The Culture of Environmental Law and the Practices of Environmental Law Scholarship

Abstract

In light of the variation found in environmental law scholarship and in light of the lack of commitment to a specific methodology among environmental law scholars, this chapter argues that environmental law scholarship is best conceptualised as a scholarly practice. A scholarly practice which is shaped by the legal culture of environmental law in which it operates. The chapter identifies a scholarly practice as a social endeavor in which the scholars taking part in the practice maintain a level of commitment to the maintenance of the practice. The commitment to the practice takes the form of the adherence to the un-written but mutually agreed set of understandings and ground rules. In environmental law scholarship such mutually agreed ground rules necessarily result in a practice which accommodates a wide range of perspectives on scholarship.

Keywords: Environmental law, legal scholarship, practice, legal culture, methodology