This open access book examines the governance and legal landscape of the global commodity sector. For that purpose, the author conceptualises both Global Commodity Governance (GCG) as well as Transnational Commodity Law (TCL). He defines the key terms of Global Commodity Governance, delineates the underlying legal framework of Transnational Commodity Law, and assesses the effectiveness of Transnational Commodity Law in fostering a functional commodity sector. "Sustainable Commodity Use" is based on a comprehensive analysis of over 250 international agreements, standards, and guiding documents. The author distils the main findings into a conceptualisation of Transnational Commodity Law and provides the reader with a succinct overview of its normative configurations as well as regulatory gaps. Moreover, he elaborates a taxonomy of International Commodity Agreements. In addition, an outline of the normative substance of Transnational Commodity Law features in an appendix to the main text. The author concludes by making concrete suggestions on how rules regulating commodity activities de lege ferenda could and should be designed to improve the effectiveness of law regulating transnational commodity activity. In doing so, he demonstrates the application of the sustainable use principle as the overall objective and purpose of Transnational Commodity Law and discusses International Commodity Agreements as future regulatory instruments. This book may assist lawmakers, practitioners, civil society advocates, and academics worldwide in developing a legal framework for sustainable global commodity activity.

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of how national and international efforts to achieve carbon neutrality have been embraced as necessary to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement as well as the needs of the planet. The authors explore the increasing tensions between aspirations and entrenched practices as methods to implement carbon neutrality are devised, particularly at the national and sub-national levels. This is perhaps best typified by efforts to shift from "dirty" energy production, such as coal, to greener alternatives, which are often supported in laws and rules but opposed by society. To bridge this void, the concept of just transitions has increasingly come to the forefront of international and national focus yet is often poorly understood. This book examines the ways in which just transitions have been proposed as a legal and regulatory bridge to address issues that result in societal resistance to implementation. It uses past and existing practice studies of just transitions before providing an analysis of how just transitions can be used to not only to assist in the shift to carbon neutrality but also in new shifts such as those caused by the Covid-19 pandemic impacts on economy, environment and society, and to address future global challenges.

Written by one of the world's leading scholars in the field, this book provides a unique perspective on the connections between energy justice and human rights. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the author offers an accessible discussion about the implementation of energy justice in practice. The book explores the rise of justice issues in the energy sector, the interdisciplinary nature of energy justice, the economics of energy justice and provides a practical case study on distributive justice. The penultimate chapter focuses on human rights and energy justice in a world first, and explores the topic from the perspective of the opportunity of last resort. This 'opportunity of last resort' is the national courts and is the place where societies can seek to have justice enforced through a variety of human rights being protected. Finally, energy justice risks are highlighted alongside the author's proposed framework for the next generation of energy justice scholars.

This book is the first book focusing on the Chinese law of unjust enrichment in English and introducing it to Western jurisdictions. Unjust enrichment is currently one of the most controversial areas of law in many jurisdictions and rife with academic debate. This book analyzes the historical evolution, current doctrines, and relationships of unjust enrichment with other areas of private law in China . It also provides insights into judicial practice. In May 2020, China promulgated its first-ever Civil Code since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, which is a milestone in the history of Chinese law. Before the Civil Code, there was only one legal provision regulating unjust enrichment, which requires a person obtaining benefits "without a legal basis" to return such benefits. However, the new Civil Code contains a separate chapter regulating unjust enrichment. This book analyzes and evaluates those new provisions in the Civil Code to provide a most up-to-date analysis of the Chinese law of unjust enrichment.

This book states that sustainable development has become an influential discourse worldwide. Climate change is not only an urgent problem, but it is also a fundamental spiritual question concerning social justice and sustainable peace development as well as solidarity among people of various religious backgrounds and different countries. Thus, this global problem must be faced and recognized for future actions and strategies. However, the politics of fear must be replaced with a culture of peace, hope, and compassion, and this urgent problem must be faced with an optimistic attitude and a certain degree of preparedness. Climate change is evident in many forms, such as, for example, the most obvious-recent weather fluctuations that happen around the world. Floods, droughts, and hurricanes are those visible signs of climate change. Human-caused climate change is projected to greatly impact marine, freshwater, and terrestrial life. Temperatures in Alaska and the Arctic have increased over the last 50 years at a rate more than twice as fast as the global average temperature. Poor people are vulnerable to man-made climate change and respond rapidly to its impacts. Diverse knowledge of and approaches to climate change help understand this growing problem; global average air temperature has increased in the recent past by approximately 1.0 DegreesC (1.8 DegreesF). According to the Climate Science Special Report, the last several years have been record-breaking, and the period of 1901-2016 is the warmest. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are still rising, with damaging effects on the Earth's climate. At the moment, the concentration of CO2 is higher than at any point in time-at least the past 800,000 years. However, carbon dioxide (CO2) is not the only GHG that impacts human-induced climate change.

This book consists of updated and refreshed papers written by international law scholars and practitioners from the ASEAN region and published by the Journal of East Asia and International Law, comprehensively covering almost all contemporary international legal issues related to ASEAN. Legal analysis of the ASEAN integration as one community with one vision in this book provides readers with a better understanding of the current social climate and future developments of ASEAN. Each section within the book covers a highly topical issue on ASEAN cooperation and dispute resolution from an international law perspective. ASEAN is one of the biggest economic communities in the world and the ASEAN+3 covers nearly half of global GDP. Given the region's global impact, this book is of interest to Asia watchers, academics and policymakers alike.

This book empirically examines a diverse range of groundwater issues and different approaches to deal with such concerns taking into account responses from government bodies, community organizations, scientists, private sector, and academia. The overarching objective of this book is to empirically examine groundwater governance and groundwater law. It aims to provide a better understanding of the complexities surrounding groundwater governance in order to reconceptualize and retheorize the governance of subterranean resources having as entry points equity and sustainability concerns. This involves understanding what people do when using, sharing, protecting, and measuring groundwater; and why do they do what they do, i.e., what are their motivations to resort to certain practices. This is done through the comparative and contrasting investigation of six case studies from countries from the Global North and Global South. It offers a different perspective of literature given that it explains how groundwater governance and law are in practice rather than what they should be. Additionally, the research presented in this book provides ideas on how to rethink the design and implementation of groundwater law grounded on empirically based descriptions and the understanding of groundwater problems.

This book examines how local cultures affect the interpretation of international human rights law. This book explores the Islamic legal system in its approach to the concept of guardianship and, more specifically, the approach of the Libyan legal system through a study of existing legislation and Libyan High Court (LHC) interpretation as revealed in its decisions. This book aims to show how the cultural background affects the interpretation of international human rights in domestic legal systems. This book makes a worthy contribution to promoting greater understanding of the cultural dimensions in operation in both the formulation and particularly the application of international law in Libya as elsewhere. This is an area of research which is, as a whole, one worthy of further development and examination. The book includes case analysis of important Libyan High Court rulings which have been gathered by the author and officially translated, analysed, and discussed from the three lenses namely; Libyan Law, Islamic Law, and International Law. In turn, this book is the first of its kind and unique in the field of Islamic and International Law. This book also includes detailed analysis of the correspondence between the Libyan High Court and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Further, this book provides solutions and comprehensive and practical recommendations that satisfy both International standards and local Islamic and Libyan culture. This is an ever evolving and a current area of interest internationally, this unique book enriches the field and continues the conversation and provides practical sustainable solutions.

Juristen, Mediziner, Pharmazeuten und versicherungsrechtlich Interessierte finden in diesem Werk ein Kompendium, das die ganze Bandbreite des Medizin- und Haftungsrechts erfasst. Versicherungsrechtliche Problemstellungen und weitere Grundfragen des Privatrechts sind gleichfalls mit einbezogen. Hochkaratige Autoren aus den Bereichen der Jurisprudenz und der Medizin, aus Wissenschaft und Praxis geben Antworten auf zentrale Fragen zu Entwicklungen, zu aktuellen Brennpunkten und zu Perspektiven der genannten Gebiete. Den thematischen Gegenstanden, insbesondere der Medizin und seinen Rechtsfragen entsprechend werden intradisziplinar die uberkommenen Grenzen des Zivil-, Straf- und Offentlichen Rechts uberschritten. Die internationale Ausrichtung des Gesamtwerkes uberwindet die Einengungen des nationalen Rechts. Schliesslich wird die interdisziplinare Dimension von Recht, Haftung und Medizin in das Blickfeld geruckt. Mit ihren Beitragen ehren die Autoren anlasslich seines achtzigsten Geburtstages Erwin Deutsch, den in Deutschland und weit daruber hinaus hochgeschatzten Pionier und Grand Seigneur des Medizin- und Haftungsrechts."

This book gives a special emphasis to state-of-the-art descriptions of approaches, methods, initiatives, and projects from universities, stakeholders, organizations, and civil society across the world, regarding cross-cutting issues in sustainable development. There is a perceived need for mobilizing the various stakeholders when attempting to promote sustainability in higher education and to promote best practices, which may inspire further initiatives. But despite this need, there are a few publications handling this matter in a coherent way. In order to meet the pressing need for publications which may document and disseminate examples of best practice on sustainable development at university level, the "Handbook of Best Practices in Sustainable Development at University Level" is being published. This book is produced by the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR), through the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and contains inputs from authors across all geographical regions. The book also discusses examples of initiatives coordinated by universities but involving civil society, the private sector, and public sector (including local, national, and intergovernmental bodies). In particular, it describes practical experiences, partnerships, networks, and training schemes for building capacity aimed at fostering the cause of sustainable development at institutions of higher education. Thanks to its design and the contributions by experts from various areas, it provides a welcome contribution to the literature on sustainable development, and it may inspire further works in this field.

Because of the overwhelming changes in media within the past twenty years, First Amendment values are more vital than ever to this country's freedom. This thorough study brings to the forefront the reasons that government regulation of news content violates the public interest and the fundamental principles of the First Amendment. A recent FCC decision may even threaten the freedom of news on the Internet.

The U.S. State Department urged at World Press Freedom Day in 2011 that journalists should not be the only ones standing for press freedom. "Each one of us who recognize the value of an informed citizenry must also stand up for this fundamental right."*

*www.misa.org/mediarelease/pressfreedom.html

This book discusses environmental crime and individual wrongdoing. It uses the theory of convenience throughout to examine financial motives, attractive opportunities, and personal willingness to explain deviant behavior. This book focusses primarily on the case study of the Island of Tjome in Norway, an attractive resort where building permits were repeatedly granted to rich people in a protected zone along the shoreline. This book investigates how these crimes were detected and investigated by police over a few years with the help of whistleblowers. It discusses the interplay between the potentially corrupt public officials, professionals like architects and attorneys, and rich individuals, as an interesting and challenging arena for law enforcement. It covers attorneys' defense strategies, evaluates private internal policing, and provides insights for those investigating individuals involved in environmental crime. It also examines the Vest Tank toxic waste dumping case and the resulting explosion where unusually both the chairperson and the chief executive were successfully sentenced to prison because of environmental crime, unlike many other environmental crime cases where individuals avoid prison. The case studies are drawn from Norway to supplement more well-known case studies from the USA.

Occupiers' liability is an area of tort law rich in statutory material and jurisprudence, having developed outside the framework of general negligence liability. It governs the duty of care which an occupier, landlord or builder owes to people who visit or trespass on their land. As the only text offering in depth analysis and commentary on the legislation and case law surrounding occupiers' liability, this book represents a key reference text for all those involved in advising on or researching this area. Each aspect of the law in this area is examined in detail, with the definitions of premises, occupiers, visitors, and trespassers analysed through a substantial body of case law. The types of harm which occupiers may be liable for and the available defences are also given detailed discussion. Further chapters are devoted to the specific provisions and precedents governing the scope of the statutory duty of care, liability of independent contractors, and the liability of occupiers to those who enter premises under contract. The text also covers the statutory regime and case law surrounding liability for defective premises under the Defective Premises Act 1972, which replaced provisions relating to this under the 1957 Occupiers' Liability Act. The book includes the full text of both the 1957 and the 1984 Occupiers' Liability Acts and of the Defective Premises Act 1972.

New Pleading in the Twenty-First Century: Slamming the Federal Courthouse Doors? is the first book to comprehensively analyze, critique, and provide solutions for the new pleading regime in U.S. federal courts. In two recent decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court dramatically altered the pleadings landscape by imposing a version of fact pleading and merits screening--what the author calls "New Pleading"--that has not existed in the U.S. for 70 years.
The result of this abrupt regime change is a broad, significant, and adverse effect on litigant access to civil justice. But because of its nascence, no scholar has provided a comprehensive, doctrinal, theoretical, and prospective look at what it means for U.S. federal civil procedure, both in the United States and in the larger global community. This book takes on that task. It synthesizes a theoretical account of New Pleading, argues that New Pleading is inconsistent with a system of procedural justice, and provides two distinct solutions for rectifying the inconsistency: return to Old Pleading or the adoption of "New Discovery." Finally, this volume situates New Pleading and the solutions the author advocates in a wider international comparative context.

This book provides a set of proposals for the new conceptual network required in order to establish civil law rules for a world permeated by Artificial Intelligence. These proposals are intended by their authors to push the debate on the new civil law forward. In spite of the natural conservatism of jurists, some innovative or even futuristic ideas are called for, also because the future, even this not-so-distant one, is difficult to foresee. Paradoxically, and unlike in the past, this lack of knowledge must not stop us from planning. If it does, humankind may, as some pessimists already claim, lose its chance to win the battle for control of the world. The rise and expansion of Artificial Intelligence and robotics in recent years has highlighted a pressing need to create a suitable legal framework for this new phenomenon. The debate on the subject, although wide-ranging and involving many new legal documents, is still quite general and preliminary in nature, although these preparatory works illustrate the very real need to develop appropriate new civil law arrangements. It is exactly the branch of private law where the necessity of these new rules appears to be the most imperative. Autonomous vehicles, medical robots, and expertise software raise fundamental questions on aspects of civil liability such as culpability; whereas the growth in popularity of automated, intelligent software systems for concluding contracts requires a new approach to many fundamental and deeply rooted elements of contract law, e.g. consciousness, intent, error, deception, interpretation of contracts and good faith. Ruling on these specific matters demands the identification and clarification of certain key points, which shall become the foundation for constructing AI/robot civil law.

Designed for the general reader and students of law, this is a concise history and analysis of the civil law tradition, which is dominant in most of Europe, all of Latin America, and many parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The fourth edition is fully updated to include the latest developments in the field and to correct and update historical details gleaned from newly-published research on Roman and Medieval law. In the past ten years, the legal profession has changed radically, with the growing international ubiquity of large law firms operating across borders (which was previously a uniquely American phenomenon). This new edition updates the book from the post-Soviet era to ongoing current issues, including Brexit and the status of the European Union. It discusses how civil law codes have shifted in some countries to adapt to modern and changing ideologies and also includes brand-new material on legal education, which is of central importance to the legal profession today.

This book records the press release of Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China in 2020. It is divided into three parts chronologically. The first part contains the records of Minister Huang Runqiu's attendance at the press conference of the National People's Congress and the Chinese Political Consultative Conference as well as the "Minister Channel". The second part contains the records of four press conferences on ecological and environmental protection held by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China. The third part contains the records of 12 regular press conferences held by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China.

Author Marshall S. Shapo presents the argument that the body of law Americans have developed concerning responsibility for injuries and prevention of injuries has some of the qualities of a constitution--a fundamental set of principles that govern relations among people and between people and corporate and governmental institutions. This 'injury law constitution' includes tort law, legislative compensation systems like workers compensation, and the many statutes that regulate the safety of risky activities and of products ranging from drugs and medical devices to automobiles and cigarettes. An Injury Law Constitution presents a novel thesis that embraces leading features of the American law of injuries. Professor Shapo's analysis, into which he weaves the history of these varied systems of law, links them to the unique compensation plan devised for the victims of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. Professor Shapo examines how our injury law reflects deeply held views in American society on risk and injury, indicating how the injury law constitution serves as a guide to the question of what it means to be an American. Refusing to accept easy academic formulas, An Injury Law Constitution captures the reality of how people respond to injury risks in functional contexts involving diverse activities and products.

This Open Access book provides detailed information about the incoming Mexican Emissions Trading System, including an analysis on why the system was implemented, how the system was designed, how it operates, how it could work, and how it could be strengthened by 2023 when it will be formally launched. This document is aimed at those who want to understand how an ETS can operate in an emerging economy. Although it has been written for experts and non-experts, this book does not provide the underlying theory of market-based instruments and emissions trading systems in general. The book can be read from start to finish, but can also be used as a reference for specific components of regional ETSs. The book draws upon a meticulous study of background documents and fieldwork from different authors to tell the story of how a Mexican ETS, the first of its kind in Latin America, can be set in the country. The emissions trading system cover many greenhouse gas emissions and has been hailed as one of the cornerstones of the Mexican climate policy. The book also examines and explains how the ETS is designed and implemented.

This book describes how governments formulate policies, draft legislation, and manage stocks of legislation and how approaches to these tasks are converging. That convergence has developed over 30 years through the work by the OECD in its studies on regulatory reform and the work of other international organizations to improve regulatory management. The Institutions of the European Union and its member states, OECD member countries and a growing number of developing and transitional countries have developed a policy best described as 'Better Regulation.' That policy is characterized using regulatory impact assessment, improving public consultation, and reducing administrative burdens. The policy has brought improvements in legislative drafting and managing stocks of legislation. The book concludes with a description of the impact of information technology on governments and how the challenges posed by the Internet, globalization and pandemics are being met by new approaches to regulating to ensure its benefits exceed its costs.

'The rule of law and property rights were the ''secret weapons'' that made Western Europe and its offshoots in North America and Oceania democratic and prosperous. How did this European legal system come to be? To answer this question, Bart Wauters and Marco de Benito offer us a fresh overview of the history of law in Europe, dealing with both civil and common law, from Roman times through to its codification. This book is a stimulating, lucid, and imaginative read.' - Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, University of Pennsylvania, US Comprehensive and accessible, this book offers a concise synthesis of the evolution of the law in Western Europe, from ancient Rome to the beginning of the twentieth century. It situates law in the wider framework of Europe's political, economic, social and cultural developments. Offering a readily graspable and sound structure, chapters are organized according to the civil law systems and common law systems. Each chapter is built around the evolution of the four sources of the law: legal science, legislation, courts and customary law, set chronologically against the relevant historical context. Throughout this in-depth presentation of the key determinants in European legal history, Bart Wauters and Marco de Benito allow readers to understand how the law arose and evolved in Europe as a shared language, of which its different national laws are but dialectal expressions - with the unique exception, perhaps, of English common law, whose peculiarity is likewise due to accidents of history which are themselves explored. With its elegant comparative approach, this book will appeal to European Law students and scholars looking for a concise, yet academically sound, account of the history of law in Europe.

The book focuses on the interactions between international legal regimes related to biodiversity governance. It addresses the systemic challenges by analyzing the legal interactions between international biodiversity law and related international law applicable to economic activities, as well as issues related to the governance of biodiversity based on functional, normative, and geographic dimensions, in order to present a crosscutting, holistic approach. The global COVID-19 pandemic, the imminent revision of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, and the Aichi Targets have created the momentum to focus on the interactions between the Convention on Biological Diversity and other international environmental regimes. Firstly, it discusses the principles that inspire biodiversity-related conventional law, the soft law that conveys targets for enforcement of the Biodiversity Convention, their structural, regulatory and implementation gaps, the systemic relations arising from national interests, and the role of scientific advisory bodies in biodiversity-related agreements. The second part then addresses interactions in specific conventional frameworks, such as the law of multilateral trade and global public health, and the participation of communities in the management of genetic resources. Lastly, the third part illustrates these issues using four case studies focusing on the challenges for sustainability and marine biodiversity in small islands, the Arctic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, as a way to strengthen a horizontal and joint approach. The book is primarily intended for academics, researchers, and students interested in international environmental law and policy and in interactions for creating conditions for fair, sustainable, and resilient environmental development. By offering an analysis of instruments and criteria for systemic relations in those areas, it will also appeal to public and private actors at the domestic and international level.

This book presents oral histories, collective dialogues, and analyses of rural and indigenous livelihoods facing global socio-environmental regime change in Latin America (LA). Since the late twentieth century, rural and indigenous producers in LA, including agriculturists, coffee-growers, as well as small-scale farmers/fishers, and others, have had to resist, cope with, or adapt to a range of neoliberal socio-environmental regimes that impact their territories and associated resources, including water, production systems and ultimately their cultural traditions. In response, rural producers are using local visions and innovation niches to decide what, when, and how to resist, cope with uncertainty, and still be successful in using their customary laws to retain their land rights and livelihoods. This book presents a range of ethnically diverse case studies from LA, which addresses socio-environmental, educational, and law regimes' effects using transdisciplinary research approaches in rural, traditional and indigenous production systems. Based on both, the results and insights gained into how producers are resisting and adapting to these regimes, as well as decades of research carried out in LA rural territories by the participating authors, the book puts forward a baseline for devising new public policies that are better suited to the real challenges of livelihoods, poverty, and environmental degradation in LA. These recommendations are rooted in post-development thinking; they promote territorial public policy with social inclusion and a human's rights approach. The book draws on over 20 years of research carried out by LA's academics and their undergraduate and graduate students who have addressed collaborative work, participatory research, and transdisciplinary approaches with rural commons and communities in LA. It features 19 case studies, with contributions from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, and Mexico.

Access to justice, equality before the law, and the rule of law are three fundamental values underpinning the civil justice system. This book examines these values and how, although they do not have great leverage in decision making by the courts, they are a crucial foundation of the civil justice system and a powerful argument for arrangements such as legal aid, the impartial application of law, and the independence of the judiciary. The second theme of this book concerns the role of procedure, often regarded as of secondary importance compared with substantive law. Taking the definition of procedure at its widest, the book discusses Lord Woolf's Inquiry, and demonstrates how procedural reform can maximize a fundamental value like access to justice. This linkage is furthered in a later analysis of access to justice comparatively, in relation to civil and commercial law. Thirdly, the book looks at understanding how law works, and how it could be made to work better, and concludes that this demands both a knowledge of law and of law's context. This theme offers a framework for the book, which then goes on to deal with the machinery of the law, and discusses what the courts do, civil procedure, and the ethics of lawyer's conduct, all in relation to the broader context of access to justice. This broader context of the law is particularly prominent in the latter half of the book which deals with various dimensions of the impact of the law. Including studies of civil and social rights in practice, the role of European law in the destruction of Aboriginal society in Australia, and commercial law in Asia, these examples raise issues about the gap between the law and reality, the potential law has to destroy social patterns, and the relationship between law and economic development. This is a thought-provoking, critical exploration which has much to offer those interested in the operation of the civil justice system.

This book provides a comprehensive, global exploration of the scale, scope, threats, and drivers of wildlife trafficking from a criminological perspective. Building on the first edition, it takes into account the significant changes in the international context surrounding these issues since 2013. It provides new examples, updated statistics, and discusses the potential changes arising as a result of COVID-19 and the IPBES 2019 report. It also discusses the shift in trafficking 'hotspots' and the recent projects that have challenged responses to wildlife trafficking. It undertakes a distinctive exploration of who the victims and offenders of wildlife trafficking are as well as analysing the stakeholders who are involved in collaborative efforts to end this devastating green crime. It unpacks the security implications of wildlife trade and trafficking and possible responses and ways to combat it. It provides useful and timely information for social and environmental/life scientists, law enforcement, NGOs, and policy makers.