This book is the most updated and comprehensive look at efforts to protect the Amazon, home to half of the world's remaining tropical forests. In the past five years, the Basin's countries have become the cutting edge of environmental enforcement through formation of constitutional protections, military operations, stringent laws, police forces, judicial procedures and societal efforts that together break through barriers that have long restrained decisive action. Even such advances, though, struggle to curb devastation by oil extraction, mining, logging, dams, pollution, and other forms of ecocide. In every country, environmental protection is crippled by politics, bureaucracy, unclear laws, untrained officials, small budgets, regional rivalries, inter-ministerial competition, collusion with criminals, and the global demand for oils and minerals. Countries are better at creating environmental agencies, that is, than making sure that they work. This book explains why, with country studies written by those on the front lines-from national enforcement directors to biologists and activists.

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.

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 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.

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

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 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.

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.

The Contribution of International Fisheries Law to Human Development: An Analysis of Multilateral and ACP-EU Fisheries Instruments examines whether and how legal fisheries instruments encompass a normative consensus on human development. Focusing on both multilateral (treaties and soft-law) as well as the ACP-EU bilateral fisheries instruments, Nienke van der Burgt provides a detailed analysis as to whether these different types of legal instruments reflect the principles of equity, poverty eradication and participation, which have been identified as key indicators of human development. Moreover, specific attention is paid to whether explicit reference is made to the small-scale fisheries sector and to the role of women. Concluding that despite increasing evidence of the potential and significant contribution of fisheries towards human development, legal fisheries instruments seem to be struggling with the incorporation of a human development centred approach, The Contribution of International Fisheries Law to Human Development, is essential reading for all those involved in the fields of international environmental law and sustainable human development.

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 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 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

This book advocates pursuing a regional approach to nuclear risk framework, which it argues is more promising in the current scenario than the non-achievable global regime. In the development of international legislation on liability, the nuclear energy sector represents an alternative approach to a transboundary liability regime. Building on this foundation and following the Chernobyl accident, international consensus was sought for a stronger transboundary legal regime in the event of a nuclear disaster. However, after sixty years of the existence of international nuclear liability laws and twenty-five years after Chernobyl, the primary objectives of the Conventions - harmonization and a global regime - remain unfulfilled. Further, many countries are now creating or expanding nuclear programs without adequate transboundary legal protection. In light of these issues, a regional approach is an option that cannot be ignored. Given its rapidly expanding nuclear energy footprint, South Asia is in a unique position to adopt a regional mechanism. The methodology adopted for the study in the book combines a literature review of international law on nuclear liability with an analysis of South Asian nuclear energy programs and their international and national legal obligations. A technical risk assessment study conducted to identify the level of transboundary nuclear risk within South Asia is also presented. This is followed by interviews with experts and policymakers to gauge the willingness of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) community to respond to this shared regional concern.

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

This book explores the process of shipbreaking in developing countries, with a particular focus on Bangladesh. In the past, shipbreaking (the disposal of obsolete ships) was a very common industrial activity in many developed countries. However, due to stringent domestic environmental and labour laws it is almost impossible for the increasing number of vessels to be disposed of domestically, and now developing nations including Bangladesh, China, India, Turkey and Pakistan regularly participate in this activity. The shipbreaking yards in these countries are not only detrimental to the marine and coastal environment but also represent significant health hazards to local people and workers. Given the global importance of the issue, an effective legal and institutional framework for a sustainable operation of the shipbreaking industry is desperately needed. Sitting at the intersection of three distinct fields - environmental justice, international environmental law and international maritime law - this book offers an innovative take on the issues surrounding the shipbreaking process. Drawing on the case study of Bangladesh due to its prominence in the shipbreaking industry, the author implements an environmental justice framework to examine the issues of sustainability surrounding shipbreaking, and analyses the relationship between social development, economic development and environmental protection. Maritime perspectives of environmental justice will also be highlighted through a discussion of the International Maritime Organization's role in the implementation of the Hong Kong Convention in developing countries. This book will be of great interest to scholars of environmental justice, international maritime law and international environmental law.

Environmental mediation continues to develop and evolve in different jurisdictions across the world in order to prevent potential environmental conflicts or to resolve the conflicts while avoiding the inherent drawbacks of an adjudicated solution. This book takes a comparative approach to explore the legal framework of environmental mediation with a focus on the judicial, administrative and private procedures and the criteria for accrediting mediators in a range of jurisdictions across the world. It also examines practical considerations for environmental mediators while analysing the effectiveness of different mediation processes.

Over recent decades, there have been pivotal changes in the management and protection of water resources as human rights, environmental and water law have all turned towards the conservation of freshwater. This astute Research Handbook analyses the interactions and interplay between law and other fields, bringing together interdisciplinary contributors, from both academic and practitioner background, to establish the extent to which law is being informed by other fields. Providing expert advice from disciplines ranging from law and political science to geography and hydrogeology, this Research Handbook critically examines the impact on freshwater law on various disciplines. Offering concrete illustrations of the relationships between environmental sciences and law, and combining legal research with theories of international relations, political science, and environmental sciences, the Research Handbook on Freshwater Law and International Relations provides an original methodology to examine the challenge of freshwater management and protection. The insights provided by this Research Handbook will be invaluable to law and political science researchers with an interest freshwater law and international relations, as well as advanced students of environmental sciences and practitioners and decision makers in freshwater management and protection. Contributors include: D. Azaria, A. Aureli, M. Beniston, L. Boisson de Chazournes, T. Bolognesi, C. Brethaut, L. Caflisch, A. Correia Lima Macedo Franca, A. Dumont, E. Dupuits, E. Fiechter-Widemann, S. Hawkins, S. Kpenou, Z.W. Kundzewicz, C. Leb, L. Maertens, R. Martin-Nagle, M.M. Mbengue, S. McCaffrey, O. McIntyre, M. Milano, N. Odili, G. Pflieger, S.M.A. Salman, E. Reynard, A. Rivera, M. Stoffel, A. Tanzi, M. Tignino, L. Turley, B. Zerhdoud

This book explores the dilemmas posed by globalisation in various aspects of law. It covers diverse themes, ranging from the impact of different legislative measures, bilateral and regional agreements in the context of trade, investment and mobility of labour, to concerns about sustainability, equity, regional balance and social security in the light of globalisation. Although it focuses mainly on India and the European Union, the issues raised and challenges discussed are of a general nature, and as such relevant in the broader context. The chapters address contemporary problems in trade, investment and labour mobility, which have emerged through the complex interaction of market, state policies and socio-environmental concerns, and are expressed on national and global platforms in the context of evolving legal system. The book is a valuable resource for students, researchers and academics engaged in comparative legal studies, particularly those interested in studying the interplay of globalisation with various areas and aspects of law at national as well as international levels. It also appeals to anyone interested in law and policy studies.

Geopolitical changes combined with the increasing urgency of ambitious climate action have re-opened debates about justice and international climate policy. Mechanisms and insights from transitional justice have been used in over thirty countries across a range of conflicts at the interface of historical responsibility and imperatives for collective futures. However, lessons from transitional justice theory and practice have not been systematically explored in the climate context. The comparison gives rise to new ideas and strategies that help address climate change dilemmas. This book examines the potential of transitional justice insights to inform global climate governance. It lays out core structural similarities between current global climate governance tensions and transitional justice contexts. It explores how transitional justice approaches and mechanisms could be productively applied in the climate change context. These include responsibility mechanisms such as amnesties, legal accountability measures, and truth commissions, as well as reparations and institutional reform. The book then steps beyond reformist transitional justice practice to consider more transformative approaches, and uses this to explore a wider set of possibilities for the climate context. Each chapter presents one or more concrete proposals arrived at by using ideas from transitional justice and applying them to the justice tensions central to the global climate context. By combining these two fields the book provides a new framework through which to understand the challenges of addressing harms and strengthening collective climate action. This book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of climate change and transitional justice.