Showing papers on "Environmental law published in 1990"

British Politics and the Environment

Abstract: Introduction 1. Environmental Policy in Britain 2. The Environmental Lobby 3. Thatcherism and the Environment 4. Environmental Groups and the Countryside 5. Privatization and Pollution 6. The New Green Society 7. The Environment and the European Community 8. The Changing Environmental Lobby 9. Environmental Politics in Britain Notes Index

State Responsibility and International Liability for Injurious Consequences of Acts not Prohibited by International Law: A Necessary Distinction?

Abstract: THE topic "International Liability for the Injurious Consequences of Acts Not Prohibited by International Law" has been on the agenda of the International Law Commission since 1978.1 Despite adopting an ever narrower focus, it remains a difficult and controversial one. There are two major reasons for this. First, at a theoretical level, it is not clear that the conceptual basis on which it is distinguished from State responsibility is either sound or necessary. Second, at a more practical level, it is questionable whether it represents a useful basis for codification and development of existing law and practice relating to environmental harm, the field in which the Commission has mainly located the topic. From either perspective, it is liable to seem at best a questionable exercise in reconceptualising an existing body of law, or at worst, a dangerously retrograde step which may seriously weaken international efforts to secure agreement on effective principles of international environmental law. The purpose of this article is to explore the arguments for the new topic and to examine briefly the Commission's main proposals.

The Search for Environmental Rights

Abstract: For nearly two decades, efforts have been made to formulate an environmental right. Among the most prominent examples are the Stockholm Declaration of 19721 and, more recently, the statement of principles for environmental protection and sustainable development of the United Nation's World Commission on Environment and Development.2 Parallel endeavors also have been made in the domestic context. Proposals have been made periodically in the United States for amendments to the federal Constitution,3 and a number of states have adopted broad-ranging environmental provisions in their constitutions.4

European Community Environmental Law: Legislation, the European Court of Justice and Common-Interest Groups

Abstract: European Community (EC) environmental law and policy has come a long way since the Council of the European Communities (Council) approved the first EC Action Programme on the Environment in 1973,' following a declaration on the environment by the Heads of State and government of the nine members in October 1972. Since then the EC has adopted three further Action Programmes on the Environment2 and more than one hundred and fifty acts of secondary environmental legislation.3 It now seems possible to imagine as an emerging legal reality a Single European Environment, recognising the physical reality that EC Member States share a common environment which transcends national boundaries.

The World Bank and the environment : first annual report, fiscal 1990

Abstract: It has become evident that environmental degradation in its many forms constitutes a threat to economic development. Sound environmental management has been recognized as fundemental to the development process, and the World Bank now emphasizes the need to make environmental concerns an integral part of its activities. Although considerable progress has recently been made in this direction, a Bank report to the Development Committee in September 1989 set out a three year agenda for action that called for greater efforts in a number of areas. It recommended that actions be taken to bring environmental strategy into the mainstream of country economic work, to strengthen research on the causes of environmental degradation and on the feasibility of appropriate policy interventions, to implement a new environmental assessment methodology, to increase lending for free standing environmental and population projects, to expand its efforts in staff training and guidance of Bank staff on environmental matters, and to participate more effectively in the international environmental debate. Five problem areas require special attention from the Bank : 1) destruction of natural habitats, 2) land degradation, 3) degradation and depletion of fresh water resources, 4) urban, industrial, and agricultural pollution and 5) degradation of the global commons.

Global Environmental Degradation and International Organizations

Abstract: International organizations are critical for global environmental policymaking as catalytic agents of desirable change, and in the case of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as the coordinative mechanism as well. Only in the face of severe degradation or impending catastrophies has the world community responded to challenges. However, for the policy to be effective, the necessary financial support needs to be generated, assured, and vastly increased; and the locus of policy making shifted to a main organ of the United Nations-conceivably as an Environmental Council, supplanting the Trusteeship Council and being co-equal in status with the Economic and Social Council, with the UNEP as its coordinative arm. From the perspective of global policy, the issue of environmental degradation has moved rapidly from a low-priority item to one of the highest priority in international governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as in the increasingly significant international ad hoc conferences which involve a large number of states. By the end of the 1980s, the environmental agenda has come to vie for priority with the resources and social agendas, with which it is inextricably intertwined. However, despite encouraging indications reflected in the positions of the two superpowers and other major states in the United Nations system, environmental considerations do not seem as yet to weigh as heavily as the economic and political ones at the global policy levels. It is the inescapable tension between the politico-economic considerations on the one hand and environmental ones on the other which has characterized world policy making in the 1980s (see Soroos, 1986; Brown et al, 1989). For the purposes of this paper, environmental degradation is viewed as: contamination or drastic human transformation of the land, air, and water on the planet, or of the condition of outer space, which is injurious to the components of the global eco-system and sometimes in a synergistic way for the system as a whole; significant reductions in the numbers, or even extinction, of plant and animal species as well as microorganisms in the global eco-system due to drastic changes brought about by human activity or societal processes, such as excessive pollution or deforestation; erosion of the soil at such a rate that its organic layer disappears more

The European Community's Policy on Implementation of Environmental Directives

Abstract: This Article first discusses the legal nature of the directive and the process by which Member States implement directives. Second, this Article explores enforcement of directives and examines the enforcement roles of the Commission of the European Communities and the Court of Justice of the European Communities. Finally this Article proposes a series of initiatives at the Member State and Community levels to improve implementation and enforcement of Community environmental law. THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY'S POLICY ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL DIRECTIVESt

Current Environmental Regulation of the Alberta Oil and Gas Industry and Emerging Issues

Abstract: As the environmental law regime in Alberta becomes increasingly detailed and stringent, participants in the oil and gas industry will face greater liability arising from environmental damage. This paper reviews the current provincial environmental regulatory structure as it applies to the oil and gas industry. Prospective developments in the law are also considered. The drafting of operating agreements, sale of oil and gas assets, and the liability of subsequent users are discussed in this context. Insurance coverage for environmental damage and the liability of lenders are also examined.

Environmental Protection: Law and Policy

Abstract: The distinguished author team of Environmental Protection: Law and Policy, Fifth Edition, which now includes Professor William Buzbee of the Emory University School of Law, continues to explore fundamental issues of environmental law, from history and theory to litigation, regulation, and policy, while addressing important current issues, including the enforcement of international environmental law and the allocation of environmental law authority between U.S. federal and state governments. In addition to being thoroughly and thoughtfully updated, the revision of this widely respected casebook includes materials for enhanced accessibility and teachability.

Environmental dispute resolution : mediation, an effective alternative to litigation?

Abstract: The 1980's have seen an increase in the diversity and complexity of environmental disputes resultant of the competing demands of economic development and environmental protection. Nowhere is this more evident than in Tasmania. Environmental disputes in Tasmania are handled by a number of judicial and administrative systems, each with its own "package" of legislation, infrastructure, processes and procedures. Dissatisfaction with the inadequacies and adversarial nature of these systems has been expressed by members of the judiciary, government, industry and public interest groups. This thesis examines the potential of environmental mediation as a proven, non-adversarial process for the resolution of site specific and public policy disputes both within current systems and as a strategy in its own right. It is concluded that environmental mediation is of value in environmental decision making and that it can be effectively incorporated in existing Tasmanian dispute resolution systems. A case is also put for the use of mediation as a viable alternative to present methods of environmental dispute resolution.

Washington environmental law handbook

Abstract: Written by one of the nation's leading environmental law firms, this handbook provides concise, easy-to-understand explanations of your state compliance obligations You'll get complete coverage of hazardous and solid waste disposal; air, water, and natural resources regulations; the state organizational structure; required permits and reports; the relationship between federal and state regulations; and more

Economic development and environmental problems: a proposal for the establishment of an east Asian and Pacific center for environmental protection.

Abstract: Social and economic development is the ultimate goal in the improvement of human welfare. Such development is crucially dependent on natural resources to provide those goods and services that directly and indirectly generate socioeconomic bcnefits. At the same time, economic growth is often accompanied by significant adverse impacts on the natural environment. Economic development produces wastes which pollute the air and water and depletes natural resources. The concomitant trends of urbanization and the continued growth of megacities have serious effects on the surrounding environment, especially for poor developing countries. I This correlation has led to the commonly held belief that economic growth and environmental protection are naturally exclusive. In fact, the degradation of the environment is still considered by some policy makers as a necessary and justifiable cost of economic growth. Conversely, these policy makers view natural resource management, which is vital to sustained longterm economic growth, as a luxury item that poor developing nations cannot afford. However, the current consensus is that the continued degradation of the environment and nonconservation of natural resources will undermine the longterm potential of economic development and improvement in human welfare. Moreover, severe pollution causes diseases that will lower the productivity of society. There are many examples of environmental resource damage impairing longterm economic growth. For instance, water pollution and industrial effluents have reduced the productivity of freshwater and marine commercial fisheries. Acid rain is also an example of industrial pollution of one industry destroying another. The logging industry and agriculture bear the negative economic impacts of acid rain in reduced production and/or damaged forest resources. Most governments are becoming increasingly aware that environmental and natural resource degradation endangers their longterm development potential. Consequently, they are more receptive to the implementation of measures which ensure a moderation of the effects of development projects on environmental and natural resources. It is clear that successful economic development depends on the rational use of environmental resources and on minimizing, as much as possible, adverse

Penalties in Settlements of Citizen Suit Enforcement Actions under the Clean Water Act

Abstract: This article discusses the civil penalty remedy in the citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act (CWA); describes the holding in Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation v Bellefonte, which limits the civil penalty remedy; and analyzes the implications of that holding for citizen suit enforcement of the CWA