Bettina Lange

Associate Professor of Law and Regulation

Centre for Socio-Legal Studies

Other affiliations

Wolfson College

Biography

Bettina Lange’s main research interests are in nature and society interactions in environmental law ‘in action’. This involves analysis of options for and limits to state law as a mode of regulation.

Bettina is also interested in institutional governance structures for regulation in the context of EU co-ordination of education policy objectives, such as through the Open-Method of Co-ordination.

Her research is based on qualitative empirical data, analysed through a ‘grounded theory’ approach or discourse analysis. Some of her work is informed by social theoretical lenses, such as systems-theory, regulatory space analysis and governmentality perspectives. Her research has been funded by the ESRC, NERC, BA, DAAD and OU John Fell Fund.

Some of Bettina’s research engages public policy makers and regulators. She has co-produced with the Rivers Trust ‘Guidelines for Integrated Drought Management’, published at the UK government’s CaBA site. She has also carried out consultancy for the Environment Agency on trust-based environmental regulation.

Bettina has been a Jean-Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. Her first book Implementing EU Pollution Control: Law and Integration (2008) 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 jointly the Journal of Environmental Law Richard Macrory best article prize 2014.

Bettina was shortlisted for an OU SU ‘supervisor of the year’ award in 2017, and nominated again in 2018. She has successfully supervised to completion 22 DPhils and 9 MPhils.

Degrees: BA (Law and Sociology), Warwick University, MA (Oxon), PhD (Law) Warwick University.

Featured Publications

Publications

Journal Article (20)

Lange B, “Interdisciplinary Hazards: Methodological Insights from a Multi-Sectoral Study of Drought in the UK” (2020) 12 SUSTAINABILITY

Lange B, Holman I and Bloomfield J, “A Framework for a Joint Hydro-Meteorological-Social Analysis of Drought” (2016) 578 Science of the Total Environment 297

Lange B and Cook C, “Mapping a Developing Governance Space: Managing Drought in the UK” (2015) 68 Current Legal Problems 229

Lange B, “EU Environmental Law, Governance and Decision-Making, 2nd Edition” (2015) 27 JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 362

Alexiadou N and Lange B, “Europeanizing the National Education Space? Adjusting to the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in the UK” (2015) 38 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 157

Lange B and Haines F, “Regulatory Transformations: An Introduction”

Alexiadou N and Lange B, “Europeanizing the National Education Space? Adjusting to the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in the UK” (2015) 38 International Journal of Public Administration 157

Lange B and Shepheard M, “Changing Conceptions of Rights to Water?-An Eco-Socio-Legal Perspective” (2014) 26 JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 215

Alexiadou N and Lange B, “Deflecting European Union Influence on National Education Policy-Making: The Case of the United Kingdom” (2013) 35 JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION 37

Lange B, “FROM POLANYI TO DISCOURSE THEORY” (2013) 62 FROM ECONOMY TO SOCIETY?: PERSPECTIVES ON TRANSNATIONAL RISK REGULATION 73

Lange B, “AFTER A ROMANTIC ASPIRATION TO SOCIETY: HARNESSING THE REGULATORY CAPACITY OF A SOCIAL SPHERE” (2013) 62 FROM ECONOMY TO SOCIETY?: PERSPECTIVES ON TRANSNATIONAL RISK REGULATION 1

Castellano G, Jeunemaître A and Lange B, “Reforming European Union Financial Regulation: Thinking through Governance Models” (2012) 23 European Business Law Review

Faulkner A, Lange B and Lawless C, “Introduction: Material Worlds: Intersections of Law, Science, Technology, and Society” (2012) 39 JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY 1

Lange B, “THE PARADOX OF REGULATION” (2012) 90 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 842

Lange B and Gouldson A, “Trust-Based Environmental Regulation”. (2010) 408 The Science of the total environment 5235

Alexiadou N, Fink-Hafner D and Lange B, “Education Policy Convergence through the Open Method of Coordination: Theoretical Reflections and Implementation in ’old’ and ’new’ National Contexts” (2010) 9 European Educational Research Journal 345

Lange B and Alexiadou N, “Policy Learning and Governance of Education Policy in the EU” (2010) 25 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION POLICY 443

Fisher E, Lange B, Scotford E and Carlarne C, “Maturity and Methodology: Starting a Debate about Environmental Law Scholarship” (2009) 21 Journal of Environmental Law 213

Lange B and Alexiadou N, “New Forms of European Union Governance in the Education Sector? A Preliminary Analysis of the Open Method of Coordination” (2007) 6 European Educational Research Journal 321

Lange B, “The Emotional Dimension in Legal Regulation” (2002) 29 Journal of Law and Society 197

Lange B, Implementing EU Pollution Control (2008) 1

Lange B, “Procedure and Legitimacy in Environmental Networks” in O Dilling, M Herberg and G Winter (eds.), Transnational Administrative Rule-Making: Performance, Legal Effects, and Legitimacy (Hart Publishing 2011)

Lange B and Alexiadou N, “How to Govern for Solidarity? An Introduction to Policy Learning in the Context of Open Methods of Coordinating Education Policies in the European Union”, Promoting Solidarity in the European Union (2010)

Conference Paper (1)

Lange B, “Getting to Yes: Structuring and Disciplining Arguments for and Against Transgenic Agricultural Products in European Union Authorisations”, ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSES IN PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL LAW (2012)

Research Interests

EU, UK and German environmental regulation; Qualitative empirical socio-legal research methods, including discourse analysis; The application of new modes of European governance to education policies; Socio-legal theories of regulation, including the role of emotions in regulatory processes, governance of water scarcity and drought

Research projects & programmes

Centre for Socio-Legal Studies Governance of Water Scarcity and Drought in the UK Environmental Law

Options taught

Environmental Law

Legal Concepts in Environmental Law