International Environmental Law Professor Dan Bodansky
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Chapter 1: Multilateral Environmental Agreements 1 I
UNEP Training Manual on International Environmental Law FOREWORD Today’s world is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis. Deterioration of the Earth’s environment increasingly threatens the natural resource base and processes upon which all life on Earth depends. Without strong and multifaceted action by all of us, the biosphere may become unable to sustain human life and future generations will suffer deprivation and hardship unless current patterns of production, consumption and waste management dramatically change. The urgency of balancing development with the Earth’s life support systems is being finally recognized and understood. Now it is time to act upon this understanding. It is widely recognized that most environmental problems, challenges and solutions are transboundary, regional or global in scope. The environment is an area where states and stakeholders are cooperating extensively and progressively. Although environmental degradation and competition for scarce resources are potential sources for conflict, history has repeatedly shown that they are more often catalysts for cooperation. Problems of shared resources regularly produce shared solutions. The environment can make its full and rightful contribution to peace and stability in the world. Worldwide commitments are necessary to protect environmental features such as the biosphere including the ozone layer, migratory species, habitats and ecosystems. Control of movement of wastes, environmentally harmful activities and installations can only be achieved by common and widely applied standards. Environmental law is recognized as an effective tool for catalyzing national and international action to achieve such protection and control. As one of UNEP’s priority areas, environmental law has expanded rapidly over the last decades and today comprises hundreds of global and regional norms that aim to protect our Earth. -
Resolving Treaty Conflicts
St. John's University School of Law St. John's Law Scholarship Repository Faculty Publications 2005 Resolving Treaty Conflicts Christopher J. Borgen St. John's University School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/faculty_publications Part of the International Law Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RESOLVING TREATY CONFLICTS CHRISTOPHER J. BORGEN* INTRODUCTION Should the rules of the World Trade Organization trump inter- national environmental agreements? How are treaties between the United States and its European partners affected by the construc- tion of the European Union? What can be done to avert conflict among Russia, Iran, and certain central Asian states over the con- trol of the oil beneath the Caspian Sea? Although seemingly dispa- rate topics, all of these dilemmas are, in part, disputes over whether certain treaties should be given preference over other treaties. These conflicts are fueled by many different political and economic concerns. Regardless of the source of concern, however, as a matter of international law, the question remains the same: Is there a principled method by which sovereign states in the interna- tional system can resolve conflicting obligations between treaties? Due to treaty proliferation in recent years, this question is more important than ever. The viability of international law, as a legal system, rests largely on the viability of treaties as a source of law. -
International Environmental Lawthe Practitioner's Guide to the Laws Of
The Practitioner’s to Guide the Laws of the Planet International Environmental Law International Environmental Law ROGER R. MARTELLA, JR. AND J. BRETT GrOSKO, EDITORS The Practitioner’s Guide to the Laws of the Planet Until recently, international environmental law was largely the focus of diplomatic discussions, treaty negotiations, and academic debates of interest to a group of passionate and patient attorneys working for governments and international nongovernmental organizations. But, increasingly, understanding international environmental law is becoming a core skillset for every environmental attorney. As companies and clients necessarily become multinational in nature and must confront a rapidly emerging and confusing regime of international environmental laws, there is a growing need for the attorneys who represent them to understand the unique International ramifications of international environmental law, regardless of where they practice and whom they represent. This book provides practitioners with a comprehensive and practical analytical Environmental Law framework for meeting this growing demand and placing practitioners in a position to advise clients, whether from law firms, in house, or within government and nongovernmental organizations. The focus of the book is to provide pragmatic The Practitioner’s Guide to information that is most likely to be relevant when answering international environmental law questions. the Laws of the Planet Section I provides insight into several key issues to orient attorneys to the current -
1 Reciprocity and the Making of International Environmental Law
Reciprocity and the Making of International Environmental Law © Michael Byers Associate Professor, Duke University School of Law Introduction Consider the following assertions: (1) International law is only political rhetoric; (2) International law controls and constrains the behavior of states. Notwithstanding the sophistication of modern scholarship in international law and international relations, these simple assertions remain disturbingly familiar. They concern a question that arises in every introductory course in international law and international relations disciplines, that dominates interdisciplinary enquiries, and that - despite the multiple effects of globalization - remains prominent in the public psyche: Is international law really law? Boiled down to their bare bones, most academic writings at the interface between international law and international relations address this age-old question. To what degree - and how - do norms, rules and institutions constitute tools used by international decision-makers to encourage other decision-makers to adopt policies and take actions that cannot entirely be explained on the traditional realist bases of interest and power? Regardless of whether we call it law (and I am greatly encouraged by the new- found willingness of some IR scholars use the “L-word”) there is a growing sense that obligation / normativity does contribute to the shaping of international decision-making in ways that cannot adequately be explained solely on the basis of more traditional theoretical approaches (such as game theory). Regime theory, institutionalism and constructivism represent an ongoing evolution of thought that - from my perspective at least - goes a long way to explaining how norms and rules “matter”. Nevertheless, much of the work engaged in by those of us who seek to explain the role of international law in international politics suffers somewhat from being either: (a) too general and theoretical to discuss any real life examples (e.g. -
Treaties As a Source of International Environmental Law - Winfried Lang
INTERNATIONAL LAW AND INSTITUTIONS – Treaties as a Source of International Environmental Law - Winfried Lang TREATIES AS A SOURCE OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW Winfried Lang (died May 1999) Oostenrijkse Ambassade, Belgium Keywords: environmental law, treaty-making, treaty, international law Contents 1. Introduction 2. International Law 2.1. Hard Law vs. Soft Law 2.2. Treaty Law vs. Customary law 2.3. Principles vs. Jurisprudence 3. International Treaties 4. Practicalities of Treaty-Making 5. Contents of Treaties 6. Special Features of Environmental Treaty-Making 6.1. Science 6.2. Public Opinion 6.3. Non-governmental Organizations 7. Advantages and Disadvantages of Treaty-Making 8. Optimal Treaty-Making 9. Compliance Control 10. Conclusion Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketch Summary Throughout this paper the main focus was to explain the contribution of conventions and treaties to the creation of IEL. We covered the various levels and techniques of treaty-making; the contents of a treaty in general were specified as well as the characteristicsUNESCO of environmental negotiati –ons. EOLSS The advantages of the treaty-making approach to IEL were compared with its drawbacks before throwing some light on the ingredients of optimal treaty-making. Finally a brief reference was made to the intricacies of compliance-controlSAMPLE and its inno vativeCHAPTERS contributions to international law. 1. Introduction Sustainable development, defined by the Brundtland Commission as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising