Environmental Policy and Law - Volume 50, issue 6

Authors: Desai, Bharat H.

Article Type: Other

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-209000

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 445-446, 2020

Article Type: Other

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 447-447, 2020

Authors: Weiss, Edith Brown

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Today, it is evident that we are part of a planetary trust. Conserving our planet represents a public good, global as well as local. The threats to future generations resulting from human activities make applying the normative framework of a planetary trust even more urgent than in the past decades. Initially, the planetary trust focused primarily on threats to the natural system of our human environment such as pollution and natural resource degradation, and on threats to cultural heritage. Now, we face a higher threat of nuclear war, cyber wars, and threats from gene drivers that can cause inheritable changes …to genes, potential threats from other new technologies such as artificial intelligence, and possible pandemics. In this context, it is proposed that in the kaleidoscopic world, we must engage all the actors to cooperate with the shared goal of caring for and maintaining planet Earth in trust for present and future generations. Show more

Keywords: Intergenerational equity, natural resources, planetary trust, kaleidoscopic world, national security

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-209001

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 449-456, 2020

Authors: Kotzé, Louis J. | Kim, Rakhyun E.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this article we argue that international environmental law cannot continue to exist in its present form for the purpose of the Anthropocene. We show that analytically, international environmental law and its lawyers are unable to fully understand and respond to the complex governance challenges arising from a complex Earth system. Normatively, international environmental law has failed to provide appropriate norms to prevent humans from encroaching on Earth system limits. In a transformative sense, international environmental law has not been sufficiently ambitious to achieve the type of radical transformations necessary to ensure planetary integrity and socio-ecological justice. We need a …new legal paradigm that is better suited for the purpose of the Anthropocene that must address international environmental law’s analytical, normative and transformative concerns. We call this new paradigm earth system law. Building on our recent work, we offer here some preliminary thoughts about what we think the analytical, normative, and transformative dimensions of earth system law could and should entail, and why they would be more appropriate for the purpose of governing a complex Earth system in the Anthropocene. Show more

Keywords: International environmental law, sustainable development, Anthropocene, earth system law, earth system governance

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-201055

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 457-470, 2020

Authors: Robinson, Nicholas A.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Earth is home to all known life, on land, within the oceans, inland waters, and amidst the atmosphere. This community of life exists within well recognized frontiers. But, human induced degradation of ecosystems is rendering much of the Earth less habitable for the humans and the other species. To cope with the escalating insults to human life and health, governments have been establishing environmental laws since the 1970s. It posits a vital question at this juncture: What should be the functions that environmental law should serve, both today and into the foreseeable future? This article will suggest four thematic areas …for action in this regard. First, all laws and policies should embrace a holistic view of Earth; second, a common and shared analytic methodology needs to be deployed such as environmental impact assessment; third, a strategic cock-pit for ecological cooperation required to provide solutions for environmental crises; finally, a set of mutually recognized and shared principles will need to be embraced in order to provide a coherent and harmonized outlook for humanity’s ecological civilization. Show more

Keywords: Earth’s biosphere, Anthropocene epoch, environmental degradation, environmental law, environmental impact assessment, ecological cooperation

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-209003

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 471-477, 2020

Authors: Bosselmann, Klaus

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Environmental law has always been hampered by its reductionist approach to the natural environment or more precisely, to the human-nature relationship. In contrast, ecological law would encourage us to think about the law from an Earth-centered perspective. But even more than thinking about the legal issues, ecological law reflects and advocates a changed mindset. We need to develop a mindset that is conscious of what has worked in the past and what promises to work in the future. This could be addressed through development of eco-centric law, inclusion of eco-centric grundnorm , transforming law and governance, and institutionalizing trusteeship governance. …At the end, it is proposed that ecological law would frame our thinking in a way that reflects not only the traditional values of connectedness with nature, but equally leading cutting-edge sciences of today such as ecology, earth system science and health sciences. Show more

Keywords: Environmental degradation, ecological law, eco-centric, grundnorm , Anthropocene, trusteeship governance

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-209004

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 479-486, 2020

Article Type: Other

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 487-487, 2020

Authors: Desai, Bharat H.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The article seeks to make a modest effort in making sense of the international environmental law-making process. It comprises the subtle normative process currently at work, including ‘global conferencing’ technique resorted to by the UN General Assembly, how it draws upon the basic legal underpinnings of international law, the unique treaty-making enterprise at work, and what this enormous legal churning process portends for the protection of the global environment at this critical time of perplexity in the Anthropocene epoch. It calls for taking serious cognizance of mass destruction of plant and animal species, heavy pollution of fresh water resources, choking …of the oceans with plastic and other litter, and alteration of the atmosphere, among other lasting impacts that imperil our only abode Earth. International environmental law-making process is ad hoc and piecemeal and is generally understood to be the product of a lack of a single, central specialized institution having expertise on the subject, scientific uncertainty on many environmental issues, and the hard-headed economic interests of sovereign states. Still, the international environmental law-making process with its inherent resilience could possibly be able to adapt to the vagaries of scientific assessments and the political realities of in the future. Show more

Keywords: Global environmental problematique, anthropocene epoch, international environmental law-making process, multilateral environmental agreements, institutionalized international environmental cooperation

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-209005

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 489-508, 2020

Authors: Viñuales, J.E. | Mercure, J.-F.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract:  This article provides a diagnostic of a major structural problem of environmental law before suggesting a way to address it. The problem is that environmental law, even avant la lettre , was and remains designed as a law of negative externalities: a body of laws fundamentally organized so as to minimize interference with the underlying transaction while mitigating its negative externalities. This article proposes instead to reframe environmental law not as the expression of allocative efficiency but as a means of steering socio-economic processes in directions that are more likely to avoid an irreversible change in Earth System dynamics.

Keywords: Complexity economics, transformational change, fundamental uncertainty, risk-opportunity analysis, environmental law as a technology, Anthropocene

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-209006

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 509-517, 2020

Authors: Matz-Lück, Nele | Christiansen, Liv

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The global environmental conferences convened by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) during the last fifty years have contributed to the development of international environmental law and institution-building. Yet, given the deteriorating state of the global environment they are but one element of international environmental governance. While they were important to bring environmental issues to the attention of states, the time for agenda-setting seems over. Rather the international community must move on to the implementation of existing binding and non-binding rules and principles. While the UNGA continues to play an important role in the context of sustainable development and the …Agenda 2030 process and is, indeed a stable platform for international cooperation on environmental issues, it seems that the time for comprehensive global environmental conferences may have come to an end, unless more innovative mechanisms for the implementation of international environmental law and policy are brought forward. Show more

Keywords: United Nations General Assembly, international environmental law, environmental conferences, sustainable development, environmental governance

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-209007

Citation: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 519-530, 2020