Historical Responsibility, Harm Prohibition, and Preservation Requirement: Core Practical Convergence on Climate Change

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Shue
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Harm Principle ◽  
Ability To Pay ◽  
Historical Responsibility ◽  
Single Argument ◽  
Practical Convergence ◽  
Moral Arguments ◽  
No Harm Principle ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to map the relationships of various moral arguments for action on climate change to each other in a particular case rather than to explore any single argument in depth or to make any abstract claims about the priorities among the arguments themselves. Specifically, it tries to show that “historical responsibility”, that is, responsibility (moral or legal) for past emissions, is very important, although not quite in the way usually argued, but that it is not by itself determinative. Other, independent considerations also greatly matter, although it happens that as a matter of fact all considerations strongly tend to converge towards the same conclusions about which states are responsible to act in order to slow climate change. “Historical responsibility” is shown to involve both contribution to, or causation of, climate change and benefit from climate change. Other factors that play roles in this case are ability to pay, the no-harm principle, and the duty to preserve the physical pre-conditions of human life.

The Place of Customary Norms in Climate Law: A Reply to Zahar

Climate Law ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 261-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoit Mayer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Harm Principle ◽  
Legal Argument ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
No Harm Principle

In his essay on the thesis of my book, Alexander Zahar objects to my characterization of customary international law as one of the sources of the international law on climate change and, in particular, to my conclusion about the relevance of the no-harm principle. I disagree. In the first part of his essay, Zahar’s analysis of the no-harm principle is limited to arguments by analogy, but a valid international legal argument can be based on deduction from axiomatic premises of the international legal order. In the second part of his essay, Zahar claims that the UNFCCC regime excludes the application of the no-harm principle when, in reality, the UNFCCC regime really seeks to facilitate the implementation of general international law.

Part IV Fundamental Rights and Obligations, A Substantive Obligations, 10 The Obligation to Prevent Harm to Other Riparian States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
McCaffrey Stephen C
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Harm Principle ◽  
The Third ◽  
Significant Harm ◽  
No Harm Principle ◽  
Equitable Utilization ◽  
The Way

This chapter focuses on the “no-harm” obligation. Article 7 of the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention provides that in utilizing an international watercourse, states have an obligation to “prevent the causing of significant harm” to other states sharing the watercourse. The inclusion of this provision in the Convention, and especially its placement in a section of the Convention entitled “General Principles,” implies that it is one of the fundamental obligations in the field. Nevertheless, many questions surround the no-harm principle, particularly as it applies in the context of international watercourses. The chapter then addresses three preliminary matters. The first concerns the legal status of the no-harm principle and its relationship to equitable utilization. The second question concerns the meaning of “harm.” The third and final issue has to do with the way in which the operation of the no-harm rule has traditionally been conceived.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Pandemic: lessons learnt and the way forward

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gathsaurie Neelika Malavige
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Lessons Learnt ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Way

Although the scientific community had been predicting and preparing for a pandemic for the last 10 years, many policy makers did not envision that a virus could cause such devastation to human life, economies and to the social structure. COVID-19 has taught us many bitter lessons and while moving forward it is important to understand that this current pandemic is yet to end. However, COVID-19 is unlikely to be the last pandemic that we face, Due to certain human activities such as urbanization, deforestation, increased human and animal interactions and climate change, we will see more pandemics emerging in the coming years. Preparedness and anticipation of such an event is the only way forward.

Un Dieu sadique : le rôle de l’image blasphématoire de Dieu dans Dolce agonia de Nancy Huston

2013 ◽  
pp. 160-166
Author(s):  
Izabela Front
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Character Of God ◽  
Double Character ◽  
The Way

The present article seeks to analyze the way in which the blasphemous figure of God in Dolce agonia by Nancy Huston allows the author to describe the sacred element in human life, seen as deprived of transcendental character. This is possible thanks to the three aspects of the text dependent on the type of God’s figure, which are: the contrast between passages marked by the cynical God’s voice and passages focused on man’s life filled with suffering; the tone and the appropriation of time var-iations and, finally, the double character of God who, at the same time, is indifferent to man’s lot while touched by his capacity of love.

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