Siloes and silences: a review and reflection on environmental law and digital technology scholarship

Abstract

This article explores conversations on environmental law and next-generation digital technologies that are happening and not happening. Environmental law’s intersections with digital technologies, such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain remain only selectively examined. Based on a scoping review of the scholarly literature, the article tentatively categorises existing scholarship into four discrete groups, namely evaluative mapping, systemic integration, convivial interdependence and technosolutionism. This view of the scholarship focuses on the who, what, and where shaping current knowledge practices and their dissemination–the siloes. We also draw on our own research experiences and broader reflections to identify the silences in environmental law scholarship’s engagement with digital technologies. Our review and reflection suggests that environmental law’s engagement with technology may be developing as a series of niche, and isolated, conversations. The article concludes by presenting new opportunities for future research about environmental law’s interactions with technology.