Developing an Appropriate Contaminated Land Regime in China
Developing an Appropriate Contaminated Land Regime in China

Author: Xiaobo Zhao

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-13

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 3642316158

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Like all industrialized countries, China has encountered increasing problems with land contamination in recent years. Abandoned mining and manufacturing sites and obsolete industrial complexes, while also creating new polluting industrial enterprises, represent impending environmental threats. More importantly, a number of social and economic problems have developed and must be dealt with, in some cases urgently. Contaminated land laws and regulations have been established and have evolved in the US and UK and many other jurisdictions over the past few decades. These regimes have substantially influenced the relevant legislation in the context of numerous Asian and European countries and will inevitably benefit similar legislative efforts in China. This book is the first monograph that focuses on how China can learn from the US and UK with respect to contaminated land legislation and comprehensively illustrates how contaminated land law could be created in China. It will be of interest to academics and practitioners in environmental law in China, as well as the US and UK.

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

Author: Jorge E. Viñuales

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2015-02-05

Total Pages: 721

ISBN-13: 0191510416

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The international community has long grappled with the issue of safeguarding the environment and encouraging sustainable development, often with little result. The 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development was an emphatic attempt to address this issue, setting down 27 key principles for the international community to follow. These principles define the rights of people to sustainable development, and the responsibilities of states to safeguard the common environment. The Rio Declaration established that long term economic progress required a connection to environmental protection. It was designed as an authoritative and comprehensive statement of the principles of sustainable development law, an instrument to take stock of the past international and domestic practice, a guide for the design of new multilateral environmental regimes, and as a reference for litigation. This commentary provides an authoritative and comprehensive overview of the principles of the Declaration, written by over thirty inter-disciplinary contributors, including both leading practitioners and academics. Each principle is analysed in light of its origins and rationale. The book investigates each principle's travaux préparatoires setting out the main points of controversy and the position of different countries or groups. It analyses the scope and dimensions of each principle, providing an in-depth understanding of its legal effects, including whether it can be relied before a domestic or international court. It also assesses the impact of the principles on subsequent soft law and treaty development, as well as domestic and international jurisprudence. The authors demonstrate the ways in which the principles interact with each other, and finally provide a detailed analysis of the shortcomings and future potential of each principle. This book will be of vital importance to practitioners, scholars, and students of international environomental law and sustainable development.

Responsive States
Responsive States

Author: Andrew Karch

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-11-28

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1108617700

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The US Constitution did not establish a clear division of responsibilities between the national government and state governments, so the distribution of policymaking authority is subject to constant renegotiation and debate. When national lawmakers introduce policy initiatives that implicate the states in important ways, why do state leaders sometimes respond with strong support and other times with indifference or outright hostility? Moving beyond the conventional story that state officials simply want money and autonomy from their national counterparts, this book explains how the states' responses over the short, medium, and long term are shaped by policy design, timing, and the interaction between the two. Reaching across different historical eras with in-depth case studies of policies such as Superfund, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the book shows how federalism has influenced, and continues to influence, the evolution of American public policy.