Beauty

ALingua Francafor Environmental Law

Bibliographic Data

ID3190348
AuthorsBenjamin J Richardson (0000-0002-3249-5648, University of Tasmania), Emily Barritt (0000-0002-2649-8834, Bush Heritage Australia), Megan Bowman (Bush Heritage Australia)
Year2019
Volume8
Issue1
Pages59-87
Publication date2019-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransnational Environmental Law (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2047-1025 • E-ISSN: 2047-1033
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s2047102518000195
OpenAlexW2887312473
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited35

This article investigates whether beauty in nature can provide a global language to inform environmental governance, such as by providing shared values and collaborative approaches across and within different cultures. Because art mediates how many people experience environmental aesthetics, such as through photography and music, this enquiry extends to the arts. As is the case for other aesthetic values, beauty is ultimately about relationships and ways of knowing our environment, and the law can best engage with such values through interpretive guidance and processes for participatory decision making. Prescriptive codification of beauty 'standards' is generally not a realistic goal for lawmakers. The article enriches our understanding of how aesthetics can contribute to human beings' emotional empathy and ethical commitment to environmental stewardship, and identifies some conceptual and methodological difficulties that militate against beauty being alingua francafor environmental law

Beauty · Environmental stewardship · Stewardship · Environmental law and policy · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Geographies of human-animal interactions

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