Adaptivity, resilience and justice for all: A confrontation between adaptive planning law and environmental justice

Adaptive management approaches are attracting attention in spatial and environmental policy. These approaches require planning law that stimulates flexible, participatory, and network-oriented procedures based on scientific input and cyclical processes. In this article, the recently promulgated Dutch Environmental Planning Act is assessed using frameworks of adaptive law and environmental justice. The argument is made that the new Act conforms to many of the characteristics of adaptive law, but facilitates a neoliberal spatial planning regime. The case illustrates how adaptive law can become a facilitator of neoliberal planning practices due to insufficient attention to concerns of justice. Incorporating justice concerns into adaptive law and planning would benefit resilience and increase their transformative potential.