Acknowledgments

Though it seems to buck the orthodox trend of sequencing in acknowledgments, there is no group of people more important to thank than my family. It is not easy to reduce to words on a flat page their support, inspiration, and love. There is also no font that captures it – I know, I’ve looked.

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I owe many colleagues many thanks for the discussions and “aha” moments that have informed my thinking on the subject matter of this book. Parallel with this book, I have worked on other projects that have helped inform this work. For that, I thank Debra Perrone, L. M. Shirley, Rod Marsh, Pete Dupen, Martine Maron, Dru Marsh, Debbie Medaris, and Rebecca Spindler. Federica Cittadino, Elisabeth Alber, Philippa England, Revel Pointon, Debra Perrone, and Nícola Ulibarrí have lent expert insights into their jurisdictional contexts in a way that was invaluable for the case studies.

I am also grateful for the thoughts of attendees of seminars and conferences at which I have presented portions of this book, including attendees of the Melbourne Law School’s Faculty Research Seminar Series, the Frontiers in Environmental Law Colloquium, the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference, the Engineers Australia Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Academy of Environmental Law Colloquium, the Australian Land Conservation Alliance Conference, the Sant’Anna Legal Studies Program, the Eurac Research Institute for Comparative Federalism, the International Society of Public Law Annual Conference, and the Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand.

I am enormously fortunate to be part of an institution that attracts postgraduate law students from around the world. Over the years, too many to name have generously shared their knowledge of their home countries’ laws with me, especially the students of my Water Law and Natural Resources Management class and my PhD advisees, who are respected judges, practicing lawyers, and policy practitioners in their respective jurisdictions. I heartily thank the students who have directly undertaken research assistance for this book – Jack Brookes, Isaac Gillespie-Hortop, Timothy Gilling, José Manuel Cortes Leighton, Selina Li, Malavika Hosahally Narayana, L. M. Shirley, Lucas Volfneuk, Alli Whitmore, Nuria Yu, Joseph Zivny, and the Melbourne Law School Academic Research Service for the coordinating assistance and expert eyes of Louise Ellis and Kirsty Wilson – for these excellent contributions. Without their work, it would have been difficult to achieve the geographic representation of laws to which the book aspires. Portions of Chapter 3 derive from an article coauthored with L. M. Shirley, “The Transformational Potential of Cumulative Environmental Effects Concepts as ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Lighthouse’ in National and International Laws” (2023) 12(1) Transnational Environmental Law 150–174. Portions of the discussions on coordination in Chapters 2 and 7 derive from a published book chapter, Rebecca L. Nelson, “Victims and Villains: Cities and the Environment on the Constitutional Stage” in Erika Arban (ed), Cities in Federal Constitutional Theory (Oxford University Press, 2022) 161–179. Thanks also to Amanda Belton, Mar Quiroga, and Sama Hosseini for their expert assistance with figures; and to my word-processing wizards, Olivia, Leo and Silvia Nelson Smith.

Special thanks to my amazing feedback group of Stanford alumnae, especially A. R. Siders, Nícola Ulibarrí, and Amanda Cravens, for their weekly injections of interdisciplinary wisdom (A. R. Siders, Cassandra M. Brooks, Amanda E. Cravens, Rebecca L. Nelson, Dan R. Reineman and Nicola Ulibarri, “How to Beat Isolation? Academic Feedback Groups Fit the Bill, and Promote Growth as Scholars and Humans” (2020) 582 Nature 597–598).

Wonderful colleagues have generously given their thoughts on parts of this work and who I have not already mentioned – thank you Bruce Lindsay, John Howe, and Christine Parker. And even though we didn’t have the chance to talk about the book, I am grateful for the years of wisdom, wit, and confidence-instilling mentorship of the late Professor Sandy Clark AM.

I gratefully acknowledge funding for this work received from the Australian Research Council (#DE180101154), the University of Melbourne, the Melbourne Law School, and the Institute for Comparative Federalism at Eurac Research, which generously hosted my research visit in South Tyrol as the 2020 Federal Scholar in Residence.

Finally, I acknowledge that this book is a product of living, learning, and working on the unceded traditional lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, and I pay my respects to Elders past, present, and emerging.