Despite the potential benefits that PSSA designation can deliver, recent practice both within the IMO and by individual member States, has considerably undermined confidence in this emerging concept. The focus of this book is on the events within the IMO that have led to this lack of confidence arising. In doing so, this book presents an examination of coastal State practice with the PSSA concept.

In undertaking this analysis, the research provides evidence of the value of the PSSA concept, but also demonstrates its limitations. In this regard, the book presents a reality check which seeks to rationalise some of the heightened expectations with the concept that are apparent in the current debate. The research argues that States may seek to designate PSSAs more for their iconic status than for any demonstrable environmental benefits that may be realised."

Providing an overview of the various legal responses to conflicts involving the use of water resources, this text analyzes the continuous development of water law in the face of new threats of water shortages. The book is a result of the conference "Scarcity of Water, International, European and National Legal Aspects" held at the faculty of Law of the Erasmus University, Rotterdam in October 1995. It contains a selection papers presented at the conference and several additional contributions on the issues of water law and policy.

At present there is no clear model under international law with which to determine compensation for environmental damage. After showing that no existing standard of compensation defined by the theory and practice of international law is adequate to cover all cases involving environmental damages - and that such a broad standard or set of standards may in fact be ultimately unachievable - the author of this important book develops a 'fair compensation' regime from an analysis of existing international dispute adjudication mechanisms, and presents this model as the best possible current approach to the conciliation of international responsibility and environmental interests. At the centre of the issue of compensation for environmental damage lie acute legal conflicts among concepts of property, natural resources, ecosystems, and the public good. This study examines the applicability to environmental damage of each of these factors, relating them to such salient elements of environmental law cases as the following: * the problematic causality link between pollutant activity and environmental damage; * setting a minimum threshold of pollution that should be considered tolerable; * how much a polluter should pay to compensate for damages caused; * liability mechanisms under various national laws; * the public trust doctrine; * the rights of indigenous people; * economic valuation of the environment; * insurance in relation to environmental risks; * the principle of prevention; and * the precautionary principle. An in-depth analysis of relevant international jurisprudence, liability treaties, and reports and resolutions of international organizations reveals the scope of compensation standards in international law. The analysis proceeds from quantitative research on these standards to qualitative research that identifies and separates the main elements of fair compensation that exist in international law. This leads to a highly cogent proposal that moulds the notion of fair compensation to the environmental field. This book leaves no doubt that environmental damage leads to an entitlement under international law, although the extension of such entitlement, and particularly the amount of compensation, remains to be determined case by case. This study succeeds in identifying elements of analysis for the establishment of a more adequate compensation system for environmental damages - a system that privileges the intrinsic value of the environment, and also takes into account factors that encourage prevention and discourage abusive or arbitrary awards in relation to environmental damages. As such, it will be of incomparable value and significance to lawyers and academics working on the development of standards in international environmental law.

Based on a major project executed by the European Commission, "Investors' Environmental Guidelines" should be useful to all those associated with the process of investment in central and eastern Europe. The "Guidelines" have been designed for rapid use by the investor who knows very little about the environment, as well as the environmental specialist. The "Guidelines", in particular the sections covering liability and regulatory compliance, should also be of particular interest to lawyers while the coverage of environmental legislation should be of wider interest to policy makers, consultants, NGOs and others, both from within the region and from western countries. In particular, they will allow comparisons of investor-related environmental requirements between countries in the region.

This book addresses the forms of legal protection extended to people displaced due to the consequences of climate change, and who have either become refugees by crossing international borders or are climatically displaced persons (CDPs) in their own homelands. It explores the legal response of the South Asian Jurisdictions to these refugee-like situations, and also to what extent these people are protected under current international law. The book critically examines and assesses whether States have obligations to protect people displaced by climate change under international refugee law (IRL) and international climate change law (ICCL). It discusses the issue of climate migration in South Asia, analyzes the legal and judicial response initiated by South Asian nations, and also investigates the role of SAARC in relation to climate change and climate refugees. Drawing on the International Legal Standards and States' Practices in South Asia regarding climate refugees, the book shows how IRL, ICCL, and IHRL (international human rights law) have been used to address and identify the gaps in the global legal protection framework concerning the contours of the normative debate on climate refugees, climate change displacement, migration, forced migration, susceptibility to climate change, typology of climate change-induced displacement, role of the SAARC and its municipal legal systems, approaches to climate change, human mobility and developing a hybrid regional law, or advocating a legal alternative of equal measure in a region characterized by diversity and multiculturalism. The book offers valuable takeaways for students, researchers, consultants, practitioners and policymakers alike.

This is the first book to outline a basic philosophy of ecology using the standard categories of academic philosophy: metaphysics, axiology, epistemology, aesthetics, ethics, and political philosophy. The problems of global justice invariably involve ecological factors. Yet the science of ecology is itself imbued with philosophical questions. Therefore, studies in ecological justice, the sub-discipline of global justice that relates to the interaction of human and natural systems, should be preceded by the study of the philosophy of ecology. This book enables the reader to access a philosophy of ecology and shows how this philosophy is inherently normative and provides tools for securing ecological justice. The moral philosophy of ecology directly addresses the root cause of ecological and environmental injustice: the violation of fundamental human rights caused by the inequitable distribution of the benefits (economies) and costs (diseconomies) of industrialism. Philosophy of ecology thus has implications for human rights, pollution, poverty, unequal access to resources, sustainability, consumerism, land use, biodiversity, industrialization, energy policy, and other issues of social and global justice. This book offers an historical and interdisciplinary exegesis. The analysis is situated in the context of the Western intellectual tradition, and includes great thinkers in the history of ecological thinking in the West from the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. Keller asks the big questions and surveys answers with remarkable detail. Here is an insightful analysis of contemporary, classical, and ancient thought, alike in the ecological sciences, the humanities, and economics, the roots and fruits of our concepts of nature and of being in the world. Keller is unexcelled in bridging the is/ought gap, bridging nature and culture, and in celebrating the richness of life, its pattern, process, and creativity on our wonderland Earth. Holmes Rolston, III University Distinguished Professor, Colorado State University Author of A New Environmental Ethics: The Next Millennium for Life on Earth (2012) Mentored by renowned ecologist Frank Golley and renowned philosopher Frederick Ferre, David Keller is well prepared to provide a deep history and a sweeping synthesis of the "idea of ecology"-including the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical aspects of that idea, as well as the scientific. J. Baird Callicott University Distinguished Research Professor, University of North Texas Author of Thinking Like a Planet: The Land Ethic and the Earth Ethic (2013)

Traditional means of international dispute settlement have proved to be largely ineffective in ensuring the effectiveness of international environmental law. Thus, states are increasingly creating regime-specific systems to control, facilitate and assist the implementation of and compliance with each multilateral environmental agreement. By bringing together the perspectives of scholars, negotiators and practitioners, this book provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the most advanced of these systems, the so-called "non-compliance mechanisms", in which a specialized treaty body is entrusted with the task of examining cases of non-compliance by State parties. Included are descriptions of each mechanism and an analysis of cross-cutting issues. It also explains how these systems relate to relevant concepts and mechanisms of general international law and, for the first time, of European Union law. The book is a valuable source of information and recommended reading for academics, practitioners, civil servants, NGOs and all those interested in public international law, EC law and environmental law. Tullio Treves is a Judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and Professor of International Law at the University of Milan; Laura Pineschi is Professor of International Law at the University of Parma; Attila Tanzi is Professor of International Law at the University of Bologna and Chairperson of the Compliance Committee of the Protocol on Water and Health; Cesare Pitea is Aggregate Professor of International and European Law at the University of Parma; Chiara Ragni is a Senior Researcher in International Law at the University of Milan; and Francesca Romanin Jacur is a Post-doc Researcher in International Law at the University of Milan and Legal Adviser to the Italian Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea in a project of the University of Siena.

This book investigates the potential need for an international convention on forests and establishes a multifunctional concept of forests as a cornerstone for international forest regulation. Accordingly, it examines a variety of international instruments pertaining directly or indirectly to forests and explores their entangled, fragmented nature. While contending that the lack of consistency in international law impedes the development of a stand-alone international forest convention, at the same time it argues that the lessons learned from fragmentation as well as from the history of forest discourse on the international level open up new options for the regulation of forests in international law, based on (new) concepts of coordination and cooperation.

Environmental taxes, relatively new legal instruments in the late-1990s, are likely to constitute an essential part of countries' efforts to avoid environmental degradation. This work analyzes inconsistencies in various categories of environmental taxes and the non-discrimination provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 and how such conflicts can be resolved within the existing rules. As non-discrimination obligations are fundamental rules in the multilateral trading system, such potential conflicts carry great importance, both for the regime for the liberalization of international trade and for environmental protection measures. The author provides a detailed analysis of the role and nature of environmental taxes. The book assesses the extent to which the relevant provisions of GATT 1994 may impede the use of these taxes, in light of the non-discrimination provisions, the general exceptions, and the rules concerning nullification or impairment of benefits. The work also examines the possibilities of eliminating potential conflicts between environmental measures in general and the provisions of GATT 1994. The book offers an understanding of the complexities of and working with this aspect of international environmental law.

The book addresses the question of whether the currently available instruments of international environmental and international humanitarian law are applicable to climate conflicts. It clarifies the different pathways leading from climate change to conflict and offers an analysis of international environmental law embedded within the international doctrine of state responsibility. It goes on to discuss whether climate change amounts to an issue covered by Art. 2.4 UN Charter - the prohibition of the use of force. It then considers the possible application of international humanitarian law to climate conflicts. The book also offers a definition of the term "climate conflict", drawing on legal as well as peace and conflict studies.

This book analyzes the tension between the host state's commitment to provide regulatory stability for foreign investors - which is a tool for attracting FDI and generating economic growth - and its evolving non-economic commitments towards its citizens with regard to environmental protection and social welfare. The main thesis is that the 'stabilization clause/regulatory power antinomy,' as it appears in many cases, contradicts the content and rationale of sustainable development, a concept that is increasingly prevalent in national and international law and which aims at the integration and balancing of economic, environmental, and social development. To reconcile this antinomy at the decision-making and dispute settlement levels, the book employs a 'constructive sustainable development approach,' which is based on the integration and reconciliation imperatives of the concept of sustainable development as well as on the application of principles of law such as non-discrimination, public purpose, due process, proportionality, and more generally, good governance and rule of law. It subsequently re-conceptualizes stabilization clauses in terms of their design (ex-ante) and interpretation (ex-post), yielding stability to the benefit of foreign investors, while also mitigating their negative effects on the host state's power to regulate.

This volume examines legal matters regarding the prevention and fighting of historical pollution caused by industrial emissions. "Historical pollution" refers to the long-term or delayed onset effects of environmental crimes such as groundwater or soil pollution. Historical Pollution presents and compares national legal approaches, including the most interesting and effective mechanisms for managing environmental problems in relation with historical pollution. It features interdisciplinary and international comparisons of traditional and alternative justice mechanisms. This book will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice and related areas, such as politics, law, and economics, those in the public and private sectors dealing with environmental protection, including international institutions, corporations, specialized national agencies, those involved in the criminal justice system, and policymakers.

This book features a series of essays on environmental law and policy in Africa from experts within and outside the region. It primarily aims to demonstrate how African countries are responding to their international environmental obligations contained in instruments, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Desertification Convention, in light of local environmental problems. The book covers national experiences ranging from the input in multilateral negotiations to national implementation, with some attention given to the wide assortment of policy and regulatory instruments used to achieve the optimum balance between exploitation of natural resources and conserving the continent's environment.

This book is a welcome contribution to the scholarship on the implementation of international environmental law and policy at the regional level. Increasing attempts by African countries to meet their international commitments while achieving national economic development objectives helps inform the student, project manager, parliamentarian or national regulator, about practical and empirical ways to achieve sustainable development outcomes. As African economies develop, there should be parallel enactments of new environmental laws and regulations. Further study of these processes is needed in order to determine where capacity deficits exist and where positive lessons can be learned. This book supplements the development of new and exciting research on African environmental law and policy.

This book highlights the importance of Turkey in diversifying supplies in future European energy security, focusing in particular on the rapidly emerging southern energy corridor. Turkey, by its location, occupies a key role in this corridor, fed by hydrocarbon supplies from Russian, Caspian, east Mediterranean and Arab sources. The book examines Turkey's role as a transit country (in addition to its own growing domestic energy market) and it utilizes the latest evidence on the geopolitics of various pipelines which convergence on Turkey. The evidence, including maps, strongly favor Turkey as an energy hub within a regional energy model driven by rational behavior and market forces. The book recommends an increasing strategic energy cooperation between the EU and Turkey to maximize mutual interest.

This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to the question of what role international law plays in promoting a resolution of Central and East European transboundary environmental disputes. The author examines a wide variety of environmental disputes in Central and Eastern Europe, with particular emphasis on the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project dispute between Slovakia and Hungary, and melds international legal theory and international relations theory to develop an analytic framework for understanding the role of law and assessing its future application.

This edited volume provides a variety of insights into the context in which ocean and wetlands policy is placed at the sub-continental level. The governments of Mexico, Canada, and United States of America have recognized the importance of conserving, protecting, and enhancing the environment in their territories. As a result, they have developed an institutional structure aimed at furthering environmental cooperation. However, marine environment has played a secondary role, characterized by scientific cooperation that does not develop into regional policies. This project analyzes how ocean and wetlands preservation is omitted from the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, meaning that collaborative efforts under-perform or remain largely sidelined from mainstream issues. As contributors come from a mix of the social and natural sciences (politics, international relations, law studies, sociology, oceanology, and oceanography), this book presents diverse viewpoints on how to address wetlands protection, deep ocean research collaboration, and the marine context of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Marine oil pollution is one of the most damaging environmental liabilities of our time, and is taken very seriously by governments. Although international conventions take the lead in the legal regime underpinning prevention and compensation of marine oil pollution damage, national legal systems differ considerably in how they interpret and apply their monitoring and enforcement responsibilities. This is the first book to present a comparative analysis of the law with respect to marine oil pollution, with expert contributions emphasising particular solutions in Europe, the US, and China. The authors draw on the full range of legal sources, from theory and legislation to procedure and actual case studies. Written by both academics and practitioners - senior academics with a wide experience in the field, and practitioners who have extensively dealt with marine pollution issues - the work is not confined to a mere legal analysis, but offers a more inclusive law and economics perspective, solidly built on a substantial analysis (in English) of the law in the European, US, Chinese, and international contexts. Individual contributors focus on countries with which they have particular expertise or experience. This book will be of interest to corporate counsel, international lawyers, academics, and policy makers, as well as to students of (international) environmental and maritime law. In addition, the book is especially valuable to non-Chinese lawyers for its clear insight into the complex Chinese environmental legal system.

Although all states agree that sustainable development must be provided for at the international level, it is still impossible to foresee which environmental problems are to be dealt with by the community of States rather than by states individually. The all-important debate over the development of specific measures enforceable under international law is just beginning. This book takes a major step in the progress of that debate toward a genuine global commitment to the protection of the earth and of future generations. The essays represent a confluence of expert scholarly opinion on this vital subject in two of the world's most populous and powerful countries. The outcome of a symposium in Beijing in September 1999, organized jointly by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the German Research Association, the book emphasizes the urgent need for international co-ooperation without losing sight of the inevitable restrictions on state sovereignty inherent in solving environmental problems.

This book addresses the use of Benedict Spinoza's philosophy in current attempts to elaborate an ecological basis for international environmental law. Because the question of environmental protection has not been satisfactory resolved, the legal debate concerning our responsibility for the environment has - as evidenced in the recent UN report series Harmony with Nature - come to invite calls for a new eco-centric, rather than anthropocentric, legal paradigm. In this respect, Spinoza appears as a key figure. He is one of the few philosophers in the history of western philosophy who cares, and writes extensively, about the roots of anthropocentrism; the core issue of contemporary normative debates in ecology. And in response to the rapidly developing ecological crisis, his work has become central to a re-thinking of the human relationship with nature. Addressing the contention that Spinoza's ethics might provide a useful source for developing a new, eco-centred framework for environmental law, this book elaborates a more nuanced understanding of Spinoza's philosophy. Spinoza cannot, it is argued here, simply be reduced to an eco-ethicist. That is: his metaphysics cannot be used as basis of an essentially naturalised or extended human morality. At the same time, however, this book argues that the radicality of Spinoza's naturalism nevertheless offers the possibility of developing a more adequate ecological basis for environmental law.

Blending scientific and legal expertise, Kunich proves that a devastating ecological crisis is imminent or even underway already, and that conservation law has yet to catch up with biological science. He challenges readers with a hotspots wager, arguing that he have vastly more to gain than lose by legally protecting biological hotspots, and that foregoing them in favor of the relatively minor and immediate returns arising from their devastation is both foolish and, ultimately, dangerous.

Legal thought lags behind modern science in focusing on and setting priorities for global conservation. An extinction spasm is imminent, many scientists argue, due to the ongoing global devastation of biological hotspots, home to a disproportionate share of all life forms, including perhaps millions of unknown species. These hotspots have already lost 88 percent of their primary vegetation and are likely to lose much more, yet few legal measures exist to protect them. Environmental legal protections are often incomprehensive and feebly enforced. Even worse, 62 percent of all hotspots are unprotected. Kunich provides a brief history and science of extinction. He discusses the importance of saving species from extinction and analyzes the legal measures directed toward preserving biodiversity in nations that harbor hotspots.

In international negotiations, the question of the design and the legal form of the negotiated instrument is as complex as it is often controversial. Intended as a read for both practitioners and academics, this book provides a comprehensive treatise of the characteristics, the potential and the limits of nonbinding instruments in international environmental law and governance. An extensive overview and typology of nonbinding instruments as well as several case studies from the areas of fisheries (FAO), hazardous substances (UNEP/FAO) and corporate social responsibility (OECD) provide the material for an in-depth analysis of the role of nonbinding instruments on all levels of governance. The book demonstrates the potential but also highlights the limits of nonbinding instruments in the interplay with customary and treaty law (e.g. UNCLOS, WTO) as bases for interinstitutional linkages and as tools to shape the behaviour of states and private actors. Legitimacy challenges arising from this form of exercise of authority are then discussed in the final chapter, alongside with remedies to address possible concerns.

The precautionary concept has become intrinsic to international environmental policy, especially with the adoption, in 1992, of the Rio Declaration at UNCED. Principle 15 of that Declaration provides that: "In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation." The challenge facing the international community is how to attain truly precautionary environmental policies. This challenge is one of changing perceptions as much as of changing institutions or technical mechanisms. It is a challenge to our way of viewing the world as much as to our views of the role of science, or the burden of proof. It also raises a question as to the role of legal and other regulatory instruments in implementing the precautionary principle. This question, however, lends itself to a multifaceted and multidisciplinary approach. After an introduction to the origins and development of the precautionary principle, 12 chapters explore a selection of themes relevant to the implementation of the principle. Where the relationship between international, national and local policies is concerned, a new concept is introduced: glocalization. The book concludes with a synthesis of the opportunities for, and constraints on, the implementation of the precautionary principle, as identified by the various authors.

This book presents an important discussion on the implementation of sustainable soil management in Africa from a range of governance perspectives. It addresses aspects such as the general challenges in Africa with regard to soil management; the structural deficiencies in legal, organizational and institutional terms; and specific policies at the national level, including land cover policies and persistent organic pollutants. This fourth volume of the International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy is divided into four parts, the first of which deals with several aspects of the theme "sustainable soil management in Africa." In turn, the second part covers recent international developments, the third part presents regional and national reports (i.a. Mexico, USA and Germany), and the fourth discusses cross-cutting issues(i.a. on rural-urban interfaces). Given the range of key topics covered, the book offers an indispensible tool for all academics, legislators and policymakers working in this field. The "International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy" is a book series that discusses central questions in law and politics with regard to the protection and sustainable management of soil and land - at the international, national and regional level.

This book presents a variety of articles on contemporary issues in environmental law by eminent university professors of environmental law, international public law, European Union law, and comparative law in Europe and Japan. It is the first book in the field of environmental law based on the results of international conferences and research activities supported by the European Union delegation in Japan. Current essential and global topics such as principles of environmental law, climate change, biodiversity, ethics pertaining to animal rights , nuclear safety regime after Fukushima, environmental impact assessments, protecting international waters, genetically-modified organisms, and implementing international instruments, and EU rules at the national level are discussed in light of the 2009 Treaty of Lisbon and other recent international treaties, by comparing the approaches taken by the EU, European countries, and Japan. As environmental law is not just a national issue but also a global one, it is important to understand and analyse various aspects of current environmental issues. This book is a response to such needs, and represents the joint work of five Japanese and four European (two German and two Italian) professors who have succeeded in creating something that is both unique and remarkable.

Fifty years after the adoption of the Declaration on Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1962, this volume assesses the evolution of the principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources into a principle of customary international law as well as related developments. International environmental and human rights law leave unresolved questions regarding the limitations of this principle, e.g. extraterritorial and international influences such as the applicable criminal and tort law, as well as the extraterritorial and international promotion of good governance, including transparency obligations.