Environmental Law Commons^™

Meeting At The Crossroads: Engaging New Actors In The Development Of Marine Envrionmental Governance, Elizabeth Kirk

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

This paper explores the challenges associated with the adoption of new laws to protect the environment or promote sustainable development by focussing on how marine governance has responded to threats to the environment or marine resources.

As this paper demonstrates, while there have been some developments in the law as a result of changing circumstances, circumstances alone are not sufficient to effect change in the law. They must be accompanied by the operation of appropriate values in the decision making process. Where such values do not coincide with changing circumstances it is necessary to change the underlying principles within the …

Green Water: Can Rio+ 20 Succeed Where Others Have Failed?, Rebecca Bates

Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads

The Stockholm Declaration was the first international instrument to acknowledge the imperative to safeguard water resources for present and future generations. In the years following Stockholm, water become a specific issue of environmental and humanitarian concern, with a number of instruments including the Mar del Plata Action Plan, Agenda 21, Rio Declaration, Convention of the Rights on the Rights of the Child, Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, United Nations Watercourses Convention, Millennium Development Goals and most recently resolutions from the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council acknowledging the right to water within international law and providing a framework for …

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 …

What's The Fracking Problem?, Joel S. Sonnenberg

In the Balance

No abstract provided.

Federal Constraints: Possible Constitutional Hurdles To Cross-Border Cap-And-Trade,, Shelley Welton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Citizen Petition Procedures: Lessons From An Analysis Of The Nafta Environmental Commission, David L. Markell, John H. Knox

Scholarly Publications

The NAFTA Environmental Commission’s citizen petition process is an important experiment in “new governance” because of its emphasis on citizen participation, accountability, and transparency as strategies to enhance government legitimacy and improve government performance. Its focus on promoting compliance and enforcement adds to its importance for those interested in those central aspects of the regulatory process. The procedure has had a rocky start in many respects, although there are signs that in some cases it has had a positive impact.

This Article sets forth what we perceive to be the promise of the process, the pitfalls that have undermined its …

Anaerobic Digestion Technology: How Agricultural Producers And The Environment Might Profit From Nuisance Lawsuits, Catherine M. H. Keske

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

The Human Right To Water: Will Its Fulfillment Contribute To Environmental Degradation?, Alezah Trigueros

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Human rights and environmental protection are two often overlapping bodies of law, each of which by their nature seeks to take priority over other applicable law. For this reason, these two bodies of law often find themselves in tension with one another. This Note aims to illustrate the tension between human rights and environmental protection in the context of the recent push for a codified human right to water. My thesis is that ideally these two bodies of law should balance each other out-a human right to water would be subject to environmental safeguards, and, likewise, conservation efforts would be …

Playing Without Aces: Offset And The Limits Of Flexibility Under Clean Air Act Climate Policy, Nathan D. Richardson

Faculty Publications

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to move ahead with regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act (CAA). Previous work has indicated that basic forms of compliance flexibility—trading—appear to be legally permissible under section III of the CAA. This Article takes a close look at more expansive and ambitious types of flexibility: trading between different kinds of sources, biomass co-firing, and above all, offsets. It concludes that most types of such extended flexibility are either legally incompatible with the CAA, or so legally problematic that EPA is unlikely to adopt them. This has important implications …

American Bar Association Section Of Environment, Energy, And Resources Symposium: Selected Addresses [Comments], Eileen Gauna

Faculty Scholarship

Opening remarks for Environmental Justice conference that reviews the growth and efforts made for environmental justice.

Environmental Damages After The Federal Environmental Enforcement Act: Bringing Ecosystem Services To Canadian Environmental Law?, Martin Z. P. Olsynski

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The Canadian Environmental Enforcement Act [EEA] directs judges to consider actual environmental damage, or risk thereof, when setting fines for environmental offences. The EEA defi nes damage as including the loss of use and non-use values. While these terms are not unprecedented in Canadian environmental law, their use in environmental damage assessment is. Bearing in mind recent developments in environmental valuation in the United States and internationally, and considering the emergence of the “ecosystem services” paradigm in particular, this article explores the opportunities and challenges for ecosystem services based environmental damages assessment in the Canadian environmental sentencing context. The ecosystem …

Summer 2012 Utton Center Newsletter, Utton Center, University Of New Mexico - School Of Law

Publications

No abstract provided.

Alternative Policies To Increase Recycling Of Plastic Water Bottles In The United States, W. Kip Viscusi, Joel Huber, Jason Bell

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Using an original, nationally representative sample of plastic water bottle users, this article examines the efficacy of various policy mechanisms to increase recycling. We evaluate the impact of bottle deposits and the stringency of a state’s recycling laws on the provision of recycling opportunities and on recycling rates. Using household-level data and controlling for the type of recycling legal regime as well as the bottle deposit policies in each state, we find that mandated separation of recyclables, the availability of a recycling center in the community, and the provision of curbside pickup at houses or recycling locations at apartments increase …

Curb Your E-Waste: Why The United States Should Control Its Electronic Waste Exports, Louisa Olds

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note addresses the urgent issue of electronic waste (e-waste) management, emphasizing the need for comprehensive national legislation in the United States to regulate e-waste exports, collection, and recycling. Drawing lessons from the European Union's WEEE and RoHS Directives, the analysis advocates for uniform standards, producer responsibility, and strict enforcement to prevent illegal exports and ensure environmentally sound practices. The proposed framework aims to reduce the environmental and health impacts of improper recycling, particularly in developing countries, while promoting sustainable practices and resource conservation.

Legal Lock-Picking: An Analysis Of Anti-Circumvention Law In The United States And Brazil, Skyler Sourifman

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note examines the contrasting approaches of the U.S. and Brazil in their anticircumvention laws under copyright regimes. It highlights how the U.S. DMCA strictly prohibits circumvention, while Brazil's proposal allows exceptions for fair use, interoperability, and public domain access. The analysis critiques the DMCA for its broad provisions that have led to inconsistent court rulings, such as in RealNetworks v. Streambox and Universal City Studios v. Corley, which have stifled competition and free expression. Conversely, Brazil's approach aligns with the Access to Knowledge movement, emphasizing a balanced copyright system. The note suggests that recent U.S. exemptions, like those …

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 …