This book offers an in-depth analysis of how governments in vulnerable regions respond to climate migrations. The author argues that, despite the newness of the discipline, responding to hydro-meteorological disasters at the sub-state level is fairly old and institutionalised. Using the example of India, and the State of Assam, the author demonstrates how existing rights-based frameworks are used as norms for governing climate migrations. However, these normative frameworks become futile when the sub-state simultaneously contests the status of climate migrants as legitimate citizens. Instead, the responsibility is replaced with pity-making and the state becomes an empathetic spectator - who understands the misfortune but refuses to be held accountable for either the development or protection of those worst affected by climate change. Those who migrate due to climate change often find themselves stripped of their lands (because of erosion) and their political belonging to the society. The volume will be useful for those studying climate migrations and disaster responses to better understand how communities which are most affected by climatic disasters may not even have a right to have rights against the State they found themselves in. Ritumbra Manuvie is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer of Law at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. The author studied migration, citizenship, and belonging in Assam during her doctoral work at the University of Edinburgh. She is currently part of the ELSA - North Netherlands lab which aims to study Ethical, Legal, and Socio-political factors that influence the usage of AI in the health sector.

This book analyzes international and Chinese regulatory approaches addressing environmental risks that may be caused by GM crops and examines how China implements its international obligations in its policies and laws. Using the legal doctrinal method, the book discusses the precautionary principle and the public involvement principle, as well as several legal measures at the international law level and in Chinese law. It observes that legal principles and measures as provided for in China's GMO legal framework have generally implemented the international obligations regarding the prevention of environmental risks that may be caused by the cultivation of GM crops and related activities. However, the book argues that Chinese law lacks an explicit codification of the precautionary principle, and the same is true with regard to public participation; the regulatory framework lacks specific obligations. It concludes that future research should focus on the application and enforcement of the relevant Chinese legislation, and that it is also important to investigate how the environmental risks that may be caused by new techniques, such as genome-editing techniques, could be prevented, given the experience gained by regulating the cultivation of GM crops and related activities.

This volume is an important contribution to both theoretical and practical approaches to solving contradictions and conflicts between the approaches, principles, objectives and regulations of international environmental agreements. The issue of the coordination and streamlining of environmental agreements is of growing importance regarding the increasing number of international regulations on the one hand and the urgency for effective instruments in the light of continuing environmental degradation on the other. This study will become an essential reference for scholars as well as practitioners working in the field of international environmental law.

International Marine Mammal Law is a comprehensive, introductory volume on the legal regimes governing the conservation and utilisation of marine mammals. Written as a textbook, it provides basic overviews of international conservation law, which enable the reader to understand the greater implications of governance of a specific group of species. Paired with biological information on some marine mammal species, the international regimes for whales, seals and polar bears are explored - either as part of global regimes of international environmental governance or as regimes that were specifically designed for them. The book concludes with outlooks on the future of international marine mammal law, particularly in light of Japan's withdrawal from the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in July 2019.

This textbook presents key theoretical approaches to understanding issues of sustainability and environmental management, perfectly bridging the gap between engineering and environmental science. It begins with the fundamentals of environmental modelling and toxicology, which are then used to discuss qualitative and quantitative risk assessment methods, and environmental assessments of product design. It discusses how business and government can work towards sustainability, focusing on managerial and legal tools, before considering ethics and how decisions on environmental management can be made. Students will learn quantitative methods while also gaining an understanding of qualitative, legal, and ethical aspects of sustainability. Practical applications are included throughout, and there are study questions at the end of each chapter. PowerPoint slides and jpegs of all the figures in the book are provided online. This is the perfect textbook on environmental studies for engineering and applied science students.

This open access book aims to elaborate on the legal prerequisites to establish the liability of corporations for transboundary environmental harm, not only by identifying existing liability rules, principles and standards but also by analysing their potential for further legal development. The authors consider international and transboundary liability law to currently be an underutilised tool for international environmental protection. The book seeks to address this by exploring what is needed in terms of legislative action and identifying options for judicial pliability, thereby providing an important legal contribution in furthering the development of an effective international and transnational environmental liability law regime.

More than ten years after the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, this book critically reviews the achievements, limits and next frontiers of business and human rights following the 'protect, respect, remedy' trichotomy. The UN Guiding Principles acted as a catalyst for hitherto unprecedented regulatory and judicial developments. The monograph by Macchi proposes a functionalist reading of the state's duty to regulate the transnational activities of corporations in order to protect human rights and adopts a holistic approach to the corporate responsibility to respect, arguing that environmental and climate due diligence are inherent dimensions of human rights due diligence. In the volume emerging legislations are assessed on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence, as well as the potential and limitations of a binding international treaty on business and human rights. The book also reviews groundbreaking litigation against transnational corporations, such as Lungowe v. Vedanta or Milieudefensie v. Shell, for their human rights and climate change impacts. The book is primarily targeted at academic and non-academic legal experts, as well as at researchers and students looking at business and human rights issues through the lenses of legal studies (particularly international law and European law), political sciences, business ethics, and management. Additionally, it should also find a readership among practitioners working in the public or private sector (consultants, CSR officers, legal officers, etc.) willing to familiarize themselves with the expanding areas of liability, financial and reputational risks connected to the social and environmental impacts of global supply chains. Chiara Macchi is currently Lecturer in Law at Wageningen University & Research in The Netherlands.

This book is about joint implementation. It addresses legal, economic and institutional questions which should be taken into account in setting up joint implementation projects and in developing criteria for joint implementation under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). First, however, before going into any detail, we shall briefly sketch the background, quoting Daniel Bodansky: 'Each year, mankind injects approximately six billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, as well as a substantial (although still uncertain) amount from deforestation. Since the advent of the industrial revolution, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have risen by more than twenty five percent, from 280 to more than 350 parts per million. Scientists estimate that if current patterns of emissions continue unchecked, the increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide, together with parallel increases in other trace gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, will cause an average global warming in the range of 0. 2 to 0. 5 DegreesC per decade, or 2 to 5 oc by the end of the next century. Such a temperature rise, more rapid than at any time in human history, could have severe effects on coastal areas, agriculture, forests 1 and human health. ' In recent years there has been growing awareness of the extent of the damage done to the world's environment through unsustainable patterns of development.

The first volume of the International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy includes an important discussion on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals that are the basis for the post-2015 development agenda up to the year 2030; the Yearbook focuses in particular on Goal 15, which includes achieving a "land degradation-neutral world." It also provides a comprehensive and highly informative overview of the latest developments at the international level, important cross-disciplinary issues and different approaches in national legislation. The book is divided into four sections. Forewords by internationally renowned academics and politicians are followed by an analysis of the content and structure of the Sustainable Development Goals with regard to soil and land as well as the scientific methods for their implementation. In addition, all relevant international regimes are discussed, including the latest developments, such as the decisions made at the 12th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The next section deals with cross-disciplinary issues relevant to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals like the right to food, land tenure, migration and the "Economics of Land Degradation" initiative. The last section gathers reports on the development of national legislation from various nations and supra-national entities, including Brazil, China, the European Union, Mongolia, Namibia and the United States. Addressing this broad range of key topics, 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 the central questions of law and politics with regard to the protection and sustainable management of soil and land - at the international, national and regional level.

This book explains the role and limitations of liberalized international trade on the global environment and sustainable development. A distinguishing feature of this book is an integration of trade, environment, and development perspectives for operationally meaningful policy purposes. The topics include an analysis of the global trade regimes, their interrelationships with the existing multilateral environmental agreements, institutional mechanisms governed by the World Trade Organization, and a framework for pragmatic reforms.

The book deals with the question whether the investment treaty law system could be harmonized with the climate change international legal framework and the climate interest that lies beyond. The answer to this research question is divided into three parts. The first examines the relevance of the climate change international legal framework in investment treaty disputes as a natural pre(logical)interpretative stage. The second focuses on the BIT's content-interpretation, which is the orthodox approach to solve the fragmentation between the system of investment treaty law and the system of international climate change law. Finally, the third part tackles this fragmentation through a heterodox approach that is grounded in the direct application of climate change principles through law ascertainment. Apart from concluding that harmonization between investment treaty law and international climate change law is possible through the orthodox approach to the expropriation and the FET standards, as well as through the direct application of the climate change precautionary principle and the CBDRRC principle heterodox approach, the book suggests that tribunals are expected soon to openly address climate change disputes in their rulings.

This book presents an important discussion on future options for sustainable soil management in Africa from various perspectives, including national soil protection regulations, the role of tenure rights, the work of relevant international institutions such as the UNCCD and FAO, and regional and international cooperation. This first volume of the new subseries Regional Perspectives to the International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy includes contributions by African and international experts alike. Given the range of key topics covered, the book offers an indispensable tool for all academics, legislators and policymakers working in this field. The "International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy - Regional Perspectives" series discusses central questions in law and politics that concern the protection and sustainable management of soil and land in different regions of the world.

This Research Review covers the main topics and dimensions of environmental and energy law in its contemporary expression. It discusses foundational material for those interested in understanding the development of the field and conducting research on the myriad of questions raised by transitions to sustainability. Particular emphasis is placed on the systematisation of the material. The Research Review discusses articles that cover international dimensions, including principles, substantive areas of regulation and implementation techniques as well as the European dimensions broadly understood, including EU law and other regional approaches (the UNECE) and distinguishing sector-specific and transversal regulation. It also looks at the transnational, comparative and domestic dimensions and major questions arising from selected English-speaking jurisdictions. Edited by two recognised experts in the field, this research review will provide a solid foundation for the study of environmental and energy law.

This book examines the role of The International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from vessels with a particular reference to the current north-south tensions regarding the strategy for combating climate change in the maritime sector as well as the prevention of marine pollution from the ship-breaking industry. The IMO, a United Nations specialized agency, has been entrusted with the duty to provide machinery for cooperation among governments for the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from vessels. The organization is responsible for drafting legal instruments as well as for facilitating technical cooperation for the protection of the marine environment. Although IMO legal instruments are mainly targeted at the prevention of pollution of the marine environment from vessels, there is a trend towards a liberal interpretation of this, and the organization has expanded its work to areas like shipbreaking, which is essentially a land-based industry.

The tensions between democracy and justice have long preoccupied political theorists. Institutions that are procedurally democratic do not necessarily make substantively just decisions. Democratizing Global Justice shows that democracy and justice can be mutually reinforcing in global governance - a domain where both are conspicuously lacking - and indeed that global justice requires global democratization. This novel reconceptualization of the problematic relationship between global democracy and global justice emphasises the role of inclusive deliberative processes. These processes can empower the agents necessary to determine what justice should mean and how it should be implemented in any given context. Key agents include citizens and the global poor; and not just the states but also international organizations and advocacy groups active in global governance. The argument is informed by and applied to the decision process leading to adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, and climate governance inasmuch as it takes on questions of climate justice.

Transboundary Pollution: Evolving Issues of International Law and Policy provides a comprehensive and perceptive overview of the legal principles that govern pollution internationally and explores the utilization of these principles in practice.Legal principles regarding State responsibility for transboundary pollution are well settled in international law. At issue is how these principles are applied and what mechanisms are developed to regulate specific types of transboundary pollution, including pollution of the marine environment and shared water resources, nuclear pollution and air pollution. Expert contributors come together in this book to discuss all major aspects of transboundary pollution and the practical application of the State responsibility doctrine. Empirical studies of European, Asian and Southeast Asian countries demonstrate regional perspectives of how international law and policy governing transboundary pollution translates into practice. Academics, students and practitioners alike will benefit from the perceptive and discerning insight the book presents into this important issue within international law, environmental law and public policy. Contributors: R. Beckman, A. Boyle, H.C. Bugge, G. Handl, L. Hua, S. Jayakumar, T. Koh, Y. Lyons, S.C. McCaffrey, J. Peel, H.D. Phan, C. Redgwell, N.A. Robinson, L.M. Syarif, A.K-.J.Tan, S. Tay

Climate change has thrust us into a ''no-analog'' future in which climate disasters threaten to cause extraordinary damage, with little precedent to guide policymakers and private actors. Addressing such risks requires a firm grounding in disaster risk reduction, climate change policy, and environmental law. This Research Handbook provides readers with that integrated foundation, investigating topics in international law as well as domestic programs from countries around the world. Because climate disasters affect both government and non-government actors, the Research Handbook covers issues of both public and private law. We know from the scientific literature and recent experience that the laws addressing natural disasters are insufficient to confront disasters amplified by climate change. The Research Handbook acknowledges that the majority of disasters are susceptible in some way to changes in the earth's climate and explores the barriers to, and opportunities for, finding legal solutions to the risks posed by such disasters. It shows that climate change must be considered in order to fully understand disaster risk and the respective legal and policy responses. The Research Handbook also emphasizes the moral responsibility we have to move as quickly as possible to create a carbon-free economy. This work will be of great appeal to legal scholars, practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in environmental law or climate change as it relates to international and domestic law and policy. Contributors include: C.A. Arnold, C. Bakker, M. Burkett, S. Donald, J.D. Echeverria, D.A. Farber, M. Faure, M.B. Gerrard, Q. He, R. Kundis Craig, S. Kuo, D.A. Kysar, R. Lyster, T. Parejo-Navajas, J. Peel, L. Rajamani, S. Shapiro, T. Stephens, L.G. Sun, K. Tracy, R.R.M. Verchick, J. Verschuuren

The expansion of cross-border power transmission infrastructures and the regional integration of electricity markets are accelerating on several continents. The internationalization of trade in electric energy is embedded in an even greater transformation: the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies and the race to net zero emissions. Against this backdrop, this book provides a comprehensive examination of the regulatory framework that governs the established and newly emerging electricity trading relations. Taking the technical and economic foundations as a starting point and thoroughly examining current developments on four continents, the book provides a global perspective on the state of the art in electricity market integration. in doing so, it focuses on the most relevant issues including transit of electricity, quantitative restrictions, market foreclosure and anti-competitive practices employed by the actors on electricity markets. In turn, the book carefully analyzes the regulatory framework provided by the WTO Agreements, the Energy Charter Treaty and other relevant preferential trade agreements. In its closing section, it moves beyond the applicable legal architecture to make concrete proposals on the future design of global trade rules specifically tailored to the electricity sector, which could provide a more reliable and transparent framework for the multilateral regulation of electricity trade.

This book is dedicated to a topic which has for a long time lacked the attention it deserves within the academic world. It intends to address in a coherent and comprehensive manner the problem of the environmental rights of the child, which are not identical to the ones of adults whose environmental rights have been appraised from a general point of view. In the absence of any international law instrument explicitly granting a child the right to a clean environment, drawing on an extensive and original analysis of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the practice of its monitoring body, this book undertakes an assessment of the extent to which these challenges may be overcome through a greater engagement between international law on the rights of the child and international environmental law. The result is the first comprehensive study on the manner in which these two mutually reinforcing legal regimes can interact to strengthen the protection of children's environmental human rights at stake in the increased strategic environmental and climate litigations at both the national and international level. The book is recommended reading for, amongst others, policy makers, international environmental lawyers and human rights lawyers and practitioners. Additionally, lecturers, students and researchers from a range of disciplines will also gain from seeing how new legal scholarship and intertwined branches of international law contribute to the continual development of the living rights of the human rights conventions. Francesca Ippolito is Associate Professor of International Law in the Department of Political and Social Science of the University of Cagliari, Italy. She holds the Jean Monnet Chair on European Climate of Change - REACT for 2021-2024.

This book is based on the acknowledgment that climate change is a multifaceted challenge that requires action on the part of all stakeholders, including civil society, and the notion that climate change is at a tipping point with urgent measures needed in the next decade. Against this background, civil society is turning its attention to the courts as a means to directly influence climate action, partly because of the global scepticism towards the progress of global climate action, despite the ongoing implementation of the Paris Agreement. Focusing on the individual, broadly representing civil society, the book offers fresh perspectives on climate change litigation. While most of the literature on climate change litigation examines the same specific jurisdictions, mostly common law countries (US and Australia in particular), this book also considers specific countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America with little or no climate change litigation. It explores the reasons for the lack of litigation and discusses what measures should or could be taken to change this situation and push forward climate action. Unlike other literature on the subject, this book analyses climate change litigation using a scenario-based methodology. Combining rigorous academic analysis with a practical policy-oriented focus, the book provides valuable insights for a wide range of stakeholders interested in climate change litigation. It appeals to civil society organisations around the world, international organisations and law firms interested in climate change litigation.

Politicians and diplomats have for many years proclaimed a human right to water as a solution to the global water crisis, most recently in the 2010 UN General Assembly Resolution "The human right to water and sanitation". To what extent, however, can a right to water legally and philosophically exist and what difference to international law and politics can it make? This question lies at the heart of this book. The book's answer is to argue that a right to water exists under international law but in a more differentiated and multi-level manner than previously recognised. Rather than existing as a singular and comprehensive right, the right to water should be understood as a composite right of different layers, both deriving from separate rights to health, life and an adequate standard of living, and supported by an array of regional and national rights. The author also examines the right at a conceptual level. After disproving some of the theoretical objections to the category of socio-economic rights generally and the concept of a right to water more specifically, the manuscript develops an innovative approach towards the interplay of different rights to water among different legal orders. The book argues for an approach to human rights - including the right to water - as international minimum standards, using the right to water as a model case to demonstrate how multilevel human rights protection can function effectively. The book also addresses a crucial last question: how does one make an international right to water meaningful in practice? The manuscript identifies three crucial criteria in order to strengthen such a composite derived right in practice: independent monitoring; enforcement towards the private sector; and international realization. The author examines to what extent these criteria are currently adhered to, and suggests practical ways of how they could be better met in the future.

This book examines the development of environmental law in the period since the ground-breaking 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development or 'Earth Summit' in Rio de Janeiro. It demonstrates that a great deal has been achieved in the field of environmental law since the 1990s. However, the extraordinary environmental crises facing humanity in the 21st century indicate a continuing urgent need for the generation of robust policies and frameworks concerning ecological, socio-cultural and economic sustainability, implemented through appropriately innovative legal mechanisms. The book is divided into five sub-themes of sustainability: history, principles and concepts; environmental rights; access to justice and liability issues; natural resources, energy and climate change; and nature conservation. It includes expert legal opinion on developments to date, engaging with key themes from a broad selection of jurisdictions and perspectives. The analyses extend across public and private law to reflect the manifold areas which are rightly and necessarily the concern of environmental and sustainability law. Its contents offer not only critiques of developments to date, but also constructive engagement with matters of pressing concern to all. Written from a global perspective, this book will be an invaluable reference for academics, postgraduate students, practitioners and policy-makers concerned with environmental law and sustainability. Contributors: J. Benidickson, A.H. Benjamin, B. Boer, M.N. Camargos, M.A. Cohen, J.A.F. Costa, A. Daibert, J. de Cendra de Larragan, A. de Garay Sanchez, F. de Salles Cavedon, J.W. Dellapenna, A. du Plessis, W. du Plessis, J.J. Gonzalez, D. Hodas, E. Kasimbazi, R. Kibugi, F.R. Loures, N. Lugaresi, K. Morrow, C. Odidi Okidi, A. Paterson, N.A. Robinson, W. Scholtz, F. Sola, R. Stanziola Vieira, M.B. Tekle, S. Teles da Silva

We live in unprecedented times - the Anthropocene - defined by far-reaching human impacts on the natural systems that underpin civilisation. Planetary Health explores the many environmental changes that threaten to undermine progress in human health, and explains how these changes affect health outcomes, from pandemics to infectious diseases to mental health, from chronic diseases to injuries. It shows how people can adapt to those changes that are now unavoidable, through actions that both improve health and safeguard the environment. But humanity must do more than just adapt: we need transformative changes across many sectors - energy, housing, transport, food, and health care. The book discusses specific policies, technologies, and interventions to achieve the change required, and explains how these can be implemented. It presents the evidence, builds hope in our common future, and aims to motivate action by everyone, from the general public to policymakers to health practitioners.

This book presents an important discussion on land tenure rights for the effective implementation of sustainable soil management provisions. It investigates a variety of aspects, such as the clash of modern and traditional tenure concepts, forms of illegal or illegitimate land acquisition, and the preconditions for legal and legitimate investments. In addition, the book analyses the challenges to ensuring secure land tenure rights in Africa and in Germany. Lastly, it provides information on the role of women in this context. This fifth volume of the International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy is divided into four parts, the first of which deals with various aspects of the theme "Land Tenure Rights and Sustainable Soil Management". The second part covers recent international developments, the third part presents regional and national reports, and the fourth discusses overarching issues. Given the range of key topics covered, the book offers an indispensable tool for all academics, legislators and policymakers working in this field. The "International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy" series 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.

Written by one of the most prolific and provocative thinkers of our time, Klaus Bosselmann's latest book is set to reaffirm his rank among the leading environmental law scholars in the world. Bosselmann cogently argues that we live in deeply troubling times, characterized as they are by unprecedented socio-ecological upheaval. His vision is of a global governance order that is centred on the Earth as an integrated whole and that seeks to protect the Earth's ecological integrity, especially insofar as the global commons are concerned. This book is an original, timely and very welcome (juridical) addition to the growing body of Earth system governance literature.' - Louis J. Kotze, North-West University, South Africa, University of Lincoln, UK and Deputy-Director of the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment'Klaus Bosselmann provides a subtle and masterful overview of the limits of contemporary law and nation-state governance in solving our planetary ecological catastrophes. Even better, he offers a range of practical and attractive alternatives, most notably the commons and new forms of trusteeship. We must promptly adopt these new/old legal forms in order to overcome compulsive economic growth and the delusions of national sovereignty, and to honor our actual dependence on the more-than-human world. This book points the way forward.' - David Bollier, author of Think Like a Commoner and cofounder of the Commons Strategies Group 'This book takes a fresh look at governance of the environment, from the long-neglected perspective of international trusteeship: What if sovereign states were not the legal 'owners' of our planet's common natural resources, but mere 'trustees' on behalf of people (present and future) as the ultimate beneficiaries? Thoroughly documented and brilliantly pleaded, Bosselmann's work opens a whole new research agenda on how to hold governments and international organizations accountable to citizens in an age of global environmental democracy.' - Peter H. Sand, University of Munich, Germany The predicament of uncontrolled growth in a finite world puts the global commons - such as oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere - at risk. So far, states have not found the means to protect what, essentially, is outside their jurisdiction. However, the jurisprudence of international law has matured to a point that makes global governance beyond state-negotiated compromises both possible and desirable. This book makes an ambitious, yet well-researched and convincing, case for trusteeship governance. Earth Governance shows how the United Nations, together with states, can draw from their own traditions to develop new, effective regimes of environmental trusteeship. Klaus Bosselmann argues that the integrity of the earth's ecological system depends on institutional reform, and that only an ethic of stewardship and trusteeship will create the institutions, laws and policies powerful enough to reclaim and protect the global commons. This comprehensive exploration of environmental governance will appeal to scholars and students of environmental law, and international law and relations, as well as to UN and government officials and policymakers.