The Experts below are selected from a list of 30885 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Sumudu Atapattu - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
International Environmental Law Environmental justice and the global south
Social Science Research Network, 2017Co-Authors: Carmen G Gonzalez, Sumudu AtapattuAbstract:On October 28, 2016, the Journal of Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems (“TLCP”) hosted a symposium to honor the late Professor Burns Weston, to celebrate the publication of International Environmental Law and the Global South (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and to use the book as the foundation for further scholarly inquiry. The symposium featured an inspiring and enlightening series of panels and keynote addresses on a variety of topics including Environmental justice and indigenous peoples, energy poverty and its disparate impact on women, violence against women in resource extractive industries, and North-South fisheries disputes. The thesis of International Environmental Law and the Global South is that an ecologically sustainable planet is impossible in a world plagued with significant and growing inequalities. If International Environmental Law is to succeed, it must overcome the North-South divide by developing policies and frameworks that address the concerns and priorities of the peoples and states of the Global South (including the “South in the North” -- Environmental justice communities in the United States, Canada, and other affluent countries). This introduction provides a synopsis of the frameworks and case studies used by the symposium contributors to analyze the North-South divide in International Environmental Law, including Environmental justice, human rights, feminist legal theory, Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), and decolonization. The symposium articles highlight the intersections of gender, poverty, rurality, indigeneity, and race, and explore how structural inequalities interact, overlap, and produce differentiated experiences of advantage and disadvantage.
-
International Environmental Law and the global south the significance of International Environmental Law principles in reinforcing or dismantling the north south divide
Social Science Research Network, 2015Co-Authors: Sumudu AtapattuAbstract:The field of International Environmental Law has blossomed into a separate branch of International Law despite its slow start, and is now replete with principles that govern Environmental issues. While their legal status varies, these principles are important for several reasons. First, they provide a framework to negotiate new Environmental treaties and implement existing ones. Thus, for example, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), quite unprecedentedly, devotes a whole article to "principles" that should guide the parties to the Convention to achieve its objectives and to implement its provisions. Second, they provide guidance to various judicial bodies to resolve Environmental disputes. Thus, in the Pulp Mills Case, the ICJ referred to transboundary Environmental impact assessment as part of customary International Law. Third, they provide a framework for decisions at the national level. Thus, the Indian Supreme Court has applied the precautionary principle, the polluter pays principle, sustainable development, and the intergenerational equity principle in many of the cases before it. Finally, some principles may be useful in integrating Environmental issues with other branches of International trade Law and International human rights Law and vice versa: Trade sanctions have been used successfully in Environmental regimes. The ozone regime is a good example. Moreover, some principles embodied in soft Law instruments can shape state practice and result in crystallizing a customary International Law principle over time, or they could be incorporated into a treaty. Principle 21 of the Stockholm Declaration is a good example of a soft Law principle becoming part of customary International Law, while participatory rights being incorporated into a treaty, albeit regional, is an example of soft Law becoming part of treaty Law.
-
International Environmental Law and the global south introduction
Social Science Research Network, 2015Co-Authors: Carmen G Gonzalez, Sumudu AtapattuAbstract:The unprecedented degradation of the planet’s vital ecosystems is among the most pressing issues confronting the International community. Despite the proliferation of legal instruments to combat Environmental problems, conflicts between rich and poor nations (the North-South divide) have compromised the effectiveness of International Environmental Law, leading to deadlocks in Environmental treaty negotiations and non-compliance with existing agreements. International Environmental Law and the Global South examines both the historical origins of the North-South divide in European colonialism as well as its contemporary manifestations in a range of issues, including food justice, energy justice, indigenous rights, trade, investment, extractive industries, human rights, land grabs, hazardous waste, and climate change. Born out of the recognition that global inequality and profligate consumerism present threats to a sustainable planet, this books makes a unique contribution to International Environmental Law by emphasizing the priorities and concerns of the global South.
-
International Environmental Law and the global south
2015Co-Authors: Jona Razzaque, Carmen G Gonzalez, Shawkat Alam, Sumudu AtapattuAbstract:This book examines the ways in which the conflicting perspectives and priorities of the global North and the global South have compromised the effectiveness of International Environmental Law, including deadlocks in International negotiations and inadequate compliance with existing Environmental agreements. Through contributions from eminent scholars in the North and the South, the book analyzes the historic origins and contemporary manifestations of the North-South divide across a wide range of Environmental problems -- climate change being a classic example -- and emphasizes opportunities to overcome this divide through practices that address historic inequities and enhance the participation of the global South in the development and implementation of International Environmental Law. Drawing upon their knowledge of specific regulatory regimes, the contributors to this volume will discuss how the North-South divide operates in distinct areas of International Environmental Law, and explore legal strategies to bridge this divide.
-
emerging principles of International Environmental Law
2007Co-Authors: Sumudu AtapattuAbstract: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.
Jutta Brunnee - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
sources of International Environmental Law
Social Science Research Network, 2018Co-Authors: Jutta BrunneeAbstract:Drawing on the interactional account of International Law, this chapter begins with a reflection on the concept of ‘sources of Law,’ which it takes to refer to processes that are shaped by requirements of legality and through which legal norms are made and remade. This alternative understanding of ‘sources’ does not entail that the Law-making methods listed in Article 38 of the ICJ Statute have ceased to matter in International Environmental Law – far from it. The interactional Law framework takes seriously what International actors do, both as they continue to rely on ‘sources’ listed in Article 38, and as they develop new ways of making International Law. The chapter, therefore, explores the Law-making processes listed in Article 38 in turn, and then moves on to consider newer processes. The interactional framework and its practice-based understanding of legality illuminate the existence of resilient and relatively stable Law-making processes, such as treaty-based and customary Law-making, as well the emergence of new Law-making processes, such as the various modes of ‘soft’ standard-setting that have seen a steady rise in International Environmental Law, and beyond.
-
the rule of International Environmental Law and complex problems
Social Science Research Network, 2017Co-Authors: Jutta BrunneeAbstract:Complexity thinking underscores that, while International Law must provide stability to interactions around global climate change, it must also be flexible and highly adaptable. But what are the implications of this functional imperative for the International rule of Law? The emergence and evolution of the UN climate regime lends itself to exploring the trajectory of International Law in its encounter with complexity. For present purposes, the perhaps most significant trend in International Environmental Law-making has been the rise of a spectrum of more or less formal amendment processes, and of various modes of informal standard-setting under the auspices of multilateral Environmental agreements (MEAs), including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). Is this rise of informality indicative of a decline of the International rule of Law? The paper pursues the argument that the “hard” vs. “soft” Law distinction is not the most salient metric when it comes to exploring the trajectory of the International rule of Law. It begins by highlighting the main features of climate change as a complex policy challenge. Next, drawing on the interactional account of International Law developed elsewhere by Brunnee and Toope, it identifies key traits of legality and the rule of Law in the International context. It then explores the evolution of customary, “soft” and treaty-based International Environmental Law. It focuses primarily on how treaty-based Law has evolved to grapple with complexity on the one hand, and with meeting the demands of the rule of Law on the other. The 2015 Paris Agreement, adopted under the auspices of the FCCC and employing an unprecedented range of legal “modes,” provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on this question.
-
International Environmental Law and community interests procedural aspects
2016Co-Authors: Jutta BrunneeAbstract:This paper is a contribution to a book on obligations to collectively protect common goods in International Law. It explores the procedural aspects of International Environmental Law’s evolution towards the protection of ‘community’ interests. The paper first examines the interplay between procedural and substantive obligations, focusing on efforts to flesh out the standard of due diligence that is at the core of the harm prevention obligation in customary Law. The recent decisions of the International Court of Justice in the Costa Rica v Nicaragua/Nicaragua v Costa Rica cases suggest that the specifics of the connections between procedure and substance may be less well settled than one may have assumed. Next, the paper surveys the rich array of procedural approaches to promoting and protecting community interests that has evolved in this setting, including Law-making, implementation and oversight, and compliance and dispute settlement processes, as well as the range of ways in which non-state actors can be involved in these processes. Special attention is paid to the global climate regime that has evolved under the umbrella of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, including through the Paris Agreement adopted in December 2015. The central argument of the paper is that, both under general International Law and in the context of treaty-based regimes, the procedural dimensions of International Environmental Law hold the key to its ability to serve community interests. Procedure can promote the protection of community interests in concrete ways. For example, procedural requirements can step into the breach when substantive requirements lack specificity or when states are reluctant to invoke them. In the context of treaty-based regimes, procedural elements play crucial roles when participants hold divergent positions, work towards shared understandings of community interests and collective action, or work to develop, apply, or revise, substantive requirements. But the procedural aspects of International Environmental Law also are important in their own right. Procedure serves to enable, guide and at times even compel interaction between states and other International actors, including non-state actors. In so doing, procedural norms and practices contribute to the legitimacy and resilience of International Law.
-
teaching an old Law new tricks International Environmental Law lessons for cyberspace governance
2015Co-Authors: Jutta Brunnee, Tamar MeshelAbstract:This article uses International Environmental Law as a lens for analysing States’ obligations in relation to cyber activities of non-State actors operating under their jurisdiction. We begin by exploring opportunities for borrowing well-established rules of harm prevention and due diligence from the more advanced, but not dissimilar, field of International Environmental Law. We argue that these rules can provide a legal foundation for the emerging field of International cyber Law, and have already made their way into the cyberspace discourse. We then draw on the experience of International Environmental Law with conceptual notions such as ‘global commons’ and ‘shared resources’, as well as with institutional models such as multilateral Environmental agreements and norm-developing bodies. We highlight the risks and drawbacks of the conceptual and institutional leap from States’ transboundary harm prevention duties to protection of a commons in the ‘virtual’ world of cyberspace.
-
the stockholm declaration and the structure and processes of International Environmental Law
Social Science Research Network, 2009Co-Authors: Jutta BrunneeAbstract:This chapter aims to reflect on the impact of the Stockholm Declaration in light of the evolution of the structure and processes of International Environmental Law since 1972. It first illustrates how the structure of International Environmental Law has changed from a transboundary, bilateral framework to a global framework, which seeks to take into account considerations of both intra- and intergenerational equity. The chapter, therefore, focuses on five concepts that best reflect the shifts: common concern of humankind, common but differentiated responsibilities, sustainable development, intergenerational equity, and the precautionary principle. Second, the chapter suggests that this change in structure has been accompanied by a broadening of the processes of International Environmental Law to encompass a range of Law-making methods. Keywords: intergenerational equity; International Environmental Law; precautionary principle; Stockholm Declaration; sustainable development
Carmen G Gonzalez - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
International Environmental Law Environmental justice and the global south
Social Science Research Network, 2017Co-Authors: Carmen G Gonzalez, Sumudu AtapattuAbstract:On October 28, 2016, the Journal of Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems (“TLCP”) hosted a symposium to honor the late Professor Burns Weston, to celebrate the publication of International Environmental Law and the Global South (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and to use the book as the foundation for further scholarly inquiry. The symposium featured an inspiring and enlightening series of panels and keynote addresses on a variety of topics including Environmental justice and indigenous peoples, energy poverty and its disparate impact on women, violence against women in resource extractive industries, and North-South fisheries disputes. The thesis of International Environmental Law and the Global South is that an ecologically sustainable planet is impossible in a world plagued with significant and growing inequalities. If International Environmental Law is to succeed, it must overcome the North-South divide by developing policies and frameworks that address the concerns and priorities of the peoples and states of the Global South (including the “South in the North” -- Environmental justice communities in the United States, Canada, and other affluent countries). This introduction provides a synopsis of the frameworks and case studies used by the symposium contributors to analyze the North-South divide in International Environmental Law, including Environmental justice, human rights, feminist legal theory, Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), and decolonization. The symposium articles highlight the intersections of gender, poverty, rurality, indigeneity, and race, and explore how structural inequalities interact, overlap, and produce differentiated experiences of advantage and disadvantage.
-
International Environmental Law and the global south introduction
Social Science Research Network, 2015Co-Authors: Carmen G Gonzalez, Sumudu AtapattuAbstract:The unprecedented degradation of the planet’s vital ecosystems is among the most pressing issues confronting the International community. Despite the proliferation of legal instruments to combat Environmental problems, conflicts between rich and poor nations (the North-South divide) have compromised the effectiveness of International Environmental Law, leading to deadlocks in Environmental treaty negotiations and non-compliance with existing agreements. International Environmental Law and the Global South examines both the historical origins of the North-South divide in European colonialism as well as its contemporary manifestations in a range of issues, including food justice, energy justice, indigenous rights, trade, investment, extractive industries, human rights, land grabs, hazardous waste, and climate change. Born out of the recognition that global inequality and profligate consumerism present threats to a sustainable planet, this books makes a unique contribution to International Environmental Law by emphasizing the priorities and concerns of the global South.
-
International Environmental Law and the global south
2015Co-Authors: Jona Razzaque, Carmen G Gonzalez, Shawkat Alam, Sumudu AtapattuAbstract:This book examines the ways in which the conflicting perspectives and priorities of the global North and the global South have compromised the effectiveness of International Environmental Law, including deadlocks in International negotiations and inadequate compliance with existing Environmental agreements. Through contributions from eminent scholars in the North and the South, the book analyzes the historic origins and contemporary manifestations of the North-South divide across a wide range of Environmental problems -- climate change being a classic example -- and emphasizes opportunities to overcome this divide through practices that address historic inequities and enhance the participation of the global South in the development and implementation of International Environmental Law. Drawing upon their knowledge of specific regulatory regimes, the contributors to this volume will discuss how the North-South divide operates in distinct areas of International Environmental Law, and explore legal strategies to bridge this divide.
-
bridging the north south divide International Environmental Law in the anthropocene
Pace Environmental Law Review, 2015Co-Authors: Carmen G GonzalezAbstract: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.
-
Environmental Justice and International Environmental Law
Routledge Handbook of International Environmental Law, 2012Co-Authors: Carmen G GonzalezAbstract:Environmental justice lies at the heart of many Environmental disputes between the global North and the global South as well as grassroots Environmental struggles within nations. However, the discourse of International Environmental Law is often ahistorical and technocratic. It neither educates the North about its inordinate contribution to global Environmental problems nor provides an adequate response to the concerns of nations and communities disproportionately burdened by poverty and Environmental degradation. This article examines some of the root causes of Environmental injustice among and within nations from the colonial period to the present, and discusses several strategies that can be used to integrate Environmental justice into the broader corpus of International Law so as to promote social and economic justice while protecting the planet’s natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations.
Luis Lopez Zamora - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
yearbook of International Environmental Law peru report 2019
Social Science Research Network, 2020Co-Authors: Luis Lopez ZamoraAbstract:In 2019, Peru adopted certain declarations in matters of International Environmental Law including the Leticia Pact for the Amazon Region (September, 2019), the Pacific Alliance Presidential Declaration on the Sustainable Management of Plastics (July, 2019) and the Lima Declaration on Illegal Wildlife Trade (October, 2019). This was also an important year for the implementation of certain International Environmental instruments where Peru is already a party. The implementation of such treaties came in the form of legal projects and through the enactment of specific Laws and decrees in matters of climate change, persistent organic pollutants, access to genetic resources, mercury management, and the regulation of aircraft noise. Moreover, there have been some important domestic judicial decisions and proceedings concerning matters of Environmental Law and Indigenous peoples, incorporating International elements; for example, in the judgment delivered by the Madre de Dios Superior Court of Justice, or by the further activation of alternative ways to discuss the non-compliance of national Environmental Law in the context of the United States–Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.
-
yearbook of International Environmental Law peru report 2018
Social Science Research Network, 2018Co-Authors: Luis Lopez ZamoraAbstract:During 2018, Peru signed the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean (Costa Rica) (March) and adopted the Declaration of Buenos Aires (October). This year was also important for the implementation—within the domestic legal framework—of certain International Environmental instruments where Peru is already a party. The implementation of such treaties came in the form of domestic legal projects and the enactment of specific Laws that try to comply with International obligations in matters of climate change, mercury management, and the regulation of aircraft noise. In addition, there have been some important jurisdictional decisions domestically concerning matters of Environmental Law and Indigenous peoples that incorporated some International elements and the activation of some alternative ways to discuss the non-compliance of Peruvian domestic Environmental Law in an International Law context (United States–Peru Trade Promotion Agreement).
Nadia B Ahmad - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
book review International Environmental Law and the global south
Social Science Research Network, 2016Co-Authors: Nadia B AhmadAbstract:At the intersection between what constitutes International Environmental Law (IEL) and how IEL can create effective legal mechanisms for Environmental justice in the global South is the book’s entry into the academic discussion. Incidentally, this collection is not merely a book; much more, it represents a movement stemming from Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), which has operated on the margins of International Law. Likewise, IEL finds itself at the boundaries of International Law but is gaining a new tide of support in its bid for legitimacy, equality, and human dignity. International Environmental Law and the Global South understands and recognizes these pressures, and it sheds new light on this often undervalued area of International Law.