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Many river systems in Europe have altered morphology and deteriorated ecosystems due to human interference. We demonstrate how conflicting interests of nature, society and economics in the Dutch–German Ems-Dollard system complicate achieving the nature restoration targeted by the EU Water Framework Directive. This article provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the natural characteristics of a water system and the practical implementation of regulation and policy in a transboundary setting. Important shortcomings of EU and national laws and directives are the static constraints for protection of demarcated habitats under EU directives, which do not do justice to natural hydro-morphodynamic processes.

We study to what extent the “constraints-led approach” (CLA) in physical education can also be applied to skills teaching for law students. In the CLA athletes are challenged to finding their own movement solutions in a dynamic setting rather than responding to verbal cues in a fixed environment. Similarly, we experimented with the implicit acquisition of policy analysis skills in law students in preparation for pro bono client work in so-called law clinics. Although the project was cut short due to Covid-19 circumstances, preliminary outcomes suggest students feel better equipped to working with clients. We provisionally conclude that CLA skills teaching has the potential to improve skill acquisition in clinical legal education.

Sandy coasts represent about one-third of the global coastline and are among the most valuable and most vulnerable areas for humans and many other species. Socio-economic development and climate change impacts, together with traditional engineering for shore protection, have pervasively resulted in coastal squeeze, thereby threatening coastal life and economic activities, and the very survival of coastal ecosystems. In the past, the responses to problems such as land loss, coastal erosion and flooding were primarily reactive, through gray engineering solutions, with little interest shown in the ecosystem processes impacted by coastal armoring. In recent decades, coastal management strategies have become more diverse, embracing traditional engineering solutions alongside ecosystem-based measures. Even so, many of these new strategies still fail to meet sustainability criteria. Inspired by Per Bruun’s “The Ten Demands for Coastal Protection” from 1972, this article attempts to consider these changes and knowledge acquired since the 1970s, in order to tentatively formulate “Ten Commandments” for the sustainability of sandy coasts in face of climate change and socio-economic development. As such, the paper offers a new vision and briefly summarizes good practices for the management of sandy coasts, particularly useful for those who, at whatever level of influence, could contribute to the long-term realization of this new vision.

The mitigation of global climate change renders effective policy indispensable. In this paper we evaluate a policy drafted in the Netherlands to close all its remaining coal-fired plants by 2030, which is well before the end of their technical and economic life spans. This plan is part of a package to reduce CO2 emissions with 25% by 2020 and 49% by 2030 in comparison to 1990. Under Dutch policy, all measures taken must meet three goals: CO2 emission reduction, cost-effectiveness and societal support. We will show that existing EU legal frameworks limit the effectiveness of the closure, because they allow for carbon leakage and lack a coordinated European strategy on the coal phase out, even though several EU member states have formulated similar plans. There is also no definitive answer as to whether the coal phase out is cost-effective. Dutch government will have to decide what the parameters of ‘cost-effective’ are. So far, the plan enjoys societal support. It is up to the Dutch government to decide what balance between CO2 emissions, costs and societal support is best. For further action, we recommend an EU strategy on the coal-phase out, in order to coordinate and to prevent carbon leakages.

In the Netherlands land subsidence is a continuously ongoing process. Consequently, an increasing number of people and economic assets are exposed to subsidence, damage costs are soaring, and flood risk and greenhouse gas emissions are increasing. In some areas tipping points have already been reached, where current land-use can no longer be maintained without considerable costs, underlining the urgency to take action. Together with a consortium consisting of universities, research institutes, governmental agencies, public and private partners we have developed a national, multidisciplinary research programme aiming to develop an integrative approach to achieve feasible, legitimate and sustainable solutions for managing the negative societal effects of land subsidence, connecting fundamental research on subsidence processes to socio-economic impact of subsidence and to governance and legal framework design. The program is designed to co-create insights that help to effectively mitigate and adapt to subsidence within the Netherlands by making major improvements in measuring and modeling the processes and consequences of subsidence, identifying, developing and critically evaluating control measures and designing governance and legal approaches that facilitate their implementation. Hereto we will develop (a) new satellite-based technology to measure, attribute and monitor subsidence, (b) solid understanding of the interacting multiple processes contributing to total subsidence, (c) sophisticated physical and economic numerical models to predict human-induced subsidence rates and impacts, and (d) implementation strategies that go beyond technical measures, to strengthen governance and financing capacities as well as legal frameworks. This fully integrated approach deals with all impacts of land subsidence on society and the economy.

The profitability of the French agricultural sector has fallen over the last two decades, leading to the suggestion of a &ldquo, rupture in technical progress&rdquo, Additionally, the intellectual property regime in force has contributed to the erosion of the cultivated biodiversity, limiting plant resiliency to climate change and other hazards. In the face of these challenges, agroecological farming practices are a viable alternative. This paper investigates the positive and negative aspects associated with the development of alternative seed procurement networks in France. The findings indicate that peasant seed networks can effectively contribute to overcoming many of the structural blockages with which French agriculture is confronted, but that yield concerns, higher information and supervisory costs, as well as the unfavourable legislative context, constitute key challenges to their development. However, these could be partially or totally eliminated if adequate policies are implemented. In this regard, the recommendations are to: (i) strengthen the dialogue with farmers in the shaping of policies related to the use of plant genetic resources, (ii) abrogate the &ldquo, obligatory voluntary contribution&rdquo, on farm-saved seeds, (iii) diversify the collection of Centres for Biological Resources, increase their number, and democratize their access, (iv) harmonize the French and European regime on intellectual property, and (v) encourage participatory research.

The precautionary and prevention principles require that environmental risks should timely and adequately be regulated before potentially harmful activities are undertaken. The system of administrative environmental law provides ample instruments for such regulation. However, scientific uncertainties about environmental risks could complicate the formulation and implementation of effective environmental risk management strategies. This could lead to systemic imperfections and regulatory gaps which, in turn, undermine the system’s effectiveness and increase the need for regulatory ‘back-ups’. The system of private law is often seen as a potential back-up. In analyzing the complementary effects between both systems and using environmental risks of chemical mining activities in the (deep) subsoil as an example, this article concludes that the actual regulatory effect of tort law should not be overestimated. The complementary role of tort law in regulating environmental risks is mostly limited to the specification and on some occasions enforcement of environmental responsibilities.

This chapter investigates the role of transparency in controlling the exercise of power by EU agencies. Transparency provides an important tool but offers no one-size-fits-all solutions. Transparency obligations can vary in form and function, and not all forms of transparency are equally appropriate for every type of agency: agencies with rule-making powers should be obliged to provide transparency to the general public, whereas agencies that take decisions affecting individuals should be transparent primarily to those individuals. On the other hand, transparency can have downsides as well. It can have adverse effects on decision-making or may cause harm to other interests, such as public safety or commercial interests. Some agencies operate in areas where transparency is likely to have more disadvantages than benefits. In these cases, alternative forms of control must be sought.

In several countries, the transfer of legal rights to rivers is being discussed as an approach for more effective water resources management. But what could this transfer mean in terms of a healthy river? We address this question by identifying the ecological requirements for naturally functioning rivers and then explore the demands which these requirements impose on society, the current policy responses to these requirements and whether the transfer of rights to the river could facilitate the preservation of healthy freshwater ecosystems.

One of China’s flood protection strategies is to create flood retention areas. This article focuses on how China deals with the infringements of property use rights caused by the creation and use of flood retention areas. It describes the legal framework of flood retention areas, the associated compensation mechanisms and other mechanisms that may be used in the future to offset the adverse consequences of the rights of individuals in flood retention areas.

This contribution depicts the governance arrangements for water resource management in the regions of the Tai Lake Basin and in the city of Wuhan. As to the Tai Lake Basin, the focus is on pollution control. It is shown that sustainable, integrated water management is strongly impeded by high fragmentation of the administrative competences and that adequate organizational integration and effective coordination instruments are lacking. The city of Wuhan is presented as an advanced example regarding the implementation of the “Sponge City” concept. It is shown that Wuhan has managed to establish a more integrated administrative arrangement for the purpose of water infrastructure development and a complex structure of objectives, standards, and responsibilities for the advancement of the Sponge City project. In order to place these examples of regional water governance into the wider national picture, we firstly provide a brief overview of the factual and institutional backdrop in China.