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Environmental Law

Seattle University School of Law

Faculty Articles

2015

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Environmental Justice, Human Rights, And The Global South, Carmen Gonzalez Jan 2015

Environmental Justice, Human Rights, And The Global South, Carmen Gonzalez

Faculty Articles

From the Ogoni people devastated by oil drilling in Nigeria to the Inuit and other indigenous populations threatened by climate change, communities disparately burdened by environmental degradation are increasingly framing their demands for environmental justice in the language of environmental human rights. Domestic and international tribunals have concluded that failure to protect the environment violates a variety of human rights (including the rights to life, health, food, water, property, and privacy; the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral lands and resources; and the right to a healthy environment). Some scholars have questioned the utility of the human rights …


Bridging The North-South Divide: International Environmental Law In The Anthropocene, Carmen Gonzalez Jan 2015

Bridging The North-South Divide: International Environmental Law In The Anthropocene, Carmen Gonzalez

Faculty Articles

This article calls for a fundamental reorientation of international environmental law to bridge the North-South divide and respond to the ecological crises of the Anthropocene. Such a reconceptualization of international environmental law must be normatively grounded in respect for nature and in the quest for environmental justice within, as well as between, countries. International environmental law must directly challenge the relentless drive toward economic expansion and unbridled exploitation of people and nature rather than merely attempt to mitigate its excesses. An essential step toward such a reconceptualization is to examine the ways in which international law has historically engaged with …