Environmental Law Commons^™

The Protection Of Brazilian Forests And The Effectiveness Of International Global Law, M. Luiza M. Granziera, Vladimir Garcia Magalhaes

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Brazil is a mega-diverse country and one of the largest parts of the world's forests lies within its territory. The Brazilian Forest Code, a national law that protects all kinds of vegetation, contributes significantly to the achievement of the objectives of the Conventions on Biological Diversity and Climate Changes. Currently, the rapid expansion of the agricultural frontier over the forests, mainly in the Amazon Biome and the Cerrado (Brazilian savanna species), aims towards the cultivation of soya and sugar cane. These cultures increase the profit of agrobusiness and the economic development of Brazil besides being considered sources of renewable energy. …

Environmental Compliance & Enforcement: The Role Of Access To Information And Public Participation, Claudia S. De Windt

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Good governance supports the process that links and harmonizes policies, institutions, procedures, tools, and information to empower stakeholders to make fundamental decisions, manage conflicts, seek points of consensus, and be accountable for their actions. In order to achieve good governance, public participation must be promoted; as Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration states: environmental issues are best handled with participation of all citizens, at the relevant level.^[1] Public participation has to be seen as an inclusive interaction between government and civil society, incorporating the process by which they not only open dialogue, establish partnerships, share information, but also interact …

The Arctic Crossroads: Environmental Challenges For Russia, Irina Krasnova

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The Arctic region – a northern polar region of the Earth occupies an area down from the Arctic Pole and comprises the Arctic Ocean, northern parts around the Northern Pole.[1] It consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean surrounded by permafrost. The Arctic is known for its rich reserves of natural resources – oil, gas minerals, fresh water, fish, the economic significance of which is growing. Since late 19^th century the sea route named as a Northeast Passage (now the North Seaway) along the Russian Northern seashore has been used as a transportation route. Being an area where the …

Choosing New Paths At Regulatory Crossroads: Helping Regulatory Agencies To Respond To Change, Elizabeth Kirk

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Development Through A Rights Based Approach To Conserve Protected Areas In China, Miao He

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Protected areas are the world’s most effective tool for biodiversity conservation, and their role in helping mitigate and adapt to climate change is also increasingly recognized. However, neglecting internationally and domestically guaranteed rights can be a trigger for protected areas destruction. The crossroads of protected areas conservation on the one hand and human rights protection on the other is an urgent issue. A rights-based approach to conservation meets the need to better balance the human rights protection and protected areas conservation and can make an important contribution to sustainable development.

Protected areas in China, with a total surface of 1,562,257km², …

Lost In Translation: Threatened Species In Australia, Jacqueline Williams, Amanda Kennedy, Donna Craig

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Australia is currently experiencing an unprecedented expansion of mining activities into previously unaffected rural regions, encroaching lands of high environmental and agricultural value. Coal seam gas and significant underground mining of rare and precious metals also threaten surface and groundwater resources. Australia’s environmental laws are ill equipped to respond and sufficiently manage these new land-use conflicts giving rise to a greater risk of adverse environmental and social impacts. These new land-use conflicts involve very complex institutional issues in particular new players competing for scarce natural resources. The mining industry is perceived as a powerful and often government-supported player as mining …

Variations On A Theme: Ways To Tackle Diffuse Water Pollution On The Basis Of Lessons Learned, Tiina Korvela

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The Baltic Sea has the dubious honour of being one of the most polluted seas in the world, partly because of industrial agriculture and eutrophication it causes via nitrogen and phosphorus loads. The ways to tackle the problem have been both manifold and unefficient: as a member state of the EU Finland has tried to meet the challenge with a variety of legal strategies. Aim of this presentation is to glance at those and ponder whether there would be more effective means to an end.^[1]

The first strategic step has been addressing on one of the main causes, nitrogen …

The Integration Of European Air Quality Standards In Spatial Planning: New Avenues For More Sustainable Urban Planning, Hendrick Schoukens

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

In spite of the strict air quality standards which are imposed by the European Air Framework Directive (2008/50/EC) and its predecessors, the air quality in large parts of Western Europe remains poor. Although emissions haven fallen over the last two decades in the European Union (EU), this has not always led to a corresponding drop in pollutant concentrations in the air. This is particularly true in the case of particulate matter. As much as 20% of the urban population in the EU lives in areas where the European daily limit values for particulate matter are not met (EEA 2010 …

Sustainable Management: A Sustainable Ethic?, Trevor Daya-Winterbottom

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

New Zealand is a country rich in biodiversity and natural resources, steeped in Maori culture and indigenous values, that legislated for sustainable management under the Resource Management Act 1991. Despite the rhetoric of sustainable management, environmental law and governance in New Zealand continue to grapple with persistent challenges:

· New Zealand is a significant contributor to global biodiversity but has one of the highest species extinction rates due to continued habitat loss and invasion by pest species.

· While New Zealand has a plentiful supply of clean freshwater, water demand from agriculture and urban growth is increasing and water quality …

Curbing Deforestation In The Congo Basin With The Polluter Pays Principle, The Provider Gets Principle And The Redd+ Mechanism, Blaise-Pascal Ntirumenyerwa Mihigo

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This paper focuses on the possible role of the polluter pays principle, the provider gets principle and the Reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries and the role of conservation, sustainable management and enhancement of carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) in the reduction of deforestation. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to efficiently implement these tools in the Congo Basin in order to curb deforestation through reducing specific driver’s factors such as small-scale subsistence farming and over logging of timber.

The FAO (2010) defines deforestation as the conversion of forest to another land use …

Conserving Our Ecosystems: The Need To Recognize A Coherent Legal System As An Important Element Of The Ecosystem Approach, Froukje Maria Platjouw

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The Ecosystem Approach

The ecosystem approach, which requires a holistic and integrated approach towards an ecosystem, has been endorsed in many legal acts. At the international level, the European level and the national level, the ecosystem approach is considered an important strategy to protect our ecosystems. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between the architecture and nature of environmental law and the realization of the ecosystem approach.

The term ‘environmental law’ is used in its broadest understanding, meaning not only the legal acts that have the protection of the environment as their main goal, but all …

A Remedy For Fragmented Urban Open Space- The Hannover Principles On Land Use, Paul Kibel

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The global population has become ever more urbanized since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, yet there has not been a corresponding focus of environmental law during this period on environmental issues of a particularly “urban” nature. To address this aspect, in 2010 Golden Gate University School of Law launched its Center on Urban Environmental Law (CUEL). CUEL’s inaugural project focuses on “urban greenspace”, on the opportunities to expand and improve open space and parkland holdings in cities, particularly greenspace that would be accessible to and used by low-income communities with traditionally limited access to such environmental amenities. …

Canadian Experience With Watershed Protection And Governance, Jamie Benidickson

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This paper will survey the status of watersheds in the Canadian legislative and regulatory framework at the federal and provincial levels. While some watershed-oriented regimes such as Conservation Authorities in the province of Ontario have been in place for a number of decades there have been numerous recent developments. These have been encouraged in part by source water protection planning as encouraged through the work of the Walkerton Inquiry and to some degree in conjunction with the Watershed Initiative of the International Joint Commission.

Notable provincial initiatives are evident in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and Nova Scotia or are under consideration …

Environmental Law, Governance, And Management- The Need For Environmental Management Systems For Cities, Lye Lin Heng

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Human activities damage the environment. They deplete natural resources, generate pollution and wastes, accelerate the loss of forests and biological diversity, as well as threaten the water supply. As populations increase, these problems are exacerbated. Cities bear the brunt of increased human activities on limited land space with limited resources. It is therefore essential that cities adopt a system of environmental governance that will help ensure sustainability. As each city has its own mix of geographic, social, economic, political and environmental problems, it would be simplistic to suggest that there is a formula for sustainability that would fit every city. …

Rio +20: What Difference Has Two Decades Made To State Practice In The Regulation Of Invasive Species, Sophie Riley

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Invasive alien species (IAS) are alien species that threaten ecosystems, habitats or other species. Article 8(h) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) requires the contracting parties to ‘prevent the introduction of or control or eradicate those alien species that threaten ecosystems, habitats or species’. Members are also required to lodge national reports with the secretariat of the CBD, specifying how they are fulfilling their international obligations with respect to IAS. While the threats to biodiversity posed by IAS have been extensively documented, to date no study has examined States’ perceptions of their own IAS regimes. This paper collects and …

The Value(S) Of Biodiversity, Mathilde Boutonnet

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Biodiversity today is mainly assessed by the economy. Yet, now both natural sciences and law play a growing part in that field. Our contribution proposes to outline the main biodiversity assessment methods to understand how they are received by law as well as to question their interest and efficiency against the environment protection imperative and to understand the answers offered by the law in regards to biodiversity in terms of “value” or “monetization”.

The legal issue at stake is important as law plays its own part in granting value to biodiversity. This supposes that legal practitioners pay attention to the …

Is Environmental Law Ready For New Ecological Restoration Concepts?, An Cliquet

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Ecological restoration is a well-recognized principle in environmental law. Restoration and rehabilitation have been included in the three Rio Conventions and/or subsequent COP decisions. Ecological restoration is a crucial step in nature conservation, as in most regions of the world species and habitats are in an unfavourable conservation status, and will need to be restored to a favourable level. Ecological restoration plays an important role in adaptation to climate change. Also, the economic benefits for ecological restoration have been demonstrated in international literature and major studies such as The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) and have been stressed by …

Achieving Sustainable Development Through Anthropocentric Laws: A Feigned Commitment To Posterity?, Ngozi Stewart

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Global commitment to sustainable development can be measured by the commitment of individual countries to preserve the environment for future generations. The Commitment of a country will no doubt be manifest in the ethic underlying its environmental protection laws.

The question then is, what is the most appropriate ethic for the preservation of the environment; why is it more appropriate than any other ethic; and how can it be made to replace any existing ethic?

Generally speaking, environmental ethics either makes the resultant environmental laws short-sighted (anthropocentric) or long-sighted (ecocentric). Laws are short-sighted when they are focused on merely remedying …

Protecting The Environment Through Protection Of The Rights Of The Indigenous, Nawneet Vibhaw

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The Constitution of India provides for special protection of the areas where Scheduled Tribes exist. India being a signatory to the International Labour Organization Convention No. 107 on Indigenous and Tribal Populations and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007, has enacted domestic legislations like The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest-Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. These legislations provide that the Gram Sabha (village-council) would be a primary centre for tribal governance with ownership of minor forest produce and power to prevent the alienation of …

Vindicating Environmental Rights: Constitutional Protection For Present & Future Generations, Erin Daly, James May

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Our presentations will chronicle and assess the jurisprudential dimensions of constitutional environmental rights worldwide, encapsulating the preliminary findings of our book, Vindicating Environmental Rights: Constitutional Protection for Present & Future Generations, Cambridge, 2013), especially pertaining to provisions regarding rights to water, and procedural rights.

The constitutions of about 160 nations address environmental matters in some fashion, some by committing to environmental stewardship or the rights of nature, others by recognizing a basic right to a quality environment and still others by ensuring a degree of public participation in environmental decision making. Most people on Earth live under constitutions that protect …

Towards A Right To Sustainable Energy: The Contribution Of Human Dignity To The Promotion Of Sustainable Development, Shalom Blustein

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Human dignity and sustainable development represent two of the most important concepts relevant to the governance of modern society. Human dignity forms the basis for the modern approach to preserve and protect human rights. Sustainable development is concerned with defending and protecting the environment in harmony with economic and social development. While these concepts have different emphases, both human dignity and sustainable development are concerned with, among other things, the promotion and protection of the intrinsic value of human beings. However, despite the potential overlap between their objects, these concepts are rarely considered together.

One notable exception to the above …

Sustainability Through The Lens Of Principles Of International Environmental Law, Sabrina Alzais

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This proposal will attempt to further develop the “requirement” of sustainability[1], as this concept plays a key role in the development of environmental law. Particularly, we focus on the temporal aspect of sustainability.

There are different definitions of sustainable development but they all are undermined: the long time. For instance, on the one hand, the International Institute for sustainable development insists on that must “redesigning institutions to ensure current and future potential to meet the needs and aspirations of communities”[2]. On the other hand, the Brundtland Report states: “Sustainable development is a development that meets the …

Fishing-Related Mortality, The Precautionary Principle And The Law In New Zealand, Nicola Wheen

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Measures to reduce fishing-related mortality of marine animals in New Zealand fisheries may be installed under legislation including the Fisheries Act 1996. Thus, a reserve has been made and a mortality limit has, until very recently, been set each year to protect New Zealand sea lions around their Auckland Islands breeding ground. These sea lions once bred all around the coastline of New Zealand but, decimated by hunting, the species’ range is now restricted to three breeding colonies in the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. In recognition of this and an estimated population decline of 50 percent in the last ten years …

Can The Protection Of The Right To A Healthy Environment Contribute To The Implementation Of The Right To Access Water And Sanitation? The Case Of Columbia, Jimena Murillo Chavarro

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

A number of important issues will be dealt with at Rio+20, among them water related problems; such as, access to safe drinking water and protection of water resources. When talking about sustainable development it is essential to bear in mind hand by hand development activities and fundamental rights. Hence, we will focus on human rights that can assist in the achievement of these development goals.

Nowadays it is understood that there is a strong connection between the environment and people; therefore, the enjoyment of some of human rights, such as right to life and health, depend on the protection of …

Otherness, Justice, And Jus Gentium: The Legally Binding Value Of The Earth Charter For The Protection Of Human Rights, Ricardo Libel Waldman

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This paper aims to find, in an international document, the Earth Charter, an example of a declaration of principles required to an international environmental law pact. It will be done based on Martin Buber’s dialogical principle. Also, it is intended to argue that Earth Charter, exactly because of this is legally biding as jus gentium.

Well, there are, according to Buber, three ways of meeting between Me and Thou, a) humans and non-human nature, b) humans and humans and c) and Eternal. These meetings are the basis for the three forms of Justice mentioned in Earth Charter according to …

Antigone In The Anthropocene: From Neoliberalism To A New Conservation Ethic, Elaine Hsiao

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The global environmental outlook is increasingly bleak and the human condition does not fare better. The IUCN Red List of endangered species is longer than ever, with predictions foretelling the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs.[1] Human development reports reflect growth but do not measure well-being, deep inequality or apathy.[2] A hundred years ago, North America was coming out of a war fought overseas and entering an era of fossil fuel electrified industrialization. It was claimed that economic 'progress' would inspire efficient use of resources, but rather what it transpired was reckless waste of natural capital and an …

The Emerging Right To Sanitation: A Socio-Economic Or Environmental Right?, Loretta Feris

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

In July 2010 the UN General Assembly for the first time recognised a right to sanitation and declared the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.[1] This is an important development in the global recognition of the right to sanitation, in view of the fact that worldwide more than 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation.[2] In addition, a handful of states have also recognised the right of sanitation in their respective Constitutions, either expressly, inclusive …

Rights Of Nature In Ecuador: Change Of Paradigm Or Constitutional Rhetoric, Jordi Jaria I Manzano

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

One of the most significant events in recent comparative constitutional law on environmental issues has been the recognition of rights to nature in the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008. A claim has been made of being a change of paradigm in the constitutional tradition, which goes beyond Western legal culture to add ideas and values of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador, particularly those of the Andes. That implies, for the fathers of the Constitution, the opening of a new path for social organization, more respectful with nature, escaping from consumerism and predation on natural resources, and concentrated on (environmental and social) …

Acting As If Tomorrow Matters: Accelerating The Transition To Sustainability, John Dernbach

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This paper would be based on my forthcoming book, Acting as if Tomorrow Matters: Accelerating the Transition to Sustainability (Environmental Law Institute/Island Press May 2012). Synthesizing answers from more than three dozen nationally known experts to questions about sustainability, the book provides a useful, empirically based framework to explain the progress made in the United States to date on sustainability—and the most significant obstacles standing in the way of greater success. Building on this framework, the book explains in detail how to make a variety of decisions even more attractive to private and government entities, how law can provide an …

Property Rights And The Environment: The Ecological Function Of Property In Brazil, Nicholas Bryner

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

Article 225 of Brazil's Constitution guarantees to all the "right to an ecologically balanced environment" and imposes a duty on both the government and society to "defend and preserve [the environment] for present and future generations." This constitutionalization of environmental rights and duties has an important impact on property law inasmuch is it affects the relationship between private and public interests in the use of land and other natural resources. The right to private property is explicitly guaranteed in Brazil. However, this right is not absolute; under the Constitution, real property must fulfill its "social function." Among other requirements listed …