Environmental Assessment is an inherently interdisciplinary mechanism which is concerned with the input and quality of information about the likely effects of development upon the environment. It is a useful tool for examining aspects of the relationship between law, governance, and the regulation of decision making, which have been central to the development of environmental law. In this volume, the procedural mechanism of environmental assessment is analysed. The author argues that, notwithstanding its procedural nature, environmental assessment is highly material to the outcome of a decision. A major focus of this analysis is the enhanced role of the developer in shaping the outcome of a decision by assuming responsibility for providing information on which a decision will be based, in accordance with a broader agenda of expanding the roles and responsibilities of participants in environmental decision making. The author draws upon several contemporary projects as case studies of assessment: a global port, an offshore windfarm, a flood defence strategy, and a recreation centre. In analysing these sites of decision making from a legal perspective, the author touches upon the key determinants of environmental assessment: discretion, the significance of environmental effects, alternative options, and participatory rights. Finally, the volume looks to the future development of environmental assessment: as an avenue for protest, and, alternatively, as a standardized component of international contracts for development.

About the Author
Dr. Jane Holder is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Laws at University College London (UCL), where she has worked since 1992. She is Co-director of the centr of Law and the Environment and the Centre of Law and the European Union at the Faculty of Laws at UCL, and is a member of the board of the journal Social Legal Studies.

Awards
Winner of Joint-Second Prize Winner of the Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship, 2005.



Book Information
ISBN 9780198267720
Author Jane Holder
Format Hardback
Page Count 398
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 731g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 163mm * 27mm