J B Ruhl
Biographic Data
| ID | 1572422 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J B Ruhl |
| GIVEN NAMES | J B |
| FAMILY NAME | Ruhl |
| SIGNATURE | RUHL J B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vanderbilt University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3866-733X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 45 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Harnessing legal system complexity for radical shifts to sustainability
Governing complexity
Highlights the lack of clarity on the fit of adaptive, transitions, transformation and anticipatory governance to govern complex challenges, such as climate change. • Explores and compares the four governance models in how they understand complexity and the role of governments and law in governing it. • Establishes that while transition and transformation governance are often portrayed as more readily applicable to climate change mitigation, and …
Do Montreal! A Review Article
International climate change diplomacy has tried a rigid top-down approach (the Kyoto Agreement) and a more flexible bottom-up approach (the Paris Agreement). Neither approach has gained sufficient traction on the climate change problem. The authors of Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World propose a new direction. Borrowing from the framework of the Montreal Protocol of 1987, which made great strides in eliminating use of ozone-de…
How can policy balance the goals of transition acceleration and justice? Permitting reform, large-scale renewable energy, and host communities in the United States
Implementing energy-transition policies requires building new infrastructure, but the result is often opposition from host communities and associated actors. An important research and policy problem emerges over how to balance two goals that can be in tension: rapidly implementing energy-transition policies and addressing the needs and concerns of local communities, including diverse justice-related issues. This study adopts the perspective that …
Pre-planning transformation to avoid collapse—Is it possible
Adaptive Management for Ecosystem Services Across the Wildland-Urban Interface
Managing the wildland-urban interface (WUI) is a widely-recognized land use problem plagued by a fractured geography of land parcels, management jurisdictions, and governance mandates and objectives. People who work in this field have suggested a variety of approaches to managing this interface, from informal governance to contracting to insurance. To date, however, none of these scholars has fully embraced the dynamism, uncertainty, and complexi…
A proposal for amending administrative law to facilitate adaptive management
In this article we examine how federal agencies use adaptive management. In order for federal agencies to implement adaptive management more successfully, administrative law must adapt to adaptive management, and we propose changes in administrative law that will help to steer the current process out of a dead end. Adaptive management is a form of structured decision making that is widely used in natural resources management. It involves specific…
Transforming (perceived) rigidity in environmental law through adaptive governance
Gosnell, H., B. C. Chaffin, J. B. Ruhl, C. A. (T.) Arnold, R. K. Craig, M. H. Benson, and A. Devenish. 2017. Transforming (perceived) rigidity in environmental law through adaptive governance: a case of Endangered Species Act implementation. Ecology and Society 22(4):42. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09887-220442
Legal and institutional foundations of adaptive environmental governance
Legal and institutional structures fundamentally shape opportunities for adaptive governance of environmental resources at multiple ecological and societal scales. Properties of adaptive governance are widely studied. However, these studies have not resulted in consolidated frameworks for legal and institutional design, limiting our ability to promote adaptation and social-ecological resilience. We develop an overarching framework that describes …
The role of law in adaptive governance
The term "governance" encompasses both governmental and nongovernmental participation in collective choice and action. Law dictates the structure, boundaries, rules, and processes within which governmental action takes place, and in doing so becomes one of the focal points for analysis of barriers to adaptation as the effects of climate change are felt. Adaptive governance must therefore contemplate a level of flexibility and evolution in governm…
Transformative Environmental Governance
Transformative governance is an approach to environmental governance that has the capacity to respond to, manage, and trigger regime shifts in coupled social-ecological systems (SESs) at multiple scales. The goal of transformative governance is to actively shift degraded SESs to alternative, more desirable, or more functional regimes by altering the structures and processes that define the system. Transformative governance is rooted in ecological…
Committing to ecological restoration
Efforts around the globe need legal and policy clarification
Panarchy and the Law
Panarchy theory focuses on improving theories of change in natural and social systems to improve the design of policy responses. Its central thesis is that successfully working with the dynamic forces of complex adaptive natural and social systems demands an active adaptive management regime that eschews optimization approaches that seek stability. This is a new approach to resources management, and yet no new theory of how to do things in enviro…
Down to the Waterline
Journal Article Down to the Waterline: Boundaries, Nature, and the Law in Florida Get access Warner Sara. Down to the Waterline: Boundaries, Nature, and the Law in Florida. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005. xiv, 266 pp. $44.95. J. B. Ruhl J. B. Ruhl Florida State University College of Law Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 48, Issue 1, January 2006, Pages 102…
Watershed Planning
Currencies and the Commodification of Environmental Law
The success of several environmental trading markets (ETMs) has led to proposals for broader use of ETMs in environmental and resource management policy.The successful ETMs all share a basic feature-they exchange units of trade that are fungible, such as tons ofsulfir dioxide or kilos offish.This feature of trading promotes resource allocation efficiency while advancing environmental protection.But most commodities exchanged in current and propos…
Complexity Theory as a Paradigm for the Dynamical Law-and-Society System
Imagine driving in a world with no traffic controls-no speed limits, no traffic lights, no stop signs, and no rights to prevent or punish reckless driving.Now imagine driving in a world brimming with a plethora of traffic controls-lights at every comer, every street a one-way, speed zones changing by the block, causes of action available to challenge the slightest of driving inetiquettes.In which world would you rather drive?In the lawless world-…
Currencies and the Commodification of Environmental Law
The success of several environmental trading markets (ETMs) has led to proposals for broader use of ETMs in environmental and resource management policy.The successful ETMs all share a basic feature-they exchange units of trade that are fungible, such as tons ofsulfir dioxide or kilos offish.This feature of trading promotes resource allocation efficiency while advancing environmental protection.But most commodities exchanged in current and propos…
Legal and institutional foundations of adaptive environmental governance
Legal and institutional structures fundamentally shape opportunities for adaptive governance of environmental resources at multiple ecological and societal scales. Properties of adaptive governance are widely studied. However, these studies have not resulted in consolidated frameworks for legal and institutional design, limiting our ability to promote adaptation and social-ecological resilience. We develop an overarching framework that describes …
Watershed Planning
Complexity Theory as a Paradigm for the Dynamical Law-and-Society System
Imagine driving in a world with no traffic controls-no speed limits, no traffic lights, no stop signs, and no rights to prevent or punish reckless driving.Now imagine driving in a world brimming with a plethora of traffic controls-lights at every comer, every street a one-way, speed zones changing by the block, causes of action available to challenge the slightest of driving inetiquettes.In which world would you rather drive?In the lawless world-…
The role of law in adaptive governance
The term "governance" encompasses both governmental and nongovernmental participation in collective choice and action. Law dictates the structure, boundaries, rules, and processes within which governmental action takes place, and in doing so becomes one of the focal points for analysis of barriers to adaptation as the effects of climate change are felt. Adaptive governance must therefore contemplate a level of flexibility and evolution in governm…
Panarchy and the Law
Panarchy theory focuses on improving theories of change in natural and social systems to improve the design of policy responses. Its central thesis is that successfully working with the dynamic forces of complex adaptive natural and social systems demands an active adaptive management regime that eschews optimization approaches that seek stability. This is a new approach to resources management, and yet no new theory of how to do things in enviro…
How can policy balance the goals of transition acceleration and justice? Permitting reform, large-scale renewable energy, and host communities in the United States
Implementing energy-transition policies requires building new infrastructure, but the result is often opposition from host communities and associated actors. An important research and policy problem emerges over how to balance two goals that can be in tension: rapidly implementing energy-transition policies and addressing the needs and concerns of local communities, including diverse justice-related issues. This study adopts the perspective that …
Pre-planning transformation to avoid collapse—Is it possible
Adaptive Management for Ecosystem Services Across the Wildland-Urban Interface
Managing the wildland-urban interface (WUI) is a widely-recognized land use problem plagued by a fractured geography of land parcels, management jurisdictions, and governance mandates and objectives. People who work in this field have suggested a variety of approaches to managing this interface, from informal governance to contracting to insurance. To date, however, none of these scholars has fully embraced the dynamism, uncertainty, and complexi…
Transforming (perceived) rigidity in environmental law through adaptive governance
Gosnell, H., B. C. Chaffin, J. B. Ruhl, C. A. (T.) Arnold, R. K. Craig, M. H. Benson, and A. Devenish. 2017. Transforming (perceived) rigidity in environmental law through adaptive governance: a case of Endangered Species Act implementation. Ecology and Society 22(4):42. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09887-220442
Complexity Theory as a Paradigm for the Dynamical Law-and-Society System
Imagine driving in a world with no traffic controls-no speed limits, no traffic lights, no stop signs, and no rights to prevent or punish reckless driving.Now imagine driving in a world brimming with a plethora of traffic controls-lights at every comer, every street a one-way, speed zones changing by the block, causes of action available to challenge the slightest of driving inetiquettes.In which world would you rather drive?In the lawless world-…
Currencies and the Commodification of Environmental Law
The success of several environmental trading markets (ETMs) has led to proposals for broader use of ETMs in environmental and resource management policy.The successful ETMs all share a basic feature-they exchange units of trade that are fungible, such as tons ofsulfir dioxide or kilos offish.This feature of trading promotes resource allocation efficiency while advancing environmental protection.But most commodities exchanged in current and propos…
Watershed Planning
Down to the Waterline
Journal Article Down to the Waterline: Boundaries, Nature, and the Law in Florida Get access Warner Sara. Down to the Waterline: Boundaries, Nature, and the Law in Florida. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005. xiv, 266 pp. $44.95. J. B. Ruhl J. B. Ruhl Florida State University College of Law Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 48, Issue 1, January 2006, Pages 102…
Panarchy and the Law
Panarchy theory focuses on improving theories of change in natural and social systems to improve the design of policy responses. Its central thesis is that successfully working with the dynamic forces of complex adaptive natural and social systems demands an active adaptive management regime that eschews optimization approaches that seek stability. This is a new approach to resources management, and yet no new theory of how to do things in enviro…
Committing to ecological restoration
Efforts around the globe need legal and policy clarification
Transformative Environmental Governance
Transformative governance is an approach to environmental governance that has the capacity to respond to, manage, and trigger regime shifts in coupled social-ecological systems (SESs) at multiple scales. The goal of transformative governance is to actively shift degraded SESs to alternative, more desirable, or more functional regimes by altering the structures and processes that define the system. Transformative governance is rooted in ecological…
A proposal for amending administrative law to facilitate adaptive management
In this article we examine how federal agencies use adaptive management. In order for federal agencies to implement adaptive management more successfully, administrative law must adapt to adaptive management, and we propose changes in administrative law that will help to steer the current process out of a dead end. Adaptive management is a form of structured decision making that is widely used in natural resources management. It involves specific…
Transforming (perceived) rigidity in environmental law through adaptive governance
Gosnell, H., B. C. Chaffin, J. B. Ruhl, C. A. (T.) Arnold, R. K. Craig, M. H. Benson, and A. Devenish. 2017. Transforming (perceived) rigidity in environmental law through adaptive governance: a case of Endangered Species Act implementation. Ecology and Society 22(4):42. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09887-220442
Legal and institutional foundations of adaptive environmental governance
Legal and institutional structures fundamentally shape opportunities for adaptive governance of environmental resources at multiple ecological and societal scales. Properties of adaptive governance are widely studied. However, these studies have not resulted in consolidated frameworks for legal and institutional design, limiting our ability to promote adaptation and social-ecological resilience. We develop an overarching framework that describes …
The role of law in adaptive governance
The term "governance" encompasses both governmental and nongovernmental participation in collective choice and action. Law dictates the structure, boundaries, rules, and processes within which governmental action takes place, and in doing so becomes one of the focal points for analysis of barriers to adaptation as the effects of climate change are felt. Adaptive governance must therefore contemplate a level of flexibility and evolution in governm…
Adaptive Management for Ecosystem Services Across the Wildland-Urban Interface
Managing the wildland-urban interface (WUI) is a widely-recognized land use problem plagued by a fractured geography of land parcels, management jurisdictions, and governance mandates and objectives. People who work in this field have suggested a variety of approaches to managing this interface, from informal governance to contracting to insurance. To date, however, none of these scholars has fully embraced the dynamism, uncertainty, and complexi…
Pre-planning transformation to avoid collapse—Is it possible
Governing complexity
Highlights the lack of clarity on the fit of adaptive, transitions, transformation and anticipatory governance to govern complex challenges, such as climate change. • Explores and compares the four governance models in how they understand complexity and the role of governments and law in governing it. • Establishes that while transition and transformation governance are often portrayed as more readily applicable to climate change mitigation, and …
Do Montreal! A Review Article
International climate change diplomacy has tried a rigid top-down approach (the Kyoto Agreement) and a more flexible bottom-up approach (the Paris Agreement). Neither approach has gained sufficient traction on the climate change problem. The authors of Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World propose a new direction. Borrowing from the framework of the Montreal Protocol of 1987, which made great strides in eliminating use of ozone-de…
How can policy balance the goals of transition acceleration and justice? Permitting reform, large-scale renewable energy, and host communities in the United States
Implementing energy-transition policies requires building new infrastructure, but the result is often opposition from host communities and associated actors. An important research and policy problem emerges over how to balance two goals that can be in tension: rapidly implementing energy-transition policies and addressing the needs and concerns of local communities, including diverse justice-related issues. This study adopts the perspective that …
Harnessing legal system complexity for radical shifts to sustainability
Political science (13 works) · Economics (12 works) · Corporate governance (9 works) · Business (8 works) · Environmental resource management (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (7 works) · Environmental law and policy (6 works) · Management (6 works) · Biology (5 works)