Accelerating the evolution of environmental law through continuous learning from applied experience

In this chapter we consider arguments for and against a more empirical environmental law scholarship. We discuss a scholarship that grafts onto our discipline’s concern for improving legal instruments (such as statutes, judgments) and values (rights, responsibilities and justice), a focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of the environmental governance system, and the role of empirical analysis as a basis for cumulative learning. We also consider the use and limits of the scientific method for driving improvement in the effectiveness of environmental law.