Abstract

As humans exceed global ecological limits nation state-based environmental governance attracts persistent criticism. Historically, the focus of regulatory design for environmental law has been to provide access to natural resources or the environment but without ecosystem-based standards at any scale or cumulative effects assessment by which state governments evaluate whether they are achieving ecosystem health. Illuminated within these nation state regimes are two examples where legal pluralism has or is mandating environmental regulatory design that more explicitly elevates ecological function as a key outcome. Bhutan’s relatively recent state environmental laws are part of its broader development approach of Gross National Happiness (GNH), an expression of state, Buddhist, and other customary laws. This ‘internal legal pluralism’ in state policy is expressed through multiple layers of plans and project review by administrative agencies and a GNH screening tool. By contrast, Canada is reforming its environmental laws to account for cumulative impacts and Indigenous rights. In particular, state governments have committed to aligning their laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and plural legal agreements establish unique collaborative governance bodies. The purpose of this article is to examine how legal pluralism is influencing the evolution of regulatory design for environmental governance in Bhutan and Canada. While the plural legal aspects of their regimes have resulted in the prioritization of ecological health, that focus in both regimes is vulnerable without further regulatory scaffolding to establish ecological limits that engage with multiple legal orders at various temporal and spatial scales.

摘要

随着人类超越全球生态极限，以民族国家为基础的环境治理不断受到批评。从历史上看，环境法监管设计的重点一直是提供对自然资源或环境的访问，但没有任何规模的基于生态系统的标准或州政府评估它们是否正在实现生态系统健康的累积效应评估。在这些民族国家制度中，有两个例子表明，法律多元化已经或正在要求环境监管设计更明确地将生态功能提升为关键结果。不丹相对较新的国家环境法是其更广泛的国民幸福总值 (GNH) 发展方法的一部分，这是国家、佛教和其他习惯法的表达。这种国家政策中的“内部法律多元化”通过行政机构的多层计划和项目审查以及 GNH 筛选工具来表达。相比之下，加拿大正在改革其环境法，以考虑累积影响和土著权利。特别是，州政府承诺将其法律与《联合国土著人民权利宣言》保持一致，并且多元法律协议建立了独特的协作治理机构。本文的目的是研究法律多元化如何影响不丹和加拿大环境治理监管设计的演变。虽然其制度的多重法律方面导致了生态健康的优先考虑，