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Can green tribunals help to resist neo-liberalism in environmental governance – The case of India

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  • Rao, Neethi Varadaraja
  • Bhaskaran, Varsha
  • Nagendra, Harini

Abstract

Establishing the environmental rule of law has been identified as a precondition to achieving sustainable development. Increasingly however norms around environmental sustainability are being eroded by rising neoliberalism. Within countries, especially developing countries these trends are creating tensions for environmental policy-making that often require adjudication/judicial intervention. In this paper, we use the case of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), situated in a rising economy - India to understand how it operates amidst these tensions, restricting our analysis to pre-COVID-19 to minimise confounding effects of the pandemic. We find that the limited jurisdiction allows the NGT to continue to uphold the principles of environmental sustainability. The NGT is able to serve as an indicator of the kinds of environmental issues cropping up, deliver environmental justice and improve governance. However, there are visible tensions driven by the larger political economy of environmental policymaking in India that pose a significant systemic challenge to the effectiveness of the NGT. Given the resurgence of economic imperatives in post-pandemic policymaking, the NGT and other similar environmental courts/tribunals across the globe, need to draw on sources of strength established pre-pandemic to uphold environmental rule of law going forward.

Suggested Citation

  • Rao, Neethi Varadaraja & Bhaskaran, Varsha & Nagendra, Harini, 2023. "Can green tribunals help to resist neo-liberalism in environmental governance – The case of India," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:131:y:2023:i:c:s0264837723002053
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106739
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gerald Taylor Aiken & Lucie Middlemiss & Susannah Sallu & Richard Hauxwell‐Baldwin, 2017. "Researching climate change and community in neoliberal contexts: an emerging critical approach," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(4), July.
    2. Chara Vavoura & Ioannis Vavouras, 2022. "Sustainable economic development in the European Union and COVID-19," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 449-467, April.
    3. Narong Kiettikunwong, 2019. "The Green Bench: Can an environmental court protect natural resources in Thailand?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 385-404, February.
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