Law Commons^™

International Trade And Investment Law And Carbon Management Technologies, Shi-Ling Hsu, Nigel Bankes, Anatole Boute, Sarah Mccalla, Steve Charnovitz, Liz Whitsitt, Nicholas Rivers

Shi-Ling Hsu

Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases will require the development of carbon management technologies that are not currently available or that are not currently cost-effective. While market mechanisms such as carbon pricing must play a central role in stimulating the development of these technologies, governmental policy aimed at fostering carbon management technologies and lowering their costs must also play a part. Both types of policies will form part of an optimal greenhouse gas control portfolio.

This article develops a framework of international trade and investment law insofar as they may affect carbon management technologies. While it is commonly perceived that international …

A Game-Theoretic Model Of International Climate Change Negotiations, Shi-Ling Hsu

Shi-Ling Hsu

Exactly why the nations of the world have had difficulty in reaching agreement on reducing greenhouse gases that cause climate change is something of a puzzle. Although the future generations that will suffer the greater costs from climate change will probably be wealthier, the non-trivial risks that climate change will be catastrophic would seem to merit the collective purchase of some insurance in the form of greenhouse gas mitigation. Political economy, collective action, and psychological explanations all play a part in accounting for the international impasse, but all are incomplete. This article presents a simple game-theoretic model that illustrates the …

Carbon Taxation In Theory And In Practice, David Duff, Shi-Ling Hsu

Shi-Ling Hsu

There are a number of regulatory approaches to addressing the problem of global climate change, but four stand out: (i) carbon taxation, (ii) cap-and-trade programs, (iii) government subsidies, and (iv) so-called command-and-control regulation. This paper sets out a list of economic, political, and legal reasons for favouring carbon taxation over all of the other options. We do not argue that carbon taxation is the only solution to climate change, but that it should serve as the centerpiece of national governmental responses to the problem of climate change. Indeed, one reason we favour carbon taxation is precisely because it leaves room …

Regulating Greenhouse Gases In Canada: Constitutional And Policy Dimensions, Shi-Ling Hsu, Robin Elliot

Shi-Ling Hsu

Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions have risen dramatically since the 1997 negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol, and that rise has continued through Canada’s 2002 ratification of the Protocol. Along with economic dislocation, constitutional barriers to regulation have sometimes been cited as the reason for caution in regulating greenhouse gases. This article critically evaluates the constitutional arguments and examines the policy considerations surrounding various regulatory instruments that might be used to reduce greenhouse gases. We conclude that the Canadian constitution does not present any significant barriers to federal or provincial regulation and that policy considerations strongly favour the use of two instruments: …

A Realistic Evaluation Of Climate Change Litigation Through The Lens Of A Hypothetical Lawsuit, Shi-Ling Hsu

Shi-Ling Hsu

Several dozen cases that can be classified as "climate change litigation" have been filed worldwide, and legal scholars have already generated a considerable amount of writing on the phenomenon. The debate and scholarship has sometimes gotten ahead of itself, reflecting on the normative implications of outcomes that are still speculative at this point. This article seeks to ground this debate by analyzing the actual legal doctrines that may serve as bases for liability, and seeks to make a realistic evaluation of the likelihood of success of these types of suits. Climate change litigation, in its various forms, raises issues of …

Litigating Canada-U.S. Transboundary Pollution: International Environmental Lawmaking And The Threat Of Extraterritorial Reciprocity, Shi-Ling Hsu, Austen Parrish

Shi-Ling Hsu

This Article joins a spirited debate ongoing among international law scholars. Numerous articles have debated the changing nature of interna-tional law and relations: the impact of globalization, the decline of territorial-sovereignty, the ever important role that non-state actors play, and the growing use of domestic laws to solve transboundary problems. That scholarship, however, often speaks only in general theoretical terms, and has largely ignored how these changes are playing out in countries outside the United States in ways that impact American interests.

This Article picks up where that scholarship leaves off. It examines one of the perennial challenges for international …