Introduction: the scholarship of environmental governance

The chapters in this book show the many ways in which legal scholarship is pivotal to good governance in all these respects, and the extent of innovation that is being generated by the ecological, economic and social challenges that are arising. The content and scope of these chapters demonstrate clearly the increasing breadth and depth of environmental law scholarship. The chapters show the many ways in which community and political leadership towards sustainability is being translated into institutional arrangements in the international and national spheres. The book also demonstrates the many conflicts and potential conflicts inherent in a radical transformation of society and economy. Legal scholars are, as a result, being called to take a leadership role in some of the fundamental contests of ideas and of interests that are taking place across the planet, as societies try to find a way of living with the reality of our finite and declining resources. The chapters in this book suggest that this requires significant legal and institutional innovations that are interlinked with scientific discovery and the march of community power (enabled in no small degree by technology). The chapters reflect a willingness on the part of legal scholars to question the received wisdom of economics, and to contest the entrenched power structures within societies in the interests of sustainability, social justice and future citizens.