Scientific models in legal judgements: The relationship between law and environmental science as problem-feeding

Legal decision-making often relies on scientific knowledge and information of other kinds, not least in environmental law where legal institutions use environmental modeling to, for example, project expected effects of projects when approving or denying permits. In this paper, using use the problem-feeding model of interdisciplinarity, we analyze this relationship as an exchange of problems and solutions between different communities of expertise. Drawing on recent examples from Finland, we use the problem-feeding model to explore the conditions under which problem-solution coordination breaks down. We argue that tensions between the notions of uncertainty used by the different communities of expertise can lead to differing understandings of the way the relationship between legal institutions and scientific experts works, and that this may disrupt the orderly exchange of problems and solutions. We illustrate our views in a fictional discussion between a lawyer and a modeler.