'Humanity has been gambling for generations with the extent to which it can degrade nature and continue to prosper. Now the environmental debt is being called in and the ability of international diplomacy and law, government policy and political will to deal with the issues is being tested. Conservation, Biodiversity and International Law is a must read for any practitioner in the high-stakes business of restoring our ability to live in harmony with the natural world that sustains us.' - Alastair Morrison, Department of Conservation, New Zealand 'Biodiversity is the cornerstone of life - our plants, animals, and ecosystems are essential for livelihoods and have shaped our culture and traditions around the world. However our precious biodiversity is at risk as never before. Global targets to reduce biodiversity loss have not been met and we continue to lose biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. In fact we are currently in the middle of an extinction crisis and scientists have advised that one species from our planet is being lost every 38 minutes! The nature of this crisis and the actions taken to address it are clearly and articulately put forward in this landmark book by Professor Al Gillespie. This book is particularly useful in documenting the many policy and legal actions that have been taken to address these issues, and how the application of these instruments can be improved. Although focused on the law, the book covers a range of disciplines including science, philosophy and policy which lay the foundation for international law. This book makes a major and highly valued contribution to the disciple of environmental law and policy and is an invaluable reference for policy makers, practitioners and academic audiences.' - David Sheppard, CEO of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) This important and timely book provides a rigorous overview of the defining issues presently facing conservation at international level. The author provides detailed coverage of topics ranging from the classification of species right through to access and benefit sharing, drawing on his personal experience at intergovernmental level. Each question is examined through the prism of dozens of treaties and hundreds of decisions and resolutions of the key multilateral regimes, and the law in each area is supplemented by the necessary considerations of science politics and philosophy - providing much-needed context for the reader. Combining expert scholarship and first-hand insight, Conservation, Biodiversity and International Law will be an invaluable resource for researchers and practitioners in international environmental law, as well as providing an accessible guide for students.

Human activities are depleting ecosystems at an unprecedented rate. In spite of nature conservation efforts worldwide, many ecosystems including those critical for human well-being have been damaged or destroyed. States and citizens need a new vision of how humans can reconnect with the natural environment. With its focus on the long-term holistic recovery of ecosystems, ecological restoration has received increasing attention in the past decade from both scientists and policymakers. Research on the implications of ecological restoration for the law and law for ecological restoration has been largely overlooked. This is the first published book to examine comprehensively the relationship between international environmental law and ecological restoration. While international environmental law (IEL) has developed significantly as a discipline over the past four decades, this book enquires whether IEL can now assist states in making a strategic transition from not just protecting and maintaining the natural environment but also actively restoring it. Arguing that states have international duties to restore, this book offers reflections on the philosophical context of ecological restoration and the legal content of a duty to restore from an international law, European Union law and national law perspective. The book concludes with a discussion of several contemporary themes of interest to both lawyers and ecologists including the role of private actors, protected areas and climate change in ecological restoration.

Biomedical research is increasingly carried out in low- and middle-income countries. International consensus has largely been achieved around the importance of valid consent and protecting research participants from harm. But what are the responsibilities of researchers and funders to share the benefits of their research with research participants and their communities? After setting out the legal, ethical and conceptual frameworks for benefit sharing, this collection analyses seven historical cases to identify the ethical and policy challenges that arise in relation to benefit sharing. A series of recommendations address possible ways forward to achieve justice for research participants in low- and middle-income countries.

Climate disasters demand an integration of multilateral negotiations on climate change, disaster risk reduction, sustainable development, human rights and human security. Via detailed examination of recent law and policy initiatives from around the world, and making use of a capability approach, Rosemary Lyster develops a unique approach to human and non-human climate justice and its application to all stages of a disaster: prevention; response, recovery and rebuilding; and compensation and risk transfer. She comprehensively analyses the complexities of climate science and their interfaces with the law- and policy-making processes, and also provides an in-depth analysis of multilateral climate change negotiations under the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This book examines the corpus of status quo environmental legal regime, geographical issues and redundant "stakeholder claims," which persist in the Arctic. It examines multifarious theories relating not only to conflicting and opposing interests, but also to parties to whom the shipping industry should be accountable. The unique aspect of this book is the Corporate Social responsibility analysis pertaining to the Arctic and alternatives that strike a balance between the increased commercialization of the shipping industry and the laws and concepts of ocean governance. The book relevantly puts forward the concept of "ocean governance" and to what extent it can be addressed in terms of the Arctic. What distinguishes this book from others is the fact that it is not limited to examining the effects of climate change and how it is reshaping the way scholars assume the Arctic will be in the near future. Rather it creates a transparent nexus between opposing claims and increasing commercial interests and proceeds to scrutinize the efforts of the Arctic Council and individual Arctic coastal states. In this context, the book follows a given equation based on initial theories and how the opposing claims and increasing commercialization side of the equation can be balanced with the appropriate legal norm. It also reflects on the critical aspects of "hard law and soft law" which are two opposite ends of the legal pole and core elements of any legal spectrum. The book, after reflecting on those two elements, finally proposes a new Arctic legal regime, which is intricate and detailed and is basically a hierarchy based on logic and reasoning. In doing so, it imports a pristine theory for a pristine territory.

The participation of the European Community and the Member States in the international climate change regimes is a complex issue. In the case of the Kyoto Protocol, this is rendered more complicated by the fact that for the purposes of Article 4 of the Kyoto Protocol, the membership of the European Community and Member States is frozen at a particular point in time. The result of this is that under International Law the European Community and a part of the Member States (EU15) have agreed to jointly fulfil some of those obligations whereas under Community Law all Member States share a certain degree of responsibility to meet the obligations created by the Kyoto Protocol. This book analyses in great detail the Kyoto Protocol and its obligations, as well as the discrepancies between International Law and Community Law in that regard. The book is a useful tool for academics, practitioners, consultants and all stakeholders operating in the field of environmental law and climate change. Leonardo Massai is a legal expert and lecturer in International and EU Environmental Law and Climate Change.

This book represents the collected works of Environmental and Resource Management (ERM) Alumni as well as young professionals and researches who are involved in the field of ERM. The connecting theme of these works is the successful implementation of ERM in a wide range of issues including: energy innovation and management, climate change response and sustainable development aspects of resource management in developing countries. This book aims to expose some of the research outputs of ERM Alumni and present perspectives and critical questions of ERM application. The research results can provide empirical bases on which ERM study programmes and/or working environments can be problematised in order to more effectively meet the objectives of ERM. The intended audience of this volume is wide including potential and current ERM students who want to understand how ERM is being applied; and teachers and researchers who want to understand the roles and interactions of ERM Alumni and their workplace.

With a Foreword by Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Over the last decades natural and man-made disasters have been increasing in terms of frequency, size, number of people affected and material damage caused. There is growing awareness of the importance of adequate national and international legal frameworks for disaster prevention, mitigation and response. The implementation of these frameworks, however, poses serious challenges. This book analyses International Disaster Response Law as developed in recent times and identifies the main existing normative gaps. The authors address the rights and duties of States in preventing and mitigating disasters, in facilitating access to their territory for humanitarian relief actors, as well as issues related to liability and compensation. Due attention is paid to European Union law governing disaster response (and to its reform in the light of the Lisbon Treaty) and to the main trends in domestic legislation. Human rights obligations are thoroughly examined and the potential relevance of international criminal law is assessed. Additional topics such as the status of relief personnel, the hindrances to the delivery of relief consignments by customs and excise administration, the use of civilian and military defence assets in emergency situations, the mechanisms and procedures available to offer financial support for recovery and rehabilitation, risk insurance, and the issue of corruption during disaster-related activities are specifically addressed. By drawing on the expertise of lawyers, political scientists, economists and humanitarian practitioners, the book promotes much-needed interdisciplinary dialog and sheds light on a largely uncharted field of research. It is therefore essential reading for academics and practitioners in international and EU law, policy makers, civil protection and humanitarian operators and for anyone interested in exploring the legal facets of the international community's response to large-scale calamitous events. Over the last decades natural and man-made disasters have been increasing in terms of frequency, size, number of people affected and material damage caused. There is growing awareness of the importance of adequate national and international legal frameworks for disaster prevention, mitigation and response. The implementation of these frameworks, however, poses serious challenges.This book analyses International Disaster Response Law as developed in recent times and identifies the main existing normative gaps. The authors address the rights and duties of States in preventing and mitigating disasters, in facilitating access to their territory for humanitarian relief actors, as well as issues related to liability and compensation. Due attention is paid to European Union law governing disaster response (and to its reform in the light of the Lisbon Treaty) and to the main trends in domestic legislation. Human rights obligations are thoroughly examined and the potential relevance of international criminal law is assessed. Additional topics such as the status of relief personnel, the hindrances to the delivery of relief consignments by customs and excise administration, the use of civilian and military defence assets in emergency situations, the mechanisms and procedures available to offer financial support for recovery and rehabilitation, risk insurance, and the issue of corruption during disaster-related activities are specifically addressed. By drawing on the expertise of lawyers, political scientists, economists and humanitarian practitioners, the book promotes much-needed interdisciplinary dialog and sheds light on a largely uncharted field of research. It is therefore essential reading for academics and practitioners in international and EU law, policy makers, civil protection and humanitarian operators and for anyone interested in exploring the legal facets of the international community's response to large-scale calamitous events.

Today, climate change is among the most hotly-debated topics. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), one of the three financial mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol open to developing and developed countries, was devised to assist in mitigation of global warming. This book discusses what China should do to make full use of the CDM to promote sustainable development and to meet the challenge of climate change from a legal perspective. The findings lead to the conclusion that the CDM has limitations in promoting sustainable development in China, and thus should be regarded only as a complementary instrument in combating climate change. Legal strategies for improving the implementation of CDM projects under the legal framework in China are thus put forward, and some proposals for China to meet the challenge of climate change in the post-2012 era are made. This book offers new insights to academics and policymakers both in the public and private sector. It is intended for legal practitioners and researchers on carbon trading as well as policymakers interested in the role of developing countries in climate change law. In addition, it is of interest to stakeholders of CDM projects.

Whales and elephants are iconic giants of the marine and terrestrial animal world. Both are conspicuous representatives of wildlife conservation. The issues of whaling and the ivory trade are closely linked, both legally and politically, in many ways; some obvious, and some surprising. The treatment of both whales and elephants will be politically and legally contentious for years to come, and is of great significance to conservation in general. This book examines the current state of international environmental law and wildlife conservation through a comparative analysis of the treatment of whales and elephants. In particular, it describes the separate histories of international governance of both whales and elephants, presenting the various treaties through which conservation has been implemented. It is shown that international environmental law is influenced and shaped by important political actors - many with opposing views on how best conservation, and sustainable development, principles are to be implemented. Modern environmental treaties are changing as weaknesses and loopholes are exposed in older, and possibly outdated, treaties such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW). Such weaknesses can be seen in the efforts made by some states to circumvent or weaken CITES and the International Whaling Commission and to resume commercial whaling, and further in the efforts of countries to resume trade in ivory. The argument is made that the Convention on Biological Diversity could be used to begin reconciling opposed views and to focus conservation efforts. The argument is made that effective conservation of species cannot be achieved through individual treaties, but only through a synergistic approach involving multilateral environmental agreements - 'ecosystems of legal instruments'.

The term "hazardous wastes" covers a wide range of disused products and production wastes generated not only in industrial sectors, but also in all areas of everyday life. Hazardous wastes are to a large extent shipped by sea to third countries for recycling or disposal. While the procedural requirements for such movements are laid out in the 1989 Basel Convention, explicit rules of responsibility and liability for resulting damages are neither provided by the Basel Convention nor by other international conventions. The Liability Protocol to the Basel Convention of 1999 has not yet entered into force. This book examines the existing rules of responsibility and liability applying to States and private persons and outlines the conditions under which liability may be incurred. Subsequently, the advantages and shortcomings of the 1999 Liability Protocol are analyzed. Although this Protocol faces substantial political headwind, from a legal perspective it includes principally useful and reasonable approaches and should therefore be ratified.

The book provides an introduction to shipping in all its aspects. It is a valuable source of information for students of traditional maritime law as well as for those who seek to understand maritime and shipping services on a global scale. The text includes information and analytical content on national and international practices in shipping, including the age-old dichotomy between freedom in international shipping and the persistent demands of states to control specific maritime areas, as well as the tension between, on the one hand, the desire on the part of sovereign states to regulate and protect their shipping interests and, on the other, the abiding concern and unquestioned right of the international community to regulate the global shipping industry effectively, in order to ensure maritime safety, protection of the environment and fair competition.

This book examines the concept and purpose of joint development agreements of offshore hydrocarbon deposits from the perspective of public international law and the law of the sea, taking into consideration and extensively reviewing State practice concerning seabed activities in disputed maritime areas and when hydrocarbon deposits extend across maritime boundaries. It distinguishes between agreements signed before and after the delimitation of maritime boundaries and analyzes the relevance of natural resources or unitization clauses included in maritime delimitation agreements. It also takes into consideration the relation between these resources and maritime delimitation and analyzes all the relevant international jurisprudence. Another innovative aspect of this book is that it examines the possibility of joint development of resources that lay between the continental shelf and the Area, considering both theoretical and practical problems. As such, the book is a useful tool for scholars and experts on public international law and the law of the sea, but also for national authorities and practitioners of international disputes resolution, as well as public and private entities working in the oil and gas industry.

The new edition of this market-leading textbook includes a revised introduction and updated chapters with new research and insights. Four new case studies of twenty-first-century genocides bring this horrific history up to the present moment: the genocide perpetrated by the government during Argentina's "Dirty War," the genocide of the Yazidis by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), genocidal violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar, and China's genocide of the Uyghurs. Powerful survivor testimonies bring the essays to life and help readers grapple with the difficult lessons presented throughout the book.

The Arctic is particularly affected by climate change; over the past few decades, temperatures in this area have risen twice as fast as the mean global rate. The most prominent effect of global climate change in the region is the melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, which enables a multitude of ocean uses to be initiated and extended, such as shipping, fishing and oil and gas extraction. Unlike in the Antarctic, there is currently no single comprehensive legal regime for governance of the Arctic. Instead, the region is regulated by a patchwork of international treaties, above all the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), various regional and sub-regional agreements, national laws and soft-law agreements. This treatise provides an evaluation of the governance regime that regulates the use of the Arctic marine environment and its readiness to protect these fragile ecosystems in light of the consequences of climate change.

I had the pleasure of participating at the two conferences which form the basis of this book: as a chairman at the 2007 The Hague Conference 'Tackling Climate Change - An appraisal of the Kyoto Protocol and options for the future' and as a speaker at the 2006 Siena Conference' The Kyoto Protocol and beyond: a legal perspective'. I would like to thank my colleagues Wybe Douma, Leonardo Massai and Massimiliano Montini for those opportunities, and although I was, unfortu nately, unable to contribute a paper to this book due to time constraints, I am glad to be able to say a few words on the issue by means of this foreword. The timing of the two conferences was well chosen: the period between the Siena Conference (June 2006) and The Hague Conference (March 2007) encapsu lated perfectly the period of the drafting, the presentation and the approval of the 'Integrated Energy and Climate Change Package', as presented by the European th Commission on the 10 of January 2007 and as approved by the Spring European th th Council of the 8 and 9 of March 2007. The importance of the Commission's package and the Council's conclusions must be strongly emphasized. They set, at the EU level, legally binding targets regarding the reduction of greenhouse gas of energy, and biofuels.

It is the publicity about the Pollutant Release Inventory's data which creates an incentive for firms to achieve emission reductions. Accordingly, public access to environmental information constitutes a core characteristic of the aforementioned inventory. Here, in essence, two facets arise. First, with regard to the collection, it is disputed whether such information, which may comprise confidential commercial and industrial information in the EU as well as trade secrets in the US, can be protected under fundamental and constitutional property rights respectively. Second, in the context of dissemination and utilisation, it is arguable whether the information indeed impacts polluters and produces an outcome that secures a certain level of environmental protection. The author responds to the first issue by taking the EU and US jurisdictions into account and strives to analyse how this novel form of Internet disclosure liberates market mechanisms in the quest for effective and efficient emission reductions.

This book considers the ways in which transboundary environmental pollution can be remedied through a variety of legal instruments. Particular attention is paid to the pollution of the Songhua river in China, but legal remedies to transboundary pollution are also discussed in a broader context. The focus of the book is on international environmental law and international conventions as well as the application of national environmental law in a transboundary legal context. Thus contributions also concentrate on voluntary approaches, the importance of transboundary environmental impact assessment and the application of national criminal law to transboundary pollution. Not only is transboundary pollution discussed from the perspective of international law, but also from that of the application of national law to transboundary pollution, thus centering on private law, administrative law and criminal law. As such, this book will be of great interest to academics, practitioners and students.

Ecological degradation has been an object of concern for the international community since the early 1970s, but legal approaches that have been employed to improve the protection of ecosystems have failed to halt this decline. Ecological Governance explores how the law should respond to this rapid global deterioration of ecosystems by examining the foundational scientific and ethical considerations for designing laws that are effective for ecological protection. Based on these analyses, it argues that developed states should prioritise the reduction of the ecological stresses for which they are responsible in decision-making on their future courses. The author also proposes structures for governance and associated legal frameworks that would enable the formulation and implementation of policies for ecological sustainability.

This study provides an in-depth analysis of the Hong Kong Ship Recycling Convention as adopted in May 2009 and a thorough analysis of the overall status quo of ship recycling regulations. It investigates the lack of sufficient ratifications of the Convention from both a legal and an economic perspective. The first part of the study focuses on the history of the Convention's entry-into-force provision and the rationale behind it. Due to the fact that this provision provides a considerable additional obstacle to the Convention's becoming legally binding, in the second part the focus of the work shifts to unilateral action in this field. An overview of the legal environment of European ship recycling legislation is followed by an analysis and evaluation of a number of proposals by the European Commission attempting to tackle the problems of current ship recycling procedures. With a particular emphasis on (planned) European measures in this regard, the analysis' overall message is one of cautious optimism.

This text works to establish essential foundations and guidelines in the current process of providing strategies, mechanisms and resources for mitigating loss and damage from the adverse impacts of climate change and climate variability. This builds on the groundwork done by the UNFCCC and other entities to facilitate the processes at the international level, pursuing a pragmatic approach and the objective specification of relevant frameworks for further actions. The primary goal is the development of integrated approaches to the assessment and reduction of loss and damage due to climate change (including climate variability), encompassing both economic and legal dimensions. The publication is aimed at readers in top-level policymaking and strategy development on the national and international level, as well as academia.

Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in August 2005 with devastating consequences. Almost all analyses of the disaster have been dedicated to the way the hurricane affected New Orleans. This volume examines the impact of Katrina on southern Mississippi. While communities along Mississippi's Gulf Coast shared the impact, their socioeconomic and demographic compositions varied widely, leading to different types and rates of recovery. This volume furthers our understanding of the pace of recovery and its geographic extent, and explores the role of inequalities in the recovery process and those antecedent conditions that could give rise to a 'recovery divide'. It will be especially appealing to researchers and advanced students of natural disasters and policy makers dealing with disaster consequences and recovery.

Die Umwelt wird in internationalen bewaffneten Konflikten nicht allein durch das Kriegsvolkerrecht geschutzt. Dies zeigen die Untersuchungen dieses Buches. Anwendung finden auch die Bestimmungen des (Friedens-)Umweltvolkerrechts, welche die Umwelt im Interesse der Staatengemeinschaft als Ganzes schutzen. Dazu gehoren u.a. die Bestimmungen zum Schutz der Umwelt der Antarktis und des Weltraums, die umweltschutzenden Vorschriften des Seerechtsubereinkommens sowie die Klimarahmenkonvention und das Ubereinkommen zum Schutz der biologischen Vielfalt. Sie binden - in Analogie insbesondere zu Menschenrechtsvertragen - die sich bekampfenden Staaten. Nur ausnahmsweise und bei Vorliegen besonderer Notlagen wahrend eines bewaffneten Konfliktes kann eine Modifizierung dieser Pflichten zum Schutz der Umwelt angenommen werden.

Wild Law - In Practice aims to facilitate the transition of Earth Jurisprudence from theory into practice. Earth Jurisprudence is an emerging philosophy of law, coined by cultural historian and geologian Thomas Berry. It seeks to analyse the contribution of law in constructing, maintaining and perpetuating anthropocentrism and addresses the ways in which this orientation can be undermined and ultimately eliminated. In place of anthropocentrism, Earth Jurisprudence advocates an interpretation of law based on the ecocentric concept of an Earth community that includes both human and nonhuman entities. Addressing topics that include a critique of the effectiveness of environmental law in protecting the environment, developments in domestic/constitutional law recognising the rights of nature, and the regulation of sustainability, Wild Law - In Practice is the first book to focus specifically on the practical legal implications of Earth Jurisprudence.

Constitutions and the Commons looks at a critical but little examined issue of the degree to which the federal constitution of a nation contributes toward or limits the ability of the national government to manage its domestic natural resources. Furthermore it considers how far the constitution facilitates the binding of constituent states, provinces or subnational units to honor the conditions of international environmental treaties. While the main focus is on the US, there is also detailed coverage of other nations such as Australia, Brazil, India, and Russia. After introducing the role of constitutions in establishing the legal framework for environmental management in federal systems, the author presents a continuum of constitutionally driven natural resource management scenarios, from local to national, and then to global governance. These sections describe how subnational governance in federal systems may take on the characteristics of a commons - with all the attendant tragedies - in the absence of sufficient national constitutional authority. In turn, sufficient national constitutional authority over natural resources also allows these nations to more effectively engage in efforts to manage the global commons, as these nations would be unconstrained by subnational units of government during international negotiations. It is thus shown that national governments in federal systems are at the center of a constitutional 'nested governance commons,' with lower levels of government potentially acting as rational herders on the national commons and national governments potentially acting as rational herders on the global commons. National governments in federal systems are therefore crucial to establishing sustainable management of resources across scales. The book concludes by discussing how federal systems without sufficient national constitutional authority over resources may be strengthened by adopting the approach of federal constitutions that facilitate more robust national level inputs into natural resources management, facilitating national minimum standards as a form of "Fail-safe Federalism" that subnational governments may supplement with discretion to preserve important values of federalism.