Dr. Bettina Lange

Biography

Bettina Lange’s main research interests address how nature and society become linked through environmental law ‘in action’. This involves empirical analysis of potential limits of state law as a mode of regulation. Bettina is interested in institutional governance structures for regulation in the context of EU- coordination of education policy objectives and Open Method of Coordination. Her research is based on qualitative empirical data, analyzed through a grounded theory approach and discourse analysis. It is informed by social theoretical lenses such as systems-theory, regulatory space analysis, and governmentality perspectives. Bettina's research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, Natural Environment Research Council, British Academy, DAAD, and the Oxford University John Fell Fund. She actively engages with public policy makers and regulators and co-produced the Rivers Trust ‘Guidelines for Integrated Drought Management’, published on the UK's CaBA site. Additionally, she has consultancy experience with the Environment Agency on trust-based environmental regulation. Bettina is a Jean-Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. Her book, "Implementing EU Pollution Control: Law Integration" (2008), published by Cambridge University Press, was nominated for the Peter Birks prize for outstanding legal scholarship. Her article with Mark Shepheard, ‘Changing Conceptions of Rights to Water? An Eco-Socio-Legal Perspective’, won the Journal of Environmental Law Richard Macrory article prize in 2014. Bettina was shortlisted for the OU SU ‘Supervisor of the Year’ award in 2017 and nominated again in 2018. She has successfully supervised the completion of 24 DPhil and 9 MPhil theses.

Research Interests