Abstract Discretion is an essential and unavoidable element of most decision-making and is thus often closely related to the judgment exercised by politicians and practitioners alike. It is evident that discretionary power can be executed in different ways, leading to different results. Therefore, it also has a significant influence on the effectiveness of the environmental assessment (EA) as examined in recent environment impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environment assessment (SEA) literature. However, limited attention has been given to the practitioners' role and how they exercise their discretion, while the effectiveness and implementation of decisions has been a recurrent theme in EA literature. This article explores the connections between discretion and some of the fundamental ideas behind how EIA and SEA function in our societies. Firstly, the article develops and presents a theoretical model of discretion, allowing us to explore the phenomena of discretion from four dimensions: source, form, value and dynamics of discretion. Secondly, a review of EA literature is performed with the purpose of mapping how discretion is studied and what kind of discretion is found in the context of EA – focusing on one of the dimensions – ‘source of discretion’. The results imply that it is prevalent for practitioners to exercise rule, value and task discretion in every choice they make at each stage of the EA implementation process, which influences EA effectiveness, either positively or negatively, depending on how discretionary power is exercised and reflected in EA practitioners' practice. It draws both the management's attention to how to regulate EA policies and the practitioners' attention to how to make a difference.

中文翻译：

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环境评估从业者的自由裁量权

摘要 自由裁量权是大多数决策中必不可少且不可避免的要素，因此通常与政治家和从业人员的判断密切相关。很明显，自由裁量权可以以不同的方式执行，导致不同的结果。因此，正如最近的环境影响评估 (EIA) 和战略环境评估 (SEA) 文献中所审查的那样，它也对环境评估 (EA) 的有效性产生重大影响。然而，对从业者的角色以及他们如何行使其自由裁量权的关注有限，而决策的有效性和实施一直是 EA 文献中反复出现的主题。本文探讨了自由裁量权与 EIA 和 SEA 如何在我们社会中发挥作用背后的一些基本思想之间的联系。首先，文章发展并提出了自由裁量的理论模型，使我们能够从自由裁量的来源、形式、价值和动态四个维度探讨自由裁量现象。其次，对 EA 文献进行了回顾，目的是描绘如何研究自由裁量权以及在 EA 的背景下发现什么样的自由裁量权——重点关注维度之一——“自由裁量权的来源”。结果表明，从业者在 EA 实施过程的每个阶段所做的每一个选择中都普遍运用规则、价值和任务自由裁量权，这对 EA 的有效性产生积极或消极的影响，这取决于自由裁量权的行使和反映方式在EA从业者的实践中。它吸引了管理层'