International Environmental Law

The last time there was this much carbon dioxide in our atmosphere was three and a half million years ago. While our planetary history evidences cyclical climatic shifts, this time injustice is the cause. The lifestyles of the wealthy few are sustained not only by increasing economic inequality but the systemic collapse of ecosystems. The richest 20 percent consumes 80 percent of the world's natural resources and generates over 90 percent of its pollution and waste. For most people, the poorer 80 percent, their grossly unequal access to natural resources is compounded by also bearing the brunt of the pollution generated by the rich.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, was probably the largest event in a long series of megasummits on environmental protection and sustainable development. Roughly 44 000 participants descended on Rio de Janeiro to take part in ten days of preparatory committee meetings, informal consultations, side events, and the actual conference. Yet despite this unprecedented high attendance by participants from governments and civil society, the outcome of the conference is less than many had hoped for. In this paper I review the outcomes of the 2012 Rio conference in detail, with a special focus on its contributions towards the reform of the institutional framework for sustainable development. Following this review, I discuss the way ahead and options for structural reform to restrengthen earth system governance.

El presente trabajo analiza la obra de Raúl Brañes, a la luz del derecho comparado. El objetivo del mismo es descubrir y describir las metodologías que fueron utilizadas por el autor en su obra, prolífica, de derecho ambiental latinoamericano. Para realizar tal análisis y su evolución, sus trabajos serán observados en relación con su tiempo y con las particularidades biográficas del autor, las cuales pueden resultar explicativas de parte de las opciones de estudio que va tomando. Veremos que el trabajo emprendido se topa en diversas ocasiones con una realidad muy probable: no hay una metodología preconcebida por el autor ni tampoco consistente en el tiempo. Esta dificultad, sin embargo, hace aún más interesante la valoración de sus obras, que fluyen conjuntamente con la propia creación y evolución de la rama del derecho ambiental en América Latina, donde Brañes es reconocido como uno de sus padres fundadores. 1. Su exilio y su época como consultor internacional. Raúl Brañes fue, en la Universidad de Chile, estudiante y luego profesor de Derecho Procesal 1 , hasta que en 1973 dejó el país para radicarse en México, exiliado por la dictadura 2. A esto alude implícitamente , en la dedicatoria que dejara escrita para su último trabajo, que se reproduce íntegra por ser inspiradora precisamente para quienes Brañes quizo incentivar:

Current international mitigation efforts are failing to solve the increasingly alarming issue of global warming. With a history of an inability to enforce International law, world leaders must figure out a new method to work together to combat climate change. There is no longer a true global leader in combating climate change, so is the possible solution dominating the arctic through geopolitical influence, or a country such as Greenland with an indigenous population becoming independent and taking control of a large chunk of the arctic? There are ethics, economic consequences, political factors, and environmental risks at play that will determine this. After evaluating those in the context of geoengineering in the arctic, a solution will be proposed about the best path possible for the Arctic moving forward with geoengineering to protect the environment.

Veerle Heyvaert's book is a seminal monograph in the field of transnational environmental law. The phenomena explored by this book have fundamentally transformed the conventions of international, environmental and public law, as well as the scope of analysis of “governance.” As such, this is not just a mandatory supplement to classical portrayals of international environmental law - a notion that no longer adequately reflects the scope of environment-related regulatory activity. It is also a deeply well researched depiction of contemporary governance in the transnational space and a reflection on its associated challenges that regulatory initiatives must respond to.

There are many situations where anthropogenic activities have significant effects on the environment. Ozone layer damage is one of them, caused by the use of Ozone Depleting Substance (ODSs) e.g. Chlorofluorocarbons, Halons etc. This project primarily focuses on the issue of ozone depletion and the global community's efforts to prevent what could have been an ecological disaster if left unchecked. First, it examines the science of ozone depletion, and the role played by Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs) in modern society and details the discovery of the damage being done by these substances to the ozone layer and the detection of an ozone hole in the Antarctic. It then critically examines the global communities' efforts to ban ODSs thru the crafting of the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, and the attempts to successfully strengthen the instrument through the Montreal Protocol and subsequent amendments.

(in Greek)
In their efforts to combat the major problems which are affecting the international community, the United Nations established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs include a wide scope of actions which aim at promoting both the international collaborations as well as the cooperation of public and private sectors in order to improve the quality of life of all people. Apart from the presentation of the SDGs and the methods of their implementation, in the present article we discuss the contribution of the United Nations to the effort to bind together development and environmental protection (in particular by tackling climate change), as the latter is now considered a step of great importance in improving human life on the planet.

Text popisuje vazby mezi ochranou životního prostředí a lidskými právy z hlediska možnosti využití nástrojů ochrany lidských práv ve prospěch ochrany životního prostředí. Hlavní pozornost je věnována nejnovějšímu nalezenému výsledku těchto vazeb, a sice konceptu lidského práva na příznivé (zdravé, čisté, vyvážené apod.) životní prostředí a jeho pozici v mezinárodním právu. Po přehledu vývoje tohoto práva nastiňuje autorka tři konkrétní cesty, představitelné pro uznání tohoto nového lidského práva v mezinárodním právu.

Citace:
MÜLLEROVÁ, H. Aktuální otázky zakotvení lidského práva na životní prostředí v mezinárodním právu. Acta Universitatis Carolinae. Iuridica. 2011, č. 3, s. s. 19-44. ISSN 0323-0619.

The article describes the linkages that have been found between the environmental protection and human rights; it esp. mentions the ways how environmental protection may benefit from applying human rights instruments. It tackles the most recent result of these linkages, the concept of a new human right to a decent (healthy, clean, etc.)environment and its recognition in international law. After presenting an overview of a historical development of the right, the autor deals with three concrete ways that are possible for future international recognition of the right environment.

Human rights and the environment are linked with each other in two ways. Firstly, the environment is seen as precondition of the realization of human rights. Because human beings are dependent on the environment. We all meet our basic needs including air, water and food from nature. Individuals cannot exist without the mother earth. For this reason, human rights may not be enjoyed at the absence of a clean environment. Secondly, human rights can be an effective way to achieve environmental safety. These two linkages are united under the umbrella of environmental human rights. Environmental human rights are the rights of people to protect the environment for the sake of human beings. There have been numerous studies investigating the scope and types of environmental human rights. However, how the linkage between human rights and the environment has been evolved has not been discussed sufficiently so far. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore how environmental human rights have been developed over history. This research finds that environmental human rights have been developed by international environmental law more than international human rights law.

After a brief non-technical discussion of the science, this ppt discusses the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol (and amendments) in relation to the ozone layer as well as climate change. The Vienna Convention served as an important template for later international agreements that tacked other environmental issues.

Human development is a concept which involves all fields of human life. It essentially involves availability of resources; how people feel about their lives; and opportunities such as proper nourishment, respect, safety and security of life and property and opportunities to participate in community life. All these cannot be separated from the environment: because environment is where we live; and development is what we all do in attempting to improve our lot within it. In this context, sustainable development includes the idea of developing without depletion. The basis for this concept is the need to integrate economic objectives with environmental protection. There is no gainsaying that human development is at a serious war with environmental sustainability. This paper appraises the linkages and 'conflict' between the quest for human development and the protection of the environment with a focus on sustainability. It is the findings of this paper that through a religious application of the concept vof sustainable development, particularly Rio Declaration through Agenda 21 document, human development canbe attained without depletion of the environment.

This chapter considers opportunities for Arctic states to manage and conserve biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction in the High Arctic and reviews the positions of China and the EU in relation to such potential frameworks.

As the Arctic Ocean coastal states have adopted in 2014 significant steps towards the management of High Arctic marine living resources, the role of third states with regards to these development needs to be considered. Indeed, the international legal regime applicable to the High Seas provides very limited prerogatives for coastal states to restrain the rights of third states for the sake of marine conservation.

The chapter first introduces the global legal regime applicable to biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction as well as relevant ongoing processes meant to further define this regulatory framework. The initiatives undertaken by the Arctic states to protect the Arctic marine environment are then reviewed. The chapter concludes by considering the positions on this issue of two major non-Arctic actors having expressed strong interest in the region: China and the European Union.

This study highlights that China and EU are likely to have different positions on the conservation of marine biodiversity in the High Arctic. The Arctic states will thus need to accommodate the diverging perspectives of non-Arctic states if they decide to establish a regional arrangement to conserve high seas living resources in the Arctic.

The advent of Rights of Nature (RoN) marks a new paradigm shift in the philosophical approach to nature. As such, the concept has generated enthusiasm amongst environmentalists and legal scholars. This is not surprising since granting legal personhood to nature seems to present itself as a relative easy fix for the multitude of deficiencies of “modern” environmental law. However, when critically assessed, many of the underlying assumptions justifying a shift towards rights-based approaches to nature are open to challenge. In this paper, which takes a more critical stance on the topic of RoN, it is submitted that also the much-criticized modern environmental law is moving towards a recognition of the intrinsic value of nature, puts breaks on property rights, offers remediation actions for pure ecological damage and also increasingly grants environmental ngos wide access to courts. Moreover, on a second level, it is argued that RoN are not a legal revolution and that many of the probl...

The Earth's orbital space is increasingly threatened by debris. It is frequently described as a common-pool resource vulnerable to a 'tragedy of the commons' scenario. Scholars have suggested ambitious policy proposals to tackle the tragedy of space debris and assure the sustainability of the Earth's orbits. Their proposals can be classified into three categories: hierarchical regulations, economic incentives and property rights. All three categories require some form of central coordination. However, there might be an alternative approach to the problem and other potential solutions. Elinor Ostrom suggested that decentralized, polycentric systems are appropriate for governing common-pool resources. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a polycentric form of governance can encourage a more sustainable use of the Earth's orbits.

The vast amounts of fossil fuels available and the forecasts regarding their future utilisation can make carbon capture and storage/sequestration (CCS) an attractive option, despite the various challenges associated with the technology. In order to be viable many CCS projects will have to be transboundary in the sense that CO2 will be stored in another country from where it was captured.. The most attractive, or even the only available, storage option is often offshore. However, export of CO2 for sub-seabed storage is prohibited as dumping by the 1996 London Protocol. An amendment to the protocol that enables export was adopted in 2009 but is unlikely to enter into force. The article analyses the implications of this situation and explores possible options for States that see export of CO2 for sub-seabed storage as an important policy option.

This talk is an introductory foray into the current state of the art in protection of animals in international law. The consideration of animals in international law is marked by a number of contrasts and gaps. One is that between the interest in a group and an individual: while the protection of some animal species in nature is a long-­‐ standing objective of international law, the protection of individuals has so far only been emerging in international law. Distinction is made also between wild animals, farm animals and animals used in experiments. Even within these groups, not all species receive the same attention. Generally, the lack of attention devoted to rights and standards of care with regard to animals come in stark contrast with the wealth of international law that engages with rights of human beings. The ongoing boundary-­‐ drawing in international law could easily be dismissed as a legal " inconsistency " but it buttresses significant injustices. Some of the legal methods to overcome them are considered in turn. First, I make a conceptual difference between animal conservation, animal protection, animal welfare and animal rights. I then proceed to discussing some key and some possible contemporary developments in international law to extend protection of animals, including individual beings. They include the emergence of intergovernmental and private standards but also the rise of the 'rights of nature' movement. This represents a radical move away from the current consideration of animals, which is for the most part based on the assumption that nature is property. The movement is particularly interesting for straddling the border of the legal. One particular challenge for the prospective global standards is the issue of compatibility of global regulation with cultural differences, as some of the recent real-­‐ world cases and jurisprudence has shown.

The drive for harmonisation of environmental criminal standards at both the international and European level emerges from the increasing recognition of the scale and seriousness of environmental crime, the need to strengthen mechanisms of police and judicial interstate cooperation to combat crossborder crime, and the objective to ensure fair competition in a global economy and an integrated EU common market. The harmonisation of environmental criminal law requires a competent institutional framework able to convey the need for criminalisation of environmental harm while
not overriding national aspirations to sovereignty in criminal matters. The book Enironmental Criminal Liability and Enforcement in European and International Law assesses legal, theoretical and practical questions of harmonisation of national environmental criminal law and the mechanisms for cooperation by sovereign states under European and International Law, with a particular emphasis on legislative developments in the European Union, the Council of Europe and other international institutions, assessing the case for an extension of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over international environmental crimes.

This report, co-released by West Coast Environmental Law and the Vanuatu Environmental Law Association, explains how well-established principles of private international law allow the courts and governments of individual countries to take action against fossil fuel polluters. The report also includes the first public proposal for the text of a Climate Compensation Act that clarifies the principles of liability for large-scale greenhouse gas emitters, and which could be enacted by countries around the world.

This book presents a legal genealogy of biodiversity – of its strategic use before and after the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 1993.

This history of ‘genetic gold’ details how, with the aid of international law, the idea of biodiversity has been instrumentalized towards political and economic aims. A study of the strategic utility of biodiversity, rather than the utility of its protection under international law, the book’s focus is not, therefore, on the sustainable or non-sustainable use of biodiversity as a natural resource, but rather on its historical use as an intellectual resource. Although biodiversity is still not being effectively conserved, nor sustainably used, the Convention on Biological Diversity and its parent regime persists, now after several decades of operation. This book provides the comprehensive answer to the question of the convention’s continued existence.

Drawing from environmental history, the philosophy of science, political economy and development studies, this book will be of interest to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in Environmental Law, International Law, Environmental Studies, and Ecology.

The concept of biodiversity has been historically constituted by a series of North-South disputes over its meaning and application. The following chapter places the entry of biodiversity into international environmental law within its historical and political context and outlines the exposure and collisions with other discourses and rationalities that occurred around the adoption and early operation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). While the concept of biodiversity emerged within Northern conservation practice, the reality of the South as the holder of the remaining biodiversity reserves has forced a continued and often contentious engagement with the political economy of Southern development. The chapter identifies a troubling orientalist pattern in this engagement that repeats throughout the decades: the North always proposes first and the South is expected to reacts and adapt.

The failure of international law and institutions to address global environmental degradation has significant implications for law and society as the planet’s ecosystems approach irreversible tipping points. According to a recent study published in the journal Science, the global economy has transgressed four of the nine “planetary boundaries” critical to the planet’s self-regulating capacity. Climate change, deforestation, species extinction, and the runoff of phosphorus and nitrogen into regional watersheds and oceans have exceeded safe biophysical thresholds. Scientists refer to the current geologic era of human-induced environmental change as the Anthropocene.

These environmental problems are inextricably intertwined with patterns of trade, finance, investment, and production that have created an enormous and growing economic gap between and within affluent and poor countries -- the global North and the global South.  Grounded in colonialism, these North-South divisions have often paralyzed international law-making, resulting in deadlocks in environmental treaty negotiations and agreements characterized by ambiguity, lack of ambition, and inadequate compliance and enforcement mechanisms.  International environmental law is a field in crisis because the problems it currently confronts are deeply embedded in the existing economic order and cannot be adequately addressed by simply tinkering on the margins.

This article examines the North-South divide in international environmental law and offers several strategies to bridge the divide and create a more just and sustainable economic order grounded in a robust conception of environmental justice.

The Seabed Disputes Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has been asked to give an Advisory Opinion regarding the responsibility and obligations of a State that sponsors persons or entities to undertake prospecting in the International Seabed Area; the extent of a State's liability for any failure to comply with relevant obligations by the sponsored person or entity; and the necessary and appropriate measures that the State must undertake to fulfill its responsibility.

This submission to the Chamber discusses the State's obligations of due diligence, the relevance of state responsibility, the need to ensure that there is not a gap in liability, and a number of measures called for by the Law of the Sea Convention and other relevant international law. The statement was prepared by four members of the IUCN - Commission on Environmental Law, Oceans Specialist Group.

Keywords:
Deep Seabed, Law of the Sea, Environmental Liability, Common Heritage of Mankind

This paper looks at how the idea of reservations has developed from a guiding principle, through its codification in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), to its place in customary international law. A subsequent analysis of three selected international environmental treaties explores the reservation provisions to determine if those deposited contradict the object and purpose of their respective convention, with due regard given to Article 19 of the VCLT. Finally, I propose a number of reservation mechanisms that could be used or adapted in order to minimise the negative impact that any reservation to an international environment treaty may have to its effective functioning.

The Flint water crisis was a preventable tragedy that has decimated an entire community. This crisis is particularly appalling because Flint is an Environmental Justice community –a community in which the majority of its residents are racial minorities, many of whom live below the poverty level, and bear the disproportionate burdens of environmental risks. As this vulnerable community continues to suffer, we at the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition are reminded of the Michigan Environmental Justice Plan, and how its implementation may have helped to prevent this catastrophe from happening.

O presente artigo tratará da agricultura orgânica como meio de efetivação dos Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS’s).
O trabalho está estruturado em três partes, na primeira se estudará o
desenvolvimento do direito ambiental internacional; em seguida será abordada a governança global e sua evolução da Conferência Rio-92 à adoção da Agenda 2030 na Assembléia da ONU no ano de 2015 em Nova Iorque e os ODS’s.
Na terceira parte do artigo serão abordados conceitos trazidos pelo marco legal da agricultura orgânica no Brasil, que é a Lei n. 10.831 de 23 de dezembro de 2003, e a relação desse tipo de agricultura como importante meio de efetivação dos ODS’s, tudo isso pautado na responsabilidade socioambiental.
A pesquisa foi desenvolvida com a utilização do método básico, servindo-se de um apanhado bibliográfico e documental, em nível de aprendizado analítico.

There has been growing environmental awareness focused on the interactions between development actions and their environmental and human impact. This necessitates the need to protect not only the environment but also impose penal sanctions on polluters and compensate victims of environmental damages. Compensation is meant to restore the victim of environmental damage to the same position as they would have been had he not sustained that wrong for which he is now being compensated. Though some of our extant laws provide for payment of fair and adequate compensation to pollution victims, however, assessment of the extent of damage requiring compensation is a problem. This is partly due to inaccurate assessment of the quantum of compensation by the victims. The result is meager amount paid to such victims by the courts, as the courts are left with no other choice than to force the victims to accept whatever amount that is offered by the polluter as compensation. To ameliorate the above situation, victims of environmental damages can embark on simple impact assessment activity using environmental impact assessment tools. This will aid them in having a bird’s eye view of the level of environmental damages suffered and in the end help the court to arrive at what may be regarded as fair and adequate compensation to the environmental pollution victims. This paper, therefore, sought to explore means for assessing environmental damages using the Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA) methods.

The question of what status the precautionary principle enjoys in international law has once again reared its head; most recently in the Indus Water Treaty dispute between India and Pakistan before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, where the claim for customary status was advanced by Pakistan only to be countered by India. This paper assesses the current state of play in respect to the precautionary principle and its status in international law. The paper does this by identifying what it terms the two camps of precaution, the custom camp and the no custom camp, which find themselves on opposing sides in the debate. The paper argues that the two camps are equally guilty of misunderstanding the precautionary principle and the nature of customary international law, though for different reasons. In doing so the paper relies on the concepts of ‘precaution spotting’ and what is elsewhere termed the ‘rule v. standard’ dialectic. These two concepts help us understand the different claims advanced by the two camps and alert us to the fact that customary international law is best understood if we come to accept that there are multiple ways of identifying customary international rules.

On 1 February 2011, the Seabed Disputes Chamber (“the Chamber”) delivered its first Advisory Opinion. The Opinion provides useful guidance to the international community concerned with the deep seabed. First and foremost, the Chamber accomplished its task to assist the ISA with independent and impartial judicial interpretation of the Convention and related instruments. States that intend to extract valuable resources now know that they must evaluate their legal codes, administrative capacity, and their judicial enforcement mechanisms to determine where they fall short of the standards that the Chamber has identified. For most states it will be necessary to introduce new laws to provide the requisite rules, regulations and procedures. Entities seeking sponsorship will likely wish to work with these governments to develop a workable regime. Other entities, such as those interested in scientific research, other economic uses, and protection of the ocean and seabed resources, will want to assist with this process to ensure that their interests are respected and that developing states are given assistance to develop appropriate laws and enforcement capacity. Finally, the limitations and gaps in the Convention’s liability scheme have now been identified and await the international legal community’s attention.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 13

Accepted Paper Series

This article examines the ways in which international courts and tribunals should uti-lise their powers to prescribe provisional measures in the context of environmental disputes. The article makes the case that the system of dispute resolution has the capacity to adapt to the specific needs of environmental disputes. By analysing the key features of provisional measures and extracting new judicial trends, new light is shed on two core issues: first, this article develops a theoretical framework within which provisional measures should be understood in order to achieve their aim. Second, it shows how a certain level of judicial creativity in the design of provisional measures can have implications on whether such measures can be enforced through innovative cooperation with other institutional bodies. As a result, this article argues that provisional measures can fill the gap of enforcement in international environmental law and become a pivotal instrument in environmental protection.