International environmental law attempts to be “mutually supportive” with international trade law: A compatibility analysis of the Cartagena protocol to the convention on biological diversity with the world trade organisation agreement on the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Cameron Hutchison
2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Haseeb Ansari ◽  
Sri Wartini

Purpose – The purpose of writing this paper is to present a comparative but critical assessment of the applicability of the precautionary principle (PP) under the SPS Agreement, which is a part of the WTO regime by implication, and under the Cartagena Protocol, which has been made under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents an analytical exposition of both the sets of laws, trade law and environmental law. The methodology adopted is library based. The approach is to bring about an amicable co-existence of both the laws so that they could serve the dual purpose, i.e. promotion of trade and protection of “human, animal and plant life and health” and conservation of the environment. Findings – The DSB of the WTO should give due importance to the PP and should apply it liberally, keeping also in view the environmental aspects, so that along with free trade human, animal and plant health and life, and conservation of the environment are also protected. Practical implications – It will change the present paradigm and will bring both the sets of laws together. Originality/value – It focuses on the life and heath of poor people around the world. It, thus, pleads for application of strong PP.


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-37
Author(s):  
Caroline Joan S. Picart ◽  
Caroline Joan S. Picart ◽  
Marlowe Fox

Abstract In Part I of this two-part article, we explained why western assumptions built into intellectual property law make this area of law a problematic tool, as a way of protecting traditional knowledge (tk) and expressions of folklore (EoF) or traditional cultural expressions (tce) of indigenous peoples. Part II of this article aims to: 1) provide a brief review of the Convention on Biological Diversity (cbd) and the Nagoya Protocol, and examine the evolution of the intellectual property rights of indigenous peoples from the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (trips Agreement) to the cbd to the Nagoya Protocol; and 2) examine possible core principles, inducted (rather than deduced) from actual practices already in place in the areas of patents, copyrights, and trademarks in relation to protecting tk and EoF. These explorations could allow for discussions regarding indigenous peoples, human rights and international trade law to become less adversarial.


Author(s):  
Alan Boyle

International environmental law is neither a separate nor a self-contained system or sub-system of law. Rather, it is simply part of international law as a whole. It is true that many ‘environmental’ treaties and other legal instruments have been negotiated over the past half-century, and that the study of international environmental law is to a significant extent a study of these treaties and other instruments. Nevertheless, unlike World Trade Organisation (WTO) law, the law of the sea, or human rights law, international environmental law has never been systematically codified into a single treaty or group of treaties. There is neither a dedicated international environmental organisation nor an international dispute settlement process with the ability to give it coherence. This article provides the link between international environmental law and WTO law, the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, environment and human rights, and dispute settlement and applicable law.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
STELLINA JOLLY

The debate over control and ownership of natural and bio genetic resources has a chequered history in International environmental law. Historically genetic resources were considered and acknowledged as part of common heritage of mankind. But with the development of technologies and the heightened north south divide over the issue of sovereign right over natural resources the developing nations became extremely concerned with the exploitation of biological and Genetic resources. Access to benefit sharing (ABS) was considered as an answer to balance the interests of developed and developing nations and to conserve and protect bio diversity. Adopted on October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of 1992, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (NP) has come into force after its 50th ratification on 2013. Nagoya protocol details on procedure for access and benefit sharing, disclosure mechanism, principles of transparency and democracy. The paper analyses the protection of access and benefit sharing envisaged under Nagoya protocol and its possible role in promoting sustainable development in the develoing nations. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Alicia Elias-Roberts

This paper reviews Guyana's challenge to regulate the new petroleum sector. The need to amend several pieces of legislation to be aligned with the Aichi targets for 2020 under the Convention on Biological Diversity are examined. Aichi Target 11 provides that ‘by 2020, at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscape and seascape.’ The Government of Guyana's Green State Development Strategy which has sustainable development at its core is also examined along with several environmental law principles. The Green State Development Strategy and several environmental law principles are discussed to highlight their relevance to the protection of the marine environment and biodiversity conservation. Several recommendations are made to highlight relevant laws which should be updated for the State to achieve the right balance regarding protection of the environment and sustainable management of offshore petroleum projects in line with the obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-448
Author(s):  
Tomer Broude

Abstract:The 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (CSICH) was not intended to have legal repercussions in international trade. Nevertheless, intangible cultural heritage (ICH) may interact with trade regulation under various scenarios. The CSICH “Representative List” inscribes numerous ICH elements with real and potential international commercial aspects and consequent trade law implications. These emergent trade law–ICH regime dynamics require not only some critical reflection (for example, is safeguarding of ICH ultimately dependent on commodification or, at least in some cases, significantly prone to commercial capture?) but also doctrinal legal analysis. This article undertakes a survey of many plausible ICH–trade interactions (generally excluding intellectual property issues), providing an analytical framework with reference to a series of case sketches of selected CSICH inscriptions such as kimjang, beer culture in Belgium, and yoga. These and other cases may indeed raise issues under world trade law, including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the General Agreement on Trade in Services, the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, and subsidies regulation. Trade law may have underestimated the significance of ICH as a growing field. At the same time, ICH law may be developing without thinking through how it is impacted by commercial interests and international trade law.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Andrée

The precautionary principle is increasingly recognized as an important tool in multilateral environmental policy making, even as its practical implications remain the subject of intense debate. Drawing on Foucault's reading of discursive politics, this paper traces the emergence and effects of a specific framing of a precautionary response to new technologies found in the 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity. This international treaty enables states to restrict imports of specific classes of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), even if the extent of the harm they may cause remains uncertain. This particular framing of precaution in an environmental treaty is novel for its application to technologies yet to be demonstrated as harmful, and can only be understood in the context of the contentiousness of controversies over GMOs, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and hormone-injected beef in the 1990s. At the same time, what might be termed the “Cartagena discourse of precaution” has already had productive effects on a variety of other policy fields including the regulation of persistent organic pollutants and pesticides.


2008 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mehling ◽  
Anja Lindroos

AbstractOur current understanding of so-called “self-contained regimes” is based on an overly simplistic appreciation of how such regimes interact with each other and with the larger body of international law. Drawing on an analysis of WTO case law, this article highlights two distinct normative relations, addressing the relationship of international trade law vis-à-vis general international law and international environmental law. As the analysis reveals, further differentiation of normative relationships is needed to better understand how such seemingly independent regimes operate in a fragmented legal system. It also shows that a recently proposed interpretative tool, systemic integration, raises new questions and challenges traditional conceptions of international treaty law.


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