8.1 INTRODUCTION

Dutch environmental law consists of many dozens of statutes, orders in council, and ministerial regulations pertaining to the environment, urban and regional planning, water, and nature conservation. In the past few decades, the number of statutory provisions has been reduced as a result of clustering (see Appendix 1). For example, in 2008, eleven orders in council were clustered into the Activities Decree (Activiteitenbesluit) and in 2009 eight statutes were combined in the Water Act. Legislators pursue this clustering to achieve various legal, ecological, and/or economic benefits. This study was undertaken to answer the question of whether clustering of environmental law is inspired by a political choice that sometimes works out in favour of clustering and sometimes goes against it, or by a choice that can be scientifically underpinned. In other words: is there an assessment framework, or can such a framework be scientifically developed, which can predict in what case or cases clustering of environmental law is justified? This question is not only relevant scientifically but also socially, since the Netherlands government wants to cluster three nature conserva-tion statutes into one Nature Protection Act (Wet natuurbescherming)and 40 other statutes - partly or entirely - into one Environmental Planning Act (Omgevingswet).