demonstrates the growing impact of national and even international institutions on the effectiveness of local resource regimes. Similarly, IDGEC research has identified reasons why policy instruments that work well at the national level (e.g., tradable permits) are frequently difficult or impossible to transfer to the international level. To make the discussion of these findings concrete, the project has explored the problem of fit with particular reference to the performance of Exclusive Economic Zones, the problem of interplay through an analysis of the fate of tropical forests, and the problem of scale through an account of the limits of emissions trading as a policy instrument in the climate change regime.     

司法在环境治理中的作用:德国之考量

保护性法律理论和制度限制了当事人就环境争议诉诸司法,但德国司法通过判例解释和发展环境法,赋予第三方当事人和扩张环境团体起诉资格,司法同时发挥对环境立法和环境行政的测试和控制,对行政决定进行实体和程序上的充分司法审查。     

社会治理中的标准规制

当前的社会管理已经进入了“标准治国”的时代,标准成为社会治理的重要工具,为现代行政国家的硬件运转提供重要的“系统软件”。近期的一系列社会管理事件背后,不约而同都浮现出标准规制的问题。对标准的制定主体类型及其效力模式的分析表明,由传统国家立法机关主导制定的强制性标准具有强制执行的效力,那些并不享有国家立法权的机关和组织制定的非强制性标准虽没有直接创设新的权利义务,但这不意味着这样的标准不具有强制执行力。如何完善标准的制定程序及纠纷解决机制需要行政法的更多关注和研究。     

论第三代环境规制

作为一种新的规制模式,第三代环境规制是在社会复杂性显著增强、绿色商业兴起的时代背景下诞生的,因应了前两代环境规制的现实困境。第三代环境规制的核心意旨是在法律自我限制的基础上,系统化培育企业自觉提升环境表现的反思性结构。较诸前两代环境规制,其背后的理论范式和国家责任均发生了深刻变迁,形成了一种代际意义上的新型规制模式。面对日益紧迫的资源环境约束,第三代环境规制具有远大前景,但在我国的实施尚须解决若干约束条件。     

Environmental Governance and Sustainability

The Seventh Annual Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law will focus on the area of Environmental Governance and Sustainability. This theme provides an opportunity to examine the issues of international, national, sub-national and local environmental governance in the context of the promotion of environmental, social/cultural and economic sustainability. Proposed sessions include：     

Corporate Monitorships and New Governance Regulation: In Theory,in Practice,and in Context

Over the last few years, it has become increasingly common for government agencies to resolve corporate criminal law and securities regulations violations through the use of settlement agreements that require corporations to improve their compliance programs and hire independent monitors to oversee the changes. Based on our interviews with corporate monitors, regulators, and others, we find that these monitorships are failing to meet their full potential in reforming corrupt corporate cultures. After reviewing potential reforms to improve monitorships from a new governance perspective, we discuss the limits of these reforms that are due to the sociological and institutional environment in which monitorships are embedded.     

The New Punitive Regulation

There is now some evidence of a potential drift towards 'punitive' approaches to regulation in which greater emphasis is placed on criminal sanctions. This new enthusiasm for punishment can be seen in government policy, legislation and some regulators' public stances. There is evidence, however, that companies (even top ones) deal with punitive regulatory risks in a confused manner and that even when they do act rationally, this may not lead to compliance. One response to punitive approaches and their limitations is to move towards greater reliance on stimulating the self-regulatory capacities of corporations. Such stimulation, however, has to be carried out with an awareness of the dangers of self-regulation – notably that it may lead to controls that lack legitimacy, prove unfair and are exclusive and inefficient.     

法治视阈下社会协同治理的制度创新

社会协同治理是基于发挥不同主体的社会治理作用,构建制度化的沟通渠道和参与平台,加强对社会的支持培育,发挥社会主体在自主治理、参与服务、协同管理等方面的作用而产生。社会治理需要综合运用政治、经济、行政、法律等手段,其关键在于实现社会治理手段的制度化。从这一意义上来说,必须坚持社会协同治理的法治取向,尽快健全社会协同治理的法律制度,促进多元主体"共建"的制度化参与平台。     

“统”“治”形态双重指向的现代变革

统治包含政道与治道双重指向,它即具有政治学意义,也具有法学意义.中国传统帝制下的统治是人治、专制的体现,帝王个人既统又治,统与治没有制度性隔离.现代社会要求统治政道正统合法性基础变革,统治治道法律形态变革,以适应现代化社会发展的总体要求.     

公共治理视域下自动化应用的法律规制

技术飞跃与治理提升之间的关联通常被假定,也早已被吸纳进“数字中国”“智慧社会”等政策实践,但法律的习惯性滞后带来了监管套利的空间。公共治理领域的自动化应用经历了从基于数据库编码的计算机自动化到基于机器学习的算法自动化再到基于神经网络的超级自动化的逐步跃迁,从早先自下而上专业人士的“辅助/参考”和个别部门的“部署/应用”嬗变为自上而下的社会化“嵌入/集成”,公权力、私权力及私权利的关系发生了结构性转换。相应地,国际通行、日益趋同的个人隐私保护(事前同意)、算法可解释性(事中监测)和完整履责链条(事后追责)的监管范式也应依照宏观技术共治、中观价值位阶和微观权利保障三位一体的规制路径进行体系化重构。     

环境治理与专利强制实施许可

环境污染的治理需要依靠先进的科学技术,其中包括被授予专利权的环境技术专利.但对于需要排污处理的生产经营企业而言,环境技术专利的实施不仅要支出大量的费用,而且难以从中获取经济上的收益.将专利强制实施许可制度适用于环境技术专利,扩大强制实施许可的申请主体范围,设定适当的技术许可使用费,并利用地方环境保护标准将技术的实施纳入强制性规定,这有助于提高地方政府的环境污染治理能力,同时能促使环境技术专利得以充分实施,有效地解决环境污染问题.     

Transforming Environmental Governance in Northern Ireland. Part One: The Process of Policy Renewal

As Northern Ireland emerges from decades of conflict, the pressuresfor economic regeneration mean that without fundamental reformsto the region’s system of environmental governance, itslong-awaited sustainable development strategy will be littlemore than a chimera. There is some cause for optimism that theneed for major administrative reform is now understood. Thescale and background of the underlying environmental policymalaise are examined. Only in the last four years, spurred bya combination of the threat of fines before the European Courtof Justice and of the restoration of devolution, has there beena significant effort of environmental law reform, which hasled to a clearing Northern Ireland’s notorious EU legislativebacklog. Real reform in governance, however, will be impossiblewithout a credible champion, and a particular responsibilityfor leadership in policy on the environment and sustainabledevelopment will rest on Northern Ireland’s Departmentof the Environment. Five critical challenges are identifiedif the Department is to be effective in this respect.