IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v5y2013i1p316-337d23018.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Rule of Ecological Law: The Legal Complement to Degrowth Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Geoffrey Garver

    (McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A 2T5, Canada)

Abstract

The rule of ecological law is a fitting complement to degrowth. Planetary boundaries of safe operating space for humanity, along with complementary measures and principles, provide scientific and ethical foundations of the rule of ecological law, which should have several reinforcing features. First, it should recognize humans are part of Earth’s life systems. Second, ecological limits must have primacy over social and economic regimes. Third, the rule of ecological law must permeate all areas of law. Fourth, it should focus on radically reducing material and energy throughput. Fifth, it must be global, but distributed, using the principle of subsidiarity. Sixth, it must ensure fair sharing of resources among present and future generations of humans and other life. Seventh, it must be binding and supranational, with supremacy over sub-global legal regimes as necessary. Eighth, it requires a greatly expanded program of research and monitoring. Ninth, it requires precaution about crossing global ecological boundaries. Tenth, it must be adaptive. Although the transition from a growth-insistent economy headed toward ecological collapse to an economy based on the rule of ecological law is elusive, the European Union may be a useful structural model.

Suggested Citation

  • Geoffrey Garver, 2013. "The Rule of Ecological Law: The Legal Complement to Degrowth Economics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:1:p:316-337:d:23018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/1/316/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/1/316/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan A. Foley & Navin Ramankutty & Kate A. Brauman & Emily S. Cassidy & James S. Gerber & Matt Johnston & Nathaniel D. Mueller & Christine O’Connell & Deepak K. Ray & Paul C. West & Christian Balz, 2011. "Solutions for a cultivated planet," Nature, Nature, vol. 478(7369), pages 337-342, October.
    2. Boyd, James, 2000. "The New Face of the Clean Water Act: A Critical Review of the EPA's Proposed TMDL Rules," Discussion Papers 10850, Resources for the Future.
    3. Martínez-Alier, Joan & Pascual, Unai & Vivien, Franck-Dominique & Zaccai, Edwin, 2010. "Sustainable de-growth: Mapping the context, criticisms and future prospects of an emergent paradigm," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1741-1747, July.
    4. Maria Ivanova, 2010. "UNEP in Global Environmental Governance: Design, Leadership, Location," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 10(1), pages 30-59, February.
    5. Kallis, Giorgos, 2011. "In defence of degrowth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 873-880, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    RePEc Biblio mentions

    As found on the RePEc Biblio, the curated bibliography for Economics:
    1. > Schools of Economic Thought, Epistemology of Economics > Heterodox Approaches > Ecological Economics > Degrowth

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andy Stirling, 2016. "Precaution in the Governance of Technology," SPRU Working Paper Series 2016-14, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    2. Haydn Washington & Helen Kopnina, 2022. "Discussing the Silence and Denial around Population Growth and Its Environmental Impact. How Do We Find Ways Forward?," World, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Garver, Geoffrey, 2019. "A Systems-based Tool for Transitioning to Law for a Mutually Enhancing Human-Earth Relationship," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 165-174.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Malmaeus, J. Mikael & Alfredsson, Eva C., 2017. "Potential Consequences on the Economy of Low or No Growth - Short and Long Term Perspectives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 57-64.
    2. Xue, Jin, 2014. "Is eco-village/urban village the future of a degrowth society? An urban planner's perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 130-138.
    3. Järvensivu, Paavo, 2013. "Transforming market–nature relations through an investigative practice," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 197-205.
    4. Clive L. Spash, 2013. "The Ecological Economics of Boulding's Spaceship Earth," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2013_02, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    5. Engler, John-Oliver & Kretschmer, Max-Friedemann & Rathgens, Julius & Ament, Joe A. & Huth, Thomas & von Wehrden, Henrik, 2024. "15 years of degrowth research: A systematic review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    6. Urhammer, Emil & Røpke, Inge, 2013. "Macroeconomic narratives in a world of crises: An analysis of stories about solving the system crisis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 62-70.
    7. Posse, Dirk, 2015. "Zukunftsfähige Unternehmen in einer Postwachstumsgesellschaft. Eine theoretische und empirische Untersuchung," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 110257.
    8. Rezai, Armon & Taylor, Lance & Mechler, Reinhard, 2013. "Ecological macroeconomics: An application to climate change," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 69-76.
    9. Fritz, Martin & Koch, Max, 2014. "Potentials for prosperity without growth: Ecological sustainability, social inclusion and the quality of life in 38 countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 191-199.
    10. Figge, Frank & Thorpe, Andrea Stevenson, 2023. "Circular economy, operational eco-efficiency, and sufficiency. An integrated view," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PB).
    11. Larch, Mario & Löning, Markus & Wanner, Joschka, 2018. "Can degrowth overcome the leakage problem of unilateral climate policy?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 118-130.
    12. Martin Gainsborough, 2018. "Transitioning to a Green Economy? Conflicting Visions, Critical Opportunities and New Ways Forward," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(1), pages 223-237, January.
    13. van Griethuysen, Pascal, 2012. "Bona diagnosis, bona curatio: How property economics clarifies the degrowth debate," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 262-269.
    14. Krüger, Timmo & Strüver, Anke, 2018. "Narrative der ‚guten Ernährung‘: Ernährungsidentitäten und die Aneignung öffentlicher Nachhaltigkeitsdiskurse durch Konsument*innen," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 62(2-3), pages 217-232.
    15. Wächter, Petra, 2013. "Aspekte einer nachhaltigen Energiezukunft (ITA-manu:script 13-03)," ITA manu:scripts 13_03, Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA).
    16. Garver, Geoffrey, 2019. "A Systems-based Tool for Transitioning to Law for a Mutually Enhancing Human-Earth Relationship," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 165-174.
    17. Hoffmann, Christin & Hoppe, Julia Amelie & Ziemann, Niklas, 2022. "Faster, harder, greener? Empirical evidence on the role of the individual Pace of Life for productivity and pro-environmental behavior," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    18. Tokic, Damir, 2012. "The economic and financial dimensions of degrowth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 49-56.
    19. John J. Fitzpatrick, 2020. "Target Ecological Limits and Not Economic Growth," World, MDPI, vol. 1(2), pages 1-14, September.
    20. O'Neill, Daniel W., 2012. "Measuring progress in the degrowth transition to a steady state economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 221-231.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:1:p:316-337:d:23018. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.