Can A Transnational Law Approach Offer A Better Understanding of International Law’s Contribution to Sustainable Hydropower Projects? A Test Case from the Mekong River Basin

Hydropower regulation involves an increasingly complex set of actors, scales and legal regimes. The role that international law plays in regulating hydropower, and other sustainable development issues, is challenged by this pluralism because of international law’s restrictive traditional theoretical framework, which appears to be ill-equipped to fully grasp and represent significant features of pluralistic regulation. A broader conceptualization of international law could create a more pluralist, holistic and integrated approach to regulation, making it more attuned to reality and to sustainable development objectives. This article adopts a transnational law approach embracing in a more flexible manner different elements which influence regulation and which escape existing legal categories. Hydropower projects in the Lower Mekong River Basin illustrate the mismatch between regulation mainly focused on the State, investment-related actors and regimes of large projects, on the one hand, and the growing pluralism driven by the involvement of non-State actors, specificities of environmental regulation and different levels of inquiry, on the other hand. The analysis explores the ‘blind spots’ of international law in its regulation of hydropower projects and considers the possibilities in which a transnational law approach broadens the vision of existing international law to be more pluralist.

Implementing the SDG-13 through the Adoption of Hybrid Law: Addressing Climate-Induced Displacement

The sustainable development goals (sdgs) with their integrated linkage of development and environmental concerns have been hailed as a paradigm shift in the attainment of sustainability. The article attempts to understand the normative framework that underwrites international law and sdg-13 vis-a-vis climate change with a special focus on climate-induced displacement. It explores the existing provisions, limitations, and gaps under international law with regard to displacement associated with climate change. More specifically, the analysis assesses the potential of hybrid law in promoting the goals of sdg-13. The hybrid law approach proposed in this article involves the amalgamation of substantive norms from different branches of international law, integration of norms of differing legal status and engagement of state and non-state actors. The analysis explores the concept of hybrid law, surveys the Nansen Protection Agenda and the Global Compact on Migration and analyses their suitability in exploring solutions to climate displacement. The article evaluates how the adoption of the sdgs provides a foundation for the development of a hybrid law in examining solutions to climate displacement under sdg-13.

Where Economic Development Meets the Rule of Law? Promoting Sustainable Development Goals Through the European Neighborhood Policy

The 2030 Agenda and pertinent EU law and policy are marked by an emphasis on the interlinkages between the Sustainable Development Goals. With this in mind, this article explores whether the Agenda and the respective EU law and policy offer a conceptually clear and instrumental vision of the interlinkages between economic development (Goal 8) and the rule of law (Goal 16). It is argued that both the Agenda and relevant EU policies view the rule of law both as an independent value and as an instrument of economic development, without distinguishing the components that rule of law is comprised of. The article discusses the Eastern dimension of the European Neighborhood Policy as a case study to contextualize the analysis. Based on its findings regarding the interlinkages between the rule of law and economic development in the 2030 Agenda and relevant EU policy, the article also sets out certain policy recommendations for creating a sustainable development-oriented design of the Eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy.

‘A Rough Trade’? Towards a More Sustainable Minerals Supply Chain

Target 16.6 of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (sdgs) seeks to create ‘effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels’ for the purpose of achieving sustainable development. Nevertheless, the inherent vagueness of the notions of transparency and accountability poses difficulties for achieving the target. This is why this article examines how these notions have been conceptualized in international legal discourse and applied in practice. It does so within the context of the trade in natural resources that finance armed conflict, which is considered detrimental to the development opportunities of developing countries. The article examines how two of the most important initiatives in this field, namely the Kimberley Process for the Certification of Rough Diamonds and the oecd Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-affected and High-risk Areas, operationalize transparency and accountability. It posits that both initiatives fall short of establishing full accountability. However, notwithstanding their flaws and limitations, they make a valuable contribution to achieving target 16.6.

The Use of the ‘Vulnerability’ Label by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: Protecting or Stigmatizing Women and Girls in the Forced Migration Context?

This article sheds light on the explicit identification and labelling of forced migrant women and girls as vulnerable and the effect this seems to have on their human rights protection under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (cedaw). The article focuses on the principal international body directly concerned with the human rights of women and girls, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (cedaw Committee) and combines legal doctrinal analysis with a critical reflection in light of the normative-theoretical notion of universal vulnerability. The notion of universal vulnerability has been suggested to close protection gaps and contribute to a more inclusive human rights framework; yet, the vulnerability label has been criticized as potentially stigmatizing and paternalizing. The article therefore critically assesses whether and to what extent explicit vulnerability references by the cedaw Committee contribute to the protection and/or stigmatization of forced migrant women and girls. The analysis reveals that the vulnerability label adopted by the cedaw Committee is not (yet) entirely in line with the universal vulne-rability notion’s potential for the protection of human rights. Yet, the article suggests that vulnerability references can nevertheless contribute to human rights protection since they help to identify protection priorities and clarify state obligations towards those identified as vulnerable. This positive effect for the protection of human rights is likely to be highest the more attention is being paid to the avoidance of stigmatization.

Climate Change and Disappearing Island States: Pursuing Remedial Territory

As at the start of 2018, at least eight low-lying Pacific islands have been found to have disappeared as a result of climate change induced rising sea levels and more seem likely in future to suffer the same fate. Because international law demands territory as a requirement of statehood, this could have implications for the affected states’ continuation and the livelihood of the populations displaced. Scholars in recent years have therefore pointed to various strategies for the disappearing island community to maintain a territorial dimension. This article examines in particular the as yet largely uninvestigated option of pursuing remedial territory, i.e. territory transferred from responsible to injured states as redress for climate change induced deterritorialisation. Applying the rules on state responsibility, it considers whether at least some emitting third states may be obliged to provide a portion of their territory as reparation for the commission of an internationally wrongful act.