Showing papers on "Environmental law published in 2009"

Super Wicked Problems and Climate Change: Restraining the Present to Liberate the Future

Abstract: Climate change may soon have its “lawmaking moment” in the United States. The inherent problem with such lawmaking moments, however, is just that: they are moments. What Congress and the President do with much fanfare can quickly and quietly slip away in the ensuing years. This is famously so for environmental law. Subsequent legislative amendments, limited budgets, appropriations riders, interpretive agency rulings, massive delays in rulemaking, and simple nonenforcement are more than capable of converting a seemingly uncompromising legal mandate into nothing more than a symbolic aspirational statement. Climate change legislation is especially vulnerable to being unraveled over time for a variety of reasons, but especially because of the extent to which it imposes costs on the short term for the realization of benefits many decades and sometimes centuries later. To be successful over the long term, climate change legislation will need to include institutional design features that insulate programmatic implementation to a

"Stationarity Is Dead" -- Long Live Transformation: Five Principles for Climate Change Adaptation Law

Abstract: While there is no question that successful mitigation strategies remain critical in the quest to avoid worst-case climate change scenarios, we've passed the point where mitigation efforts alone can deal with the problems that climate change is creating. Because of "committed" warming - climate change that will occur regardless of mitigation measures, a result of the already-accumulated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - what happens to social-ecological systems over the next decades, and most likely over the next few centuries, will largely be beyond human control. The time to start preparing for these changes is now, by making adaptation part of a national climate change policy. Nevertheless, American law and policy are not keeping up with the need for adaptation, even though adapting law to a world of continuing climate change impacts will be a far more complicated task than addressing mitigation. Environmental and natural resources law, for example, are currently based on assumptions of ecological stationarity and pursue goals of preservation and restoration. Neither those assumptions nor those goals fit a world of continual, unpredictable, and nonlinear transformations of complex ecosystems - but that is the world that climate change impacts are creating. This Article argues for a principled flexibility model of climate change adaptation law to pursue goals of increasing the resilience and adaptive capacity of social-ecological systems. In so doing, it lays out five principles and several sub-principles for the law of environmental regulation and natural resources management. Structurally, this Article also strongly suggests that climate change adaptation law must be bi-modal: it must promote informed and principled flexibility when dealing with climate change impacts, especially impacts that affect baseline ecological conditions such as temperature and hydrology, while simultaneously embracing an unyielding commitment to precautionary regulation when dealing with everything else.

Environment Law, Regulation and Governance: Shifting Architectures

Abstract: Environmental law and policy has come a long way since the birth of the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and the launch of the first European environmental policy in 1972. Today law is no longer centre stage but simply one instrument among others in the environmental regulator's toolkit. And talk of regulation may itself be giving way to the broader concept of environmental governance. This article examines the evolution of environmental law, regulation and governance over almost four decades. It explores the major initiatives of that period and the lessons that can be learned from them, it maps shifting regulatory architectures and explains what has worked and why and it considers the changing nature of the environmental challenge itself. Finally, it seeks to identify which particular architectures are most suited to deal with particular types of environmental problems.

Keeping Ethical Investment Ethical: Regulatory Issues for Investing for Sustainability.

Abstract: Regulation must target the financial sector, which often funds and profits from environmentally unsustainable development. In an era of global financial markets, the financial sector has a crucial impact on the state of the environment. The long-standing movement for ethically and socially responsible investment (SRI) has recently begun to advocate environmental standards for financiers. While this movement is gaining more adherents, it has increasingly justified responsible financing as a path to be prosperous, rather than virtuous. This trend partly owes to how financial institutions view their legal responsibilities. The business case motivations that now predominantly drive SRI are not sufficient to make the financial sector a means to sustainable development. Some modest legal reforms to improve the quality and extent of SRI have yet to make a tangible difference. A more ambitious strategy to promote SRI for environmental sustainability is possible, based on reforming the fiduciary duties of financial institutions. Such duties, tied to concrete performance standards, could make financiers invest in more ethically responsible ways. Other collateral reforms to financial markets, including improved corporate environmental reporting, are required to promote sustainability.

Managing and transforming water conflicts

Abstract: Background, trends, and concepts -- Water wars, water reality: reframing the debate on transboundary water disputes, hydropolitics, and preventive hydrodiplomacy -- Water conflict management: theory and practice -- Crafting institutions: law, treaties, and shared benefits -- Public participation, institutional capacity, and river basin organizations for managing conflict -- Lessons learned: patterns and issues -- Water conflict prevention and resolution: where to from here? -- Appendix A: 1997 convention and ILC draft rules on international groundwater -- Appendix B: river basin organizations / Jerome Delli Priscoli -- Appendix C: case studies of transboundary dispute resolution / Aaron T. Wolf and Joshua T. Newton -- Appendix D: international water pricing: an overview and historic and modern case studies / Kristin M. Anderson and Lisa J. Gaines -- Appendix E: treaties with groundwater provisions / Kyoko Matsumoto -- Appendix F: treaties with water quality provisions / Meredith A. Giordano -- Appendix G: treaties the delineate water allocations / Aaron T. Wolf.

The environment and international relations

Abstract: The new edition of this exciting textbook introduces students to the ways in which the theories and tools of international relations and other social science disciplines can be used to analyse and address global environmental problems. Kate O'Neill develops an innovative historical and analytical framework for understanding global environmental issues, integrating insights from different disciplines, and she identifies the main actors and their roles, thereby encouraging readers to engage with the issues and equip themselves with the knowledge they need to apply their own critical insights. Revised and updated, the new edition features new figures, examples, textboxes, and a new chapter on the emergence and politics of market mechanisms as a new mode of global environmental governance. The latest developments in the field, including the December 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, along with new perspectives and recent thinking, are incorporated throughout. This will be invaluable for students of environmental issues both from political science and environmental studies perspectives.

Climate Change Adaptation and the Structural Transformation of Environmental Law

Abstract: The path of environmental law has come to a cliff called climate change, and there is no turning around. As climate change policy dialogue emerged in the 1990s, however, the perceived urgency of attention to mitigation strategies designed to regulate sources of greenhouse gas emissions quickly snuffed out meaningful progress on the formulation of adaptation strategies designed to respond to the effects of climate change on humans and the environment. Only recently has this “adaptation deficit” become a concern now actively included in climate change policy debate. Previously treating talk of adaptation as taboo, the climate change policy world has begrudgingly accepted it into the fold as the reality of failed efforts to achieve global mitigation policy has combined with the scientific evidence that committed warming will continue the trend of climate change well into the future regardless of mitigation policy success. But do not expect adaptation policy to play out for environmental law the way mitigation policy has and is likely to continue. Mitigation policy has been framed as an initiative primarily within the domain of environmental law - a form of pollution control on steroids - and thus it will be environmental law that makes the first move and other policy realms that apply support or pushback. By contrast, environmental law does not “own” adaptation policy; rather, numerous policy fronts will compete simultaneously for primacy and priority as people demand protection from harms and enjoyment of benefits that play out as climate change moves relentlessly forward. This makes it all the more pressing for environmental law, early in the nation’s formulation of adaptation policy, to find its voice and establish its place in the effort to close the adaptation deficit. Toward that purpose, this Article examines the context and policy dynamics of climate change adaptation and identifies ten trends that will have profound normative and structural impacts on how environmental law fits in: 1) Shift in emphasis from preservationism to transitionalism in natural resources conservation policy. 2) Rapid evolution of property rights and liability rules associated with natural capital adaptation resources. 3) Accelerated merger of water law, land use law, and environmental law. 4) Incorporation of a human rights dimension in climate change adaptation policy. 5) Catastrophe and crisis avoidance and management as an overarching adaptation policy priority. 6) Frequent reconfigurations of trans-policy linkages and trade-offs at all scales and across scales. 7) Shift from “front end” decision methods relying on robust predictive capacity to “back end” decision methods relying on active adaptive management. 8) Greater variety and flexibility in regulatory instruments 9) Increased reliance on multi-scalar governance networks. 10) Conciliation.

International Courts and Environmental Protection

Abstract: International environmental law has come of age, yet the global environment continues to deteriorate. The challenge of the twenty-first century is to reverse this process by ensuring that governments comply fully with their obligations, and progressively assume stricter duties to preserve the environment. This book is the first comprehensive examination of international environmental litigation. Analysing the spectrum of adjudicative bodies that are engaged in the resolution of environmental disputes, it offers a reappraisal of their relevance in contemporary contexts. The book critiques the contribution that arbitral awards and judicial decisions have made to the development of environmental law, and considers the looming challenges for international litigation. With its unique combination of scholarly analysis and practical discussion, this work is especially relevant to an era in which environmental matters are increasingly being brought before international jurisdictions, and will be of great interest to students and scholars engaged with this vital field.

The role of the Asia Pacific Partnership in discursive contestation of the international climate regime

Abstract: After withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, the US Bush Administration and the Australian Howard Government pursued an international climate change policy focussed on voluntary international agreements outside the UN climate negotiations. This strategy included the formation of several climate agreements directed at technology development, including the 2005 Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP). The APP provides a model for international climate change policy directed at voluntary national greenhouse gas intensity targets, technology development through sectoral public–private partnerships and technology diffusion through trade. This article situates the APP within these US and Australian inspired climate agreements formed outside the UN negotiations. Backstrand and Lovbrand’s (in M. Pettenger (ed.) The social construction of climate change: power knowledge norms discourses, 2007) discourse analysis in relation to the international climate negotiations is used to explore differences between the APP and UN climate treaties. We find the APP embodies a discourse of what we call ‘deregulatory ecological modernisation’ that promotes limited public funding to ease informational failures in markets for cleaner technologies and management practices. The deregulatory ecological modernisation discourse is a deeply intensive market liberal approach to international climate change policy, which contests binding emission reduction targets and the development of a global carbon market. The USA, Australia, Japan and Canada represented a core group of countries that used the APP to promote the deregulatory ecological modernisation discourse and thereby contest any deepening of developed nations' emission reduction targets for the post-2012 period. However, with changes of leadership and new parties in power in the USA and Australia, it appears that the deregulatory ecological modernisation discourse has lost ground compared to a reengagement with discourses supportive of developed country emission reduction targets and equity-based adaptation and technology transfer assistance for developing nations.

Maturity and Methodology: Starting a Debate about Environmental Law Scholarship

Abstract: Many environmental law scholars perceive environmental law scholarship as immature. We discuss why this self-perception has arisen and argue that a common theme is methodology. We argue that the subject can only mature when we face its methodological challenges head on, and we identify four particular issues that have given rise to these challenges: the speed and scale of legal/regulatory change, the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, the heavy reliance in environmental law on a diverse range of governance arrangements and the multi-jurisdictional nature of the subject. We argue that there is a need for debate in the face of these challenges and identify some starting points for that debate.

Thinking of Environmental Law as a Complex Adaptive System: How to Clean Up the Environment by Making a Mess of Environmental Law

Abstract: This article is the fourth in my series of articles exploring the application of complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory to legal systems. It applies the model built in the three prior installments (in the Duke, Vanderbilt, and UC-Davis law reviews) to the specific context of environmental law. The work describes the subject matter of environmental law as a CAS and explains why environmental law thus must "think like a complex adaptive system" in order to accomplish its objectives.

The Emergence of Global Environmental Law

Abstract: With the global growth of public concern about environmental issues over the last several decades, environmental legal norms have increasingly become internationalized. This development has been reflected both in the surge of international environmental agreements as well as the growth and increased sophistication of national environmental legal systems across the world. A number of trends, such as globalization and international development aid efforts, have shaped the global rise of environmental law. The result is the emergence of a shared set of legal principles and norms regarding the environment, such that one can arguably describe it as a common body of law. The emergence of what we call "global environmental law" already has and will likely continue to have profound implications for the implementation, practice, and development of environmental law worldwide.

Adjudicating climate change : state, national, and international approaches

Abstract: Preface Peter E. Roderick 1. Introduction: the exigencies that drive potential causes of action for climate change William C. G. Burns and Hari M. Osofsky Part I. Subnational Case Studies: 2. State action as political voice in climate change policy: the Minnesota environmental cost valuation regulation Stephanie Stern 3. Limiting climate change at the coal mine Lesley K. McAllister 4. Cities, land use, and the global commons: genesis and the urban politics of climate change Katherine Trisolini and Jonathan Zasloff 5. Atmospheric trust litigation Mary Christina Wood Part II. National Case Studies: 6. The intersection of scale, science, and law in Massachusetts v. EPA Hari M. Osofsky 7. Biodiversity, global warming, and the United States Endangered Species Act: the role of domestic wildlife law in addressing greenhouse gas emissions Brendan R. Cummings and Kassie R. Siegel 8. An emerging human right to security from climate change: the case against gas flaring in Nigeria Amy Sinden 9. Tort-based climate litigation David A. Grossman 10. Insurance and climate change litigation Jeffrey W. Stempel Part III. Supranational Case Studies: 11. The world heritage convention and climate change: the case for a climate-change mitigation strategy beyond the Kyoto protocol Erica J. Thorson 12. The Inuit petition as a bridge? Beyond dialectics of climate change and indigenous peoples' rights Hari M. Osofsky 13. Bringing climate change claims to the accountability mechanisms of international financial institutions Jennifer Gleason and David B. Hunter 14. Potential causes of action for climate change impacts under the United Nations Fish Stock Agreement William C. G. Burns 15. Climate change litigation: opening the door to the international court of justice Andrew Strauss 16. The implications of climate change litigation: litigation for international environmental law-making David B. Hunter 17. Conclusion: adjudicating climate change across scales Hari M. Osofsky.

Advancing the Sovereign Trust of Government to Safeguard the Environment for Present and Future Generations (Part I): Ecological Realism and the Need for a Paradigm Shift

Abstract: Modern environmental law has proved a colossal failure, despite the good intentions and the hard work of many citizens, lawyers, and government officials. Notwithstanding the most extensive and complex set of legal mandates the world has ever known, government is driving runaway greenhouse gas emissions and resource depletion. Agencies use the discretion in their statutes to allow continuing damage to the atmosphere and other natural resources. At a time when society faces catastrophic climate heating and ecological collapse, leading thinkers should be setting their sights on a transformational environmental law principle. This Article is the first of two companion Articles that identify the public trust doctrine as the most fundamental legal mechanism available to ensure governmental protection of natural resources necessary for public welfare and survival. At the core of the doctrine is the principle that every sovereign government holds vital natural resources in “trust” for the public – i.e., present and future generations of citizen beneficiaries. This Article proposes a paradigm shift away from the current system of natural resource management, a system driven by political discretion, to one that is infused with public trust principles and policies across all branches of government and at all jurisdictional levels. Section II of this Article explains the necessity for an emergency response to arrest the hemorrhage of natural systems and stabilize climate by bringing down atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas pollution. Section III explains the dysfunction of modern environmental law and the role of agencies in promoting natural damage. Section IV explores the depth of legal change needed to secure the resources essential to future survival and prosperity. Section V explains the role of government as trustee of natural resources. Section VI describes states and foreign nations as covenant trustees with respect to shared or transitory resources. Part II of this work presents the trust framework as it relates to the modern regime of statutory and administrative law.

Corporate Accountability in International Environmental Law

Abstract: This book examines systematically all international sources of corporate accountability standards with specific reference to environmental protection, and elaborates on their theoretical and practical implications for international environmental law. The book argues that although international environmental law does not bind multinational corporations and other business entities, growing practice points to the emergence and consolidation of international legal standards. These standards allow adapting and translating inter-State obligations embodied in international environmental law into specific normative benchmarks to determine the legitimacy of the conduct of the private sector against internationally recognized values and rules. The role of international organizations who, in the absence of State intervention, identify and promote the application of selected international environmental standards is analyzed in depth. This analysis demonstrates how these international organizations are a driving force in establishing and operationalizing international standards for corporate environmental accountability.

The regulatory function of European private law

Abstract: Contents: Introduction PART I: UTILITIES 1. The Regulation of Services and the Public-Private Divide Anthony Ogus 2. Regulatory Strategies on Services Contracts in EC Law Hans-W. Micklitz 3. The Regulatory Function of Choice of Law Rules Applying to Contracts for Services in the European Union Sandrine Clavel PART II: ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 4. Regulatory Dilemmas in EC Environmental Law: The Ongoing Conflicts between Competitiveness and the Environment Javier de Cendra de Larragan 5. Regulatory Strategies in Environmental Liability Michael G. Faure 6. The Law Applicable to Violations of the Environment - Regulatory Strategies Oliveira Boskovic PART III: PRODUCT SAFETY 7. Product Safety, Private Standard-Setting and Information Networks Fabrizio Cafaggi 8. Interaction between Product Liability and Regulation at the European Level Gerald Spindler 9. Impact of the Mutual Recognition Principle on the Law Applicable to Products Mathias Audit PART IV: E-COMMERCE 10. E-commerce from a Private Law Perspective Vincenzo Zeno-Zencovich 11. E-commerce from a Regulatory Perspective Francesco Cardarelli 12. Re-allocating Horizontal and Vertical Regulatory Powers in the Electronic Marketplace: What to do with Private International Law Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon Index

Is There an International Environmental Constitution

Abstract: The surge of interest among international lawyers in "constitutionalism" represents one of several efforts to reconceptualize international governance; others include the research projects on global administrative law and legalization. The article applies the constitutionalist lens to international environmental law—one of the few fields of international law to which constitutionalist modes of analysis have not yet been applied. Given the protean quality of the terms "constitution" and "constitutionalism," the article begins by unpacking these concepts. By disaggregating these concepts into a number of separate variables, which have more determinate, unambiguous meanings, we can answer the question, "Is there an international environmental constitution?", in a more nuanced way—not in an all or nothing fashion, but by considering the extent to which international environmental law has constitutional dimensions. The article concludes that, although individual treaty regimes have constitutional features, international environmental law as a whole lacks the hallmarks of a constitutional order.

The Emergence of Global Environmental Law

Abstract: With the global growth of public concern about environmental issues over the last several decades, environmental legal norms have become increasingly internationalized. This development has been reflected both in the surge of international environmental agreements as well as the growth and increased sophistication of national environmental legal systems around the world. The result is the emergence of a set of legal principles and norms regarding the environment, such that one can arguably describe it as a body of law. After exploring the diverse forces that are contributing to the emergence of what we call “global environmental law,” this Article considers the implications of this emergence for the implementation, practice, and development of environmental law worldwide.

Improving unsustainable environmental governance in South Africa: the case for holistic governance

Abstract: Environmental law in South Africa has developed in a rapid fashion since the inception of the new constitutional dispensation in 1994. This development is evident from, inter alia , the constitutionalisation of the environmental right in section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Section 24 contains amongst other provisions, directive principles that impose duties on government to protect the environment for present and future generations through reasonable legislative and other measures. It is apparent from section 24 that these measures should ensure environmental governance practices that are aimed at the achievement of sustainable results. The South African environmental governance regime is, however, characterised by fragmentation that may negate the achievement of sustainable environmental governance. It is argued in this article that, for environmental governance to become sustainable, it is necessary to integrate environmental governance efforts, possibly by way of a holistic approach to environmental governance. In light of the above, this article: investigates the nature and extent of fragmentation; explores reasons for fragmentation; discusses disadvantages of fragmented governance efforts in South Africa; investigates the concept of integration and holistic governance as means to achieve sustainable environmental governance results; and makes recommendations regarding the eventual achievement of integrated, holistic and sustainable environmental governance.

Environmental law and justice in context

Abstract: Introduction: dimensions of justice in environmental law Jonas Ebbesson Part I. The Notion of Justice in International Law: 2. The second cycle of ecological urgency: an environmental justice perspective Richard Falk 3. Describing the elephant: international justice and environmental law Dinah Shelton 4. Law, justice and rights: some implications of a global perspective William Twining 5. Gender and environmental law and justice?: thoughts on sustainable masculinities Hanne Petersen Part II. Public Participation and Access to the Judiciary: 6. Participatory rights in natural resource management: the role of communities in south Asia Jona Razzaque 7. Public participation and the challenges of environmental justice in China Qun Du 8. Environmental justice through courts in countries in economic transition Stephen Stec 9. Environmental justice through environmental courts?: lessons learned from the Swedish experience Jan Darpo 10. Environmental justice in the European Court of Justice Ludwig Kramer 11. Environmental justice through international complaints procedures?: comparing the Aarhus Convention and the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation Malgosia Fitzmaurice Part III. State Sovereignty and State Borders: 12. Environmental justice in situations of armed conflict Phoebe Okowa 13. Sovereignty and environmental justice in international law Andre Nollkaemper 14. Piercing the state veil in the pursuit of environmental justice Jonas Ebbesson Part IV. North-South Concerns in Global Contexts: 15. Competing narratives of justice in north-south environmental relations: the case of ozone layer depletion Karin Mickelson 16. Climate change, global environmental justice and international environmental law Jutta Brunee 17. Justice in global environmental negotiations: the case of desertification Bo Kjellen Part V. Access to Natural Resources: 18. Distributive justice and procedural fairness in global water law Ellen Hey 19. Environmental justice in the use, knowledge and exploitation of genetic resources Philippe Cullet 20. Law, gender and environmental resources: women's access to environmental justice in east Africa Patricia Kameri-Mbote Part VI. Corporate Activities and Trade: 21. The polluter pays principle: dilemmas of justice in national and international contexts Hans Christian Bugge 22. Corporate activities and environmental justice: perspectives on Sierra Leone's mining Priscilla Schwartz 23. Environmental justice and international trade law Nicolas de Sadeleer.

Climate Change and Unresolved Issues in WTO Law

Abstract: Measures aimed at addressing climate change raise legal issues regarding the relationship between WTO Law and international environmental law and the relationship between various WTO Agreements. This paper first examines emerging climate change policies that are likely to raise issues in WTO law. The remainder of the paper analyzes several unresolved issues in WTO law that may affect the WTO-consistency of measures that are likely to be taken to address climate change. How should the WTO deal with environmental subsidies under the GATT, the SCM Agreement and the Agreement on Agriculture? Can the general exceptions in GATT Article XX be applied to other agreements in Annex 1A? Are processing and production methods are relevant to determining the issue of 'like products' in GATT Articles I and III, the SCM Agreement and the Antidumping Agreement and the TBT Agreement? What is the scope of paragraphs b and g in GATT Article XX and the relationship between these two paragraphs? What is the relationship between GATT Article XX and multilateral environmental agreements in the context of climate change? How should Article 2 of the TBT Agreement be interpreted and applied in the context of climate change? The paper explores these issues.

Misunderstanding Models in Environmental and Public Health Regulation

Abstract: Computational models are fundamental to environmental regulation, yet their capabilities tend to be misunderstood by policymakers. Rather than rely on models to illuminate dynamic and uncertain relationships in natural settings, policymakers too often use models as “answer machines.” This fundamental misperception that models can generate decisive facts leads to a perverse negative feedback loop that begins with policymaking itself and radiates into the science of modeling and into regulatory deliberations where participants can exploit the misunderstanding in strategic ways. This paper documents the pervasive misperception of models as truth machines in U.S. regulation and the multi-layered problems that result from this misunderstanding. The paper concludes with a series of proposals for making better use of models in environmental policy analysis.

Global Democracy and Sustainable Jurisprudence: Deliberative Environmental Law

Abstract: In Global Democracy and Sustainable Jurisprudence, Walter Baber and Robert Bartlett explore the necessary characteristics of a meaningful global jurisprudence, a jurisprudence that would underpin international environmental law. Arguing that theories of political deliberation offer useful insights into the current "democratic deficit" in international law, and using this insight as a way to approach the problem of global environmental protection, they offer both a theoretical foundation and a realistic deliberative mechanism for creating effective transnational common law for the environment. Their argument links elements not typically associated: abstract democratic theory and a practical form of deliberative democracy; the legitimacy-imparting value of deliberative democracy and the possibility of legislating through adjudication; common law jurisprudence and the development of transnational environmental law; and conceptual thinking that draws on Deweyan pragmatism, Rawlsian contractarianism, Habermasian critical theory, and the full liberalism of Bohman, Gutmann, and Thompson. Baber and Bartlett offer a democratic method for creating, interpreting, and implementing international environmental norms that involves citizens and bypasses states--an innovation that can be replicated and deployed across a range of policy areas. Transnational environmental consensus would develop through a novel model of juristic democracy that would generate legitimate international environmental law based on processes of hypothetical rule making by citizen juries. This method would translate global environmental norms into international law--law that, unlike all current international law, would be recognized as both fact and norm because of its inherent democratic legitimacy.

Resource And Environmental Economics: Modern Issues And Applications

Abstract: This important book deals with the essential principles of resource and environmental economics, provides applications to contemporary issues in this field, and outlines and assesses policies being used or proposed for managing the use of environmental and natural resources. Covering specific contemporary topics such as agriculture and the environment, water use, greenhouse gas management, biodiversity conservation, tourism and the environment, and environmental economics and health, leading issues in resource and environmental economics are outlined and analyzed in an innovative manner. Institutional economics (both new and traditional) is applied and compared with other approaches such as neoclassical economics, behavioral economics and the Austrian School of Economics. This heterogeneous, multi-perspective approach enables problems to be considered from several different angles, thus enhancing the reader's comprehension of the subject matter. Furthermore, using minimal technical jargon, the book takes into account aspects of modern economic analysis such as the costs of and constraints on decision-making and the transaction costs involved in policy implementation.

Contemporary Issues in International Environmental Law

Abstract: Contents: Introduction 1 Precautionary Principle 2 Sustainable Development 3 Intergenerational Equity Revisited 4 The European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Human Right to a Clean Environment: The English Perspective

Environmental Crime Comes of Age: The Evolution of Criminal Enforcement in the Environmental Regulatory Scheme

Abstract: The environmental crimes program in the United States has entered its third decade, yet questions remain about what makes an environmental violation criminal. Our environmental laws make only limited distinctions between criminal and civil liability, so theoretically the same conduct could give rise to criminal, civil, or administrative enforcement. This article will reconsider concerns that have been raised historically about the role of criminal enforcement under the environmental laws and will suggest an answer to the question of what makes an environmental case criminal. The article addresses claims that the complexity of environmental law makes it a difficult fit for criminal enforcement and that the mental state requirements for environmental crime make it possible for corporate officials to be convicted for conduct that they do not know is occurring. The article considers the role of prosecutorial discretion in environmental cases and asserts that criminal prosecution should be reserved for cases involving (1) significant harm of risk of harm to the environment or public health; (2) deceptive or misleading conduct; (3) deliberate efforts to operate outside the regulatory system; or (4) significant and repetitive violations of environmental laws. By limiting criminal prosecution to these cases, prosecutors can ensure that criminal enforcement will advance the goals of the environmental regulatory scheme.

Timor-Leste - Country environmental analysis

Abstract: The Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) for Timor-Leste identifies environmental priorities through a systematic review of environmental issues in natural resources management and environmental health in the context of the country's economic development and environmental institutions. Lack of data has been the main limitation in presenting a more rigorous analysis. Nevertheless, the report builds on the best available secondary data, presents new data on the country's wealth composition, and derives new results on the costs of water and air pollution. The CEA calls for urgent attention to gaps in the environmental management framework, the lack of capacity to implement the few regulations in place, and the high cost of indoor air pollution and poor water, sanitation, and hygiene. Timor-Leste is a young country that regained independence in 2002, and it has emerged from a bitter past burdened by colonialism and violent conflicts. It is still a fragile state facing enormous challenges. The report also points out the lack of clean water, appropriate sanitation, and hygiene as an environmental priority. The CEA estimates that this imposes an economic cost of about $17 million per year by way of illness and premature death. The CEA also looks at outdoor air pollution and at natural resource management for land, forestry, and coastal and marine resources. Outdoor air pollution is not a serious problem for the time being, but it could become so in the long run if the economy grows rapidly, urbanization continues, heavy industry emerges, and motorization increases rapidly. This underlines the need for good forward territorial and development planning. In conclusion, much good work has already been done to enhance the quality of the environment in Timor-Leste. Efforts are under way to improve the data base for environmental management.