Participation and Protest Across Civic Space: An Environmental Law Story

This article explores a continuum of environmental participation, from formalized participation in decision-making processes, protected by law, at one end, to protest on the streets, criminalized by law, at the other. Participation across this continuum is partially constituted by, but also constrained by, law. We share and extend Brian Wynne’s evocative language of ‘uninvited’ participation to describe the contributions that fall outside institutionalized participation, so that our continuum is composed of ‘invited participation’, ‘uninvited participation’ and ‘forbidden participation’. Focusing especially on those states where liberal democracy is thought to be most secure, this article looks across the interconnections between different categories of environmental participation, highlighting the breadth and intensity of the shrinking of civic space in Europe, and law’s role in that.