Editorial
| Pages | 90-91 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPPEL-07-2018-042 |
| Published date | 04 December 2018 |
| Date | 04 December 2018 |
| Author | Julie Adshead,Emma Lees,Francis King |
| Subject Matter | Property law,Building & construction law,Real estate & property |
Editorial
It is with great pleasure that we introduce the second of the Journal’s launch issues. Once
again, members of our editorialadvisory board (old and new) have contributed to this issue,
and my particular thanks goesto them. The papers in this issue span the areas of property,
planning and environmental law and reflect both the international remit of the journal and
its commitment topublish scholarly work of both a theoretical and a practicalnature.
The palm oil industry is one that traditional legal frameworks has failed to regulate
effectively at both national and international levels. Yet, this controversial global industry
supplies a commodity used in 40 to 50 per cent of household goods. Professor Owen
McIntyre cited two recent case studies relating to the palm oil industry where governance
arrangements outwith the formal authority of “law”have proved effective. His article
explores the development of novel informal norms and standards and considers their true
normative character and relationship with formal law. The author sees this form of
normative governance as “supplemental and complimentary”to formal legal frameworks
and advocates that legal scholars reflect on the normative nature of such arrangements
alongside their relationship with established governance mechanisms. This, he argued, is
necessary for us to gain a fuller appreciation of the changing landscape of environmental
regulation.
It is more than a quarter of a century sincethe European Union (EU) Habitats Directive
was published, and over the years this piece of EU legislationhas generated its fair share of
decisions from the Court of Justice. The bar is set high, with the mere probability of effects
on a protected area triggering the requirement for an appropriate assessment. Where there
are negative consequences identified in the assessment, the restriction on development is
also of a higher order than with EU measures on impact assessment. Professor Agustin
Garcia Ureta examined some of the thorny issues around impact assessment and
compensation under the Habitats Directive, examining (amongst others) conservation
objectives, territorial scope and timely implementation of conservation measures. He
concluded that measures in the Directive do serve to prevent the fragmentation of the
Natura 2000 networkbut raised concerns with regard to the Commission’smonitoring role.
Staying with the EU, but moving to planning, Franziska Sielker’s paper explores the
hidden and partially hidden influences which the EU policy has on planning governance,
looking in particular at the role of sectoral policies, funding initiatives, and spatial
governance tools. Although not always directly regulatory in approach, these influences,
Sielker demonstrated,are having a significant impact on the landscape of European land use
and planning, notwithstanding the lack of legal competence. In exploring these effects,
Sielker highlighted quite how much of European policy can have such impacts upon the
planning landscape. Many of us will be familiar with these effects deriving from European
environmental law (the Habitats Directive being one such example), but it is clear that the
shaping influencewhich the EU has extends far beyond this.
European and domestic perspectiveson the housing crisis, and the consequent impact on
rental relationships, are presented as the property content for this issue. Both papers
consider the implementation of regulatoryregimes to improve tenant rights and the impact
these reforms have on existing tenant protective mechanisms and the landlord–tenant
relationship.
The Spanish government has had to take stepsto acknowledge barriers to housing stock
availability caused by the economic crisis: Although tenant protective regulation ensures
JPPEL
10,2
90
Journalof Property, Planning and
EnvironmentalLaw
Vol.10 No. 2, 2018
pp. 90-91
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9407
DOI 10.1108/JPPEL-07-2018-042
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