Law, aesthetics and the environment: Some thoughts on sustaining natural beauty in New Zealand.
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Authors
Barrett, J.
Keywords
Law
Aesthetics
Environment
Regulatory frameworks
Resource Management Act
Aesthetics
Environment
Regulatory frameworks
Resource Management Act
Description of form
Refereed journal article.
Publisher
Rights
Rights holder
Issue Date
2012
Peer-reviewed status
Type
Article
Abstract
This article presents some thoughts on law, aesthetics and the environment in the context of
New Zealand. The conflict between lifestylers and large scale, professional farmers is used to
provide focus for the discussion. In addition to relevant statutory texts and judicial decisions,
the article draws on Western conceptions of beauty and ugliness, in particular Immanuel
Kant’s notion of a judgment of taste, to engage with sustaining natural beauty. The New
Zealand regulatory framework is first sketched and the principle of amenity values examined.
Consideration is then given to Kant’s judgment of taste and how it may apply to landscapes.
Tentative proposals are made for developing a discourse about sustaining natural beauty and
the language in which it might be conducted.
Citation
Barrett, J. (2012). Law, aesthetics and the environment: Some thoughts on sustaining natural beauty in New Zealand. New Zealand Online Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 1(1). Retrieved from http://www.nzjois.co.nz/uploads/76603/files/135536/Sustaining_Natural _Beauty_APA.pdf