Constructing the aquatic environment as a legal subject: legal rights, market participation, and the power of narrative
Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Environmental Water Managers (EWMs) operate around the world (mostly in Australia and the western USA) to improve environmental flows for the benefit of the aquatic environment.EWMs are organizations with:1) Attributes of legal personality (rights and powers); 2) Specific objectives to improve and maintain the health of aquatic ecosystems; and 3) Capacity to acquire and manage water rights, using the water market.The creation and operation of the EWMs raises an important question: what happens when the aquatic environment is constructed in water law, and participates in water markets, as a legal subject?To answer this question, this thesis examines the constructions of the aquatic environment in water law in south-eastern Australia and the western USA.A combination of legal analysis and qualitative research (long-form interviews and content analysis) has been used to explore the creation and operation of the EWMs within their legal and social contexts.Answering this question also required the specific example of the EWMs to be understood as part of the broader context of environmental law.Using a constructivist analysis, this thesis develops a new conceptual framework which distils the myriad, diverse legal definitions of the 'environment' in law into three main legal constructs: a socio-ecological concept, a legal object, and a legal subject, each of which is underpinned by a particular cultural narrative (Figure 1 below; see also Chapters 3 and 8).The key finding of this thesis is that the creation and operation of the EWMs generates an unexpected paradox.The EWM organisations increase the legibility of the aquatic environment to law, and increase the rights and powers of the aquatic environment in law (as well as increasing the quantity of water for the environment), but in doing so, they reframe the aquatic environment as a mere participant in a water market, and can undermine the cultural narratives that support environmental protection in the first place. Garrick, Dustin and Erin O'Donnell, 'Exploring Private Roles in Environmental Watering in Australia and the US' in Jeff Bennett (ed), Protecting the Environment, Privately (World Scientific Publishing, 2016) 203. Horne, A and E O'Donnell, 'Decision Making Roles and Responsibility for Environmental Water in the Murray-Darling Basin'
Author: Erin O’Donnell
Language: English
Topic: Environmental law and policy
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2747731186