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Updated: Jan 19, 2026
05:45
Assessing Disaster Resilience of Concrete with Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles
Published on: November 14, 2025
242
Untapped capacity for resilience in environmental law
Ahjond Garmestani1,2, J B Ruhl3, Brian C Chaffin4
1Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH 45268; garmestani.ahjond@epa.gov.
Summary
Existing laws offer untapped potential for addressing environmental change and enhancing social-ecological resilience. Governments can leverage these capacities for short-term advances without major legal reform.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Law
- Environmental Policy
- Governance Studies
Background:
- Environmental governance has advanced, but new challenges necessitate innovative legal and policy solutions.
- Expansive legal reform is slow; existing frameworks possess underutilized adaptive and transformative capacities.
- Current research often overlooks the potential of existing laws for addressing environmental change.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and highlight the untapped potential within existing laws for environmental change adaptation and mitigation.
- To demonstrate how existing legal frameworks can foster resilience in social-ecological systems.
- To offer practical strategies for leveraging current laws to address emerging environmental problems.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of existing legal and policy frameworks in the United States and European Union.
- Examination of adaptive and transformative capacities within current environmental laws.
- Case study approach to illustrate practical applications.
Main Results:
- Significant untapped capacities exist within current environmental laws for enhancing social-ecological resilience.
- Governments and governance agents can achieve short-term progress by exploiting these capacities.
- Examples from the US and EU demonstrate the feasibility of this approach.
Conclusions:
- Major legal reform is not the only path to addressing environmental change; existing laws offer immediate solutions.
- Leveraging adaptive and transformative legal capacities can enhance social-ecological systems' resilience.
- Principles and strategies are provided to guide governance agents in utilizing existing laws effectively.
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