Elizabeth Steyn
University of Western Ontario, Law, Faculty Member
- Aboriginal Law, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Aboriginal Rights, Aboriginal History in Australia, Aboriginal history in Canada, First Nations of Canada, and 38 moreFIrst Nations Studies, First Nations, Inuit and Metis, First Nations Economic Development, Sacred Space, Sacred Landscape (Archaeology), Sacred mountains, Icons and Rituals: Sacred Biography, Pilgrimage and Sacred Spaces, Natural Resource Management, Environment and natural resources conservation, Community Based Natural Resources Management, Natural Resources, Energy and Natural Resources Law, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Nomadic/Indigenous People, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous ecological knowledges and practices, Indigenous Religions, Kaupapa Maori Research, Maori, Maori history, Te Reo Māori, Maori Studies, Kaupapa Maori Theory, Te Reo Maori, Native American Studies, Native American, Native American Anthropology, Native American Religions, Native American (History), Native Americans, Native American and Indigenous Studies, Cutural anthropology and ethnology. Mesoamerican civilisations. Mesoamerican and South American native cultures. Native people in Mexico, Guatemala and South America, Legal Anthropology, Australian Aborigines, Aborigines, and Cultural Anthropologyedit
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This chapter deals with the evolving quest towards attaining environmental justice. It demonstrates there are many facets and manifestations of environmental justice – a concept that sits at the junction of legal doctrine and... more
This chapter deals with the evolving quest towards attaining environmental justice. It demonstrates there are many facets and manifestations of environmental justice – a concept that sits at the junction of legal doctrine and anthropological realities. Amalgamating these two perspectives permits us to capture examples of such injustices and to analyse how law responds to them.
Our investigation into environmental justice adopts a three-pronged approach. Part I, The meaning and origins of ‘environmental justice’, contemplates the emergence and rise of the environmental justice movement, as well as disruptions and innovations in the ontological sense of the concept itself. Part II, Litigating environmental justice, lays out concrete facets of environmental justice from a classical anthropocentric viewpoint in schematically organized format. Four dimensions of environmental justice litigation are delineated. In Part III, Expanding environmental justice, we consider more holistic or ecocentric applications thereof, most notably Indigenous life views and the potential recognition of the rights of nature.
We conclude that environmental justice is a moving target – It can mean different things in different people at different times in different contexts and is constantly adapting to new realities. As topics such as climate change or loss of biodiversity show, the human–nature relationship is, indeed, among the most pressing issues of our time. Environmental justice is therefore likely to gain even more importance in the coming decades, and further interdisciplinary research will be required to understand what that justice may entail in very concrete and variegated circumstances.
Our investigation into environmental justice adopts a three-pronged approach. Part I, The meaning and origins of ‘environmental justice’, contemplates the emergence and rise of the environmental justice movement, as well as disruptions and innovations in the ontological sense of the concept itself. Part II, Litigating environmental justice, lays out concrete facets of environmental justice from a classical anthropocentric viewpoint in schematically organized format. Four dimensions of environmental justice litigation are delineated. In Part III, Expanding environmental justice, we consider more holistic or ecocentric applications thereof, most notably Indigenous life views and the potential recognition of the rights of nature.
We conclude that environmental justice is a moving target – It can mean different things in different people at different times in different contexts and is constantly adapting to new realities. As topics such as climate change or loss of biodiversity show, the human–nature relationship is, indeed, among the most pressing issues of our time. Environmental justice is therefore likely to gain even more importance in the coming decades, and further interdisciplinary research will be required to understand what that justice may entail in very concrete and variegated circumstances.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Electricity has been variously described as 'fungible', 'homogeneous' and 'totally undifferentiated' - the product is completely indistinguishable in that all electrons are identical. It varies in value according... more
Electricity has been variously described as 'fungible', 'homogeneous' and 'totally undifferentiated' - the product is completely indistinguishable in that all electrons are identical. It varies in value according to time and place - power is much more valuable during peak time on a congested grid than during off-peak hours when there is ample supply in relation to demand. Demand varies wildly from hour to hour and from day to day over the course of a year. The flow of electricity cannot be directed: it flows according to Kirchoff's laws and takes (literally) the path of least resistance. In other words, '[e]lectricity is transmitted between different locations by a network according to the laws of physics, not the contracts between generators and buyers'. There is therefore no direct physical relationship between an individual generator and an individual consumer and a fiction is used to ascribe the flows accordingly. Furthermore '[e]lectrons do not know when they have crossed a state or provincial boundary' but governance becomes harder when electricity crosses political boundaries, as it becomes necessary to accommodate potentially conflicting political preferences. Since it 'travels around the AC grid at the speed of light', it becomes 'impossible to predict where a particular power plant's output will go at a particular point in time'.