Since the creation of the United Nations in 1945, international law has sought to configure itself as a universal system. Yet, despite the best efforts of international institutions, scholars and others to assert the universal application of international law, its relevance and applicability has been influenced, if not directed, by political power.Today, the "decline of the West" and ascent of China and India poseparticular challenges for international law and institutions. The international system appears to be moving towards multipolarity, with various sites of power competing to exert influence in the world today. With contributors from a variety of countries providing perspectives from the disciplines of international law and international relations theory, International Law in a Multipolar World addresses the implications that multipolarity poses for the international legal system. Contributors including Jean d'Aspremont, Joerg Kammerhofer, Alexander Orakhelashvili, Christian Pippan and Nigel White, explore issues such as the use of force, governance and democracy, regionalism and the relevance of the United Nations in a multipolar world, while considering the overarching theme of the relationship between power and law. International Law in a Multipolar World is of particular interest to academics and students of public international law, international relations theory and international politics.

Good management of water resources - universally identified as a key aspect of poverty reduction, agriculture and food security - has proven, in practice, as difficult to achieve as it is eagerly sought. This book, edited and authored by leading authorities on water resource management, examines the recent changes in governance, institutions, economics and policies of water, covering developing, transitional and developed countries, with special emphasis on southern African case studies. The book examines how water policies, institutions and governance have shifted in recent years from supply-driven, quantitative, centrally controlled management to more demand-sensitive, decentralized, participatory approaches. Such a move often also implies cost recovery principles, resource allocation among competing sectors, and privatization. The case studies demonstrate that the new policies and legal frameworks have been difficult to implement and often fall short of initial expectations. Using an accessible multidisciplinary approach that integrates economics, sociology, geography and policy analysis, the book untangles the issues and presents best practices for policy- and decision-makers, governments and regulators, NGOs and user groups, service providers, and researchers. The overall aim is to show how good water governance structures can be developed and implemented for the benefit of all.

Negotiations on trade facilitation were concluded at the WTO 9th Ministerial Conference in 2013, and the Agreements on Trade Facilitation (TFA), therefore, became the first fully multilateral agreement in WTO history. Since then, trade facilitation has been in the limelight on the stage of the world trading system. During recent years, the TFA has been consistently on the agenda of the summits of G20, G7, and APEC. The Agreement has come into force and shall be implemented on a global scale. As a result, the WTO members shall be prepared to translate the Agreement into their domestic legislation, which will involve a series of reforms in trade laws and policies. There are extensive voices demanding a comprehensive expatiation on trade facilitation and the TFA. It is essential to systematically delve into the genesis of trade facilitation, revisit the course where the TFA came into being, and analyse the well-turned legalese of the TFA. This book meets this demand. This book is path-breaking in these aspects: it expounds on the rationales for trade facilitation and the significance of constituting an international accord on trade facilitation; it restores the one-century track of the international community's talks on trade facilitation, from the times of the League of Nations to the WTO era; it reveals how the WTO negotiating mechanisms enabled the TFA to be nailed down, which would be enlightening for trade diplomats engaged in other WTO negotiations; and it provides an in-depth commentary on the TFA articles, which will help stakeholders more accurately understand and implement the Agreement. This book will be especially valuable for government officials and policy-makers, trade practitioners, lawyers, advisers, and scholars interested in international economic law, WTO law, international trade, international relations, and international development studies.

Acid rain was one of the major environmental issues of the 1980s. But while industrialized countries have taken measures to reduce the emissions that lead to acidification, the problems have not gone away. Trees are still dying, lakes are still being made uninhabitable; buildings are still corroding; and human health is still suffering. The most worrying trend is the repetition in the industrializing countries of Asia and Latin America of the problems that have long afflicted Europe and North America. More than 10 years after it was first published, the highly acclaimed Acid Earth still provides the only global view of acidification, and remains the standard text on the subject. Chapters on the causes, effects and growing scientific understanding of acid pollution, and the possible solutions, are followed by detailed studies of the political struggles involved in responding to acid damage in western and eastern Europe, the US and the newly industrializing countries. Written in non-technical language for people interested in the problems of the environment, Acid Earth calls for a renewed sense of public and political will to bring the problems of acid pollution under control. The book also makes valuable reading for specialists and students. Originally published in 1992

International Organizations and the Idea of Autonomy is an exploratory text looking at the idea of intergovernmental organizations as autonomous international actors. In the context of concerns over the accountability of powerful international actors exercising increasing levels of legal and political authority, in areas as diverse as education, health, financial markets and international security, the book comes at a crucial time. Including contributions from leading scholars in the fields of international law, politics and governance, it addresses themes of institutional autonomy in international law and governance from a range of theoretical and subject-specific contexts. The collection looks internally at aspects of the institutional law of international organizations and the workings of specific regimes and institutions, as well as externally at the proliferation of autonomous organizations in the international legal order as a whole. Although primarily a legal text, the book takes a broad, thematic and inter-disciplinary approach. In this respect, International Organizations and the Idea of Autonomy offers an excellent resource for both practitioners and students undertaking courses of advanced study in international law, the law of international organizations, global governance, as well as aspects of international relations and organization.

What does it mean to be resilient in a societal or in an international context? Where does resilience come from? From which discipline was it 'imported' into international relations (IR)? If a particular government employs the meaning of resilience to its own benefit, should scholars reject the analytical purchase of the concept of resilience as a whole? Does a government have the monopoly of understanding how resilience is defined and applied? This book addresses these questions. Even though resilience in global politics is not new, a major shift is currently happening in how we understand and apply resilience in world politics. Resilience is indeed increasingly theorised, rather than simply employed as a noun; it has left the realm of vocabulary and entered the terrain of concept. This book demonstrates the multiple origins of resilience, traces the diverse expressions of resilience in IR to various historical markers, and propose a theory of resilience in world politics.

Despite recent attempts by scholars to examine the absolute prohibition of threats of force under Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, threats remain a largely un-chartered area in international law when compared with actual uses of force. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and utilising strategic literature and international relations theory, this book examines the theoretical nature behind a threat of force, which, helps to inform and explain why and how the normative structure operates in the way that it does. In addition to considering the normative rules regarding threats of force, this book focuses heavily on understanding the theory of threats of force or "threat theory." Drawing on strategic studies for an insight into practical workings of international law, the heart of the book examines whether international law, or indeed the international community, should distinguish between a threat of force which is little more than mere "sabre rattling" and one that is serious enough to send a state to DEFCON 1. Finally, the book considers the point at which a state pursuing nuclear capabilities may breach Article 2(4) with particular reference to both North Korean and Iranian efforts to pursue nuclear technology.

This topical book will be of great interest not only to scholars and postgraduates in international law but also to academics and students in the fields of political science, international relations and strategic studies.

Nepal is associated, in most people's imagination, with Everest (Sagarmatha to the Nepalese), vivid plants and picturesque villages and people. The truth, as always, is other. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, surrounded by big and powerful neighbours. It is immensely diverse, ranging from the great mountains to the north through the trans-Himalaya, a high barren plateau, through the deep valleys, which include the one which contains the ancient cities of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, to the Terai which is an extension of Ganges plain. This atlas describes not only the complexity of the environment, but the people, the languages, the towns and industries, the agriculture, food and land management, the natural resources, the effects of tourism, sources of energy, transport and education policies. Originally published in 1991

In fields such as politics, international relations, public administration and international law, there is a rapidly growing interest in the topic of 'accountability'. In this innovative new work, Steele shows how we might recognize how an alternative form of accountability in global politics has been present for some time, and that, furthermore, this form's continued presence remains one of the most politically powerful, if not endurable, possibilities for resistance in the near future. This book argues that the physical and visually shocking outcomes of violence found on the bodies of humans, as well as the buildings and landscapes which surround us, specifically the scars they leave behind, remain one of our most compelling forms of accountability. Steele develops the theoretical argument on scars and exteriority utilizing insights from several philosophical and theoretical resources including Hannah Arendt, Erving Goffmann, and Richard Rorty. The work examines scars and their effects through several illustrations, including the accounts of Emmett Till, Iranian protestor Neda Agha-Soltan, the Syrian boy Hamza al-Khateeb, the massacre in WWII and then memorializing throughout the 20th century of the Lidice children in the modern-day Czech Republic, the particular architecturally destructive outcomes of the 2008-9 Gaza War, the loss of the Twin Towers in New York, as well as a variety of violent scars found on the landscapes of Europe and Southeast Asia. Emphasizing the importance of the space and 'time' of scars, the book illustrates how an alternative form of accountability in the scar can be a useful, disruptive, spontaneous, but also creative practice to challenge the discourses of violence which remain with us today.

Ecological Economics from the Ground Up takes a unique and much-needed bottom-up approach to teaching ecological economics and political ecology, using case studies that focus on a wide range of internationally relevant topics, to teach the principles, concepts, methods and tools of these fields, which are seen as increasingly important in the context of the current triple social, economic and environmental crisis. This book provides learning materials which are grounded in the experience of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), with case studies chosen by CSOs and developed collaboratively with leading ecological economists. The case studies come from Europe, India, Latin America, and Africa, and are presented thematically along three lines: 1) social metabolism and accounting methods, 2) institutions and participation, and 3) valuation and environmental policy tools. Core tools, concepts and glossary terms are embedded in topics chosen as a matter of urgency by activist organizations, related to mining and fossil fuel extraction, integrated transport infrastructure development, deforestation and agro-fuel production, sustainable tourism, waste management, wetlands and water management, payments for ecosystem services, natural disasters and hazards, and corporate accountability. Ecological Economics from the Ground Up has been designed to be an accessible learning aid for students of the sustainability sciences and for those CSOs that have recognised the value that ecological economics and political ecology tools and methods hold for their research and advocacy work.

Ecological Economics from the Ground Up takes a unique and much-needed bottom-up approach to teaching ecological economics and political ecology, using case studies that focus on a wide range of internationally relevant topics, to teach the principles, concepts, methods and tools of these fields, which are seen as increasingly important in the context of the current triple social, economic and environmental crisis. This book provides learning materials which are grounded in the experience of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), with case studies chosen by CSOs and developed collaboratively with leading ecological economists. The case studies come from Europe, India, Latin America, and Africa, and are presented thematically along three lines: 1) social metabolism and accounting methods, 2) institutions and participation, and 3) valuation and environmental policy tools. Core tools, concepts and glossary terms are embedded in topics chosen as a matter of urgency by activist organizations, related to mining and fossil fuel extraction, integrated transport infrastructure development, deforestation and agro-fuel production, sustainable tourism, waste management, wetlands and water management, payments for ecosystem services, natural disasters and hazards, and corporate accountability. Ecological Economics from the Ground Up has been designed to be an accessible learning aid for students of the sustainability sciences and for those CSOs that have recognised the value that ecological economics and political ecology tools and methods hold for their research and advocacy work.

The security governance of South Africa has faced immense challenges amid post-apartheid constitutional and political transformations. In many cases, policing and governmental organizations have failed to provide security and other services to the poorest inhabitants. Security Governance, Policing, and Local Capacity explores an experiment that took place in Zwelethemba-located in South Africa's Western Cape Province-to establish legitimate and effective nonstate security governance within poor urban settlements. There has been, and continues to be, much reticence to endorsing private forms of security governance that operate outside of state institutions within local communities. Those initiatives have often led to situations where force is used illegally and punishment is dispensed arbitrarily and brutally. This book explores the extent to which this model of mobilizing local knowledge and capacity was able to effectively achieve justice, democracy, accountability, and development in this region. Whenever possible, the book includes raw data and a thorough analysis of existing information on security governance. Examining this case and its outcome, the authors provide a theoretical analysis of the model used and present a series of design principles for future applications in local security governance. The book concludes that poor communities are a significant source of untapped resources that can, under certain conditions, be mobilized to significantly enhance safety. This volume is an important examination of experimental models and a presentation of new groundbreaking theory on engaging the local community in solving security governance problems.

Re-engaging with the Pure Theory of Law developed by Hans Kelsen and the other members of the Viennese School of Jurisprudence, this book looks at the causes and manifestations of uncertainty in international law. It considers both epistemological uncertainty as to whether we can accurately perceive norms in international law, and ontological problems which occur inter alia where two or more norms conflict. The book looks at these issues of uncertainty in relation to the foundational doctrines of public international law, including the law of self-defence under the United Nations Charter, customary international law, and the interpretation of treaties. In viewing international law through the lens of Kelsen's theory Joerg Kammerhofer demonstrates the importance of the theoretical dimension for the study of international law and offers a critique of the recent trend towards pragmatism and eclecticism in international legal scholarship. The unique aspect of the monograph is that it is the only book to apply the Pure Theory of Law as theoretical approach to international law, rather than simply being a piece of intellectual history describing it. This book will of great interest to students and scholars of public international law, legal theory and jurisprudence.

'This innovative collection of essays offers a uniquely comprehensive exploration of the way in which the EU engages with other international organizations and bodies. While both EU law and international law perspectives are examined, this book goes beyond mere legal analysis to address political and practical issues the EU encounters on the internal and the external fronts. It forms a major contribution to the literature on the relationship between the EU legal order and public international law and on the EU's role in international relations more generally.' - Geert De Baere, General Court of the EU and KU Leuven, Belgium 'As the European Union assumes an ever more prominent role as a global actor, there is a growing need to understand the ways and means of the EU's engagement with other international institutions. This volume, with contributions from renowned experts and scholars, is the first comprehensive study to address the various relationships in that category. It is the essential companion for practitioners and scholars in the fields of European law and international organization.' - Catherine Broelmann, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands 'This is a commendable and timely Research Handbook, published in an era in which forces of nationalism and populism question the benefits of globalization and existing mechanisms of global governance. In this rich collection of studies, Wessel and Odermatt bring together some 50 experts from academia and practice, to analyze the multifarious interrelationships between the EU and other international institutions (from the UN to the G20, from the WTO to Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, from NATO to the Council of Europe).' - Niels Blokker, Leiden University, the Netherlands The European Union has established relationships with other international organizations and institutions, mainly as a result of its increasingly active role as a global actor and the transfer of competences from the Member States to the EU. Containing chapters by leading scholars, this Research Handbook presents a comprehensive and critical assessment of these relationships, examining both the EU's representation and cooperation as well as the influence of these external bodies on the development of EU law and policy. Insightful and analytical, the Research Handbook explores the interaction of the EU with both formal and informal international institutions as it seeks to become more visible and active within these. The many challenges associated with the limits set by the EU and by international law and politics in relation to EU participation and the 'state-centred' international legal system are assessed. This unique Research Handbook will be a key resource for scholars and students of international and European law and political science, providing a unique overview of the less well-known international organizations in addition to the large institutions. The examination of the development of law and policy will also be of interest to the practitioners of these organizations and those at national ministries. Contributors include: F. Amtenbrink, A. Andrione-Moylan, J. Beqiraj, S. Blockmans, F. Bontekoe, G. Butler, M. Cantero Gamito, E. Castellarin, A.-L. Chane, C. Cinelli, S. Coban, L. de Almeida, R. Delarue, S. Donnelly, T. Emmerling, E. Fahey, J.-P. Gauci, P. Heckler, J. Jacobsson, K.E. Jorgensen, R. Kamphof, A. Khalfaoui, M. Killander, J. Klabbers, K. Laatikainen, E. Lannon, R. Lawson, L. Lourenco, C. Matera, H.-W. Micklitz, J. Odermatt, E. Paasivirta, E. Pichot, T. Peri in, T. Ramopoulos, R. Repasi, J. Selleslaghs, A. Soedersten, H. Suzen, B. van der Meulen, P. Van Elsuwege, M. Vaugeois, F. Vlastou-Dimopoulou, M. Wallot, B. Wernaart, R.A. Wessel, J. Wouters, C.-H. Wu, F. Yilmaz

This book proposes a novel theory of self-determination; the Rule of the Great Powers. This book argues that traditional legal norms on self-determination have failed to explain and account for recent results of secessionist self-determination struggles. While secessionist groups like the East Timorese, the Kosovar Albanians and the South Sudanese have been successful in their quests for independent statehood, other similarly situated groups have been relegated to an at times violent existence within their mother states. Thus, Chechens still live without significant autonomy within Russia, and the South Ossetians and the Abkhaz have seen their conflicts frozen because of the peculiar geo-political equilibrium of power within the Caucuses region. The Rule of the Great Powers, which asserts that only those self-determination seeking entities which enjoy the support of the majority of the most powerful states (the Great Powers) will ultimately have their rights to self-determination fulfilled. The Great Powers, potent military, economic and political powerhouses such as the United States, China, Russia, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy, often dictate self-determination outcomes through their influence in global affairs. Issues of self-determination in the modern world can no longer be effectively resolved through the application of traditional legal rules; rather, resort must be had to novel theories, such as the Rule of the Great Powers. This book will be of particular interest to academics and students of law, political science and international relations.

The concept of human security is a new approach to security that focuses on the individual human being and provides policy alternatives to the traditional state-centred view, which considers the state to be the only and ultimate referent of security. Formally introduced into the United Nations system in 1994 the concept's intellectual roots draw from international humanitarian law, human rights and human development, and since its introduction human security has been progressively integrated into the international security discourse. Mainstreaming Human Security: Policies, Problems, Potential paints a comprehensive picture of the relevance of the concept of human security in practice in a time of changing security paradigms and a challenging international environment. This volume looks at the practical implications of mainstreaming human security. It focuses on the potential, problems and policies of human security in peace operations and crisis management operations of the United Nations and of the European Union. Topics addressed by the contributors include mainstreaming human rights and human security in peace and crisis management in general and the role of human security in the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy, security sector reform, restorative responses to human rights violations by peacemakers, human security in Serbia and in African peace operations as well as proposals for human security training. The contributions to the book focus equally on mainstreaming human security in the UN and in the EU context. The global issues discussed and conclusions drawn are of relevance for the future of security addressed by peace and crisis management operations all over the world.

International law shapes nearly every aspect of our lives. It affects the food we eat, the products we buy, the rights we hold, and the wars we fight. Yet international law is often believed to be the exclusive domain of well-heeled professionals with years of legal training. This text uses clear, accessible writing and contemporary political examples to explain where international law comes from, how actors decide whether to follow international law, and how international law is upheld using legal and political tools. Suitable for undergraduate and graduate students, this book is accessible to a wide audience and is written for anyone who wants to understand how global rules shape and transform international politics. Each chapter is framed by a case study that examines a current political issue, such as the bombing of Yemen or the use of chemical weapons in Syria, encouraging students to draw connections between theoretical concepts and real-world situations. The chapters are modular and self-contained, and each is paired with multiple Supplemental Cases: edited and annotated judicial opinions. Accompanied by ready-to-use PowerPoint slides and a testbank for instructors.

This book provides a key reference on the role of the Commonwealth and its member states in relation to international humanitarian law (IHL). It provides insights in the implementation of IHL in Commonwealth states and, particularly, the challenges faced by small states. It examines the progressive development of IHL in the Commonwealth and provides an analysis of some of the landmark decisions emerging from the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The book was developed collaboratively between the Commonwealth Secretariat and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. In this regard, it contains insights in the work of the Secretariat with regard to implementation of IHL and an assessment of legislation enacted by Commonwealth states as well as an accession chart to IHL instruments. It expounds on the work of the Movement, including the role of National Societies, the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, and the development of international disaster response law, rules and regulation. This book was based on a special issue of Commonwealth Law Bulletin.

This book considers the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees contribution to international refugee law since the establishment of UNHCR by the United Nations General Assembly in 1951. The book explores the historical and statutory foundations that create an indelible link between UNHCR and international refugee law. This book charts the significant evolution that has occurred in the organisation s role throughout the last sixty years, looking at both the formal means by which UNHCR s mandate may be modified, and the techniques UNHCR has used to facilitate the changes in its role, thereby revealing a significant evolution in the organisation s role since the onset of the crisis in refugee protection in the 1980 s. UNHCR, itself, has demonstrated its organizational autonomy as the primary agent for the adaptation of its responsibilities and work related to international refugee law. The author does suggest however that UNHCR needs to continue to extend and strengthen its role related to international refugee law if UNHCR is to ensure a stronger legal framework for the protection of refugees as well as a fuller respect for refugees rights in practice.

UNHCR and International Refugee Law should be of particular interest to refugee lawyers as well as academics and students of refugee law and international law, and anyone concerned with the important role that UNHCR plays in the protection of refugees today.

The Sentimental Life of International Law is about our age-old longing for a decent international society and the ways of seeing, being, and speaking that might help us achieve that aim. This book asks how international lawyers might engage in a professional practice that has become, to adapt a title of Janet Malcolm's, both difficult and impossible. It suggests that international lawyers are disabled by the governing idioms of international lawyering, and proposes that they may be re-enabled by speaking different sorts of international law, or by speaking international law in different sorts of ways. In this methodologically diverse and unusually personal account, Gerry Simpson brings to the surface international law's hidden literary prose and offers a critical and redemptive account of the field. He does so in a series of chapters on international law's bathetic underpinnings, its friendly relations, the neurotic foundations of its underlying social order, its screened-off comic dispositions, its anti-method, and the life-worlds of its practitioners. Finally, the book closes with a chapter in which international law is re-envisioned through the practice of gardening. All of this is put forward as a contribution to the project of making international law, again, a compelling language for our times.

International Relations and International Law have developed in parallel but distinctly throughout the 20th Century. However in recent years there has been a recognition that their shared concerns in areas as diverse as the environment, transnational crime and terrorism, human rights and conflict resolution outweigh their disciplinary and methodological divergences. Law scholars have perhaps discovered the importance of understanding the behavior of actions in the international legal system and international relations scholars have re-discovered that objectives, including normative objectives, might influence choices and condition behavior. This new interest coincides with a general broadening of cross-disciplinary interests into history, sociology, philosophy, psychology, and economics for law and similar developments in international relations. The distinctive rationale for inquiry remains for both fields of study, but the need to move beyond description only in the case of law or analysis only in the case of politics has also fueled a need for new methodologies to understand the changing phenomenon of international life today. This book focuses on collaborative work within the disciplines of international law and international relations, to note sample efforts to collaborate, and to assess the cultivation of an interdisciplinary outlook.

From Space debris to asteroid strikes to anti-satellite weapons, humanity's rapid expansion into Space raises major environmental, safety, and security challenges. In this book, Michael Byers and Aaron Boley, an international lawyer and an astrophysicist, identify and interrogate these challenges and propose actionable solutions. They explore essential questions from, 'How do we ensure all of humanity benefits from the development of Space, and not just the world's richest people?' to 'Is it possible to avoid war in Space?' Byers and Boley explain the essential aspects of Space science, international law, and global governance in a fully transdisciplinary and highly accessible way. Addressing the latest and emerging developments in Space, they equip readers with the knowledge and tools to engage in current and critically important legal, policy, and scientific debates concerning the future development of Space. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Epistemic Forces in International Law presents a comprehensive examination of the methodological choices made by international lawyers and provides a discerning insight into the ways in which lawyers shape their arguments to secure validation within the international legal community.International law is defined in this book as an argumentative practice, articulated around a set of foundational doctrines and deployed through rhetorical techniques. Taking an original approach, Jean d'Aspremont focuses on five key foundational doctrines of international legal theory and five key techniques deployed in international legal argumentation. He argues that mastering these foundational principles and argumentative procedures shapes the discourse of international lawyers as much as these discourses shape these foundational doctrines and techniques of legal argumentation. This book is a pertinent contribution to the methodology and theory of international law, illustrating the rationale of the choices made by lawyers in the doctrines of statehood, sources, law-making, international organisations and effectivity. This accessible reflection on the conceptual, theoretical and methodological perspectives of international law will be a salient point of reference for legal academics, researchers and practitioners alike.

Sustainable development is now widely accepted as a political objective in the UK and elsewhere but to what extent has the UK's rhetoric on sustainable development become a reality? The aim of this book is to critically examine the UK's approach to promoting and delivering sustainable development. It begins by providing a detailed account of UK law on sustainable development by reviewing the various policy, institutional and legal mechanisms used by the UK since the 1980s and by devolved administrations since devolution took effect in 1999. Progress has been slow, too slow and, according to the scientists, time is running out. To deal with this lack of progress, the book advocates increasing the status of ecological sustainability and sustainable development through the introduction of a wide range of legal mechanisms which would compel the change needed. The book calls for ecological sustainability, or respecting the Earth's environmental limits, to be afforded the status of legal principle and argues that with ecological sustainability at its normative core, sustainable development could provide an effective framework for decision making and governance. It argues that to support this approach and ensure consistency, the time has come for sustainable development to receive explicit legal backing. Over and above its symbolic and educational value, legislation can impose mandatory rules on policymakers and decision makers, often with meaningful consequences both inside and outside the courtroom. To this end, the book contributes to the theory on sustainable development governance by suggesting three possible legislative approaches for such intervention. The volume concludes that while a lack of leadership on sustainable development may hinder the introduction of these innovations, once introduced, these innovations would equally provide much needed support for effective leadership towards a sustainable future. Andrea Ross is a Reader in the School of Law at the University of Dundee and has taught and researched in the areas of public and environmental law for over 18 years. Before becoming an academic she qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor in Ontario, Canada. An Earthscan from Routledge book.

A wide range of crop genetic resources is vital for future food security. Loss of agricultural biodiversity increases the risk of relying on a limited number of staple food crops. However, many laws, such as seed laws, plant varieties protection and access and benefit-sharing laws, have direct impacts on agrobiodiversity, and their effects have been severely underestimated by policy makers. This is of concern not only to lawyers, but also to agronomists, biologists and social scientists, who need clear guidance as to the relevance of the law to their work.

Agrobiodiversity and the Law analyzes the impact of the legal system on agrobiodiversity (or agricultural biodiversity) the diversity of agricultural species, varieties and ecosystems. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it takes up the emerging concept of agrobiodiversity and its relationship with food security, nutrition, health, environmental sustainability and climate change. It assesses the impacts on agrobiodiversity of key legal instruments, including Seeds Laws, International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, Plant Breeders' Rights, Convention on Biological Diversity (regarding specifically its impact on agrobiodiversity), and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. It also reviews the options for the implementation of these instruments at the national level in several countries. It discusses the interfaces between the free software movement, the 'commons' movement and seeds, as well as the legal instruments to protect cultural heritage and their application to safeguard agrobiodiversity-rich systems. Finally, it analyzes the role of protected areas and the possibility of using geographical indications to enhance the value of agrobiodiversity products and processes.