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Eleventh Annual Grotius Lecture Response: Commentary On Achim Steiner's 2009 Grotius Lecture, Dinah L. Shelton
Eleventh Annual Grotius Lecture Response: Commentary On Achim Steiner's 2009 Grotius Lecture, Dinah L. Shelton
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This commentary discusses the impact of the 2009 Grotius Lecture delivered by Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environmental Program (“UNEP”). The commentary elaborates on a fundamental lesson of the lecture: law can be a conduit for transformative economic change. The commentary emphasizes the need for international entities such as UNEP to address global environmental crises that result from pollution largely generated by industrial countries. The commentary encourages leaders to consider these environmental challenges as possible threats to human rights.
Developing Substantive Environmental Rights, Dinah L. Shelton
Developing Substantive Environmental Rights, Dinah L. Shelton
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Human rights tribunals facing claims of violations stemming from environmental degradation are increasingly incorporating and applying national and international environmental standards to assess whether or not the government in question has complied with its legal obligations. The government is required to comply with whatever environmental laws it has enacted as well as treaties to which it is a party. Furthermore the tribunals will assess, albeit with considerable deference, whether or not the environmental laws set the level of protection too low to allow the enjoyment of guaranteed human rights, in some instances drawing on the precautionary principle and other concepts …