Shannon O'Lear brings a geographer's perspective to environmental politics. The book considers issues of climate change, energy, food security, toxins, waste, and resource conflict to explore how political, economic, ideological and military power have contributed to the generation of environmental issues and the formation of dominant narratives about them. The book encourages the reader to think critically about the power dynamics that shape (and limit) how we think about environmental issues and to expand the reader's understanding of why it matters that these issues are discussed at particular spatial scales. Applying a geographer's sense of scale and power leads to a better understanding of the complexity of environmental issues and will help formulate mitigation and adaptation strategies. The book will appeal mainly to advanced students and researchers from a geography background, but also to social and political scientists who wish to look at the topic from this different perspective.

Human population growth is a serious biospheric problem yet is largely overlooked. Because of the neglect of demography, environmental policies - while well-intentioned - are unlikely to succeed. This book gives a concise review of world fertility rates and population growth, and offers a valuable summary of studies of the impact of over-population on the biosphere. In addition, the book explains key demographic variables to consider when formulating law and government policy relevant to childbearing, and it summarizes findings of social science research - findings that contradict popular assumptions about the impact of government interventions addressing the frequency of childbearing and immigration.

This work analyses fairness and equity dimensions of the climate regime. A central issue in international law and policy is how countries of the world should allocate the burden of addressing global climate change. With the link between human activities and climate change clearly established, and the first impacts of climate change being felt, there is a renewed sense of urgency in addressing the problem. Based on an overview of science and the development of the climate regime to date, this book seeks to identify the elements of a working consensus on fairness principles that could be used to solve the hitherto intractable problem of assigning responsibility for combating climate change. The book demonstrates how an analysis of fairness dimensions of climate change grounded in practical developments and illustrated with reference to the latest developments can add value to our understanding of current developments and future options for international climate law and policy."

Volume 9 of the EYIEL focusses on natural resources law understood as a special area of international economic law. In light of increasing conflicts over access to and the use of natural resources and of their impact on political, social and environmental aspects, the contributions of this volume analyse to which extent international economic law can contribute to the sustainable exploitation, management and distribution of natural resources. The volume collects contributions on general principles of natural resources law, the importance of natural resources for trade, investment and European economic law as well as analyses of particular sectors and areas including fracking, timber, space and deep seabed mining and natural resources in the arctic region. In its section on regional developments, EYIEL 9 addresses two regional integration systems which are usually not at the centre of public interest, but which deserve all the more attention due to their special relations with Europe: The Eurasian Economic Union and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Further EYIEL sections address recent WTO and investment case law as well as developments at the IMF. The volume also contains review essays of important recent books in international economic law and other aspects of international law which are connected to international economic relations. The chapter "Sovereignty, Ownership and Consent in Natural Resource Contracts: From Concepts to Practice" by Lorenzo Cotula is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

This book intends to inform the key participants in extractive projects - namely, the communities, the host governments and the investors - about good practice for effective community engagement, based on analysis of international standards and expectations, lessons from selected case-studies and innovations in public participation. The extent of extractive industries varies widely around the Arctic as do governmental and social attitudes towards resource development. Whilst most Arctic communities are united in seeking investment to fund education, healthcare, housing, transport and other essential services, as well as wanting to benefit from improved employment and business opportunities, they have different views as to the role that extractive industries should play in this. Within each community, there are multiple perspectives and the goal of public participation is to draw out these perspectives and seek consensus. Part I of the book analyses the international standards that have emerged in recent years regarding public participation, in particular, in respect of indigenous peoples. Part II presents six case studies that aim to identify both good and bad practices and to reflect upon the distinct conditions, needs, expectations, strategies and results for each community examined. Part III explores the importance of meaningful participation from a corporate perspective and identifies some common themes that require consideration if Arctic voices are to shape extractive industries in Arctic communities. In drawing together international law and standards, case studies and examples of good practice, this anthology is a timely and invaluable resource for academics, legal advisors and those working in resource development and public policy.

Waste management poses increasing challenges to both the protection of the environment and to human health. To face these challenges, this book claims that environmental law needs to shift attention from media-specific pollution regimes to integrative life-cycle approaches of waste management i.e., from the prevention of waste generation to the actual handling of wastes. Furthermore, the cooperation of States and the establishment of coordinated activities is essential because states can no longer have separate standards for wastes posing transboundary risks and for 'purely domestic' wastes. Drawing upon both International and EU law, the book provides a detailed analysis of the regimes set up to deal with the transboundary movement of wastes and ship-source pollution, so as to elucidate the obligations and legal principles governing such regimes. It concludes that treaty obligations concerning transboundary movements of wastes are inapplicable to ship wastes while on board ships and on land. However, despite the limitations of the transboundary movement of wastes regime, the principle of Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) embodied in this regime has gradually transformed into a legal principle. ESM works to address the legal gaps in the regulation of wastes, and consequently, it provides the desired coherence to the legal system since it acts as a bridge between several regulatory and sectoral levels. Furthermore, ESM offers a new light with which to understand and interpret existing obligations, and it provides a renewed impetus to regimes that directly and indirectly govern wastes. This impetus translates into greater coordination and the establishment of cross-sectional policies. By offering alternative ways to solve problems linked to the management of ship wastes in the sea-land interface, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in International Environmental Law.

This book presents an argument for environmental human rights as the basis of intergenerational environmental justice. It argues that the rights to clean air, water, and soil should be seen as the environmental human rights of both present and future generations. It presents several new conceptualizations central to the development of theories of both human rights and justice, including emergent human rights, reflexive reciprocity as the foundation of justice, and a communitarian foundation for human rights that both protects the rights of future generations and makes possible an international consensus on human rights, beginning with environmental human rights. In the process of making the case for environmental human rights, the book surveys and contributes to the entire fields of human rights theory and environmental justice.

The legal arrangements applying to the economic and commercial aspects of managing natural resources have traditionally been unrelated to those applying to the management of ecosystems and the protection of the environment. However, the interface between what have increasingly been described as economic law and environmental law has become an issue of both practical and theoretical importance at all levels of the legal system. Dr Felicity Deane's global analysis of the relationship between emissions trading law and the law of the World Trade Organization is both timely and important. She skillfully reviews the range of complex legal issues. The result is a significant contribution to the legal literature.' - Douglas Fisher, Queensland University of Technology, AustraliaEmissions trading is an economic legal framework designed to address the global environmental crisis of climate change. This book analyses the broader impacts of these frameworks - particularly the relationship between emissions trading schemes and the WTO. Felicity Deane focuses primarily on the rules of the WTO as a tool to demonstrate where the boundaries exist for acceptable interface with international trade. She explores the meaning of goods and products, services, subsidies and border adjustments within the context of the WTO rules and considers the impacts of these definitions on emissions trading frameworks. Academics and students with an interest in the WTO and the convergence of trade and environment will find this an insightful book. The points raised will also be useful to legal professionals, economists and policymakers involved in emissions trading practices.

Climate change will fundamentally affect every area of human endeavor, including the development of international law. This book maps the current and potential impacts of climate change on the norms, principles, rules and processes of international law. This timely study brings together a group of leading scholars in their respective fields of international law to examine the impacts of climate change, and our responses to it, on the whole spectrum of international legal regimes, including those dealing with everything from climate displacement, human rights, and international trade and investment, to the oceans, the environment, armed conflicts and the use of force, and outer-space. The volume also examines the impacts of climate change on the underlying principles and processes of international law, including those relating to the making and enforcement of international law and to third party dispute resolution. The book shows that there is much more to dealing with climate change than negotiating one global climate change-specific regime. Other areas of international law can, and must, be included in the solution. In this way international law can maximize its coherence and its efficacy. This well-documented study will appeal to international lawyers, academics, policymakers, government employees, negotiators, practitioners, international legal theorists and anyone interested in climate change and how to maximize our international legal and policy responses to it. Contributors: J. Brunnee, M.-C. Cordonier Segger, E. Crawford, A. Edwards, M.W. Gehring, C. Gray, J. Hepburn, E. Hey, K. Hulme, S. Humphreys, R. Lefeber, F. Lyall, A. Naude Fourie, H.M. Osofsky, R. Rayfuse, C. Redgwell, S.V. Scott

This book reveals the many harms which flow across the ever-more porous sovereign borders of a globalising world. These harms expose weaknesses in the international legal regime built on sovereignty of nation states. Using the Trail Smelter Arbitration, one of the most cited cases in international environmental law, this book explores the changing nature of state responses to transboundary harm. Taking a critical approach, the book examines the arbitration's influence on international law generally, and international environmental law specifically. In particular, the book explores whether there are lessons from Trail Smelter that are useful for resolving transboundary challenges confronting the international community. The book collects the commentary of a distinguished set of international law scholars who consider the history of the Trail Smelter arbitration, its significance for international environmental law, its broader relationship to international law, and its resonance in fields beyond the environment.

The purpose of this book is to assess the development of international environmental law in the Asia Pacific. Consideration is given to the impact upon the region of global, regional and subregional environmental law. An assessment is undertaken of how certain states, and groups of states, have responded domestically and within their own subregions to these developments. The Asia Pacific is defined as essentially the states which comprise East and Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the island states of the Southwest Pacific. Occasional consideration is also given to the states of South and Central Asia. The book commences with an overview of international environmental law, the role of international organizations, and the development of regional environmental law. Consideration is then given to a number of prominent sectoral areas including heritage, biodiversity, marine environment, climate change, and the relationship between trade and the environment. A study is then undertaken of the influence of international environmental law in a number of states and subregions within the Asia Pacific.

Though recently improved, Chinese legislation on environmental permits is still weak and urgent measures are needed to help the country in moving towards an effective permitting system. This book examines this legislation gap and presents a contribution to solving China's pollution problems. By analysing the deficiencies of current Chinese provisions on permitting in light of EU legislation, and its Italian application, the book determines which permitting legislative structure and approach China should embrace in practice in order to build more comprehensive legislation on emission permitting. It is argued that a set of ad hoc legislative measures should be implemented so as to strengthen China's environmental protection and efficiently tackle pollution. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers, academics and policy-makers working in the areas of international environmental law and comparative law.

Scarcity of water, floods and erosion caused by climate change have made the management of water resources a challenge to national and international actors worldwide. States have also initiated water projects to improve social welfare, often with significant impacts on the environment. This book combines close analysis of the legal structures of water rights with consideration of the modes of water management projects to illustrate current water-related problems in terms of practical solutions in a global context. The book begins by surveying the current categories of water-related rights to clarify the role of public and private law in water allocation. Many important watercourses cross state borders, so the book pays close attention to transboundary water management including the legal and economic approaches of the European Union. Human rights and participation are also shown to play an increasingly important role in terms of both law and financing of water projects. Case studies illustrate the development of practical strategies for environmentally friendly and socially acceptable solutions, notably through the concept of adaptive water management. This book will appeal to academics in environmental law, as well as researchers and project groups in organisations dealing with water management and human rights. Contributors include: N. Bankes, A. Belinskij, H. Coetzee, E. Couzens, M. Couzens, D. Curran, L. Dai, D. Fisher, E.J. Hollo, I. Kornfeld, L. Kotze, T. Kuokkanen, S. Mascher, E.N. Nyanchaga, M. Onestini, T. Paloniitty, M. Reese, B. Schmidt, M. van Rijswick, P. Vihervuori

This original and insightful book explores and examines the impact that building mega-dams has on the human rights of indigenous peoples living in surrounding areas, who are often significantly affected. It demonstrates the many ways in which human rights are violated by governments and other institutions in relation to large dam projects, and the wider effect this can have on these regions. Compiling case studies from around the world, Itzchak Kornfeld provides clear examples of how human rights violations are perpetrated and compounded, as the construction of and flooding that results from these dams destroys livelihoods, cultural legacies and the local ecology, and promises of resettlement from governments are routinely broken. With chapters examining historical, recent and ongoing dam projects, the book also highlights the involvement of development banks and their failure to respect even their own policies in relation to issues such as environmental impact assessments. This incisive book will be valuable to lawyers, political scientists, and other professionals working in the area of human rights, as well as academics and students. It will also be of interest to those working for government agencies, international organizations, and others involved in dam construction and similar large-scale projects.

This book provides a magisterial account of the history, conceptualization, and institutionalization of the concept of sustainable development in international law and policy-making. It provides helpful and insightful illumination of these issues, both at a general level and specifically through an extended case study of the evolution of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture - a particularly appropriate choice of case study given that agriculture implicates a wide range of divergent values, including the economic benefits of free trade; promoting access to affordable food; protecting small subsistence farmers, especially in developing countries; and minimizing environmental degradation through over-exploitation of natural resources such as fisheries, soil depletion or contamination. An overarching and constructive theme of the book is the need for greater legal coherence in international law making across these various domains which are often fragmented in institutional silos that lack effective integrating mechanisms.' - Michael Trebilcock, University of Toronto, Canada'Sustainable development, now made fully operational thanks to the contribution of Elisabeth Burgi Bonanomi, can support policy reforms that will improve global governance, thus ensuring that the trade regime is shaped to support the policy objectives that it is meant to serve. The area of food and agriculture is in many ways a case study of a lack of consistency across policy areas. It is now high time to overcome this failure. I have no doubt that this volume represents a major contribution towards this end.' - Olivier De Schutter, Member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The concept of sustainable development has become a fundamental discourse in international decision making. To enable pragmatic sustainable development governance, legally coherent, mutually supportive multilateral treaties are both necessary and important. This timely book provides an accessible insight into how the concept of sustainable development can be made operational for coherent law making through its translation into legal terms. The book is split into two informative points of inquiry. The first part of the book explores the origins of the sustainable development debate and sheds light on how the international community has inadequately operationalized the concept to utilize its full potential. In this view, Elisabeth Burgi Bonanomi illustrates how sustainable development can facilitate coherent international law making when it is understood as a multidimensional legal principle and methodical norm. The second part of the book adopts this notion as an analytical lens on the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, placing the focus specifically on food security and food sustainability. The overarching discussion contributes to one of the most intricate debates of international food governance and investigates the unresolved question of what a sustainable and coherent agricultural trade agreement could look like. Providing a comprehensive overview of sustainable development law, its origins, and its current theories, scholars and students with a background in international public law, trade, and investment law, development and human rights law, international relations, and environmental policy will find this book a valuable reference tool. Practitioners and policy-makers will benefit from the insight into the search for politically coherent and sustainable legal agreements.

Droit international de l'environnement: Textes de base et reference est le premier recueil de textes et de references de droit international de l'environnement publie en francais. Il rassemble en un volume tous les renseignements necessaires pour aborder ce domaine complexe et en rapide evolution. L'inclusion d'adresses de secretariats et de sites Internet font de ce livre un instrument unique qui restera d'actualite pendant de nombreuses annees. Les introductions au debut de chaque chapitre donnent au lecteur une vision d'ensemble du sujet du chapitre, presentant le contexte dans lequel evoluent les instruments du droit international de l'environnement reproduits dans le chapitre en question. Les indications bibliographiques et les nombreuses references permettant de retrouver d'autres traites faciliteront la tache de toute personne desirant pousser ses recherches plus loin. Ce livre constituera un outil essential pour quiconque - avocat, diplomate, etudiant ou representant d'organisations non-gouvernementales, chercheur independant - s'interesse a la politique internationale d l'environnement et au droit y relatif.

The ecosystem approach, broadly understood as a legal and governance strategy for integrated environmental and biodiversity management, has been adopted within a wide variety of international environmental legal regimes and provides a narrative, a policy approach and in some cases legally binding obligations for States to implement what has been called a 'new paradigm' of environmental management. In this last respect, the ecosystem approach is also often considered to offer an opportunity to move beyond the outdated anthropocentric framework underpinning much of international environmental law, thus helping re-think law in the Anthropocene. Against this background, this book addresses the question of whether the ecosystem approach represents a paradigm shift in international environmental law and governance, or whether it is in conceptual and operative continuity with legal modernity. This central question is explored through a combined genealogical and biopolitical framework, which reveals how the ecosystem approach is the result of multiple contingencies and contestations, and of the interplay of divergent and sometimes irreconcilable ideological projects. The ecosystem approach, this books shows, does not have a univocal identity, and must be understood as both signalling the potential for a decisive shift in the philosophical orientation of law and the operationalisation of a biopolitical framework of control that is in continuity with, and even intensifies, the eco-destructive tendencies of legal modernity. It is, however, in revealing this disjunction that the book opens up the possibility of moving beyond the already tired assessment of environmental law through the binary of anthropocentrism and ecocentrism.

This discerning book examines the challenges, opportunities and solutions for courts adjudicating on environmental cases. It offers a critical analysis of the practice and judgments of courts from various representative and influential jurisdictions. Through the analysis and comparison of court practices and case law across global domestic courts as varied as the National Green Tribunal in India, the Land and Environment Court in Australia, and the District Court of The Hague in the Netherlands, the expert contributors bring together a wealth of knowledge in order to enhance mutual learning and understanding towards an environmental rule of law. In doing so, they illustrate that courts play a vital role in the formation and crystallization of rulings and decisions to protect and conserve the environment. Ultimately, they prove that there are many lessons to be learnt from other legal systems in seeking to maintain and enhance the environmental rule of law. Contemporary and global in scope, Courts and the Environment is essential reading for scholars and students of environmental law, as well as judges, legal practitioners and policymakers interested in understanding the legal challenges to and the legal basis for protecting environmental values in courts. Contributors: A. Bengtsson, L. Butterly, O. Chornous, T. Daya-Winterbottom, Y.K. Dewi, G.E.K. Dzah, H.S. Ferreira, R. Guidone, D. Hodas, A. Jayadi, S. Jolly, H. Jonas, A. Kennedy, N. Kichigin, E. Lamprea, M.A. Leon Moreta, B Liu, Z. Makuch, P. Martin, R.L.M. Mendes, N.H.T. Nam, A.M. Paez, R. Pepper, B. Preston, N. Robinson, D.A. Serraglio, O. Spijkers, C. Voigt, Z. Zhang

This book offers a detailed account of the legal issues concerning the British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Islands) by leading experts in the field. It examines the broader significance of the ongoing Bancoult litigation in the UK Courts, the Chagos Islanders' petition to the European Court of Human Rights and Mauritius' successful challenge, under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, to the UK government's creation of a Marine Protected Area around the Chagos Archipelago. This book, produced in response to the 50th anniversary of the BIOT's founding, also assesses the impact of the decisions taken in respect of the Territory against a wider background of decolonization while addressing important questions about the lawfulness of maintaining Overseas Territories in the post-colonial era.The chapter 'Anachronistic As Colonial Remnants May Be...' - Locating the Rights of the Chagos Islanders As A Case Study of the Operation of Human Rights Law in Colonial Territories is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

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.

The first volume of the International Environmental Law Reports focuses on early decisions. It includes all the well known, and some lesser known, international decisions relevant to international environmental law prior to the 1970s, with a summary of each decision. Volume 1 also includes a number of very early national decisions considered important in the development of international environmental law, either because they were the background against which international decisions were shaped or because they are often referred to but are not widely available in English. Other decisions are included in because they illustrate of national views of the content and direction of international law at the beginning of the twentieth century. This is the first ever collection devoted to international environmental law decisions, an essential work of reference collecting all relevant materials in one place.

This monograph is the first to bring together and critically assess the extensive scholarship and practice on the burning topic of whether domestic climate change legislation can also be imposed on imports. No explicit WTO ruling exists on the matter. Yet, this book shows the way to implement WTO-consistent carbon-related border adjustment. It also uniquely assesses possible negotiated solutions especially in the context of preferential trade agreements. An excellent reference work for students, scholars and legislators concerned about effectively fighting climate change in line with international trade commitments.' - Professor Joost Pauwelyn, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland'Holzer has authored a fine study of how world trade law supervises important actual and potential climate measures. The book skillfully examines the relevant WTO rules and then applies them to various carbon-related border adjustments. The author concludes that some carbon measures may be in conflict with trade rules and makes recommendations for how to head off such conflicts. Her innovative suggestions include recourse to preferential trade agreements.' - Professor Steve Charnovitz, The George Washington University Law School, US By expounding the legal foundations of border tax adjustments in international trade regulation, this book lays out the scope and limitations within which border carbon adjustments need to operate. The author examines the extent to which countries can lawfully impose border adjustment measures in relation to the carbon footprint of products on importation and exportation. In doing so, she provides a thorough analysis of the provisions of the WTO Agreement applicable to border carbon adjustments, offers a comprehensive review of relevant case law and engages with the extensive literature on the subject. Given the probability of conflict with non-discrimination rules of the GATT and uncertainty over justification of different designs of carbon-related border adjustment schemes under the exceptions of GATT Article XX, the book argues for a negotiated solution and discusses the possibility of the use of border carbon adjustments under preferential trade agreements. Carbon-Related Border Adjustment and WTO Law will be of great benefit to policymakers and practitioners working in the area of climate policy and trade regulation. Researchers and advanced students in international economic law and international environmental law will also find much to interest them in this work. Contents: 1. Introduction Part I: Carbon-related Border Adjustment: Putting the Issue into Context 2. Human-induced Climate Change and Global Action 3. Border Adjustment as it Relates to Climate Policy 4. Border Adjustment Practices in International Trade Part II: WTO Legal Issues Concerning Carbon-related Border Adjustment 5. PPM-based Border Adjustment Under WTO Law 6. The Possibility of Defense Under General Exceptions of GATT Article XX 7. Testing WTO Compliance of Various Forms of Carbon-related BAMs 8. Legal Issues Arising from the Implementation of Carbon-related BAMs Part III: Solutions to the WTO-Inconsistency of Carbon-related Border Adjustment 9. The Potential of and Limits to a Multilateral Approach 10. A Bilateral Approach to Imposing Carbon-related Border Adjustments 11. Summary of Main Findings Index

This thought-provoking book stimulates dialogue and action on the role of global ethics in the governance of both individual societies and the international order. Such inquiry is imperative given the extraordinary challenges that face the world today. Calling for a renewed discussion on global ethics, this unique book responds to two seminal texts on global ethics and the promise of the Earth Charter written by J. Ronald Engel whose pioneering work continues to influence the debate over democracy's place in the Anthropocene. It aims to inspire an active movement that can reclaim the moral high ground and motivate the vision of a just, sustainable future. Leading figures in environmental ethics, philosophy and law approach questions surrounding global ethics and governance from a range of cultural and philosophical perspectives. Emphasis is placed on the role that ''declarations'' such as the Earth Charter can play in this work, alongside the importance of deepening global dialogues. The Crisis in Global Ethics and the Future of Global Governance will appeal to students and academics working in the fields of law, philosophy and the social sciences, as well as community groups endorsing the Earth Charter and global initiatives.

This highly topical book considers the important question of how best to protect the environment of the Third Pole - the area comprising the Hindu Kush Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau - using the tool of international law; specifically, international environmental law and the law of international watercourses. Following detailed analysis of weaknesses in current legal protections according to comparative legal theory, Simon Marsden recommends three potential options for implementation by policy and lawmakers. The first option is to transplant existing international law, including conventions from the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the Council of Europe. Secondly, transplantation of a comprehensive international treaty, based upon the Alpine and Carpathian regimes, is suggested. The overwhelmingly European focus of the first two options, and possible contextual constraints to implementation, informs a third option: the development of a new treaty, giving appropriate attention to the Asian context on one hand, and the need for access of information and public participation on the other, to ensure effective implementation and compliance. Taking a comparative, interdisciplinary approach, Protecting the Third Pole will be a key resource for legal and policy scholars. NGO's and practitioners will also benefit from its detailed analysis.

The International Environmental Standards Handbook provides the necessary historical background to understand the current status of international environmental standards. The practicality of the book is evident in the inclusion of material: copies of available treaties, laws and standards, as well as recommendations for businesses. This book is an important tool for companies that are increasingly impacted by the global market. Today's companies need to know what environmental controls are in effect in various countries and how they impact the ability to compete. Lack of knowledge about - and noncompliance with - international standards results in reduced sales and partnership opportunities as well as liability and possible legal action against the company. This valuable comprehensive desk reference, suitable for the novice and the professional, provides a background in the origin of international environmental concerns and controls; the way in which these concerns manifested themselves in treaties, laws, and standards; how countries differ in current expectation; and, most importantly, the evolving consensus of using a universal quality assurance standard for environmental management. International Environmental Standards Handbook gives a structured method to improve environmental performance. It contains many of the environmental tools and methodologies that environmental managers can use for short-term and long-term business decision making in a global environment.