Environmental Law Scholarship: Systematization, Reform, Explanation and Understanding

Abstract

This article aims to examine four paradigmatic models of environmental law scholarship. The article is divided into four parts to meet this objective. In the first part, I critically examine the model of systematization; in the second, the model of reform; in the third, the model of explanation; and in the fourth, the model of understanding. This article, therefore, aims to contribute to comprehending environmental law scholarship. Legal scholars rarely analyze the assumptions, objectives, and means of the type of research we put into operation; we are so immersed in its practice that we lose sight of its perspectival character and its limits. Now, the ideal types discussed in this chapter, it is important to note, are not exclusive of environmental law. Rather, they are forms of scholarship that cut across legal academy. Environmental law scholarship’s models are not idiosyncratic. These models reproduce forms of scholarship that are common in other areas of law.

Keywords: legal scholarship, environmental law scholarship, types of legal scholarship