The Unbearable Licence of Being the Executive: A Response to Stacey's Permanent Environmental Emergency
Loading...
Authors
Pardy, Bruce
Date
2015
Type
journal article
Language
en
Keyword
Environmental Law
Alternative Title
Abstract
This article responds to Jocelyn Stacey’s “The Environmental Emergency and the Legality of Discretion in Environmental Law.” In her article, Stacey attempts to establish the legitimacy of unfettered executive discretion to deal with environmental issues, but the justification that she provides is not up to the task. She asserts that all environmental issues are emergencies, but she does not explain why they are so. She proposes to resolve the problem of executive discretion by redefining the rule of law, thereby rendering it an empty shell. Environmental protection and the rule of law do not push in opposite directions. Instead, it is the loss of the rule of law that allows governments to pick and choose the environmental conditions that they wish alternatively to save and sacrifice. The solution to environmental issues that the rule of law demands is not unfettered discretion but better abstraction in rules of general application. Boundless authority to respond to “environmental emergency” is an unbearable licence to make things up on the go.
Description
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Citation
Pardy, Bruce. "The Unbearable Licence of Being the Executive: A Response to Stacey's Permanent Environmental Emergency" (2015). 52 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 3. 1029-1048.
Publisher
Osgoode Hall Law School of York University