IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ieaple/v14y2014i1p5-24.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

International environmental law as a complex adaptive system

Author

Listed:
  • Rakhyun Kim
  • Brendan Mackey

Abstract

Complex adaptive systems are a special kind of self-organizing system with emergent properties and adaptive capacity in response to changing external conditions. In this article, we investigate the proposition that international environmental law, as a network of treaties and institutions, exhibits some key characteristics of a complex adaptive system. This proposition is premised on the scientific understanding that the Earth system displays properties of a complex adaptive system. If so, international environmental law, as a control system, may benefit from the insights gained and from being modelled in ways more appropriately aligned with the functioning of the Earth system itself. In this exploratory review, we found evidence suggesting that international environmental law is a complex system where treaties and institutions self-organize and exhibit emergent properties. Furthermore, we contend that international environmental law as a whole is adapting to exogenous changes through an institutional process akin to natural selection in biological evolution. However, the adequacy of the direction and rate of adaptation for the purpose of safeguarding the integrity of Earth’s life-support system is questioned. This paper concludes with an emphasis on the need for system-level interventions to steer the direction of self-organization while maintaining institutional diversity. This recommendation stands in contrast to the reductionist approach to institutional fragmentation and aims at embracing the existing complexity in international environmental law. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Rakhyun Kim & Brendan Mackey, 2014. "International environmental law as a complex adaptive system," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 5-24, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ieaple:v:14:y:2014:i:1:p:5-24
    DOI: 10.1007/s10784-013-9225-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10784-013-9225-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10784-013-9225-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giacomo Grassi & Michel Elzen & Andries Hof & Roberto Pilli & Sandro Federici, 2012. "The role of the land use, land use change and forestry sector in achieving Annex I reduction pledges," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 873-881, December.
    2. Adil Najam & Ioli Christopoulou & William R. Moomaw, 2004. "The Emergent "System" of Global Environmental Governance," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 4(4), pages 23-35, November.
    3. Peter M. Haas, 2004. "Addressing the Global Governance Deficit," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 4(4), pages 1-15, November.
    4. Fariborz Zelli & Harro van Asselt, 2013. "Introduction: The Institutional Fragmentation of Global Environmental Governance: Causes, Consequences, and Responses," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(3), pages 1-13, August.
    5. Rammel, Christian & Stagl, Sigrid & Wilfing, Harald, 2007. "Managing complex adaptive systems -- A co-evolutionary perspective on natural resource management," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 9-21, June.
    6. Raustiala, Kal & Victor, David G., 2004. "The Regime Complex for Plant Genetic Resources," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(2), pages 277-309, April.
    7. Frank Biermann & Philipp Pattberg & Harro van Asselt & Fariborz Zelli, 2009. "The Fragmentation of Global Governance Architectures: A Framework for Analysis," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 9(4), pages 14-40, November.
    8. Mukul Sanwal, 2004. "Trends in Global Environmental Governance: The Emergence of a Mutual Supportiveness Approach to Achieve Sustainable Development," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 4(4), pages 16-22, November.
    9. Raul Lejano, 2006. "The Design of Environmental Regimes: Social Construction, Contextuality, and Improvisation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 187-207, June.
    10. Paul J. Crutzen, 2002. "Geology of mankind," Nature, Nature, vol. 415(6867), pages 23-23, January.
    11. Galaz, Victor & Crona, Beatrice & Österblom, Henrik & Olsson, Per & Folke, Carl, 2012. "Polycentric systems and interacting planetary boundaries — Emerging governance of climate change–ocean acidification–marine biodiversity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 21-32.
    12. G. Rosendal, 2001. "Overlapping International Regimes: The Case of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) between Climate Change and Biodiversity," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 447-468, December.
    13. Mark Axelrod, 2011. "Climate Change and Global Fisheries Management: Linking Issues to Protect Ecosystems or to Save Political Interests?," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 11(3), pages 64-84, August.
    14. Galaz, Victor & Biermann, Frank & Folke, Carl & Nilsson, Måns & Olsson, Per, 2012. "Global environmental governance and planetary boundaries: An introduction," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-3.
    15. Hanjra, Munir A. & Qureshi, M. Ejaz, 2010. "Global water crisis and future food security in an era of climate change," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 365-377, October.
    16. J. R. Petit & J. Jouzel & D. Raynaud & N. I. Barkov & J.-M. Barnola & I. Basile & M. Bender & J. Chappellaz & M. Davis & G. Delaygue & M. Delmotte & V. M. Kotlyakov & M. Legrand & V. Y. Lipenkov & C. , 1999. "Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica," Nature, Nature, vol. 399(6735), pages 429-436, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Pickering & Carola Betzold & Jakob Skovgaard, 2017. "Special issue: managing fragmentation and complexity in the emerging system of international climate finance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 1-16, February.
    2. Sarker, Pradip Kumar & Rahman, Md Saifur & Giessen, Lukas, 2018. "Regional governance by the South Asia Cooperative Environment Program (SACEP)? Institutional design and customizable regime policy offering flexible political options," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 454-470.
    3. Len Fisher & Anders Sandberg, 2022. "A Safe Governance Space for Humanity: Necessary Conditions for the Governance of Global Catastrophic Risks," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(5), pages 792-807, November.
    4. Philipp Pattberg & Cille Kaiser & Oscar Widerberg & Johannes Stripple, 2022. "20 Years of global climate change governance research: taking stock and moving forward," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 295-315, June.
    5. Roza Zhamiyeva & Gulmira Sultanbekova & Gulnara Balgimbekova & Kuat Mussin & Maral Abzalbekova & Murat Kozhanov, 2022. "Problems of the effectiveness of the implementation of international agreements in the field of waste management: the study of the experience of Kazakhstan in the context of the applicability of Europ," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 177-199, March.
    6. Peter H. Sand & Jeffrey McGee, 2022. "Lessons learnt from two decades of international environmental agreements: law," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 263-278, June.
    7. Louis J. Kotzé, 2019. "Earth System Law for the Anthropocene," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-13, November.
    8. Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, 2022. "Ordering global governance complexes: The evolution of the governance complex for international civil aviation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 293-322, April.
    9. Joshua Philipp Elsässer & Thomas Hickmann & Sikina Jinnah & Sebastian Oberthür & Thijs Graaf, 2022. "Institutional interplay in global environmental governance: lessons learned and future research," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 373-391, June.
    10. Pruethsan Sutthichaimethee & Danupon Ariyasajjakorn, 2021. "The Management Efficiency of the Sustainable Development Policy under Thailand s Energy Law: Enriching the SEM-based on the ARIMAXi model," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(5), pages 472-482.
    11. Hanna Ahlström, 2019. "Policy Hotspots for Sustainability: Changes in the EU Regulation of Sustainable Business and Finance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-22, January.
    12. Joana Carlos Bezerra & Jan Sindt & Lukas Giessen, 2018. "The rational design of regional regimes: contrasting Amazonian, Central African and Pan-European Forest Governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 635-656, October.
    13. Pruethsan Sutthichaimethee & Sthianrapab Naluang, 2019. "The Efficiency of the Sustainable Development Policy for Energy Consumption under Environmental Law in Thailand: Adapting the SEM-VARIMAX Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-21, August.
    14. Pruethsan Sutthichaimethee & Chanintorn Jittawiriyanukoon, 2022. "The Impact of Causal Factors Relationship over the Changes in Future Scenario Management under the Sustainability Policy of Thailand," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(5), pages 36-46, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonathan Pickering & Carola Betzold & Jakob Skovgaard, 2017. "Special issue: managing fragmentation and complexity in the emerging system of international climate finance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 1-16, February.
    2. Ingrid J Visseren-Hamakers, 2018. "Integrative governance: The relationships between governance instruments taking center stage," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(8), pages 1341-1354, December.
    3. Michelle Betsill & Navroz K. Dubash & Matthew Paterson & Harro van Asselt & Antto Vihma & Harald Winkler, 2015. "Building Productive Links between the UNFCCC and the Broader Global Climate Governance Landscape," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(2), pages 1-10, May.
    4. Lasse Folke Henriksen & Stefano Ponte, 2018. "Public orchestration, social networks, and transnational environmental governance: Lessons from the aviation industry," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 23-45, March.
    5. Thomas Gehring & Benjamin Faude, 2014. "A theory of emerging order within institutional complexes: How competition among regulatory international institutions leads to institutional adaptation and division of labor," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 471-498, December.
    6. Carmen Rodríguez Fernández-Blanco & Sarah L. Burns & Lukas Giessen, 2019. "Mapping the fragmentation of the international forest regime complex: institutional elements, conflicts and synergies," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 187-205, April.
    7. Clara Brandi, 2021. "The Interaction of Private and Public Governance: The Case of Sustainability Standards for Palm Oil," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(6), pages 1574-1595, December.
    8. Philipp Pattberg & Cille Kaiser & Oscar Widerberg & Johannes Stripple, 2022. "20 Years of global climate change governance research: taking stock and moving forward," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 295-315, June.
    9. Mairon G. Bastos Lima & Gabrielle Kissinger & Ingrid J. Visseren-Hamakers & Josefina Braña-Varela & Aarti Gupta, 2017. "The Sustainable Development Goals and REDD+: assessing institutional interactions and the pursuit of synergies," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 589-606, August.
    10. Ongolo, Symphorien, 2015. "On the banality of forest governance fragmentation: Exploring ‘‘gecko politics’’ as a bureaucratic behaviour in limited statehood," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 12-20.
    11. Alexandre Gajevic Sayegh, 2020. "Moral duties, compliance and polycentric climate governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 483-506, September.
    12. Joshua Philipp Elsässer & Thomas Hickmann & Sikina Jinnah & Sebastian Oberthür & Thijs Graaf, 2022. "Institutional interplay in global environmental governance: lessons learned and future research," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 373-391, June.
    13. Reinsberg,Bernhard Wilfried & Michaelowa,Katharina & Knack,Stephen, 2015. "Which donors, which funds ? the choice of multilateral funds by bilateral donors at the World Bank," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7441, The World Bank.
    14. Agni Kalfagianni & Oran R. Young, 2022. "The politics of multilateral environmental agreements lessons from 20 years of INEA," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-262, June.
    15. C. Randall Henning, 2019. "Regime Complexity and the Institutions of Crisis and Development Finance," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(1), pages 24-45, January.
    16. Jens Heidingsfelder & Markus Beckmann, 2020. "A governance puzzle to be solved? A systematic literature review of fragmented sustainability governance," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(3), pages 355-390, August.
    17. Oliver Westerwinter, 2021. "Transnational public-private governance initiatives in world politics: Introducing a new dataset," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 137-174, January.
    18. Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, 2022. "Ordering global governance complexes: The evolution of the governance complex for international civil aviation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 293-322, April.
    19. Pickering, Jonathan & Jotzo, Frank & Wood, Peter J., 2015. "Splitting the difference: can limited coordination achieve a fair distribution of the global climate financing effort?," Working Papers 249508, Australian National University, Centre for Climate Economics & Policy.
    20. Melanie van Driel & Frank Biermann & Rakhyun E. Kim & Marjanneke J. Vijge, 2022. "International organisations as ‘custodians’ of the sustainable development goals? Fragmentation and coordination in sustainability governance," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(5), pages 669-682, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ieaple:v:14:y:2014:i:1:p:5-24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.