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Inclusion Of Incentive And Punitive Measures In Multilateral Environmental Agreement: A Suggestion On How The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change Can Be Utilized To Influence The Reduction Of Gas Flaring In The Oil And Gas Exploration Fields Of Nigeria, Temiloluwa Elijah Olanrewaju
Inclusion Of Incentive And Punitive Measures In Multilateral Environmental Agreement: A Suggestion On How The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change Can Be Utilized To Influence The Reduction Of Gas Flaring In The Oil And Gas Exploration Fields Of Nigeria, Temiloluwa Elijah Olanrewaju
Dissertations & Theses
Gas flaring is categorized as one of the important contributors to greenhouse gases, which increases the risk of global warming and climate change. The overdependence of the modern economy and most industrial technologies on fossil fuels has created a situation in countries where fossil fuels are exploited. The governments rely majorly on the revenue from exporting oil. The IOCs that are engaged in the mining of oil and gas have been able to influence policy and law enforcement on gas flaring to such an extent that the National laws are not enforced, or the stipulated fines are abysmally low that …
Climate Change As A Global Challenge, Nicholas A. Robinson
Climate Change As A Global Challenge, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Iucn As Catalyst For A Law Of The Biosphere: Acting Globally And Locally, Nicholas A. Robinson
Iucn As Catalyst For A Law Of The Biosphere: Acting Globally And Locally, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Unique among international organizations, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) operates at the global, regional, and national levels to build governmental capacity to protect the environment. With a membership of over 75 sovereign states and 800 nongovernmental organizations, IUCN functions as an intergovernmental organization at the transnational level while operationally embodying the maxim "think globally, act locally." IUCN acts as a consortium of environmental scientists and professionals, including environmental lawyers who have proposed and secured adoption of significant environmental treaties such as the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and their …
The Iucn Academy Of Environmental Law: Seeking Legal Underpinnings For Sustainable Development, Nicholas A. Robinson
The Iucn Academy Of Environmental Law: Seeking Legal Underpinnings For Sustainable Development, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
An article describing a “work in progress” can provide only a sketch of the initial plans for the new IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. As the Academy establishes its administrative secretariat, builds its research program, and fashions its collaborative teaching undertakings, the details of this further work will become clear. Their analysis must await the events. Nonetheless, the precedents to date portend a promising future, as illustrated by the launch in Shanghai, and the Academy's initial research into the environmental sustainability of contemporary energy law.
Enforcing Environmental Norms: Diplomatic And Judicial Approaches, Nicholas A. Robinson
Enforcing Environmental Norms: Diplomatic And Judicial Approaches, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Environmental norms are observed because they are norms about how people respect each other and the natural systems that sustain human communities. Environmental norms are basic to human well-being. They arise out of the human condition, not unlike human rights laws. Environmental norms emerge from the fact that humans exist within ecosystems, and human society is embedded in the natural systems in which they have evolved; environmental norms are grounded in an objective reality, and scientists can measure the consequences of observing--or failing to observe--those norms. The provisions of environmental norms, therefore, exist not merely as pronouncements of governments, applied …
Befogged Vision: International Environmental Law A Decade After Rio, Nicholas A. Robinson
Befogged Vision: International Environmental Law A Decade After Rio, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Environmental management has emerged as an important element of governance in practically every nation. This was not the case before the United Nations convened the 1972 Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. After Stockholm, nations learned to build environmental ministries and work across sectors nationally, and discovered how difficult it is to reshape entrenched national practices in order to curb pollution and conserve natural resources. With growing experience and knowledge, nations came to realize that no one government alone could safeguard the environment, and that international cooperation would need to be enhanced.
Strengthening Sustainable Development In Regional Inter-Governmental Governance: Lessons From The 'Asean Way', Nicholas A. Robinson
Strengthening Sustainable Development In Regional Inter-Governmental Governance: Lessons From The 'Asean Way', Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
ASEAN was founded with the 1967 Bangkok Declaration in order to encourage stable relations among its original member states, i.e. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, and to resist destabilizing influences from the war in Viet Nam. The means to stability was to promote economic, social and cultural cooperation in the spirit of equality and partnership. A formal treaty system was not required. As the Viet Nam war ended, ASEAN held its first Summit Meeting in Bali (1976), followed by the 1977 Summit in Kuala Lumpur, where cooperation on regional industrializations was launched. In this first phase of cooperation, …
David Ross Brower And Nature's Laws, Nicholas A. Robinson
David Ross Brower And Nature's Laws, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
“We're not blindly opposed to progress. We're opposed to blind progress.” These words summed up the style and power of David R. Brower. Indelibly, he chiseled toe hold after toe hold on an arduous climb across the rock face of the commercial forces driven to seek short-term gain from natural resources and oblivious to the longer-term costs to the Earth that the ecological sciences would chronicle but that economists would disregard as mere “externalities” in their classical market models. As Brower campaigned to protect the wilderness of North America and the Earth, through his sheer conviction and abundant eloquence, he …
Legal Systems, Decisionmaking, And The Science Of Earth's Systems: Procedural Missing Links, Nicholas A. Robinson
Legal Systems, Decisionmaking, And The Science Of Earth's Systems: Procedural Missing Links, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Decisionmakers disregard scientific findings regarding environmental conditions, despite recommendations of the 1992 "Earth Summit" in Agenda 21 that science should provide a foundation for sustainable development. Although environmental degradation trends continue to exacerbate, decisionmakers address only selected issues. This Article examines an analytic paradigm for evaluating when decisionmakers are ready to address a problem and describes the catalytic role that scientific information can serve in prompting remedial action. Unless systematic procedures require evaluation of environmental scientific findings in the normal course of decisionmaking, science will continue to be ignored. One hallmark of Environmental Law has been to fashion such procedures, …
Forest Fires As A Common International Concern: Precedents For The Progressive Development Of International Environmental Law, Nicholas A. Robinson
Forest Fires As A Common International Concern: Precedents For The Progressive Development Of International Environmental Law, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Without a better global effort to prevent and cope with forest fires, the remaining wild forests' resources of the world are at risk. Quite apart from the present loss of commercial timber and species habitat, and the present problems of flooding and erosion in the aftermath of fires, the loss of these wooded lands will reduce the capacity of regions to absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, thereby making the challenge of managing emissions of greenhouse gases all the more problematic. Forests sequester carbon in their woody tissue as a result of photosynthesis, and are often termed the “lungs” of the …
The 'Ascent Of Man': Legal Systems And The Discovery Of An Environmental Ethic, Nicholas A. Robinson
The 'Ascent Of Man': Legal Systems And The Discovery Of An Environmental Ethic, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
A decade ago, firefighters in a warehouse on the Rhine in Switzerland washed chemicals, solvents, and mercury into the river, destroying all life in the river for miles, killing millions of fish, and endangering the water supplies of cities in Germany and the Netherlands. This tragedy galvanized the river valley states into action. They vowed to clean up the river, not just from that incident but from the effects of having used the river as a sewer for two centuries. But how clean is clean? The goal for this calculated plan, which will take decades to achieve, is symbolized by …
Comparative Environmental Law Perspectives On Legal Regimes For Sustainable Development, Nicholas A. Robinson
Comparative Environmental Law Perspectives On Legal Regimes For Sustainable Development, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
As the world's largest summit meeting ended in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the heads of state and their representatives assembled at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), commonly referred to as Agenda 21. They embraced Agenda 21 as “a dynamic programme” which can “evolve over time in the light of changing needs and circumstances,” and as a process making “the beginning of a new global partnership for sustainable development.” Agenda 21 is premised on two factual perspectives. First, the documentation of trends in the deterioration of the environmental conditions in many parts of the world is …
Attaining Systems For Sustainability Through Environmental Law, Nicholas A. Robinson
Attaining Systems For Sustainability Through Environmental Law, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Five years have passed since the historic Earth Summit. Although significant progress has been made since Rio, much remains to be done. Poverty and environment degradation continue to affect the lives of millions of people in many parts of the world. Global warming, the loss of biological diversity, the spread of deserts, deforestation, the crisis in many of our cities remind us every day of the challenges which confront us. The unsustainable patterns of consumption and production continue to be the major cause of environmental degradation worldwide. This is therefore not an occasion for complacency or mindless celebration. It is, …
The Law Of Sustainable Development, Nicholas A. Robinson
The Law Of Sustainable Development, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
I am going to talk briefly, as dictated by the format of this seminar, about the law of sustainable development and how it has been developing. Sustainable development is, today, the guiding theme for both public and private measures to improve social conditions and strengthen economic conditions around the world. It did not become a guiding theme overnight. The recognition that sustainable development is fundamental has been growing gradually. The concept recognizes that the sort of development that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States of America and elsewhere was, by itself, an inadequate base on …
Iucn's Proposed Covenant On Environment & Development, Nicholas A. Robinson
Iucn's Proposed Covenant On Environment & Development, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
This article examines the genesis and scope of the IUCN draft Covenant. It (a) describes IUCN's interest and experience in preparing the proposed draft Covenant; (b) analyzes the roles the draft Covenant can serve; and (c) identifies some illustrative precedents for the Articles of the draft Covenant.
International Trends In Environmental Impact Assessment, Nicholas A. Robinson
International Trends In Environmental Impact Assessment, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
This paper explores the range of legislation that has created the EIA mandate. A more comprehensive study of all EIA laws is under preparation by the Commission on Environmental Law of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, but this study will not be complete until 1992. In the absence of such an exhaustive analysis, this paper sketches the global legislative trends in EIA.
Soviet Environmental Protection: The Challenge For Legal Studies, Nicholas A. Robinson
Soviet Environmental Protection: The Challenge For Legal Studies, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
The five essays by Soviet environmental law specialists published in this volume of the Pace Environmental Law Review provide insights into the contemporary debate in the USSR about how to protect nature. Before commenting on each essay, it is useful to sketch out the problems which the Soviet Union is encountering as it struggles to cope with its substantial pollution and widespread natural resource misuse.
Perestroika And Priroda: Environmental Protection In The Ussr, Nicholas A. Robinson
Perestroika And Priroda: Environmental Protection In The Ussr, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
This article reviews the initial Soviet decisions through 1988, applying perestroika to the problem of protecting priroda. Surveyed here is the scope of the ecological problems in the USSR and traditional responses, followed by an examination of the current Soviet policy to restructure its administrative and legal system for environmental protection. These initial reforms will not all result in a direct or immediate improvement of the Soviet environmental protection regime. For instance, the reforms also are stimulating the Soviet "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) phenomenon, or local opposition to the siting of developments ranging from electrical power plants, to facilities …
The U.S. - U.S.S.R. Agreement To Protect The Environment: 15 Years Of Cooperation, Nicholas A. Robinson
The U.S. - U.S.S.R. Agreement To Protect The Environment: 15 Years Of Cooperation, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
This Article will discuss the origins and operation of the Environmental Bilateral, its functioning in international law, and its contribution to environmental law in each country.
Introduction: Emerging International Environmental Law, Nicholas A. Robinson
Introduction: Emerging International Environmental Law, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
This Introduction notes the emerging mandate for international environmental law and the concurrent problems of implementation. It focuses on two particular applications of this new mandate: the United States-Panama Joint Environment Commission for the Panama Canal, and the suggested role of the United Nations Environment Programme in developing a system of global environmental hazard alerts.
Extraterritorial Environmental Protection Obligations Of Foreign Affairs Agencies: The Unfulfilled Mandate Of Nepa, Nicholas A. Robinson
Extraterritorial Environmental Protection Obligations Of Foreign Affairs Agencies: The Unfulfilled Mandate Of Nepa, Nicholas A. Robinson
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
This article will focus on the initial Department of State position, as set forth in a legal memorandum which interpreted NEPA as not requiring compliance by a foreign affairs agency. It will then examine the language of the Act and its legislative history. Finally, the article will reveal a pattern of official self-insulation from national environmental policy, illustrated by the Export-Import Bank's continuing refusal to comply with NEPA's requirements. It will suggest that much remains to be done if NEPA is to be fully effective in governing the extraterritorial consequences of the federal government's actions.