International cooperation in the Northern Forum: emerging new norms in international law?

Polar Record ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Waliul Hasanat
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Northern Regions ◽  
National Governments ◽  
Different Parts ◽  
Innovative Concept

ABSTRACTThe Northern Forum has been in existence for more than two decades. The cooperative initiatives implement through the forum allow sub-national governments from different parts of the world to improve the quality of life of northern inhabitants and to support their sustainable development. Over time, the forum has established a clear structure with self-created rules and guidelines. However, its legal status is somewhat ambiguous: it has neither fulfilled the essential criteria of an international organisation nor that of an intergovernmental cooperative body. Nevertheless, these shortcomings are not immense obstacles to the forum's ability to serve the well being of residents of the northern regions. The forum has granted membership to business organisations, as well as to sub-national governments, which is an innovative concept in international cooperation. This article examines the evolution, administrative system, and legal status of the forum along with its contribution to the development of international law. The article concludes with observations on how this unique international regional co-operation forum could be characterised under international law and whether it has any influence in creating new norms in international administrative and environmental law.

Introduction: the landscapes of poverty and education across the UK

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ian Thompson ◽  
Gabrielle Ivinson
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Different Parts

Poverty blights the lives of children and young people. Research has consistently shown that the most economically disadvantaged pupils across the United Kingdom (UK) have the poorest educational outcomes and that poverty has a pernicious effect on children’s well-being. However, far less is known about the ways that poverty is differentially experienced for children and young people in schools within the four jurisdictions of the UK. Are there historical, social and cultural factors that make poverty a postcode lottery in terms of quality of schooling in the different parts of the UK? Are successful local interventions context specific as the research evidence seems to suggest or can we learn from particular regions or cities? This introduction points out that anxieties about growing educational inequality in the UK have to be contextualised historically, geographically and in terms of the distinct political and socio-economic landscapes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Climate Law and Its Skeptics: Whither Protection of the Atmosphere?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Sand
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Future Prospect ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Law Commission

‘Climate change law’ is considered by a number of legal scholars as an emergent novel discipline. The question, then, is whether the advent (and future prospect) of climate change has resulted in a coherent autonomous new body of law, be it a nascent one; or is it nothing more or less than the application of existing national and international environmental law to climatic problems? It is perhaps worth recalling that international environmental law itself only ascended to the rank of a recognized discipline of its own in the 1990s, over considerable academic scepticism at the time. Not un-similarly, the ongoing new project of the UN International Law Commission (ILC) for the drafting of guidelines on “protection of the atmosphere” has met with resistance from a few powerful States claiming that there is no need for further codification of international law in this field. Yet, considering our common interest in conserving the quality of the Earth’s atmosphere and climate, the ILC project may indeed encourage further development of a concept of inter-generational “planetary trusteeship”, owed by States as public trustees to present and future citizens as the beneficiaries.

Climate Law and It’s Skeptics

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Peter H. Sand
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Future Evolution ◽  
Legal Development ◽  
International Climate ◽  
International Law Commission

‘Climate change law’ is an emergent novel discipline. The question, then, is whether the advent (and future prospect) of climate change has resulted in a coherent autonomous new body of law, be it a nascent one or is it nothing more or less than the application of existing national and international environmental law to climatic problems? It is perhaps worth recalling that international environmental law itself only ascended to the rank of a recognized discipline of its own in the 1990s, over protracted resistance by prominent scholars insisting that ‘the cold-eyed application of legal analysis may be just as fruitful as the invention of a new vehicle such as “international environmental law”’. The episode touches on the core of international climate law and its future evolution. Expressly based on recognition of the intergenerational interest in conserving the quality of the Earth’s atmosphere, the International Law Commission (ILC) project may indeed encourage further legal development of a concept of planetary trusteeship, owed by States as public trustees to present and future citizens as the beneficiaries.

Part III Conceptual Pillars, Ch.20 Equity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scholtz Werner
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Law ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Intergenerational Equity ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
Generational Equity

This chapter critically analyses the notion of equity in international environmental law. It begins by discussing the meaning of equity in international law and briefly reflecting on familiar examples of the manifestation of equity in international environmental law treaties. The prominence of intergenerational and intra-generational equity in international environmental law warrants a subsequent critical analysis of the content, legal status, and relationship between these forms of equity. This discussion indicates that although the two components of equity may prima facie be in conflict, they constitute important complementary aspects of sustainable development. The chapter then calls for the progressive development of aspects of intra-generational and intergenerational equity that may have profound consequences for international environmental law.

scholarly journals On the Issue of the Legal Status of the Marine Autonomous Vehicles

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-67
Author(s):  
V. G. Belyakov
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Legal Norm ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Maritime Industry ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Conceptual Apparatus ◽  
Marine Vehicles ◽  
National Governments

The modern stage of world civilization development is characterized by a breakthrough in the scientific and technological sphere. Currently, national governments are betting on the use of unmanned navigation in the modern maritime industry. However, the Central problem here is the absence of appropriate legal operation of unmanned marine vehicles in terms of the established global ocean legal regime leading to the inevitable conflicts between subjects of international law.Based on the legal norm analysis of international and national maritime legislation, the author concludes that it is necessary to unify the terminology and conceptual apparatus governing the legal status and operation of ships without crews in various categories of maritime spaces, in order to resolve the dialectical contradiction that arises in the context of the evolutional transition from traditional navigation to unmanned navigation technologies.

Marine pollution in Bangladesh-framing legal responses: A critical study

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 210-227
Author(s):  
Md. Milan Hossain ◽  
S. M. Shahidullah Mamun
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Inland Waterways ◽  
Marine Life ◽  
Ocean Pollution ◽  
Legal Responses ◽  
Do So

Marine life in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) region is under serious threat due to extreme ocean pollution and its impact. In Bangladesh, due to lack of environmental law in general and marine pollution law in particular, the seas and inland waterways are being rapidly polluted; the glory of BoB has already diminished and it is estimated that it will depreciate further in future from different sorts of marine pollution. In this context, our study has been conducted to examine national laws and regulations for the prevention of marine pollution in Bangladesh, and to establish their extent and effectiveness. Our inquiry has revealed that not all sorts of marine pollution are addressed by the existing laws of the country and effective measures are yet to be taken, although there are obligations to do so under constitutional and international law to ensure the well-being of marine life.

scholarly journals International Legal Protection of Animals: Problems and Prospects

2021 ◽  
pp. 122-132
Author(s):  
S. I. Tsygantsova
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Legal Policy

INTRODUCTION. The purpose of this work is to identify the main problems of modern international legal protection of animals and the theoretical justification of the need to change their legal status (regime). The main task of the research is to study modern concepts that have already become the basis of international legal acts for the protection of various categories of animals, as well as ideas that have sufficient potential to lay the foundation for a more conscious attitude to other biological species. Furthermore, the research highlights significant shortcomings of the global legal policy on animal protection, which hinder the achievement of the main goals of international cooperation in this area. The research also suggests new approaches that can solve both ethical and environmental problems of human-animal relationships in the very near future. In addition, this scientific work provides various philosophical and legal arguments that confirm the need to assign a special legal status to animals.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The research examines the doctrinal positions of mainly foreign researchers and legal experts dealing with the problems of international legal protection of animals. This study uses the norms of some international legal agreements of a global and regional nature, as well as the provisions of recommendation documents. The research used general theoretical (analysis, synthesis, comparison, induction, deduction, abstraction, generalization, idealization, analogy, modeling, concretization, logical, systematic and comparative approaches) and special legal methods (historical-legal, formal-legal and the method of legal forecasting).RESEARCH RESULTS. Based on the results of the study, the author identifies the main problems of international legal regulation of relations on the conservation of biodiversity in the framework of the implementation of the concepts of environmental protection and sustainable development. In addition, the study highlights the most important achievements and significant gaps in the EU's legal policy on animal welfare. Through the synthesis and generalization of the main provisions of the concept of well-being and the concept of animal rights, this scientific work forms an idea of the most successful model of international legal protection of animals. Based on the obtained result, the study predicts the inevitable change in their legal status (regime) and the revision of the existing anthropocentric paradigm of modern legal science.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The vast majority of existing international legal agreements on the protection and use of animals protect the secondary interests of modern consumer society, where animals have a rank based on their usefulness, without taking into account their immanent value. If the trends of recent decades continue, the environmental goals set by international environmental law will remain unattainable. In order to solve a layer of ethical and environmental problems, it is necessary to abandon the anthropocentric approach, which permeates the entire system of international law, in favor of a more perfect organization of human relations with nature (for example, in favor of anthropocosmocentrism, cosmocentrism, biocentrism, etc.). In addition, the identification of animals with property does not correspond to modern ideas about them as sentient beings. It is unacceptable to treat them as «things» within the framework of national legal systems and international law. Regardless of whether they will have legal capacity or will lead a new, specific category of persons, animals must have a certain set of international legal guarantees.

Sustainable Development

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Barstow Magraw ◽  
Lisa D. Hawke
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Core Content ◽  
Municipal Law ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Relationship

The paradigm of sustainable development evolved over many years through attempts to take account of concerns regarding economic development, environmental protection (including human health), and social development (including human rights). Its adoption and core content evidence a profound change in the way society views the relationship between economic activity and the natural environment. Nevertheless, although sustainable development is now viewed by the international community as the overarching framework for improving quality of life throughout the world (and by many as the best approach to maintaining a healthy planet), important disagreements exist about its precise meaning and implications, and resistance to it still surfaces from time to time. This article examines the evolution and content of the concept of ‘sustainable development’, its legal status and function, and its implications for principles and tools of international environmental law. It also discusses international agreements, customary international law, general principles of law recognised by major legal systems, sustainable development in municipal law, precaution and transparency, public participation, access to justice, and environmental impact assessment and accounting techniques.

Part 2 Asylum, 7 Protection under Human Rights and General International Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goodwin-Gill Guy S ◽  
McAdam Jane ◽  
Dunlop Emma
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Legal Obligation ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
National Governments

This chapter explores the development of the principle of non-refoulement beyond the Refugee Convention. In broad terms, this can be described as ‘complementary protection’ because the non-refoulement obligation derives from sources that are complementary to the Refugee Convention. However, though not a term of art, ‘complementary protection’ commonly implies the grant of a domestic legal status as well. Under general international law, the principle of non-refoulement is wider than its expression in article 33 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. While States have always recognized, to varying degrees, the protection needs of people falling outside the ‘refugee’ definition in article 1A(2) of the Convention, it is only in the last 25 years or so that they have begun to articulate such protection as an international legal obligation, rather than as a matter left to the discretion and humanitarian goodwill of national governments.

Ecosystems

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Tarlock
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Ecosystem Conservation ◽  
Human Modification ◽  
The Stability

International environmental law has two overarching and related objectives: the prevention of pollution and health risks from the uncontrolled application of modern technology and science that cross national borders or degrade global commons; and the protection of representative natural systems or areas of ‘nature’ which are deemed to be of global significance from the adverse impacts of human modification. The scientific construct ‘ecosystem’ has profoundly influenced the development of domestic and international ‘nature’ protection programmes, from the reduction of greenhouse gases to biodiversity conservation. Ecosystem conservation is a central objective of the widely accepted international norm that all countries should exploit and use their natural resources in an environmentally sustainable manner. There are overlapping, historical, conceptual, and institutional reasons for the amorphous and ultimately marginal legal status of ecosystems in international law. This article explores the powerful but uncertain status of ecosystems in international law, the stability hypothesis of ecosystems, adaptive management as a new legal paradigm for ecosystem conservation, ecosystems and commons beyond state jurisdiction, and stewardship sovereignty.

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