Customary laws and traditional institutions in Africa constitute comprehensive legal systems that regulate the entire spectrum of activities from birth to death. Once the sole source of law, customary rules now exist in the context of pluralist legal systems with competing bodies of domestic constitutional law, statutory law, common law, and international human rights treaties. The Future of African Customary Law is intended to promote discussion and understanding of customary law and to explore its continued relevance in sub-Saharan Africa. This volume considers the characteristics of customary law and efforts to ascertain and codify customary law, and how this body of law differs in content, form, and status from legislation and common law. It also addresses a number of substantive areas of customary law including the role and power of traditional authorities; customary criminal law; customary land tenure, property rights, and intestate succession; and the relationship between customary law, human rights, and gender equality.

The new millennium raised hopes for a better future for humanity through a new spirit of international cooperation. Participants at the United Nations Millennium Summit agreed on an ambitious agenda for international cooperation that singled out, among other issues, environmental protection and development as key objectives. The increasing degradation of our planet continues to emphasize the need to conserve and preserve natural resources. Yet with more than half of the global population still living on $2 dollars a day or less, there is also a glaring need for development initiatives to combat poverty. This book draws on contributions to the People and the Environment lecture series at Fordham University, organized in partnership with the United Nations Development Program Equator Initiative and The Nature Conservancy. The essays offer a wealth of fresh perspectives and strategies to promote both environmental conservation and poverty eradication. Reflecting a range of disciplines, issues, and settings, they cover four interrelated topics: the link between poverty reduction and the environment and encouraging integration of environmental management and development; environmental disasters, their impact on poor people and ways to prevent and mitigate their consequences; conservation knowledge and the role of information and education in sustainable development; and legal empowerment of the poor. Each part offers an overview of the theme and introduces the perspectives of leading experts and scholars-from the lessons of Katrina and the Tsunami to model agricultural policies for sustaining the environment while strengthening local economies. Demonstrating the roles the environment can and should play in poverty alleviation, the essays deepen our understanding of the some of the world's most difficult challenges-and provide a toolkit of ideas and techniques for addressing them.

This is the companion volume to the second edition of Philippe Sands' Principles of International Environmental Law and Sands and Galizzi's Documents in International Environmental Law. It comprises extracts from essential EC Treaties, Regulations, Directives, Decisions and other Acts of EC institutions. EC environmental legislation represents one of the most complex and challenging legal regimes for the protection of the environment. The significant body of legislation which now exists has given rise to numerous disputes over its application and interpretation. This collection brings together the principal documents in an accessible form, providing practitioners, scholars and students with the essentials necessary to understand, advise upon and apply this body of law. Concise editorial notes summarise the main provisions of the instruments reproduced and place them in their wider context.

This is the companion volume to the second edition of Philippe Sands' Principles of International Environmental Law and Sands and Galizzi's Documents in International Environmental Law. It comprises extracts from essential EC Treaties, Regulations, Directives, Decisions and other Acts of EC institutions. EC environmental legislation represents one of the most complex and challenging legal regimes for the protection of the environment. The significant body of legislation which now exists has given rise to numerous disputes over its application and interpretation. This collection brings together the principal documents in an accessible form, providing practitioners, scholars and students with the essentials necessary to understand, advise upon and apply this body of law. Concise editorial notes summarise the main provisions of the instruments reproduced and place them in their wider context.

Customary laws and traditional institutions in Africa constitute comprehensive legal systems that regulate the entire spectrum of activities from birth to death. Once the sole source of law, customary rules now exist in the context of pluralist legal systems with competing bodies of domestic constitutional law, statutory law, common law, and international human rights treaties. The Future of African Customary Law is intended to promote discussion and understanding of customary law and to explore its continued relevance in sub-Saharan Africa. This volume considers the characteristics of customary law and efforts to ascertain and codify customary law, and how this body of law differs in content, form, and status from legislation and common law. It also addresses a number of substantive areas of customary law including the role and power of traditional authorities; customary criminal law; customary land tenure, property rights, and intestate succession; and the relationship between customary law, human rights, and gender equality.