The term "governance" encompasses both governmental and nongovernmental participation in collective choice and action. Law dictates the structure, boundaries, rules, and processes within which governmental action takes place, and in doing so becomes one of the focal points for analysis of barriers to adaptation as the effects of climate change are felt. Adaptive governance must therefore contemplate a level of flexibility and evolution in governmental action beyond that currently found in the heavily administrative governments of many democracies. Nevertheless, over time, law itself has proven highly adaptive in western systems of government, evolving to address and even facilitate the emergence of new social norms (such as the rights of women and minorities) or to provide remedies for emerging problems (such as pollution). Thus, there is no question that law can adapt, evolve, and be reformed to make room for adaptive governance. In doing this, not only may barriers be removed, but law may be adjusted to facilitate adaptive governance and to aid in institutionalizing new and emerging approaches to governance. The key is to do so in a way that also enhances legitimacy, accountability, and justice, or else such reforms will never be adopted by democratic societies, or if adopted, will destabilize those societies. By identifying those aspects of the frameworks for adaptive governance reviewed in the introduction to this special feature relevant to the legal system, we present guidelines for evaluating the role of law in environmental governance to identify the ways in which law can be used, adapted, and reformed to facilitate adaptive governance and to do so in a way that enhances the legitimacy of governmental action.

中文翻译：

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法律在适应性治理中的作用

“治理”一词包括政府和非政府对集体选择和行动的参与。法律规定了政府行动发生的结构、边界、规则和过程，并因此成为分析气候变化影响时适应障碍的焦点之一。因此，适应性治理必须考虑政府行动的灵活性和演变程度，超出目前许多民主国家行政管理程度高的政府。然而，随着时间的推移，法律本身已被证明在西方政府系统中具有很强的适应性，不断发展以解决甚至促进新社会规范（例如妇女和少数民族的权利）的出现或为新出现的问题（例如污染）提供补救措施）。因此，毫无疑问，法律可以适应、发展和改革，以便为适应性治理腾出空间。这样做不仅可以消除障碍，还可以调整法律以促进适应性治理并帮助将新的和新兴的治理方法制度化。关键是以一种也能增强合法性、问责制和正义的方式进行，否则民主社会将永远不会采用此类改革，或者如果通过，将破坏这些社会的稳定。通过确定与法律制度相关的这一特殊特征的介绍中审查的适应性治理框架的那些方面，我们提出了评估法律在环境治理中的作用的指南，以确定法律可以被使用、改编、