Suchergebnisse

For environmental legislation to 'work' it must not only be well designed but also efficiently and effectively enforced. Strategies must be developed as to how inspectors should go about the task of intervening in the affairs of regulated organisations to ensure compliance and enforcement-a question regarding which there is little consensus. This article examines this question from a number of angles: descriptive; analytical; and normative. It explores the practices of a representative sample of environmental regulators, identifying a number of distinctive intervention strategies (which are only limitedly shaped by existing theoretical models). It goes on to examine the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy and to consider how best to balance the sometimes competing criteria of effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. Finally, it considers how resource allocation and intervention strategies can best be integrated, whether there is a single 'best practice' strategy, and if not, what sorts of hybrids might be developed.

For environmental legislation to 'work' it must not only be well designed but also efficiently and effectively enforced. Strategies must be developed as to how inspectors should go about the task of intervening in the affairs of regulated organisations to ensure compliance and enforcement-a question regarding which there is little consensus. This article examines this question from a number of angles: descriptive; analytical; and normative. It explores the practices of a representative sample of environmental regulators, identifying a number of distinctive intervention strategies (which are only limitedly shaped by existing theoretical models). It goes on to examine the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy and to consider how best to balance the sometimes competing criteria of effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. Finally, it considers how resource allocation and intervention strategies can best be integrated, whether there is a single 'best practice' strategy, and if not, what sorts of hybrids might be developed.

Effective enforcement is vital to the successful implementation of social legislation, and legislation that is not enforced rarely fulfils its social objectives. This article examines the question of how the enforcement task might best be conducted in order to achieve policy outcomes that are effective and efficient, while also maintaining community confidence. It begins by examining the two strategies that for many years dominated the debate about enforcement strategy, the question of �regulatory style� and whether it is more appropriate for regulators to �punish or persuade�. Such an examination begins with John Braithwaite's seminal contribution and the arguments he makes in favour of �responsive regulation�. This approach conceives of regulation in terms of dialogic regulatory culture. It is taken further by Smart Regulation, which accepts Braithwaite's arguments as to the benefits of an escalating response up an enforcement pyramid.

The aims of this review article are to map the development of the corporate environmental responsibility (CER) concept, to trace the principal debates concerning its contribution to environmental protection, to examine the arguments about the relationship between CER and competitive advantage and to examine whether, to what extent and in what circumstances business behaviour is shaped by broader external forces, not least by markets, governments and civil society. From here, the article concludes by drawing some explicit implications for environmental policy and governance.