The Environmental Stewardship (England) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005 No. 621) (as amended)

www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2005/20050621.htm

These Regulations are worth looking at because they show a major development in using law to further the interests of nature conservation and landscape. They allow the Secretary of State to make grants with any person who has an interest in farm land; the parties enter into an agreement under which the person is paid according to which items from a menu of options of environmentally beneficial activities are taken up (see Schedule 2 for the selections on the menu). They are a good example of a mix of regulation, quasi-compulsion and contract, and show law being used not to stop harmful actions but in a positive way to encourage beneficial change.