Journal article
Breaking Backs and Boiling Frogs: Warnings from a Dialogue between Federal Water Law and Environmental Law
Rebecca Nelson
University of New South Wales Law Journal | University of New South Wales | Published : 2019
Abstract
Law has long struggled to address cumulative environmental threats, as activities interact and aggregate to cause larger problems, from global climate change to water over-exploitation in the Murray Darling Basin. Using two well-known proverbs - the straw that breaks the camel's back, and the frog in a pot of water coming to the boil - this article critically examines how key elements of Australia's most significant federal environmental and natural resources legislation treat cumulative environmental effects. Promising regulatory approaches are emerging. However, the structure and implementation of these linked federal legislative regimes ultimately permit metaphorical camels' backs to be ..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by University of Melbourne (ECR Grant)
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
Dr Rebecca Nelson, BE (Environmental) (Hons1) LLB (Hons1) (Melb), JSM (Stanford), JSD (Stanford), Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Victoria, and Fellow (Non-Resident), Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, California. The author gratefully acknowledges the research assistance provided by Jason Schroeder, the helpful comments provided by four anonymous referees, as well as Amanda Cravens, Anne Siders, Nicola Ulibarri, Erin O'Donnell, Bryan Jenkins and attendees of the Law Council of Australia's Environmental Law Symposium held on 19 April 2018, at which an earlier version of this article was presented. Funding to assist this research was provided by the University of Melbourne (ECR Grant 17/17) and the Australian Research Council (DE180101154). All the opinions expressed in this article, and any errors, are those of the author.