ABSTRACT
Genealogy is aimed at the reconstruction of the contingencies and contestations constituting the complex history of phenomena, concepts and, importantly, law. Problematization is a key element of Michel Foucault’s genealogical method, especially in Ian Koopman’s interpretation of Foucault. Foucault in fact understood problematization first as an activity, as a critical inquiry underpinned by a verbal form: to problematize. A critical environmental law must take seriously the problematizations linked to the emergence of the ‘ecosystem approach’ — the legal and governance weaknesses that prompted its emergence and the displacing effect that it has had on existing concepts and practices. The concept of legal narrative finds further inspiration in the insights of two conceptual frameworks: R. Sacco’s idea of ‘legal formants’; and V. Lowe’s idea of ‘interstitial norms’. The more ambiguous and indeterminate a legal formulation or principle is social pressures and legal narratives that may arguably come into play.
