This document discusses the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for environmental regulation in developing countries. It notes that while ICT can provide benefits like improved resource efficiency and increased effectiveness, there are also challenges to consider. Access and use of ICT varies significantly between developing countries and technology can be disproportionately expensive. ICT systems also risk prioritizing the needs of developers and creating dependencies if local knowledge is not incorporated. When used by regulators, ICT must be designed carefully to avoid negatively impacting legal processes or principles like the rule of law, human rights, and non-discrimination. Flexible, open systems that increase digital literacy and involve stakeholders can help address these challenges.

1. ICT and Environmental Regulation
in the Developing World:
Inequalities in
Institutional Information Infrastructures
Rónán Kennedy
School of Law, NUI Galway
ronan.m.kennedy@nuigalway.ie
Image: European Space Agency

2. Overview
• Background: ICT and environmental regulation
• ICT in Regulation: Rule of Law issues
• IS as a means of dependency and values transfer
• Conclusions and recommendations

3. Millennium
Development Goal
Target 8F
• In co-operation with the
private sector, make available
the benefits of new
technologies, especially
information and
communications

4. WSIS Action Plan
Target C7.20.a
• Governments, in cooperation with
other stakeholders are
encouraged to use and promote
ICTs as an instrument for
environmental protection and the
sustainable use of natural
resources.

5. Benefits of ICT for
ER
New modes of regulation
Improved resource efficiency
Increased effectiveness
Potential significant contribution to SD

6. ICT in Developing
World
• Use and availability varies significantly
• Technology proportionately quite expensive
• Greater use of centralised/shared services
• Greater use of mobile and wireless
• Adaptation a greater priority than mitigation

7. Applications of ICT
Environmental observation
Remote sensing and satellite imaging
Waste management
Land-use change

8. Applications of ICT
Analysis and modelling
Environmental planning (especially agriculture)
Environmental management and protection
Mitigating effects of ICT utilisation (e-waste)
Environmental capacity building

9. Practical Challenges
• Capacity, skills, political will?
• Power and control lies with developers
• Little evidence that ICT is a better investment than
e.g. education or health
• Developed world system lack m tis (localē
knowledge, meanings, and understandings)

10. Power and Control
• Whose needs are prioritised?
• What assumptions does ICT carry with it?
• Can DCs engage fully with technology creation
and standard-setting?
• Can ICT create further dependencies?
• Can e-government/e-governance help the poor?

11. Law and ICT:
Unpacking the
Relationships
• What are the consequences of the widespread use
of ICT by regulators?
• The computer as an invisible and unstudied tool
• ICT as ‘frozen institutional discourse’
• Example: Tamil Nadu land registry

12. E-Regulation
Cannot simply re-use private sector experiences
New research topic: “The use of ICT within
regulators and those who deal with them, such as
NGOs, as an integral part of the process of
measurement, assessment and feedback which is
central to regulation.”

13. Benefits of E-
Regulation
Benefits: cheaper, more, quicker, better, new
Improvements:
Better informed
More targeted
More iterative
More transparent and democratic

14. Difficulties with
E-Regulation
ICT not neutral or deterministic
Impact on existing imbalances?
Disempowering external actors
Brake on change:
Institutional
Organisational
Procedural

15. ICT and
Legal Processes
Legal processes neither simple nor linear
Not easily modelled by logic or expert systems
Risk of destructive feedback cycle
ICT as embedded and entrenched infrastructure

16. Rule of Law
 ‘all persons and authorities within the state, whether
public or private, should be bound by and entitled to the
benefit of laws publicly and prospectively promulgated
and publicly administered in the courts’ (Lord Bingham)
 Essential elements (Venice Commission):
 Legality
 Legal certainty
 Prohibition of arbitrariness
 Access to justice before independent and impartial courts
 Respect for human rights
 Non-discrimination and equality before the law

17. ICT and the Rule of
Law
 Preserving regulatory discretion while ensuring
fairness
 ‘Ambient Law’
 Dangers of digital decision-making
 Closed, inflexible, unaccountable systems
 Containing assumptions, biases, mistakes

18. Querying the Myths
of E-Government
 Formalising practices and knowledge is difficult
 ICT can be a brake on reform
 People can resist ICT-driven change
 Need to ‘Get It Right First Time’

19. “Get It Right First
Time”
Awareness of ICT and power relationships
Design principles:
Flexibility
Rule of law
Human rights
Open, re-usable data

20. Configuring the
Networked State
 Open source code
 Increasing digital literacy
 ‘Governance on the Inside’