Non-state actors as a focal point of transnational environmental law

Author(s):  
Angstadt J Michael ◽  
Betsill Michele

This chapter describes non-state actors (NSAs), which encompass a range of entities that collectively extend international environmental law beyond traditional state authority in numerous regimes. Characterized by considerable breadth and diversity, NSAs exist within the traditional, state-centric treaty architecture while simultaneously contesting its structure. Because diverse institutional actors can satisfy the definition of ‘non-state actor’, the chapter analyses a subset of NSAs: non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It first defines NGOs, identifying some common characteristics that influence their ability to advance international environmental law, and noting fundamental criteria used to distinguish among NGOs. The chapter then discusses three key functions that NGOs perform in contemporary international environmental law: serving as activists engaged in agenda-setting functions; performing diplomacy to shape and facilitate international rule-making processes; and contributing to rule-making, implementation, and enforcement in contemporary global governance. It concludes by forecasting strong continued NGO participation in developing non-treaty international environmental law.


Author(s):  
Catherine Redgwell

National implementation constitutes a key element in ensuring compliance with international environmental law. It plays a dominant role in ensuring non-state actors' compliance with international environmental norms, particularly where international environmental law has been translated, directly or indirectly, into national law. It may also afford opportunities for non-state actors to successfully challenge national implementation of international environmental law through judicial review, national rules on standing and remedies permitting. This article considers the trends in domestic judicial enforcement, and the role that national courts play in both developing and enforcing international environmental law. It also examines the nature of the international norms in question, as well as the impact that this factor exerts on national implementation (both legislative and judicial), drawing upon the extensive literature on implementation and compliance with international environmental law. Finally, the article looks at the extent of reliance upon national measures of implementation under different treaties, the impact of domestic constitutional legal orders on implementation, and soft law instruments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-183
Author(s):  
Debjani Sarkar ◽  
Nirban Manna

Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) in India was realized along the lines of Maoist ideology through the Naxalite insurgency in the 1960s. Novelists have attempted to grasp the mood of this decade of liberation through fiction. This article attempts to study two novels which document the formative years of the Naxalite movement in West Bengal. Translated works from Bengali, Mahasweta Devi’s Mother of 1084 (1974) and Bani Basu’s The Enemy Within (1991) foreground the necropolitical policies of the demonic state in eliminating these Naxal names. State and non-state actors obliterate the question of the Naxal’s identity (enmeshed with his mind and body), making it the focal point of the analysis. Drawing abundantly on concepts of homo sacer, necropolitics, McCarthyism, and democide, the analysis demonstrates that the protagonists are typical of what modern biopolitical states do to non-conformist subjects by creating death worlds. This article is an attempt at understanding the nuances of a sociopolitical movement through literature as social responsibility.


2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ong

AbstractThis article assesses the contribution of a 'transnational', non-State actor agreement, namely, the 'Equator Principles', in terms of its possible contribution to both the making and implementation of international environmental law. It examines the provenance of the 'Equator Principles', as well as how far these Principles purport to interpret and apply important international environmental principles. While several formal difficulties remain to be overcome, this article considers the case for the inclusion of significant transnational, non-State actors like the Equator Banks and their agreements, such as the 'Equator Principles', within the international legal system as a further and alternative means of implementing these important environmental principles.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Corbit ◽  
Chris Moore

Abstract The integration of first-, second-, and third-personal information within joint intentional collaboration provides the foundation for broad-based second-personal morality. We offer two additions to this framework: a description of the developmental process through which second-personal competence emerges from early triadic interactions, and empirical evidence that collaboration with a concrete goal may provide an essential focal point for this integrative process.


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