Abstract
This article analyses nudging in constitutional and environmental law. On the level of constitutional law, nudging is criticized for being paternalistic. On second thought, many forms of nudging are in contrast not paternalistic, because they do not protect an individual from themselves, but others from negative effects of the actions of an individual. Especially in environmental policies, nudging therefore proves to be legitimate. However, nudging might not be as effective as policy instrument for environmental issues, as many hope. Even though this article shows interesting possible examples of nudging, it also argues why the effect of nudging as main policy instrument in solving environmental problems will be limited.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Ekardt et al. 2015.
- 2.
Thaler and Sunstein 2008.
- 3.
- 4.
Jackson 2009; Paech 2012.
- 5.
On the following, see Ekardt 2015.
- 6.
Hausman and Welch 2010, p. 128.
- 7.
On the following, see Ekardt 2015.
- 8.
Schmidt-Radefeldt 2000.
- 9.
- 10.
On the following, see Ekardt 2015.
- 11.
For a critical perspective see Spangenberg and Settele 2010.
- 12.
- 13.
Sunstein and Reisch 2013.
- 14.
Marteau et al. 2011, p. 263.
- 15.
- 16.
- 17.
Probably leading to reduced resource and energy use; see Werland et al. 2014, p. 9.
- 18.
Bibliography
Calliess, Christian. 2001. Rechtsstaat und Umweltstaat. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
Ekardt, Felix. 2015. Theorie der Nachhaltigkeit. Rechtliche, ethische und politische Zugänge – am Beispiel von Klimawandel, Ressourcenknappheit und Welthandel, 3rd ed. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Ekardt, Felix, Stefan Klinski, and Thomas Schomerus. 2015. Konzept zur Fortentwicklung des deutschen Klimaschutzrechts. Marburg: Metropolis.
Hausman, Daniel M., and Welch Brynn. 2010. Debate: To nudge or not to nudge. Journal of Political Philosophy 18(1): 123–136.
Jackson, Tim. 2011. Prosperity without growth. Economics for a finite planet. London: Taylor & Francis.
Marteau, Theresa, et al. 2011. Judging nudging: Can nudging improve population health? British Medical Journal 342: 263–265.
Ott, Konrad, and Ralf Döring. 2008. Theorie und Praxis starker Nachhaltigkeit, 2nd ed. Marburg: Metropolis.
Paech, Niko. 2012. Befreiung vom Überfluss. München: Oekom Verlag.
Schmidt-Radefeldt, Roman. 2000. Ökologische Grundrechte. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Service, Owain, et al. 2014. EAST: Four simple ways to apply behavioural insights. Behavioural insights team, http://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/publications/east-four-simple-ways-apply-behavioural-insights. Last access: 14 June 2015.
Shafir, Eldar (ed.). 2013. The behavioural foundations of policy. Princeton: University Press.
Spangenberg, Joachim, and Josef Settele. 2010. Precisely incorrect? Monetising the value of ecosystem services. Ecological Complexity 7: 327–337.
Statistika. 2015. Verteilung der weltweiten CO 2 -Emissionen nach Sektor im Jahr 2012. http://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/167957/umfrage/verteilung-der-co-emissionen-weltweit-nach-bereich/. Last access: 14 June 2015.
Sunstein, Cass, and Lucia Reisch. 2013. Automatisch Grün. Verhaltensökonomik und Umweltschutz. Zeitschrift Umweltpolitik Umweltrecht 20(2): 119–147.
Susnjar, Davor. 2010. Proportionality, fundamental rights, and balance of power. Leiden: Brill.
Thaler, Richard, and Cass Sunstein. 2008. Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Werland, Stefan, Lisa Graaf, and Klaus Jacob, et al. 2014. Nexus Ressourceneffizienz und Energiewende. Eine Analyse der Wechselwirkungen, Berlin, http://www.edocs.fu-berlin.de/docs/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/FUDOCS_derivate_000000004260/Nexus_Ressourceneffizienz.pdf. Last access: 14 June 2015.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ekardt, F., Wieding, J. (2016). Nudging and Environmental Law. In: Mathis, K., Tor, A. (eds) Nudging - Possibilities, Limitations and Applications in European Law and Economics. Economic Analysis of Law in European Legal Scholarship, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29562-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29562-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-29560-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-29562-6
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)