The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Hazardous Substances ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Important Field

The second edition of this leading reference work provides a comprehensive discussion of the dynamic and important field of international law concerned with environmental protection. The handbook discusses the key principles underpinning international environmental law, its relevant actors and tools, and rules applying in its substantive sub-fields such as climate law, oceans law, wildlife and biodiversity law, and hazardous substances regulation. It also explores the intersection of international environmental law with other areas of international law, such as those concerned with trade, investment, disaster, migration, armed conflict, intellectual property, energy, and human rights. The handbook sets its discussion of international environmental law in the broader interdisciplinary context of developments in science, ethics, politics, and economics, which inform the way in which environmental rules are made, implemented, and enforced. It provides an introduction to the foundations of international environmental law while also engaging with questions at the frontiers of research, teaching, and practice in the field, including the role of global South perspectives, the contribution made by Earth jurisprudence, and the growing role of a diverse range of actors from Indigenous peoples to business and industry. It is an essential reference text for all engaged with environmental issues at the international level and the applicable governance and regulatory structures.

Locating Nature: Making and Unmaking International Law: Introduction

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
KISHAN KHODAY ◽  
VANESSA LAMB ◽  
TYLER MCCREARY ◽  
KARIN MICKELSON ◽  
USHA NATARAJAN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Sustainable Livelihoods ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Environmental Harm ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
The World

Environmental harm is of increasing concern to peoples and states all over the world, whether in relation to ensuring access to healthy air, water, food, and sustainable livelihoods, or coping with the diversity of challenges posed by changing climates and ecologies. While international lawyers have focused on crafting solutions to environmental problems, less attention is paid to the disciplinary role in fostering harmful and unsustainable behavioural patterns. Environmental issues are usually relegated to the specialized field of international environmental law. This project explores instead the role of nature in the general discipline, arguing that the natural environment is a determinative factor in shaping international law, and that assumptions about nature lie at the heart of disciplinary concepts such as sovereignty, development, economy, property, and human rights.

Locating Nature: Making and Unmaking International Law

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 573-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
USHA NATARAJAN ◽  
KISHAN KHODAY
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Environmental Harm ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Wealth Generation ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article explores the relationship between international law and the natural environment. We contend that international environmental law and general international law are structured in ways that systemically reinforce ecological harm. Through exploring the cultural milieu from which international environmental law emerged, we argue it produced an impoverished understanding of nature that is incapable of responding adequately to ecological crises. We maintain that environmental issues should not be confined to a disciplinary specialization because humanity's relationship with nature has been central to making international law. Foundational concepts such as sovereignty, development, property, economy, human rights, and so on, have evolved through understanding nature in ways that are unsuited to perceiving or observing ecological limits. International law primarily sees nature as a resource for wealth generation to enable societies to continually develop, and environmental degradation is treated as an economic externality to be managed by special regimes. Through tracing the co-evolution of these assumptions about nature alongside seminal disciplinary concepts, it becomes evident that such understandings are central to shaping international law and that the discipline helps universalize and normalize them. By comprehending more broadly the relationship between nature and international law, it is possible to see beyond law's potential to correct environmental harm and identify the disciplinary role in driving ecological degradation. Venturing beyond the purview of international environmental lawyers, this article considers the role of all international lawyers in augmenting and mitigating ecological crises. It concludes that disciplinary solutions to environmental problems require radical departures from existing disciplinary tenets, necessitating new formulations that encapsulate rich and diverse understandings of nature.

scholarly journals INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE: SOUTHERN INFLUENCES.

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (32) ◽  
pp. 143-165
Author(s):  
Fernando Cardozo Fernandes Rei
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Sustainable Society ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Scientific Expertise

The purpose of this article when it discusses the southern approaches brought to global governance gets mixed with the addressing of the challenges facing the legal science in harmony with the others sciences to deal with the complex environmental issues of the 21st century. Thinking of a successful international environmental regulation is talking about an effort to understand the need for the instrumental law to comply with its role to solve complex issues that are typical of the construction of a sustainable society. The first part of the article consider that the international environmental law has been facing the emerging global environmental issues in an innovating way, incorporating a new form of global environmental governance based on which new players are brought to the discussion and implementation of measures to face environmental problems. After that, the article highlights the southern actions in the role of the scientific expertise and in the environmental paradiplomacy, and evaluates the influence and contributions in the decision making scenario and in the news perspectives of international law. The article concludes that the southern influences suggest a more pragmatic, finalistic international law that is concerned about the results, the achievement of the goals proposed

scholarly journals Exploring the connection between indigenous peoples’ human rights and international environmental law

2018 ◽  
pp. 92-153
Author(s):  
Mario Alejandro Delgado Galárraga
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Environmental Rights ◽  
The Relationship

The paper reviews whether Indigenous Peoples’ worldview has directly influenced or not the decisions made by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights related exclusively to their human and environmental rights. In the first section of the investigation, it is described the main aspects to take into consideration regarding Indigenous Peoples and international law; i.e. conceptualization of the term Indigenous Peoples, its evolution in international law, and their core rights. Then, the text will deal with the relationship between Human Rights Law and International Environmental Law, through the discussion of how human rights have been included in the context of international environmental law. Afterwards, the study will explore the close bond that exists between indigenous peoples and the environment, by relating to the different conceptions of its features according to them. Finally, the paper will analyse the decisions taken by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in cases related to indigenous peoples’ environmental issues. The conclusion will lead to determine the contribution of human rights and international environmental law to solve indigenous peoples’ controversies and vice versa.

scholarly journals International law protecting the environment during armed conflict: gaps and opportunities

2010 ◽  
Vol 92 (879) ◽  
pp. 569-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bothe ◽  
Carl Bruch ◽  
Jordan Diamond ◽  
David Jensen
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThere are three key deficiencies in the existing body of international humanitarian law (IHL) relating to protection of the environment during armed conflict. First, the definition of impermissible environmental damage is both too restrictive and unclear; second, there are legal uncertainties regarding the protection of elements of the environment as civilian objects; and third, the application of the principle of proportionality where harm to the environment constitutes ‘collateral damage’ is also problematic. These gaps present specific opportunities for clarifying and developing the existing framework. One approach to addressing some of the inadequacies of IHL could be application of international environmental law during armed conflict. The detailed norms, standards, approaches, and mechanisms found in international environmental law might also help to clarify and extend basic principles of IHL to prevent, address, or assess liability for environmental damage incurred during armed conflict.

10. International environmental law

2021 ◽  
pp. 186-208
Author(s):  
Anders Henriksen
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Hazardous Substances ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Balanced Approach ◽  
Rules And Principles

International environmental law is an area of international law where states have decided to cooperate with each other in order to fulfil certain goals of common interest and, for the most part, its rules and principles belong in the category of the international law of cooperation. This chapter discusses the most important parts of international environmental law and its main legal sources. It presents the fundamental principles of international environmental law, including those that seek to prevent damage to the environment and those that seek to ensure a balanced approach to environmental protection. It provides an overview of the most important parts of the substantial regulation in international environmental law, including the legal regime for the protection of the atmosphere, the conservation of nature and the regulation of hazardous substances. It also discusses features related to implementation and enforcement that are particular to international environmental law.

10. International environmental law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Henriksen
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Hazardous Substances ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Balanced Approach ◽  
Rules And Principles

International environmental law is an area of international law where states have decided to cooperate with each other in order to fulfil certain goals of common interest and, for the most part, its rules and principles belong in the category of the international law of cooperation. This chapter discusses the most important parts of international environmental law and its main legal sources. It presents the fundamental principles of international environmental law, including those that seek to prevent damage to the environment and those that seek to ensure a balanced approach to environmental protection. It provides an overview of the most important parts of the substantial regulation in international environmental law, including the legal regime for the protection of the atmosphere, the conservation of nature, and the regulation of hazardous substances. It also discusses features related to implementation and enforcement that are particular to international environmental law.

Rising Seas, Receding Coastlines, and Vanishing Maritime Estates and Territories: Possible Solutions and Reassessing the Role of International Law

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-74
Author(s):  
Tony George Puthucherril
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Coastal Zone ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Coastal Zone Management ◽  
Integrated Coastal Zone Management ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Zone Management ◽  
Rules And Principles ◽  
Central Argument

Abstract This article probes the role of international law, (namely, the international law of the sea, the international rules on statehood, and international environmental law) in providing a legal and normative framework to help countries respond to the challenges brought about by sea level rise. It is noted that possible solutions can operate at two levels – first, by re-engineering existing international rules to secure continuance of the rights and privileges guaranteed under existing international law, and second, by bringing to the fore the need to develop international rules on integrated coastal zone management to facilitate the implementation of coastline armouring. The central argument here is that while new rules and principles of international law are required at both levels, the emphasis should, as a first step, be on rule development vis-à-vis integrated coastal zone management.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document