From a Symbolic Boom to a Marketing Bust: Genesis and Reconstruction of a Field of Legal and Political Expertise at the Crossroads of a Europe Opening to the Atlantic

The short history of environmental institutions and policies in Europe is marked by their radical reorientation. While environmental protection devices were initially conceived in the 1970s by using the classical model of the "watchdog state," they underwent a shift during the 1990s: the i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Law & social inquiry 2007-03, Vol.32 (1), p.161-181
Main Author: Dezalay, Yves
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communities
Corporate bureaucracy
Ecological sustainability
Environmental law
Environmental legislation
Environmental management
Environmental policy
Environmental protection
Environmental regulation
Environmentalism
Europe
Experts
Nongovernmental organizations
Pollution
Social responsibility
Sustainable development
Symbolism
Symposium: Law, Lawyers, and Transnational Politics in the Production of Europe
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Summary:The short history of environmental institutions and policies in Europe is marked by their radical reorientation. While environmental protection devices were initially conceived in the 1970s by using the classical model of the "watchdog state," they underwent a shift during the 1990s: the ineffectiveness produced by bureaucratic constraints served as a pretext to hasten the disengagement of the state to the benefit of a regulation negotiated on the basis of financial incentives. The management of environmental issues now relies on the construction of an international market of sustainable development (or of a "rights to pollute" market, similar to that which has been established by the Kyoto protocol). The emergence and reconstruction of this field of expertise can be seen as a kind of microcosm of the perpetually unfinished Tower of Babel that is the European construction. One of the merits of this subject matter is to highlight the internal and external dynamics that have favored the success of a neoliberal counterattack.
ISSN:0897-6546
1747-4469
1545-696X
DOI:10.1111/j.1747-4469.2007.00054.x