This book provides an examination of the principles of equality and equity in international environmental law. It focuses on analyzing what has been done on the international plane to promote the participation of developing countries in international environmental agreements.
“No one has written with more penetrating skepticism about the history of human rights.” —Adam Kirsch, Wall Street Journal “Moyn breaks new ground in examining the relationship between human rights and economic fairness.” —George Soros The age of human rights has been kindest to the rich. While state violations of political rights have garnered unprecedented attention in recent decades, a commitment to material equality has quietly disappeared. In its place, economic liberalization has emerged as the dominant force. In this provocative book, Samuel Moyn considers how and why we chose to make human rights our highest ideals while simultaneously neglecting the demands of broader social and economic justice. Moyn places the human rights movement in relation to this disturbing shift and explores why the rise of human rights has occurred alongside exploding inequality. “Moyn asks whether human-rights theorists and advocates, in the quest to make the world better for all, have actually helped to make things worse... Sure to provoke a wider discussion.” —Adam Kirsch, Wall Street Journal “A sharpening interrogation of the liberal order and the institutions of global governance created by, and arguably for, Pax Americana... Consistently bracing.” —Pankaj Mishra, London Review of Books “Moyn suggests that our current vocabularies of global justice—above all our belief in the emancipatory potential of human rights—need to be discarded if we are work to make our vastly unequal world more equal... [A] tour de force.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
Environmental activists and academics alike are realizing that a sustainable society must be a just one. Environmental degradation is almost always linked to questions of human equality and quality of life. Throughout the world, those segments of the population that have the least political power and are the most marginalized are selectively victimized by environmental crises. This book argues that social and environmental justice within and between nations should be an integral part of the policies and agreements that promote sustainable development. The book addresses the links between environmental quality and human equality and between sustainability and environmental justice.
Emerging Principles of International Environmental Law is ideally suited for any law or environmental studies student, practitioner or law academic who is interested in the legal status of emerging principles in the field of international environmental law. Among its highlights, the text examines the interaction of principles/concepts such as sustainable development, the precautionary principle etc., with one another and how the present international environmental law regime has taken the vast disparity between developed and developing countries into account in designing innovative methods to accommodate this disparity. Following an introductory chapter on the development of international environmental law, the book explores five concepts/principles that have emerged in the recent years in this field and discusses their relationship to one another, particularly how they interact and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development: sustainable development, the precautionary principle, the environmental impact assessment process and participatory rights, the common but differentiated responsibility principle and the polluter pays principle. The final chapter evaluates the emergence of a distinct field of international law called ‘International Sustainable Development Law’ and discusses its future direction. While these principles or concepts have received much attention in previous literature, not much attention has been paid to their interaction with one another and how the present international environmental law regime has taken the vast disparity between developed and developing countries into account in designing innovative methods to accommodate this disparity. It is here the strength of the book lies. The book was written to provide a firm grasp of international environmental law issues and of international law in general. It is intended for the international market, for anybody who is interested in the future direction of international environmental law and of sustainable development. As such, it would be relevant not only to the law student and law academic, but also to international organizations such as UNEP, Commission on Sustainable Development, UNDP and the World Bank as well as for international and national civil society groups engaged in environmental issues and human rights issues. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.
International Environmental Law is a new textbook written for students, practitioners, and anyone interested in the subject. The overall aim of the book is to provide a fresh understanding of international environmental law as a whole, seen in the light of climate change, biodiversity loss, and the other serious environmental challenges facing the world. The book has also been kept deliberately manageable in size by careful selection of topics and by adopting a cross-cutting synthesis of regulatory interaction in the field. This enables the reader to place international environmental law in the broader context of public international law in general, revealing at the same time that international environmental law is experimental ground for developing new legal approaches towards global governance. To this end, the authors have combined theory and practice. Apart from discussing concepts, rule-making and compliance, the book looks at options for improved coordination, harmonisation and even integration of existing multilateral environmental agreements, analysing how conflicts between various environmental regimes can be avoided or, at least, adequately managed. The authors argue that an appropriate management of international environmental relations must address the North-South divide, which continues to be a major obstacle to global environmental cooperation. Furthermore, the authors emphasise the growing human rights dimension of international environmental law. This book is an ideal 'door opener' for the further study of international environmental law. Focusing on 'international environmental governance' in a comprehensive way, it serves to explain that each institution, each actor, and each instrument is part of a multi-dimensional process in international environmental law and relations.
The world’s freshwater supplies are increasingly threatened by rapidly increasing demand and the impacts of global climate change, but current approaches to transboundary water management are unsustainable and may threaten future global stability and international security. The absence of law in attempts to address this issue highlights the necessity for further understanding from the legal perspective. This book provides a fresh conceptualisation of water security, developing an operational methodology for identifying the four core elements of water security which must be addressed by international law: availability; access; adaptability; and ambit. The analysis of the legal framework of transboundary freshwater management based on this contemporary understanding of water security reveals the challenges and shortcomings of the current legal regime. In order to address these shortcomings, the present mindset of prevailing rigidity and state-centrism is challenged by examining how international legal instruments could be crafted to advance a more flexible and common approach towards transboundary water interaction. The concept of considering water security as a matter of ‘regional common concern’ is introduced to help international law play a more prominent role in addressing the challenges of global water insecurity. Ways for implementing such an approach are proposed and analysed by looking at international hydropolitics in Himalayan Asia. The book analyses transboundary water interaction as a ‘case study’ for advancing public international law in order to fulfil its responsibility of promoting international peace and security.
Explores normative and institutional innovation in international law as a response to the challenges to global order posed by rapid environmental change.
In the 21st century, anthropogenic (human-caused) environmental change is widespread and serious on the global, regional/transboundary, and local levels. Emphasizing the environmental, social, and human damage caused by non-sustainable development, International Environmental Law and Policy for the 21st Century, Second Revised Edition by Nanda and Pring, provides readers with an incisive and integrated approach to the political, economic, scientific, and technological realities and challenges facing international environmental law and policy today. This provocative new book offers innovative chapters on such crucial current imperatives as: • the nature and scope of the challenge; • first principles of international environmental law; • environment and human rights; • environment and the nexus of international trade, finance and debt; and • the unfinished agenda. Traditional subjects covered include the history of international environmental law, the law of the sea, international freshwater resources, cross-border air pollution, ozone depletion and climate change, the technology of chemicals manufacture and transport, disposal of hazardous waste, preservation ofand biodiversity, environmental impact analysis, and regulation of nuclear energy. The book also features a critical examination of the UN’s activities on the environment, starting from the 1972 Stockholm Convention on the Environment, up to and including the 2012 Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. With new chapters devoted to critical energy and population issues, and a new section on corporate social responsibility, International Environmental Law & Policy for the 21st Century is an essential resource for students, scholars, lawyers, public officials, corporate decision-makers, and technical consultants concerned with environmental issues.
This handbook is an advanced level reference guide which provides a comprehensive and contemporary overview of the corpus of international environmental law (IEL).
Built in to every multilateral environmental agreement is a dilemma: how to incorporate justice and fairness on the one hand and effectiveness on the other. Our immense difficulty in meeting this two-edged imperative highlights the fact that we are, at best, at an early stage in the development of international environmental ethics, and that no coherent and effective ethical system yet exists in this context. This remarkable book starts from a conviction that the principle of common but differentiated responsibility (CBDR) offers the best way forward toward the much-desired goal of sustainable development. Presenting a full-scale, multidisciplinary assessment of the feasibility of the principle of CBDR in multilateral environmental agreements, encompassing legal and policy status perspectives as well as historical developments and future prospects, this study identifies issues and aspects in the theoretical and practical application of the CBDR principle. The author responds with in-depth knowledge and awareness to such specific questions as the following: What does the principle of common but differentiated responsibility entail in international environmental law, with special reference to international environmental treaties? How is the principle reflected in the burden-sharing design of current agreements? What problems and challenges does the practical application of the CBDR principle present to the international community and individual countries as well as to the international environmental regimes themselves? What factors should be taken into account when assessing the success or failure of the principle? What is the status of the principle in international environmental law (currently and possibly in the future), and what are its implications in the broader international context? The author examines methods for differentiation from both theoretical and actual treaty-level viewpoints. She offers examples from the negotiation history of international environmental treaties to shed light on the importance of information-sharing and wide participation during the negotiations. Recognizing that, in the international environmental field, problems of economic development and the geopolitics of global wealth distribution soon come to the fore, and that each stateands right to development should not be too heavily restricted under international environmental regimes, she demonstrates that the CBDR principle has a strong potential to formally integrate the environment and development at the international level. The study will be of immeasurable value in promoting understanding of how CBDR actually works. It will help lawyers and policymakers perceive how different parties want to use the principle, and to discern clearly what options could be chosen by the parties, which aspects are crucial, and what factors influence the effectiveness of the arrangements.