Beyond Real Estate: Sowing the Legal Seeds for an Ethical Public Land Stewardship in Singapore
Macquarie Journal of International and Comparative Environmental Law, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2006
34 Pages Posted: 28 Oct 2006 Last revised: 5 Mar 2013
Abstract
The prevailing concept of private land ownership and its associated management rights has been criticised by a number of writers for falling short in accommodating an ethical relationship with the land. In this article, I propose to look at the law and practice relating to the management of public land in Singapore, by which I mean land owned and managed by the State and its agencies. I observe that like private land law, public land law in Singapore empowers but does not oblige the State and its agencies to protect the health of ecological systems. In light of modern developments in ecology and ethics, the ownership and management of land must now take on a more expansive view of community interests. Public land law must also take into account the interdependence between species and land as a biotic community, and protect land from irreparable ecological degradation for short-term economic gain. One way to do this is to introduce procedural requirements that explicitly require land managers to systematically identify and consider the ecological impacts of proposed land management decisions. Ultimately however, public land managers are public servants and they will only internalise the land ethic when the public they serve do the same and expect land managers to do the same. In this regard, the law can empower the public to become more intimately involved in land management. Only by becoming more involved can the public develop a close personal relationship with the land and learn to care for it.
Keywords: Environmental Impact Assessments, Environmental Ethics, Land Ethic, Land Use, Nature Reserves, Public Land, Public Participation, Real Estate, Singapore
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