Methodological Approach for Testing a Co-regulatory Bio-fuels Weeds Risk Management Model

Apart from scientific risk analysis, policy and regulations directed to manage weeds risk rely only to a limited degree on risk techniques to address biological invasions. It is the aim of this PhD research to investigate how commercial risk-based techniques can be better embedded into institutional arrangements to address the weeds risk associated with the use of energy crops to produce bio-ethanol. To this end, a conceptual architecture for a co-regulatory risk management model has been developed. It is the purpose of this paper to explain the methodological approach adopted to test the model. The first part of the paper explains the underpinning philosophical assumptions of this project. Research design for data collection to produce new empirical knowledge and inform the legal policy research process in relation to the bio-fuel weed risk is discussed in the second part. The second part of the paper also discusses the methodological challenges faced due to the nature of environmental law and the difficulty of communicating the concept of risk. The last part of the paper explains the criteria selected to assess the quality of this research. A table provided at the end of the paper gives an overview of the methodological approach and practical examples.