Towards environmental constitutionalism: a different vision of the resource management act 1991

Conference item

The early 1990s was a busy and exciting time for environmental lawyers across the world. Catalyzed by the legal developments in other jurisdictions and international debates about sustainable development, this was an era of wholesale environmental law and policy reform. The Resource Management Act (RMA) 1991 was one of the most ambitious and comprehensive products of this hopeful era. Twenty five years later the situation looks far less bright. These new legislative regimes never seemed to deliver what they promised and there has been a political marginalizing and rolling back of environmental commitments. We now appear to be living in an era of failed social programmes.

Or are we? The above depiction rests on a vision of environmental legislation as largely instrumental – a means to achieve particular political ends. But what if we imagined the RMA and comparative legislation in other jurisdictions differently? What if we imagined them not as tools but as ‘constitutions’ that set in motion ongoing debates about the role of law in contributing to environmental protection. If that was the case we would see the RMA as an evolving and ‘essentially contested’ legal framework. We would be wary of simple solutions to these complex problems. We would take law seriously. And we would see the fundamental importance in engaging in ongoing debates about the legal nature of those frameworks. In other words, we would commit to environmental constitutionalism.

Authors: Fisher, E

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Reviewed (other)
• Publisher: Research Management Law Association
• Host title: Resource Management Theory and Practice
• Journal: Resource Management Theory and Practice
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 2016
• Publication date: 2017-01-01
• Acceptance date: 2014-09-30