Judicialising Urban Political Ecologies: Post‐Politics and Environmental Governance in South Asia

Abstract

Legal and judicial mediation and arbitration significantly influence who has access and control over resources. Taking insights from post‐political debates in political ecology and discussions at the intersection of critical legal geography and political ecology, we focus on the production of judicial ecologies. Through case studies on waste management in India, water governance in Pakistan, and urban air pollution in Bangladesh, we describe how political‐ecological questions get transferred to the courts. We describe this as a process of political bonsaification—a process that shifts political questions to the courts and contains political action to legal and technocratic forums. Our aim is to stimulate research on how courts and legal institutions form judicial ecologies by setting, enforcing, or ignoring rules that influence human–environment interactions. Understanding how judicial and legal systems intersect across class, race, gender, and different political‐ecological contexts, we argue, is the aim of research in judicial ecology.

Energizing dissensus: Socio-technical (counter) imaginaries along the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor

“…The consensual order has judicial underpinnings as well that influence the political ecology of the BRI–CPEC (Mehmood and Cousins, 2022). The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar—whose tenure is marked by his activism towards infrastructure-resource governance in Pakistan—visited his Chinese counterpart in Beijing in 2018 with a delegation of judges.…”

Discretion and the Roles People Play in Interpreting and Applying the Law

“…The Federal Government shall not be liable for any claim based upon the exercise or performance of or the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function or duty on the part of a Federal agency or an employee of the Federal Government in carrying out the provisions of this chapter. 2 Seen through the lens of "judicial ecology"-a heuristic to think not just about the courts, but how law is shaped by activism and social actions (Mahmood & Cousins, 2022)-administrative discretion alone does not determine access to resources, instead the courts and the administration of the law, including administrative law, influences and is influenced by the access and control that different individuals have to resources.…”