scholarly journals The Trees Speak for Themselves: Nature’s Rights Under International Law

2021 ◽  
pp. 633
Author(s):  
Samantha Franks
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The United Nations

This note argues that the United Nations should center nature’s rights in the upcoming Global Pact on the Environment, solidifying the patchwork of international environmental law and encouraging domestic protection of the environment. Part II explores the current state of international environmental law, outlining the ways in which the doctrine remains incomplete. Part III establishes that Earth jurisprudence is an effective method to fill the gaps existing within traditional international environmental law. Part IV emphasizes the importance of soft law in international law. It draws a parallel between the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human’s Rights and a potential global Declaration of Nature’s Rights, thus establishing the possibility for a path forward for the Global Pact. Part V concludes.

Formality and Informality

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Toope
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Common Core ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
The Common ◽  
Contested Terrain ◽  
No Man's Land

This article explores contested terrain in the no-man's land between international law and politics – the work of ‘norms’ in social, including legal, change. International environmental law has served as the crucible for much of the theoretical debate, and a central focus of this debate has been on the effectiveness of various types of formal norms and informal norms. The common core of the concept of ‘norm’ is that the desideratum contained in the norm is intended to influence human behaviour. Since norms operate in many different ways, they relate to the concepts of formality and informality differentially as well. Norms can be formal rules of law, but they can also be informal social guides to proper conduct. More surprisingly, they can be informal and precise as well as informal and vague; formal and precise as well as formal and vague. This article concludes by tying together the theoretical insights traced out earlier in the light of ‘soft law’ discourse in international environmental law.

The Effects of a State of War or Armed Conflict

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Mancini
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Force ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
State Practice ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter explores how a state of war or armed conflict affects the relations between belligerents, between belligerents and third states, and the belligerents’ subjects. It begins by describing how a state of war arose between two states, along with its far-reaching consequences, in classical international law. The effects on diplomatic relations, trade relations, treaties, and contracts are highlighted. The chapter then considers the prohibition on the use or threat of armed force in international relations and its implications for the concept of a state of war as well as the consequences traditionally attached to it. It also looks at state practice regarding the creation of a state of war in the United Nations era and concludes by analysing the effects of an interstate armed conflict in contemporary international law.

New Ways to Make International Environmental Law

1992 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Palmer
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
The World ◽  
Environment And Development

The purpose of this article is to suggest new ways to make international law for the environment. The existing methods are slow, cumbersome, expensive, uncoordinated and uncertain. Something better must be found if the environmental challenges the world faces are to be dealt with successfully. Nearly twenty years after the Stockholm Declaration, we still lack the institutional and legal mechanisms to deal effectively with transboundary and biospheric environmental degradation. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development presents an opportunity to make progress. Unfortunately, my reading of the situation in late 1991 suggests that there is no political will to take decisions that will give us the tools to do the job.

scholarly journals The Outcome of the Negotiations on the Global Pact for the Environment: A Commentary

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Géraud de Lassus St-Geniès
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
Treaty Negotiations ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations

In May 2018, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution “Towards a Global Pact for the Environment”. This resolution established an intergovernmental working group to discuss the opportunity to open treaty negotiations to codify the fundamental principles of international environmental law into a treaty dubbed the Global Pact for the Environment. In May 2019, the intergovernmental working group completed its mandate and adopted a set of recommendations that were formally endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in August 2019. Contrarily to what the supporters of the Global Pact for the Environment project had hoped for, the working group only recommended the preparation of a “political declaration” without referring to the codification of the principles of international environmental law. This paper offers a critical commentary of the outcome of these negotiations. The analysis suggests that the decision to elaborate a Global Pact for the Environment would have entailed considerable risks for international environmental law and that if adopted, this instrument would not have necessarily helped to increase the problem-solving capacity of international environmental law. Based on the language used in the recommendation to prepare a “political declaration”, the paper also discusses some of the key elements that could shape and inform the upcoming negotiations of this declaration.

Equality

2021 ◽  
pp. 161-190
Author(s):  
William A. Schabas
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right ◽  
Distinct Field ◽  
Special Protection

The right to equality and the prohibition of discrimination is normally formulated with respect to specific grounds. In the Charter of the United Nations, these are race, sex, language, and religion. The list was expanded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where it was also prefaced by the words ‘such as’ thereby recognising that distinctions based upon unenumerated categories might also be encompassed. These might include age, disability, and sexual orientation, for example. International law also provides special protection for children. Related to non-discrimination is the distinct field of protection of minorities, which are identifiable on the basis of ethnicity, language, and religion, and of indigenous peoples.

scholarly journals The Role of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Emerging Issues of International Environmental Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Xaver Perrez
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
United Nations Environment Programme ◽  
Scientific Policy ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
International Environmental Policy ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Nations Environment

This article takes a closer look at the scientific, policy and catalytic functions of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and its Assembly (UNEA) and UNEA’s role in addressing emerging issues in international environmental policy and law by examining two concrete examples. The first shows how UNEA was able to contribute to the international environmental law on mercury: UNEA played a catalytic policy role by contributing to the development of international soft law, customary law, and treaty law. Further, UNEA played a policy shaping role by influencing the further development of key international environmental law principles in the negotiations of new environmental norms in other fora. The second example describes UNEA’s unsuccessful attempt to address geoengineering. Building on the two examples, the article identifies factors that support or impede the fulfilment of UNEA’s role in addressing emerging issues of international environmental policy and law.

scholarly journals The Role of the UN International Law Commission in the Codification of International Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 1384-1387
Author(s):  
Pedro Keil
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
Law Commission

The creation of the International Law Commission arouses from the necessity imposed by the text of the UN Charter. According to article 13 paragraph 1 (a) of the Charter of the United Nations, the General Assembly is responsible for the promotion of the progressive development of international law and codification of such. In this regard, the Resolution 174 (II) of 21 November 1947 came with this purpose. So, the Commission’s nature is of an institutional and permanent subsidiary organ to the General Assembly of the UN, serving the purpose of perfecting the sources of law in the international ambit.

scholarly journals Nongovernmental Organizations and International Law

2006 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Charnovitz
Keyword(s):  
Nongovernmental Organizations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
General Thesis ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Temple

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have exerted a profound influence on the scope and dictates of international law. NGOs have fostered treaties, promoted the creation of new international organizations (IOs), and lobbied in national capitals to gain consent to stronger international rules. A decade ago, Antonio Donini, writing about the United Nations, declared that “the Temple of States would be a rather dull place without nongovernmental organisations.” His observation was apt and is suggestive of a more general thesis: had NGOs never existed, international law would have a less vital role in human progress.

scholarly journals Influence of decisions of some typical international organizations to the development of international law: The case of the united nations

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 390-416
Author(s):  
Tanja Miscevic
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Important Position ◽  
The Impact

In the theory and practice of international law has long been present a debate on the ability of international organizations to influence the decisions in the process of creating international law. It is undisputed that the decisions of international organizations have an increasingly important position, but the debates about the law constituting role of these organizations in the contemporary international law are still alive. There is no consent, and certainly, the widest debates are provoked by the decisions of the international organization of a universal character - the United Nations. A key task of our research will be to analyze the decision-making practice within the United Nations and to determine, by the comparison of the different arguments of international law schools of thought, the impact that this organization has on the creation of international law. Also, we will try to investigate whether the decisions taken in the framework of international organizations carry within them a little more than ?moral and political force?, but also to check the achievements of the so-called soft law (soft law).

The Montevideo Environmental Law Programme

1993 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-334
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Biggs
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
United Nations Environment Programme ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Governing Council ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Nations Environment ◽  
Environment Programme

The Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will hold its next annual meeting in May 1993, and, among other matters, will consider the report of a group of government experts (the report or Nairobi report) on the review, and continuation for another decade, of its Montevideo Programme of environmental law. This program was adopted by the Governing Council of UNEP in 1982 and has been instrumental in the development of domestic and international environmental law during the last decade.

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