Reflexive environmental law (REL) facilitates exploration of how legal frameworks foster the capacity for private companies to engage in reflexivity. This reflexivity aids in avoiding entrenchment and promotes learning and self-organization to tackle intricate sustainability issues. To date, REL theory has overlooked conventional command-and-control regulations within the realm of REL, constraining its ability to comprehend how legislation can spur reflexivity and establish more efficient governance structures. The framework of the article broadens the scope of REL, outlining six categories of regulatory tools found in laws that could potentially qualify as forms of REL.
Within this framework, three reflexive drivers – autonomy, accountability, and adjustability – are delineated, along with eleven REL techniques. Drawing from examples in European environmental legislation, they elucidate how these drivers relate to various regulatory tools. This classification equips regulators and scholars with the means to grasp the reflexive capacity of regulatory tools and explore avenues to enhance reflexivity within specific contexts.
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