Elodie Le Gal
PhD Student, Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law
Qualifications
L.L.M (Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies) in Private International Law / International Business Law
Contact
| Email: | elegal2@une.edu.au |
| Room: | EBL W38 Room 38 |
| Phone: | 02 6773 3539 (or +61 2 6773 3539 overseas) |
| Fax: | 02 6773 2580 |
Elodie Le Gal obtained her Master of Laws (Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies) in Private International Law/International Business Law from the Pantheon-Assas Faculty of Law, Paris, in 1998. In France, she had broad experience in both the commercial and non-profit sectors, with particular emphasis on sustainability social issues in relation to ethnic communities.
Since arriving in Australia in 2007, she has been involved in various natural resource management (NRM) projects focusing on different theoretical and practical aspects of environmental sustainability. These include:
- conservation finance mechanisms
- the use of e-technology professional development programs for farming and rural communities
- an international aid training program for addressing the food crisis in Africa (with a focus on French-speaking Western African countries and small-scale water harvesting projects)
- Research projects for improving natural resource management (NRM) governance
In 2008, Elodie was the recipient of a UNE PhD scholarship to research new institutional arrangements for improving the management of environmental risks. Her thesis ‘Opportunities for, and Impediments to, Natural Resource Governance Innovation Illustrated by the Biofuel Weed Risk Case Study’ was successfully examined earlier this year.
Thesis abstract
This thesis is about innovation in natural resource governance. Established NRM models in either their command-and-control or deregulated market-based forms insufficiently achieve sustainable environmental outcomes and thus legal innovations are needed for protecting environmental values. Environmental law scholarship is mostly informed by a research paradigm which focuses upon individual instruments for environmental protection. By considering the broader governance system in which environmental and NRM governance models operate, this thesis argues that it is possible to:
(i) design innovative environmental governance systems that can (in theory) better protect environmental values;
(ii) mitigate the risks associated with innovative governance systems by better identifying them.
However, the theoretical potential of policy innovation does not necessarily translate into feasibility. The second contribution of this research is to provide insights into the types of impediments that may inhibit practical implementation of innovative legal approaches.
By using a pragmatic approach, this research aims to propose practical policy solutions to manage anthropogenic risks to environmental values and provide insights into theoretical tools to address NRM issues. This is illustrated with a case study focusing on the biofuel weed risk. While second-generation biofuel crops may produce bio-ethanol, help achieve a clean energy future, and help find the right balance between energy and food production, their use could also result in catastrophic biological infestations that may harm biodiversity values.
The first part of this thesis provides an overview of the research and its broader implications. It also contextualises the research project in its methodological foundations.
The second part of this thesis discusses concepts for innovations in natural resources risk management. This includes informing instrument design with commercial risk instruments by taking a transacting systems approach, using co-regulation and adopting a ‘smart’ ‘responsive’ design institutional approach. The resulting conceptual model for biofuel weed risk control is designed to maximise the opportunities associated with second-generation biofuel crops while minimising the risks attached to them.
The third part of this thesis demonstrates that, in practice, natural resource governance innovation will be limited by institutional and political challenges. These are identified through an in-depth interview process, and by combining three non-legal theoretical tools (theory of path dependence, the theory of transaction costs and public choice theory). Additional jurisprudential, methodological and cultural challenges are also identified. The research suggests that the underpinning research program required for more effective environmental law reform is likely to be vast, daunting but intellectually stimulating.
Areas of Teaching
LLM 628: Resource Rules
Research interests
Institutional analysis - Biodiversity conservation – Invasive species - Sustainability - Risk Management strategies – Innovation –Environmental Law – Natural Resource Management Law