Law Commons^™

Rethinking Law To Reach A Collective Consensus-Based Approach - The Case For Prinicples In The African Union, Willem Daniel Lubbe

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The global environment (including humans) faces critical threats brought on by, among others, rapid decline of biodiversity and climate change. These threats are not just the concerns of nation-states but indeed the common concerns of the global world.

Environmental protection manifests at three different levels. These are international (or global), regional (including sub-regional) and national. It may be argued that these levels should inform each other culminating in harmonized national legal systems effecting the ideals contained at supra-national levels. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the African Union. Various aspects unique to the region hamper the efforts to reach …

Strengthening Regional Ocean Governance To Protect The Marine Environment: A Case Study Of The Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem Project, Yu Ming

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME) project, with two participating countries of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea, is a very successful attempt to strengthen regional ocean governance to protect the marine environment in the Yellow Sea region. The project’s structure of regional ocean governance is characterized by an ecosystem-based approach, an effective and efficient institutional framework, and wide participation of stakeholders. This structure promised a fruitful result after more than five years of implementation. It developed a practical Strategic Action Programme (SAP) with tangible targets and appropriate management actions, made considerable progress in …

The Unep Regional Seas Programme: Bridging The Governance Gap, Nilufer Oral

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

One of the important outcomes of the historic 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE) forty years ago was the establishment of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the UNEP Regional Seas Programme. Today the UNEP Regional Seas Programmes, with eighteen regional seas programmes under its auspices, has created an institutional and governance framework for the protection and preservation of the marine environment based on state co-operation at the regional level. Ideally, under the centralized and coordinated administration of UNEP each regional sea programme should have a standardized regional framework of governance based on the best available …

The Contribution Of Local Conventions To The Effectiveness Of Environmental Law In Burkina Faso, Habib Ahmed Djiga

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Burkina Faso, a small country in West Africa, is hard struck by desertification, drought, rainfall irregular, land degradation, competitions related to access and management of natural resources. These environmental challenges have provoked food insecurity and increasing poverty. These difficulties exacerbate the harsh living conditions of communities, accentuate their vulnerability to climate change and increase conflicts over natural resource use.

Facing to this context, the Burkinabe State authorities have taken action to protect the environment that led to the development of environmental law. They have indeed adopted rule of laws, established strategies, programs and action plans, and ratified international treaties related …

Gender And The Rio Conventions: Is The Road Getting Less Bumpy?, Nicky Broeckhoven

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Desertification, biodiversity loss and climate change pose unrivalled global problems affecting everyone on the planet. However, the impacts thereof are not gender-neutral. Different needs and concerns of men and women and existing gender inequalities mean that women are more likely to lose out than men in the face of these global problems. Over the last two decades, this gender dimension has steadily been recognized in several international legal and policy documents (E.g. Agenda 21, Rio declaration, Beijing Platform for Action). The need to address gender issues with regard to desertification and biodiversity loss has been recognized since the UN Conference …

Environmental Protection Versus Energy Supply Security - The Shale Gas Case And Its Impact On Ecosystem Services, Leonie Reins

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The complexity, interrelation and competition between environmental protection and energy supply security is an emerging problem. Often, State environmental protection concerns and standards are outweighed by a competing interest, such as ensuring energy supply security. This paper discusses the benefits and risks of an ecosystem service approach in connection with shale gas extraction in the United States and the European Union. The shale gas example demonstrates that even in advanced jurisdictions with high standards of environmental protection, ecosystem services are compromised for energy generation purposes. In addition, it explains the impacts of shale gas extraction on the individual elements of …

Ecosystem Services And Sustainable Development: Creating An Integrated Governance Approach: Critical Reflections On The New European Strategy On Biodiversity, Nathalie Herve-Fournereau

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

“Biodiversity is also our natural capital, delivering ecosystem services that underpin our economy.” According to the European Strategy on Biodiversity, EU commits to halt the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem service by 2020 in the light of the transition towards a resource efficient and green and sustainable economy. As defined in Directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability, the concept of ecosystem service (« functions provided by a natural resource for another natural resource or for the public») enjoys a broad conception that differs from the definition used by the Millenium ecosystem assessment report (« the benefits that …

The Emerging Institutional Risks From Widespread Adoption Of An Ecosystem Services Market Approach To Environmental Governance, Paul Martin, Jacqueline Williams, Amanda Kennedy

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Best practice commercial management involves two distinct mindsets, harnessed for separate purposes. The innovative mindset is concerned with the creative side of enterprise – entrepreneurship, innovation, strategising and commercialisation). However this is also married to a more pessimistic mindset focused on the identification and avoidance of what might go wrong- (risk management).

The modernist paradigm for environmental governance stresses scientific model-based estimation to determine resource use-limits, legally specified property rights to fractions of the environment, market or market like mechanisms for allocation of interests, and scientific methods of performance of the strategies. These elements exist in varying forms regardless of …

Law, Ecosystem Valuation And Risk Allocation, David Hodas

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Assigning a precise economic value to a non-market ecosystem service or environmental externality that damages an ecosystem or human health and welfare is challenging. However, if we tie fairness and equity to getting the “prices” exactly right, the best will become the enemy of the good and we will sacrifice ecosystem services on the alter of excessive exactness. In terms of equity and ecosystem services, the precision of any particular monetized value is less important than that there be a value, and that the value is incorporated into legal and policy decisions. Existing legal models and institutional frameworks were not …

Forests, Protected Areas And The Payment For Ecosystem Services: Reserva Do Juma (State Of Amazonas- Brazil), Solange Teles Da Silva, Danielle De Ouro Mamed

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

In the State of Amazonas, the Climate Change, Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development Policy Act adopted by State Law n. º 3.135/2007 has created a Program called “Bolsa Floresta”. In a pioneering way, this program was established with the aim of starting the payment for environmental services and products to traditional communities for the sustainable use of natural resources, conservation, environmental protection and encouragement of voluntary policies to reduce deforestation. This Program of “compensation” - “Bolsa Floresta” - is divided into four types: a) “Bolsa Floresta” Family b) “Bolsa Floresta” Association c) “Bolsa Floresta” Social and, d) “Bolsa Floresta” Income. …

Payment For Ecosystems Services: A Pathway For Environmental Conservation In Uganda, Emmanuel Kasimbazi

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Ecosystem services are components of nature, directly enjoyed, consumed, or used to yield human well-being. They occur wherever plants, animals and people have interdependent relationships within the context of their physical environment. Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is a developing system which refers to payment for economic value of ecosystems. It is a scheme designed to provide incentives to individual landowners and local communities to conserve the environment. PES schemes seek to formulate a certain value to environmental services and establish appropriate pricing, institutional and redistribution systems that will lead to sustainable and socially optimal land use practices. These schemes …

The Relationship Of Ecosystem Services Valuation, Protection And Distribution With The Polluter-Pays Principle And The Provider-Gets Principle, Blaise-Pascal Ntirumenyerwa Mihigo, An Cliquet

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This paper discusses the environmental, economic and social aspects of ecosystem services (ES) and their interactions with the polluter-pays principle and the provider-gets principle. The paper ends with observations concerning the theoretical and practical relationship of those principles with ES and Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs.

ES have attracted increasing interest through PES as a mechanism which translates external, non-market values of the environment into real financial incentives for local actors to provide ES. The PES approach has inspired new incentives, innovative financing for ecosystem protection. The PES seeks to internalize what would otherwise be an externality. Here, we …

The Connection Between Natural Capital Productivity And Intergenerational Equity: Focus On Ecosystem Services, Laurel Pentelow

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This paper will discuss measurement options and new policies that can contribute to the incorporation of ecosystem service values into economic measures, in particular productivity. Further, this work will highlight the linkage between such outcomes and the principle of intergenerational equity. A discussion of the challenges and ethical considerations which arise when dealing with valuing ecosystem services will also be included.

Despite an increasing trend towards considering and valuing ecosystem services in environmental policy decisions, there has been less movement towards including ecosystem service values within national measures of economic progress. Most discussion to date has focused on the inclusion …

Check-In, Attendees Of The Symposium

NJTIP Annual Symposium

Check-in for the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property's 7th Annual Symposium

Vision 2020: A View Of Our Energy Future, George Allen, Eric Finkbeiner, David Christian, Joel Eisen, John Lain, Cale Jaffe, W. Thomas Hudson, Donald Irwin, Christopher Paine, Aimée Christensen, Michael H. Montgomery, Mark Rosen, Jefferson Reynolds, Kruskaia Sierra-Escalante, Edward Lowe, Carol M. Browner

University of Richmond Law Review Symposium

The Morning Address was given by The Honorable George Allen.

“The Regulatory Framework: Where Are We Headed?” session by Eric Finkbeiner, Senior Adviser for Policy, Office of Governor Robert McDonnell; David Christian, Chief Executive Officer, Dominion Generation; and Professor Joel Eisen, University of Richmond School of Law. Professor Noah Sachs, University of Richmond School of Law, served as moderator.

“The Future of Coal” session by John Lain, Partner at McGuireWoods LLP; Cale Jaffe, Senior Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center; and W. Thomas Hudson, President of W. Thomas Hudson and Associates, Inc. and of the Virginia Coal Association. Stephen …

Nuclear Technologies In The Great Basin Oral History Project, Danielle Endres

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Abstract:

The United States currently faces a nuclear waste crisis. According to a 2002 report by former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, “We have a staggering amount of radioactive waste in this country.”1 The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that by 2035 the U.S. will have approximately 115,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste, which exceeds the capacity of the proposed federal storage site at Yucca Mountain.2 Deciding where and how to store nuclear waste is a significant nuclear, environmental, and health policy issue. The decisions that we make about nuclear waste siting greatly impact the future of nuclear technologies …

Nrc’S Decision Process: Judging The Safety Of A Proposed Repository, Janet Kotra

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Abstract:

-Provide an overview of the role of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at Yucca Mountain

-Describe the process NRC will use to decide whether or not to authorize construction of a repository at Yucca Mountain

-Explain options and highlight important milestones that apply to Tribes as potential participants in NRC’s process

Native American Forum On Nuclear Issues Agenda

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Conference agenda

Sponsored by: UNLV Department of Environmental Studies, UNLV Libraries, UNLV Department of History, UNLV Department of Sociology and the Native Community Action Council

Environmental Justice: An Analysis, Dennis Bechtel

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Abstract: -Importance of the Environmental Justice -EJ examples -Regulatory backdrop -Stigma effects -Recommendations

Fighting Nuclear Waste At Skull Valley, Margene Bullcreek

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Abstract:

-Reasons We Oppose Nuclear Waste

-Sovereignty

-Traditional values must be protected

-Protect sacredness of our culture, plants,

animals, air, and water

-Affects on community health

-Protect reservation and homeland

-To protect the air and water

-To protect future generations

-Environmental Justice

Native American Forum On Nuclear Issues Agenda

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Conference agenda

Sponsored by: UNLV Department of Environmental Studies, UNLV Libraries, UNLV Department of History, UNLV Department of Sociology and the Native Community Action Council

Preserving The Chesapeake: Law, Ecology, And The Bay, Heather N. Stevenson, Noah M. Sachs, Rodney A. Smolla, Gerald L. Baliles, Gerald Mccarthy, Russell W. Baxter, Jonathan Z. Cannon, Erin Ryan, Richard Batiuk, L. Preston Bryant, Kathy R. Frahm, Joseph J. Tannery, David E. Evans, Mark Smith, Nikki Rovner, Timothy G. Hayes, Alexandra Dunn

University of Richmond Law Review Symposium

This event was co-sponsored by the Merhige Center for Environmental Studies, the Allen Chair of Law, the Virginia State Bar, and the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

The “Historical Background” session, held from 9:30 - 10:30 a.m., was presented by the Hon. Governor Gerald L. Baliles, Director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs and 65th Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Gerald McCarthy, Executive Director of the Virginia Environmental Endowment; and Russell W. Baxter, Deputy Director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. Rodney A. Smolla, Dean of the University of Richmond School of Law, served as moderator. …

Resolving International Environmental Disputes In The 1990s And Beyond, Ben Boer, Beatriz Bugeda, Edith Brown Weiss, Pilippe Sands

University of Richmond Law Review Symposium

"The Implementation of International Environmental Law in the Asia Pacific Region" lecture given by Ben Boer, Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Sydney, Australia and Director of the Australian Centre for Environmental Law.

"Dispute Resolution Under NAFTA's Environmental Side Agreement" lecture given by Beatriz Bugeda, Professor of Law at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City.

"Ensuring Compliance with International Environmental Agreements" lecture given by Edith Brown Weiss, Professor of Law at Georgetown University.

"Resolution of International Environmental Disputes: Litigation and its Alternatives" lecture given by Philippe Sands, Reader in International Law at the University of London.