Dr Mark Shepheard along with his colleague Assoc. Prof Bettina Lange from the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford, have been awarded the Annual Richard Macrory Prize for the best article in the Journal of Environmental Law in 2014. The article abstract appears below and this is followed by some information about the prize.
The article publishes research we carried out in England during 2012 and 2013 regarding stewardship and conceptions of water rights. The research was funded by the British Academy.
Changing Conceptions of Rights to Water? An Eco-Socio-Legal Perspective
J Environmental Law (2014) 26 (2): 215-242.
This article inquires into the meaning of a ‘right’ to water. It examines how the nature and content of such a right may be changing in the context of greater emphasis in environmental regulation on water stewardship which seeks to tackle risks of water scarcity. In the UK, for instance, water abstractions have been further regulated through the Water Act 2003 and additional reforms are proposed by the draft Water Bill HC (2013–4). The article locates its analysis in literature on the qualification of private property rights through natural resource management, and in the developing socio-legal literature on the intersection between rights and regulation. We critically engage with this literature on the basis of qualitative empirical research about how farmers in England think about a right to water. Our pilot project confirms some accounts in the literature, but questions others. We find empirical support for thinking about rights that is qualified by stewardship practices, but we suggest that conceptions of rights need to be broadened to include administrative concepts, including collective rights to water. On the basis of our data we develop an eco-socio-legal perspective that foregrounds three interpretive frames for understanding how conceptions of rights to water are generated. These are the institutional–legal framework of abstraction licensing in England and Wales, perceptions of the natural space which is governed by this legal framework, and, the economic context in which rights to water are exercised.
Annual Richard Macrory Prize for the Best Article in the Journal of Environmental Law
The Editorial Board and the Advisory Board of the Journal of Environmental Law are delighted to announce the creation of the Annual Richard Macrory Prize for the Best Article in the Journal of Environmental Law. The Prize, £500 of OUP books, will be awarded each year for the most thought-provoking and innovative article published in the Journal in that year. All articles published in the Journal are eligible for the award.
The panel judging the prize will consist of five Board Members (excluding the General Editor) and the decision will be announced by December of each year. The first prize will be awarded in 2014.
Professor Richard Macrory is a leading figure in both UK environmental law scholarship and practice. Richard was the founding General Editor of the Journal and the criteria for the prize (‘innovative and thought provoking’) reflects what Richard fostered throughout his long and vibrant editorship. Alongside this, Richard, has played a crucial role in ensuring rigorous debate around environmental law issues as well as being a constant source of encouragement for younger scholars and lawyers.
