Environmental resolution mechanisms beyond the nation state. A comparative analysis of the implementation of court judgements and managerial agreements

This project studies the national implementation of legal judgements from courts and managerial agreements from non-compliance mechanisms on European and international environmental issues. Against the background of the increasing impact of climate change and a lack of specialised jurisdiction over environmental disputes beyond the nation state, the implementation of legal obligations is a crucial tool to protect Earth’s environment from harm. Yet, systematic insights on the national implementation of so-called ‘resolution mechanisms’, i.e., managerial agreements from non-compliance mechanisms and court judgements on supra- and international environmental issues, are lacking. This project will investigate the conditions explaining effective implementation of such agreements and judgements by adapting insights on policy implementation research and comparing processes of implementation across different types of resolution mechanisms. It will develop an innovative, theory-driven concept-structural framework based on key conditions from the implementation literature (actor preferences, institutional legitimacy, resolution mechanisms) that mirror the existing management and enforcement approaches. The framework will enable systematic comparisons across resolution mechanisms and thus account for a diversity of separate but equally valid explanations. Empirical analysis will follow a mixed methods approach that includes (1) data gathering based on public documents and expert interviews, (2) a comparative assessment via Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) including case studies, and (3) in-depth process tracing of unexpected cases identified in the QCA. This approach will provide generalisable insights on how different preferences combine with varying degrees of legitimacy and resolution mechanisms to explain the national implementation of managerial agreements and court judgements on environmental issues.