Climate change and other environmental problems are increasingly leading to the displacement of populations from their homelands, whether through drought, flooding, famine or other causes. Worse, there is currently no protection in international law for people made refugees by such means.Following on from her previous explorations of environmental justice as it relates to future generations and indigenous peoples, Laura Westra now turns her attention to the plight of ecological refugees. In Part I, Westra provides an overview of what defines an ecological refugee and their present legal status. Part II goes into greater depth as to who the vulnerable are and what protection they have in international law. Part III looks to the future, advocating a comprehensive approach to the problem. With extensive examples and analysis, this is a compelling treatment that will be indispensable for legal professionals, government and business leaders, academics and students of the role of law in the protection of the rights of refugees.

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a regulatory requirement for development across Europe, North America, Australasia and elsewhere, yet understanding the legal aspects is challenging. This comprehensive guide provides that understanding in a clear and straightforward way. The introduction considers SEA and the law, explaining what SEA is, why it is needed, how it works and why it is required, as well as examining the role of the law. Part One provides an overview of international law, environmental impact assessment (EIA) and international law, including treaties, customary international law and 'soft law' relevant to SEA. It analyzes the Kiev SEA Protocol and related UNECE conventions, the Espoo Convention on EIA in a Transboundary Context and the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. It also analyzes the role of SEA in the conservation conventions, particularly the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, the Convention on Migratory Species, the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, and the Convention on Biological Diversity.Part Two considers how the European legal system works, including an overview of the current status of European law. It examines the EIA Directive and SEA Directive together with other relevant directives and regulations, such as the Habitats and Wild Birds Directives, the Water Framework Directive, the Public Participation for Plans and Programs Directive, and the Structural Funds Regulations. Finally, the volume draws conclusions about the relationship and comparisons between international and European law generally, and inregulating SEA.

This important new monograph offers an innovative new analysis of the Aarhus Convention. Environmental law is dense with monolithic concepts, from environmental democracy to intergenerational justice, from sustainable development to stewardship. Each concept generates its own mythology about what environmental law should aspire to. Sometimes these ideas become so big that we lose hold of their meaning and therefore what we allude to when we describe environmental law in such terms. No more so is this true than in relation to the Aarhus Convention - an ambitious instrument of environmental law that promotes public participation and access to justice in relation to the environment. Since its inception it has been revered in glowing terms, and praised variously for its contribution to citizenship, environmental responsibility and democratic legitimacy. But how are we to know whether these descriptions are mere puffs or genuine statements about the Convention's character? This book digs deep into the foundations of the Aarhus Convention, examining its ambitious potential through the lens of three foundational purposes - environmental rights, democracy and stewardship. In so doing, it contributes to our understanding both of the Convention and our understanding of three important purposes that inhabit environmental law, unravelling and reassembling them to build meaning into our broad-brush descriptions.

Saving endangered species presents a critical and increasingly pressing challenge for conservation and sustainability movements, and is also matter of survival and livelihoods for the world's poorest and vulnerable communities. In 1973, a global Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was adopted to stem the extinction of many species. In 2015, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 15) the United Nations called for urgent action to protect endangered species and their natural habitats. This volume focuses on the legal implementation of CITES to achieve the global SDGs. Activating interdisciplinary analysis and case studies across jurisdictions, the contributors analyse the potential for CITES to promote more sustainable development, proposing international and national regulatory innovations for implementing CITES. They consider recent innovations and key intervention points along flora and fauna value chains, advancing coherent recommendations to strengthen CITES implementation, including through the regulation of trade in endangered species globally and locally.

The Sardar Sarovar Project has been one of the most debated development projects of the past several decades at the international level and within India itself. Such is the complexity of the project that it has acquired symbolic status in development debates. This volume brings together all the key documents relating to the project. This includes those pertaining to World Bank loans, the judicial pronouncements of the Supreme Court and documents relating to specific local level issues, in particular environment and rehabilitation. The volume also contains a number of documents unavailable in the public domain. The work includes an introductory section focusing on the history of the project, the involvement of the different actors, the impacts on the local population, and a general analysis of the controversy surrounding it. The volume is completed by a comprehensive bibliography. This compilation provides an easily accessible source for all the main documents relating to this landmark project. It will be a valuable resource for researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of International Environmental Law and International Development Law.

Scientists have long been searching for a unified field theory-one answer to all of the questions about the physical universe. In this book, Rhett Larson takes a similar approach to social policy questions. What if we could find a unified social policy theory-the answer to every question from how to prevent war to how to promote gender equality? Most of our most serious global challenges are complex, multi-faceted "wicked problems." But perhaps the first step in solving wicked problems as seemingly distinct as racism and disease epidemics is the same: reform our laws, policies, and priorities to achieve global water security. Global water security means reasonable access for all people to water of acceptable quantity and quality with acceptable costs and risks. Just as the essential element to all life is water, so water is the essential element to solving life's challenges. Virtually every major social challenge-including gender inequality, racial discrimination, terrorism, space exploration, global disease epidemics, mass migrations, and climate change-has a significant and underappreciated water component. Each chapter of this book takes up one of these wicked problems, illustrates the role water plays in that problem, and proposes reforms to address the water aspect of that problem, with the aim of achieving global water security. The goal of this this book is to convince the reader that the answer, or at least one part of the answer, to our most serious problems is the oft-repeated catchphrase: "Just add water."

Professor Fisher's analysis reveals the rationality, or rather the lack of it, of current environmental decision-making. It also provides the evidence for an environmental grundnorm to guide legal reasoning. Without it, political and legal decision-makers will not be able to achieve ecologically sustainable development. A timely book on a hugely important issue.' - Klaus Bosselmann, University of Auckland, Australia'I am afraid that an endorsement of this kind, however condense and packed with praise, cannot do justice to Doug Fisher's latest book. A respected and seasoned environmental law scholar, Fisher skilfully reminds us that law is about language and that language is the point of commencement of legal reasoning, also in environmental law and governance. Importantly, language and legal argumentation and reasoning will play a determinative role in our efforts to achieve sustainability. The book's detailed account of the different forms of legal argumentation; the methodology of legal decision-making; and the connection between law, language and legal reasoning in international environmental law and governance, is an invaluable resource for scholars of legal hermeneutics, international lawyers generally, and specifically, for environmental lawyers.'BR>- Louis J. Kotze, North West University, South Africa Legal Reasoning in Environmental Law provides a comprehensive review and analysis of the range of legal reasoning processes to support the understanding, interpretation and application of international, regional and national rules of environmental law. The book considers how rules for environmental governance are designed to accommodate the various competing interests within each of the private and public sectors and also between the two sectors. The author then examines how decisions in particular cases reflect the sources of these rules together with their form, structure and language. He exposes the ways in which reliance upon an extensive range of legal reasoning processes are used to justify the particular decision by interpreting and applying these rules to the case in question. Much has been written about legal reasoning and about environmental law but relatively little about the relationship between the two. This book will strongly appeal to legal scholars for its analysis of intellectual processes, and to legal practitioners for its exposition of how decisions are made. Contents: Preface Part I: Reasoning in a Legal Context 1. Law, Language and Reasoning 2. Forms of Legal Argumentation 3. The Methodology of Legal Decision-making Part II: Legal Reasoning in International Environmental Law 4. Rules of Competence and Limitation: Territorial Resources 5. Rules of Limitation: Common Resources 6. Internationally Accepted Rules: The Normative Framework 7. Internationally Accepted Rules: Implementation Measures 8. Judicially Constructed Rules: Biological Resources 9. Judicially Constructed Rules: Common Resources Part III: Legal Reasoning in Applying Environmental Law 10. Rules in the Form of Human Rights 11. Rules in Instrumental Form 12. Rules in the Form of Constitutional Rights 13. Rules in the Form of Environmental Rights 14. The Structure, Form and Language of Statutory Rules 15. Rules Informing Adjudication 16. Strategic Rules Informing Decisions 17. Strategic Rules Regulating Decisions Part IV: Conclusion 18. Legal Reasoning in Environmental Law Bibliography Index

This compilation of key materials in international environmental law takes account of the most significant developments in the field that have occurred during the past decade, including in the areas of climate change, chemicals and pesticides, biosafety, and nuclear safety, as well as good governance, compliance and liability. Not only does multilateral environmental law making have wide-ranging repercussions on the way national development policies are drafted and business is conducted, but also environmental issues increasingly interweave with those relating to human rights, trade, agriculture and intellectual property, making familiarity with the key instruments in international law essential for all working in these areas. The book comprises a representative selection of the most important studies in international environmental law, with an editorial introduction to each topic. Its focus on recent trends and cross-sectoral aspects makes it an indispensable tool for students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers in international environmental law and related fields.

This book is a comprehensive study of differential treatment for developing countries in international environmental law. It offers a compelling analysis of the legal dimension of the relationship between developed and developing countries in the environmental field and beyond. It first critically examines the principle of legal equality of states and then explores the conceptual framework behind the notion of differential treatment in international law and its relevance in bringing about substantive equality. The book examines the development of differentiation in international environmental law, considers its application in various environmental treaties and evaluates the legal status of existing differential norms. It also examines the contribution of differentiation to the implementation of environmental treaties and the extent to which differential treatment fosters the decentralization of international environmental policy making. It is an indispensable resource for all actors involved in environmental law and policy making, scholars and students.

This book reviews and examines the relevant portions of all international treaties, cases and the national law and practice of states, in relation to international aspects of offshore oil rigs. By doing so, it offers an understanding of the legal regime surrounding oil rigs and formulates an international law framework. It investigates the issues under consideration by analyzing provisions of international law pertaining to all aspects of oil rigs, as well as international treaties and their travaux preparatoires. It also examines the national legislation of major offshore oil and gas producers and defines a framework of customary international entities such as the OSPAR and the petroleum industries of certain major offshore oil producers. Based upon the book's findings, it is clear that in spite of their increasing importance, offshore oil installations are subject to fragmentary and vague legal rules under international law.

This book argues that legal geography provides new insights into contemporary conservation challenges. Despite unprecedented efforts, we are facing an extinction crisis, and in situ protected area programs are falling short. This book discusses the protected area phenomenon and calls for changes to current approaches, informed by legal geography -an inter-disciplinary area focused on the intertwined people-place-law dynamics that enable, or disable, effective management practices. The book examines two protected area types: World Heritage Sites, where places of 'outstanding universal value' are protected for all humanity, and Ramsar protected wetland sites, one of the first global environmental protection initiatives. Using case studies from the Australasian region (Australia, the Pacific and Southeast Asia), it reveals how current approaches can be improved by taking into account the people-place-law nexus embedded in legal geography research.

This insightful book deals with the complexity of linking biodiversity with climate change. It combines perspectives from international, national and local case studies, and also addresses this question using a thematic approach. The book focuses on a number of key topics and examples, including: ecosystem services, human rights, MEA clustering, equity in ABS and REDD, forestation and deforestation, biosecurity, protected areas, mountain biodiversity, the Amazon rainforest, agricultural policy in the EU and patent licensing. Clearly demonstrating linkages between biodiversity law and climate change law and stimulating new ideas for future research, this book will be a valuable reference tool for academics, researchers, students and policy-makers.

This book brings together original and novel perspectives on major developments in human rights law and the environment in Africa. Focusing on African Union law, the book explores the core concepts and principles, theory and practice, accountability mechanisms and key issues challenging human rights law in the era of global environmental change. It, thus, extend the frontier of understanding in this fundamental area by building on existing scholarship on African human rights law and the protection of the environment, divulging concerns on redressing environmental and human rights protection issues in the context of economic growth and sustainable development. It further offers unique insight into the development, domestication and implementation challenges relating to human rights law and environmental governance in Africa. This long overdue interdisciplinary exploration of human rights law and the environment from an African perspective will be an indispensable reference point for academics, policymakers, practitioners and advocates of international human rights and environmental law in particular and international law, environmental politics and philosophy, and African studies in general. It is clear that there is much to do, study and share on this timely subject in the African context.

This book applies a justice framework to analysis of the actual and potential role of international law with respect to people on the move in the context of anthropogenic climate change. That people are affected by the impacts of climate change is no longer doubted, including with implications for people movement (migration, displacement, relocation, etc.). Climate Change and People on the Move tackles unique questions concerning international responsibility for people movement arising from the inequities inherent to climate change. Corrective and distributive justice provide the analytical backbone, and are explored in a substantial theoretical chapter and then applied to subsequent contextual analysis. Corrective justice supports analysis as to whether people movement in the climate change context could be conceived or framed as harm, loss, or damage which is compensable under international law, either through fault-centred regimes or no-fault regimes (i.e. insurance). Distributive justice supports analysis as to whether such movement could be conceived or framed as a disproportionate burden, either for those faced with movement or those faced with sheltering people on the move, from which duties of re-distribution may stem. This book contributes to the growing scholarship and analysis concerning international law or governance and people movement in response to the impacts of climate change by investigating the bounds of the law where the phenomenon is viewed as one of (in)justice.

In 2015, the United Nations established seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that aimed 'to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all' by 2030. The chapters within this collection address each of these SDGs, considering how they relate to one another and international law, and what institutions could aid their implementation. Development has been a contentious topic since the decolonization period after World War II, and issues surrounding sustainable development are necessarily impacted by the multifaceted relationship between the Global South and Global North. Confronting the context and challenge of sustainable development, this collection outlines how the international economic system problematizes the attainment of the SDGs. Introducing a novel, cosmopolitan approach, this book offers new ways of understanding sustainable development and suggests potential solutions so that we might finally achieve it.

Governance of Genetic Resources maps out a landscape of the international governance of genetic resources. It shows what governance efforts currently exist, what is missing, which areas are problematic, and outlines what the international community should be aiming for in regard to its future development and implementation.The book begins by exploring the historical development of international genetic resources governance and considers why the area has become so significant and complex. It goes on to analyze the current situation and develop recommendations on what governance efforts should be achieving for the future. This timely study will be of interest to students and academics concerned with the management of genetic resources and its connection to issues such as intellectual property rights, biodiversity conservation and food security. It will appeal strongly to academic researchers in the fields of international relations, international law and global governance, environmental science, development studies, and the biosciences. The book will also appeal to policy-makers and practitioners, particularly those working in or with international organizations involved in genetic resources governance and to national decision makers seeking information on the international context for genetic resources management. Contents: 1. Introduction Part I: Resources and Issues for International Governance of Genetic Resources 2. Resources 3. Issues Part II: Current Landscape of Genetic Resources Governance . Actors 5. Rules 6. Emerging Trends and Initiatives 7. Problems and Implications Part III: Improved Governance 8. Improved Governance 9. Conclusion References Index

No one sets out to intentionally cause environmental problems. All things being equal, we are happy to protect environmental resources; in fact, we tend to prefer our air cleaner and our species protected. But despite not wanting to create environmental problems, we all do so regularly in the course of living our everyday lives. Why do we behave in ways that cause environmental harm? It is often easy and inexpensive to behave in ways with bad environmental consequences, but more difficult and costly to take environmentally friendly actions. The incentives we face, some created by the nature of environmental resources, some by social and political structures, often do not make environmentally beneficial behavior the most likely choice. Furthermore, our behavior is conditioned by habits and social norms that fail to take environmental protection into consideration. In this book, Elizabeth R. DeSombre integrates research from political science, sociology, psychology, and economics to understand why bad environmental behavior makes perfect sense. As she notes, there is little evidence that having more information about environmental problems or the way an individual's actions contribute to them changes behavior in meaningful ways, and lack of information is rarely the underlying cause that connects behavior to harm. In some cases such knowledge may even backfire, as people come to see themselves as powerless to address huge global problems and respond by pushing these issues out of their minds. The fact that causing environmental problems is never anyone's primary goal means that people are happy to stop causing them if the alternative behavior still accomplishes their underlying goals. If we can figure out why those problems are caused, when no one intends to cause them, we can develop strategies that work to shift behavior in a positive direction. Over the course of this book, DeSombre considers the role of structure, incentives, information, habit, and norms on behavior in order to formulate lessons about how these factors lead to environmentally problematic behavior, and what understanding their effects can tell us about ways to change behavior. To prevent or address environmental problems, we have to understand why even good people do bad environmental things.

At the time of the 1972 Stockholm UN Conference on the Human Environment, the concept of sustainable development and the subject of international environmental law were virtually unknown. Since then, the importance of the subject has burgeoned, as has the number and complexity of the legal instruments that seek to address the threats posed to the planet by humankind. Deforestation, marine pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity and similar concerns are now familiar - and still unresolved - problems. This research review discusses a selection of key articles on the seminal issues of sustainable development and international environmental law, providing the reader with a solid understanding of the breadth and texture of the legal issues involved.

At a time of profound change and rethinking, this book provides insights into how environmental law in the UK has developed into its current form, and considers challenges it will face in the future. Irresolute Clay is not a legal history or textbook, nor a conventional set of legal memoirs. Instead it offers a personal account of the inside stories as experienced by one of the key architects of contemporary environmental law. Taking a thematic approach, it charts fundamental tenets of the subject (such as environmental sanctions, the European dimension, developing the academic discipline of environmental law, and environmental courts and tribunals), from the beginnings of the modern environmental law era in the 1970s to the present day.

How can America get back to an energy transition that's good for the economy and the environment? That's the question at the heart of this eye-opening and richly informative dissection of the Trump administration's energy policy. The policy was ardently pro-fossil fuel and ferociously anti-regulation, implemented by manipulating science and economic analysis, putting oil and gas insiders at the helm of environmental agencies, and hacking away at democratic norms that once enjoyed bipartisan support. The impacts on the nation's health, economy, and environment were - as this book carefully demonstrates - dire. But the damage can be reversed. Ordinary Americans, civil society groups, environmental professionals, and politicians at every level all have parts to play in making sure the needed energy transition leaves no one behind. This compelling book will appeal to course instructors and students, government and industry officials, activists and journalists, and everyone concerned about the nation's future.

This book critically engages the shortcomings of the field of international heritage law, seen through the lenses of the five major UNESCO treaties for the safeguarding of different types of heritage. It argues that these five treaties have effectively prevented local communities, who bear the brunt of the costs associated with international heritage protection, from having a say in how their heritage is managed. The exclusion of local communities often alienates them not only from international decision-making processes but also from their cultural heritage itself, ultimately meaning that systems put in place for the protection of cultural heritage contribute to its disappearance in the long term. International Heritage Law for Communities adds to existing literature by looking at these UNESCO treaties not as isolated regimes, but rather as belonging to a discursive continuum on cultural heritage. In doing so, the book focuses on themes that cut across the relevant UNESCO regimes like the use of expert rule in international heritage law, economics, the relationship between heritage and the environment, among others, rather than the regimes themselves. It uses this mechanism to highlight the blind spots and unintended consequences of UNESCO treaties and how choices made in their drafting have continuing and potentially negative impacts on how we think about and safeguard heritage.

The modern era is facing unprecedented governance challenges in striving to achieve long-term sustainability goals and to limit human impacts on the Earth system. This volume synthesizes a decade of multidisciplinary research into how diverse actors exercise authority in environmental decision making, and their capacity to deliver effective, legitimate and equitable Earth system governance. Actors from the global to the local level are considered, including governments, international organizations and corporations. Chapters cover how state and non-state actors engage with decision-making processes, the relationship between agency and structure, and the variations in governance and agency across different spheres and tiers of society. Providing an overview of the major questions, issues and debates, as well as the theories and methods used in studies of agency in earth system governance, this book provides a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers, as well as practitioners and policy makers working in environmental governance. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance.

Nearly everyone accepts as gospel two assumptions: compliance with environmental rules is high, and enforcement is responsible for making compliance happen. Both are wrong. In fact, serious violations of environmental regulations are widespread, and by far the most important driver of compliance results is not enforcement but the structure of the rule itself. In Next Generation Compliance, Cynthia Giles shows that well-designed regulations deploying creative strategies to make compliance the default can achieve excellent implementation outcomes. Poorly designed rules that create many opportunities to evade, obfuscate, or ignore will have dismal performance that no amount of enforcement will ever fix. Rampant violations have real consequences: unhealthy air, polluted water, contaminated drinking water, exposure to dangerous chemicals, and unrestrained climate-forcing pollution. They also land hardest on already overburdened communities - that's why Next Gen and environmental justice are tightly linked. The good news is there are tools to build much better compliance into regulations, including many tested strategies that can be the building blocks of programs that withstand the inevitable pressures of real life. Next Generation Compliance shows how regulators can avoid the compliance calamities that plague far too many environmental rules today, a lesson that is particularly urgent for regulations tackling climate change. It has an optimistic message: there are ways to ensure reliable results, if regulators jettison incorrect assumptions and design rules that are resilient to the mess and complexity of the real world.

The role of law in responding to global environmental problems and the interplay between different levels of regulation and governance is becoming increasingly relevant in the field of liability and reparation for environmental damage. This book examines the relationship and reciprocal influences between the EU and the international legal order in a multilevel and comparative perspective, in relation to the ongoing efforts to elaborate effective regimes of liability and reparation for environmental damage. It offers a comparative analysis of legal developments in the field of environmental liability within the EU and at the international law level and addresses questions concerning the impact of such interaction on the development, implementation and enforcement of appropriate responses to environmental damage within the respective legal orders and on a global level. Given the book’s focus and the transnational legal dimension of the issues covered, this volume will be of great interest to legal academics and researchers working in the environmental law field from an EU law and international law perspective, as well as more generally to scholars interested in the study of the relationship between EU and international law. Outside academia, the book will also be of great interest to practitioners wishing to get insights into the application of the law of environmental liability in the EU and at the international law level.

The fragmented state of global climate governance poses major challenges to policymakers and scholars alike. Through an in-depth examination of regime interactions between the international climate regime and three other regimes (on clean technology, biodiversity and international trade), this book provides novel and timely insights into the various consequences of regime interactions. It also offers a critical discussion of the potential for legal techniques and institutional coordination to foster synergies and mitigate conflicts between regimes in the area of climate change. Providing an in-depth examination of institutional fragmentation and regime interactions in global climate change governance, this unique book links the literature on institutional interactions and interplay management to the discussions on the fragmentation of international law. It contains the first comparison of different types of interactions and interaction management in the issue area of climate change, and addresses the important role of non-state actors. This volume will be of great value to students and scholars of global governance and international law.