The international character of today's most pressing environmental problems has become a key challenge for environmental policy making. As regulation by a supranational authority is not a realistic option at present, policymakers have to rely on decentralized approaches to the management of international environmental resources.This study combines two core dimensions of international environmental policy: the traditional search for cost-effective policy instruments and the creation of incentives for voluntary cooperation among sovereign nations. The analysis offers some clear-cut policy recommendations for the design of environmental treaties and for the further development of existing international institutions to protect the global environment.

The Legal Regulation of Environmental Crime - The International and European Dimension provides a timely, comprehensive and holistic analysis of the international and EU legal frameworks aimed at tackling environmental crime. Bringing together a team of leading international and EU scholars with distinct expertise in environmental law and environmental criminal law, the volume discusses current reforms of environmental law at the international and EU levels.

Access to justice in environmental matters has been a topic for increasing legal discourse and law-making in international, European Community (EC) and national arenas. The 1998 Aarhus Convention provides new norms of international law, inspired by the 1992 Rio Declaration. EC law on access to justice is being drafted and changes can be observed in the laws of the European Union (EU) members states. This timely book presents the state-of-the-art of access to justice in environmental matters in the European Union. It provides a thematic and comparative introduction of the topic, followed by thorough descriptions of EC law and the law of each EU member state. The chapters are written in English or French with a summary in the other language.

The Antarctic Treaty (1959) was adopted for the purpose of bringing peace and stability to Antarctica and to facilitate cooperation in scientific research conducted on and around the continent. It has now been over fifty years since the signing of the treaty, nevertheless security continues to drive and shape the laws and policy regime which governs the region. Antarctic Security in the Twenty-First Century: Legal and Policy Perspectives assess Antarctic security from multiple legal and policy perspectives. This book reviews the existing security construct in Antarctica, critically assesses its status in the early part of the Twenty-First century and considers how Antarctic security may be viewed in both the immediate and distant future. The book assesses emerging new security threats, including the impact of climate change and the issues arising from increased human traffic to Antarctica by scientists, tourists, and mariners. The authors call into question whether the existing Antarctic security construct framed around the Antarctic Treaty remains viable, or whether new Antarctic paradigms are necessary for the future governance of the region. The contributions to this volume engage with a security discourse which has expanded beyond the traditional military domain to include notions of security from the perspective of economics, the environment and bio-security. This book provides a contemporary and innovative approach to Antarctic issues which will be of interest to scholars of international law, international relations, security studies and political science as well as policy makers, lawyers and government officials with an interest in the region.

This book provides an excellent overview of the legal issues surrounding climate change mitigation and international trade law. It surveys key observed and potential challenges posed by responses to climate change in terms of international trade law. By examining the controversial issues seen in legal cases in which domestic climate change or renewable energy measures conflicted with international trade regimes, this volume promotes and broadens the understanding and debate of the issues. Beyond the recognized challenges, this book uncovers potential areas of conflict between climate change responses and international trade promotion by exploring previous cases and current efforts to prevent climate change. Furthermore, this volume sheds light on the future direction of international trade law and climate change responses, pointing out that the development of climate change or renewable energy laws and policies must also consider international trade regimes in order to ensure the smooth implementation of said laws and policies and guarantee that international trade laws do not restrict environmental policy space.

This cutting-edge book invites readers to rethink environmental law and its critical role in ensuring a sustainable future for all. Featuring international narratives, it demonstrates how environmental law can be a potent tool to secure multi-actor engagement, to improve ocean governance and to usher in effective policy reforms. Contributors illustrate narratives of successful historic and contemporary developments in environmental law, setting out innovative approaches to issues such as environmental enforcement and monitoring, effective forest protection, climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Drawing out key lessons and practices for effective reform, this insightful book highlights opportunities by which we can respond to the acute environmental challenges facing the planet. Bringing together perspectives from both established and up-and-coming scholars, this book will be of interest to academics and students of environmental law, as well as researchers of environmental management. Policy makers and practitioners will also find inspiration in fruitful stories of environmental law and policy reform. Contributors include: T.N. Adimazoya, T. Daya-Winterbottom, R.-L. Eisma-Osorio, D. Estrin, A. Foerster, L.L. Heng, E.A. Kirk, Y. Lin, R.V. Percival, F.-K. Phillips, A. Pickering, N. Robinson, J. Steinberg-Albin

The patterns and impact of globalization have become a common concern of all international jurists, sociologists, political scientists, and philosophers. Many have observed the erosion of the powers of nation states and the emergence of new transnational governance regimes, and seek to understand their internal dynamics, re-regulatory potential, and normative quality. Karl Polanyi's seminal book - The Great Transformation - is attracting new attention to such endeavors, mirroring a growing sensitivity to the social and economic risks of dis-embedding politics. Their re-construction by Polanyi - including his warning against a commodification of labor, land, and money - provide the trans-disciplinary reference point for the contributions to this book. Political economy, political theory, sociology, and political science inform this discussion of Polanyi's insights in the age of globalization. Further theoretical essays and case studies look at his 'false commodities': money, labor (and services), and land (and the environment). Jurists have hardly ever discussed Polanyi, and the law has not been taken very seriously among 'Polanyians.' It is nevertheless clear that economic stability and social protection are simply inconceivable without the visible hand of law. The legal discussion in this book's concluding chapters do not, and cannot, depart directly from such premises. The framework of their analyses is, instead, informed by current debates on the emergence of para-legal regimes, the fragmentation of international law, and the prospects of constitutional perspectives within which the rule of law and the notion of law-mediated legitimate governance are established. Polanyi's notion of the co-originality of dis-embedding moves and re-imbedding countermoves can, however, be usefully employed in the re-construction of the sociological background of the moves and tensions which jurists discern.

This book focuses on the legal and practical aspects of environmental finance and socially responsible business practices in Russia since the 1990s. Related publications to date tend to give a rather one-sided and negative picture. The authors in this book, however, provide a more positive and balanced outlook. Over half of them are from Russia, and most of the non-Russian authors have worked there extensively. As experts in their respective fields, they discuss a myriad of separate, but interrelated issues from an economic, legal or practical perspective. Topics include environmental law, pollution abatement, climate change and the Kyoto Protocol, renewable energy opportunities, NPAF, TACIS and EBRD projects, corporate social responsibility, environmental management systems, integration of EU environmental standards and adherence to the European Principles of Environmental Protection, environmental education and philanthropy. Giving a valuable introductory insight into the progress of environmental and socially responsible business practices in Russia, this book is essential reading for investors, academics, practitioners and those interested in sustainable development in Russia. Wybe Th. Douma, is a senior researcher in European Law and International Trade Law at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut. He worked in Russia on several projects, notably as senior legal expert for the first TACIS 'Harmonisation of environmental standards' project. Fiona M. Mucklow is a research associate at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut and an English solicitor with extensive expertise in finance law and international environmental law in Russia.

The Antarctic is symbolic of the wider challenge facing the progressive development of the international legal order. How can the law ensure a balance between economic growth (and the attendant exploitation of natural resources) and environmental protection (requiring the wise and sustainable use of limited natural resources)? the contribution of science, of new institutional structures and of the non-governmental sector towards effective law-making, administrative and enforcement processes present a major challenge. This volume, inspired by a major symposium held in Brussels in October 1990, crystallizes the response of leading representatives of the legal, governmental, scientific and political communities and represents a significant new contribution to legal thought and practice, at a time when the international community has recognized the inadequacies of the international rules relating to the protection of natural resources and the environment.

The focus of this work is on a single source of pollution, namely that by vessels from the perspective of the coastal state. This implies that exercises of jurisdiction with other objectives, for example security, are in general not dealt with even though these could also impede or entirely frustrate navigation. State practice is given a prominent place in this study. Relevant collective state practice exists in the form of bilateral or multilateral conventions or other international instruments, such as IMO Resolutions. Individual state practice can consist of unilateral declarations, legislation, and actual exercises of enforcement. The book gives insight into the way in which the LOSC legal regime of coastal state jurisdiction over vessel-source pollution operates in practice. Safeguards form an inseparable part of the jurisdictional balance in general, and that of enforcement jurisdiction in particular. The jurisdictional balance for vessel-source pollution in the LOSC is complemented by an innovative system of dispute settlement. The wide range of issues brought forward illustrates the extremely complex, but equally fascinating character of coastal state jurisdiction over vessel-source pollution.

This book examines the extent to which international law places obligations directly on corporate entities. It is often argued that corporations are bound by, inter alia, the same human rights and environmental obligations that states have. This book examines the source of these supposed obligations in treaty law, international custom, and in internationalized contracts, to determine whether they really can be transposed to corporations so easily. The focus of the book is on the regulation by international law of private corporate conduct. It examines whether corporate obligations, namely obligations binding directly upon a corporation under positive international law, have indeed emerged, and if so, whether corporations may be systemically included in the predominantly state-centric framework of international law. It investigates the challenges facing international law as a result of the potential emergence of corporate obligations, and engages in a structural analysis of what corporate obligations under international human rights law might entail. Ultimately, it warns against conceptualizing corporations as both holders and potential violators of human rights, explaining why they are not automatically bound by the same obligations that are imposed on states.

The Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources provides a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the role of international law in regulating the exploration and exploitation of natural resources. The book covers overarching and sectoral, as well as traditional and emerging, legal issues in natural resource development. The book illuminates interactions and tensions between international environmental law, human rights and economic law, as well as the law of the sea, tracing their evolution and identifying critical areas for further investigation. It also discusses the relevance of soft law and international dispute settlement, as well as of various unilateral, bilateral, regional and transnational initiatives in the governance of natural resources. Analysis of historical and current policy debates, including the incipient negotiations of a new international legally binding instrument on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, and the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change, are included. While the handbook is accessible to those approaching the subject for the first time, it identifies pressing areas for further investigation that will be of interest to advanced researchers and practitioners of international environmental, economic, and human rights law. Contributors include: R. Barnes, V. Barra, B. Boer, C. Chiarolla, L. Cotula, F. Francioni, J. Harrison, J. Jabour, M. Jansson, M. Kidd, R.E. Kim, T. Koivurova, K. Kulovesi, R. Leal-Arcas, F. Lesniewska, C. Massarella, S. Minas, O. McIntyre, E. Morgera, E. Orlando, F. Ortino, A. Proelss, S. Romppanen, C. Salpin, N.M. Tabari, K. Talus, A. Trouwborst, H. van Asselt, J. Vinuales

This book focuses on animal laws and animal welfare in major jurisdictions in the world, including the more developed legal regimes for animal protection of the US, UK, Australia, the EU and Israel, and the regulatory regimes still developing in China, South Africa, and Brazil. It offers in-depth analyses and discussions of topical and important issues in animal laws and animal welfare, and provides a comprehensive and comparative snapshot of some of the most important countries in the world in terms of animal population and worsening animal cruelty. Among the issues discussed are international law topics that relate to animals, including the latest WTO ruling on seal products and the EU ban, the Blackfish story and US law for cetaceans, the wildlife trafficking and crimes related to Africa and China, and historical and current animal protection laws in the UK and Australia. Bringing together the disciplines of animal law and animal welfare science as well as ethics and criminology with contributions from some of the most prominent animal welfare scientists and animal law scholars in the world, the book considers the strengths and failings of existing animal protection law in different parts of the world. In doing so it draws more attention to animal protection as a moral and legal imperative and to crimes against animals as a serious crime.

The information provided in this book aims to provide a starting point for foreign investors in their investigation of the environmental regulations and the related social priorities which will have an increasing impact on their investment decisions and strategies. Lawyers from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and the United States have combined to provide this analytical overview of the regulatory schemes and major environmental issues in their respective jurisdictions. A separate chapter is included on the rules of the EC.

In EU Environmental Law, International Environmental Law, and Human Rights Law: The Case of Environmental Responsibility, Armelle Gouritin offers a critical appraisal of EU environmental responsibility law and asserts a new rights-based approach to international environmental law. This book addresses environmental damage, environmental harm, the grounds for environmental responsibility and the exceptions to the responsibility principle. A critical appraisal of EU Directives 2004/35 and 2008/99 is complemented by an analysis of the input of the European Court on Human Rights and international environmental law with a view to filling the gaps identified in the Directives. Gouritin offers a full analysis of the potential and limits of the rights-based approach applied to environmental responsibility.

* An enormous contribution to the understanding of climate negotiations - the most complex and challenging international regime to date* Explains how governments need to organize ever more demanding multilateral negotiations successfully* Essential reading for those involved in climate negotiations and in planning or participating in other high-level negotiationsThe global negotiations over climate change involved over 180 countries and innumerable observers and other participants, addressing enormously complex and economically vital issues with conflicting agendas. For the UN to create an effective and well-supported international regime required enormous and very skilful organization. Using the metaphor of a theatrical production, this book shows how this was accomplished to produce the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the subsequent Bonn and Marrakesh Accords. The author draws out the lessons and implications for other intricate and far-reaching negotiations, not all of which have succeeded so far, such as the WTO trade negotiations at Seattle and Cancun. She identifies six key elements that determine organizational effectiveness as a necessary condition for successful outcomes.

This book represents a first attempt to investigate the relations between Law and Agroecology. There is a need to adopt a transdisciplinary approach to multifunctional agriculture in order to integrate the agroecological paradigm in legal regulation. This does not require a super-law that hierarchically purports to incorporate and supplant the existing legal fields; rather, it calls for the creation of a trans-law that progressively works to coordinate interlegalities between different legal fields, respecting their autonomy but emphasizing their common historical roots in rus in the process. Rus, the rural phenomenon as a whole, reflects the plurality and interdependence of different complex systems based jointly on the land as a central point of reference. "Rural" is more than "agricultural": if agriculture is understood traditionally as an activity aimed at exploiting the land for the production of material goods for use, consumption and private exchange, rurality marks the reintegration of agriculture into a broader sphere, one that is not only economic, but also social and cultural; not only material, but also ideal, relational, historical, and symbolic; and not only private, but also public. In approaching rus, the natural and social sciences first became specialized, multiplied, and compartmentalized in a plurality of first-order disciplines; later, they began a process of integration into Agroecology as a second-order, multi-perspective and shared research platform. Today, Agroecology is a transdiscipline that integrates other fields of knowledge into the concept of agroecosystems viewed as socio-ecological systems. However, the law seems to still be stuck in the first stage. Following a reductionist approach, law has deconstructed and shattered the universe of rus into countless, disjointed legal elementary particles, multiplying the planes of analysis and, in particular, keeping Agricultural Law and Environmental Law two separate fields.

A comprehensive examination of the way in which the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is implemented and policed. CITES is one of the oldest international environmental agreements and has been responsible for some striking conservation successes. But, given the way it has evolved, there are also some critical weaknesses that unscrupulous countries and commercial interests can exploit, especially regarding information, institutions and enforcement. The convention needs reform and this book gives a trenchant critique, including practical and effective recommendations for change.

This wide-ranging and comprehensive Handbook examines recent developments in international environmental law (IEL) and the crossover effects of this expansion on other areas of international law, such as trade law and the law of the sea. The expert contributors offer analyses of foundational issues in IEL, such as responsibility for environmental damage, sustainable development and the precautionary principle, alongside studies in topical subject areas including marine protection and the law of international watercourses. This Research Handbook offers an in-depth analysis of IEL, both as a field of law in its own right, and as part of the wider system of international law. It gives a comprehensive view of IEL in all its forms and complexity.With thorough examination of specific environmental regimes and compliance mechanisms, this Handbook will be an indispensable resource for legal scholars, students and practitioners alike.

Emerging to the forefront of sustainable production and consumption are a promising and rapidly evolving concept known as Voluntary Standard Systems (VSS). They encompass the three pillars of sustainability social, environmental and economic aspects and consequently they can be considered as a tool, which makes sustainable development visible. Currently, they are becoming a significant element in international trade and in the promotion of sustainable development strategies, especially in the context of globalised markets and supply chains.

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the current VSS concepts: from their nature and functioning, to the future outlook for their development. It places VSS in the broader context of global development issues and challenges, including development policy and international sustainability commitments, progress towards achieving green economy and meeting climate protection targets. The volume contains also a representative selection of case studies which demonstrate their wide range of application in different sectors of the economy."

Modern biotechnology - the controversial manipulation of genes in living organisms - has far-reaching implications for agriculture, human health, trade and the environment. Against the odds, an international treaty governing biosafety and trade in biotechnology was adopted in 2000. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety of the Convention on Biological Diversity deals with one of the most important and challenging issues thrown up by developments in biotechnology. This volume is a comprehensive review of the protocol and the process that led to its adoption. It includes contributions from many of the key players involved and analyses the commercial and political interests at stake, the operations and implications of the protocol, and prospects for the future.

While the size of the world's fishing catch remains at a constant level, current fishing practices are placing increasing pressure on stocks, and in turn threatening the communities which rely on them. This work examines the role of international law in dealing with this crisis in world fisheries, discussing the principles of marine living resource management found in contemporary international law, and analysing the means by which those principles are implemented. The study is focused around the two principal approaches to fisheries management: the first based upon maximising the yield of particular stocks, and reflected in the content of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; and the second founded on the precautionary approach and the associated notion of risk assessment, which encourage taking into account the management of the entire ecosystem. The author explores the legal bases of these different approaches and charts their development in international law. The work makes a comparative analysis of the two systems with reference to two international conventions, operating in analogous polar environments: the Bering Sea "Doughnut Hole" Convention, designed to preserve the pollock stock in the central area of the Bering Sea; and the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), designed to manage all the elements of the marine ecosystem of the Southern Ocean. The author concludes with a discussion of the difficulties common to both approaches in the area of compliance, and proposes a number of mechanisms by which the management of stocks could be improved.

This book engages with international legal responses to the global environmental crisis.  Humanity faces a triple planetary crisis, consisting of the interlinked problems of climate change, depletion of biological diversity and pollution.The chapters in this volume of the Netherlands Yearbook of International Law address important questions of how and to what extent these environmental concerns have been integrated into international law, who or what drives these developments, and what all of this tells us about international law’s ability to tackle the challenges that a deteriorating environment brings for the future of life on Earth. The strength of the volume is that it brings together a wide range of perspectives on the ‘greening’ phenomenon in international law. It includes perspectives from international environmental law, human rights law, investment law, financial law, humanitarian law and criminal law. Moreover, it raises important questions regarding the validity of the predominant approach in international law to (the protection of) nature. By providing such a wide range of perspectives on international legal responses (or lack thereof) to the environmental crisis, the volume seeks to engage scholars and practitioners from a variety of disciplines. It invites readers to compare the state-of-the-art across disciplines and to reflect on ways to strengthen international law’s responses to the environmental crisis. Furthermore, as has become standard for the Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, the second part consists of a section on Dutch practice in international law. The Netherlands Yearbook of International Law was first published in 1970. It offers a forum for the publication of scholarly articles in a varying thematic area of public international law. Chapter 3 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This volume examines the process through which climate change is transforming global governance, as both an increasingly central issue on the international stage and an increasingly structured policy domain with its specific modes of governing, networks of actors, discourses, and knowledge practices. Collectively, the contributions aim to assess how and why climate change is becoming a dominant frame in international politics. In doing so, they also contribute to understanding the dynamics and drivers of climatization.As global warming progresses and efforts to mitigate and adapt intensify, living under a changing climate-or in a 'new climate regime' (Latour 2015)-increasingly appears as a central feature of 'our' new, and highly unequal, human condition in the Anthropocene. In other words, we firmly believe that climatization is here to stay. It is thus crucial to better understand this process, recognizing its problems and ambiguities, but also examining its transformative potential and identifying the conditions under which such potentials can be harnessed with a view to building a more effective and equitable climate politics. We think that the chapters in this book contribute to this endeavour.