Project description
Implementation of EU compliance system on environmental issues
The implementation of decisions on European and international environmental obligations is a crucial tool to protect the environment from harm. This includes various so-called ‘resolution mechanisms’, especially judgements from courts and managerial decisions from non-compliance and implementation committees. In this context, the MSCA-funded ENVIMP project aims to examine the conditions that contribute to the effective implementation of such decisions. This is achieved by developing an innovative, theory-driven concept-structural framework that advances the existing enforcement and management approaches. The project leverages insights from policy implementation research and compares implementation processes across different resolution mechanisms. ENVIMP gathers data from public documents to conduct a temporal configurational analysis and qualitative case studies.
Objective
This project studies the national implementation of legal judgements from courts and managerial agreements from non-compliance mechanisms on European and international environmental issues. Against the background of the increasing impact of climate change and a lack of specialised jurisdiction over environmental disputes beyond the nation state, the implementation of legal obligations is a crucial tool to protect Earth’s environment from harm. Yet, systematic insights on the national implementation of so-called ‘resolution mechanisms’, i.e. managerial agreements from non-compliance mechanisms and court judgements on supra- and international environmental issues, are lacking. This project will investigate the conditions explaining effective implementation of such agreements and judgements by adapting insights on policy implementation research and comparing processes of implementation across different types of resolution mechanisms. It will develop an innovative, theory-driven concept-structural framework based on key conditions from the implementation literature (actor preferences, institutional legitimacy, resolution mechanisms) that mirror the existing management and enforcement approaches. The framework will enable systematic comparisons across resolution mechanisms and thus account for a diversity of separate but equally valid explanations. Empirical analysis will follow a mixed methods approach that includes (1) data gathering based on public documents and expert interviews, (2) a comparative assessment via Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) including case studies, and (3) in-depth process tracing of unexpected cases identified in the QCA. This approach will provide generalisable insights on how different preferences combine with varying degrees of legitimacy and resolution mechanisms to explain the national implementation of managerial agreements and court judgements on environmental issues.
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium