Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

International Environmental Law

International Environmental Law European Environmental Law Review December 1992 Eurobrief involved in following up those agreements. The emphasis will be on practical approaches to sustainable development at the local, national and international levels. A consultation note on the plans for the conference will be issued and views are invited from interested sectors. Copies of the note are obtainable from Craig Jones, Department of the Environment, Romm A305, Romney House, 43 Marsham Street, London SWlP 3PY, fax; 071 276 8861. Book Reviews International E~vironmentak Law Alexandre Kiss and Dinah Shelton Published by Graham & Trotman, 1991, £80 (hardback) As the aurhors point out in their introduction, international environmental law is perhaps the newest branch of international law. Indeed, international environmental lawyers have become accustomed to the charge that their discipline is too amorphous a concept to justify autonomous scholarly attention. Yet, long before the subject became fashionable, through his countless publications on the subject Alexandre Kiss has been instrumental in the building of a consensus acknowledging the uniqueness of the body of international law whose purpose it is to protect the environment. Although a substantial amount of literature has been built up over the past fifteen years concerning aspects of international environmental law, International Environmental Law represents the first major attempt published in English to address the whole theme in a holistic yet coherent way. In most respects, the book adheres to the format and language of Kiss' Droit International de 1'Environnement which was published by Pedone in 1989. By addressing the object, nature and evolution of international environmental law at some length in the first two chapters - often involving arguments of a philosophical rather than a legal nature - the authors underscore the uniqueness of the discipline and at the same time provide the framework for the remainder of the book. Perhaps surprisingly, a treatment of international institutional cooperation in Chapter 1 1precedes a much 1 shorter chapter devoted to the sources of international environmental law. Although somewhat unconventional, the merit of the approach is that it serves to stress the special importance of the role international organisations play i the formation and n implementation of international environmental law. The sources, though dealt with along traditional lines (ie Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice), have been explained so as once more to underline the autonomous character of international environmental law. This is achieved by highlighting certain common features relating to, for example, the supervision of the implementation of environmental treaties, simplified procedures for amendment and common mechanisms relating to environmental cooperation. Apart from the traditional sources enumerated in Article 38(1) of the court's statute, attention is paid to "new sources of law" like so-called soft law declarations adopted by international organisations, which have played a role of great significance in this field. Chapter V then deals with what the authors term "international common law of the environment" comprising norms that are derived from customary rules, general principles of law and resolutions of international organisations. Most of these rules relate to transfrontier pollution and, as one would expect, the classical cases in this context (Corfu Channel, Trail Smelter and Lake Lanoux) are discussed, as well as later codifications of these principles by international organisations. The ensuing chapter devotes some 150 pages to the regulation of "environmental sectors" - oceans, inland waters, air, soil and wildlife reflecting the sheer number of international environmental treaties. Although numerous developments have taken place since the book was published (not least the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in June of this year), by emphasising the legal techniques common to different sectors this does not undermine the pertinence of this part of the book. The problem of rranssectoral environmental damage is addressed in Chapter VII. Toxic and dangerous wastes, radioactivity, ozone depletion and global warming and the emerging regulatory framework are the main examples in this context. The issue of international responsibility for environmental h a m completes the book. Although the main points are adequately spelled out one feels that, in view of the complexity of this matter, the authors are perhaps rather brief. One may of course be tempted to generalise in this last remark. Even though this is a substantial work, there are quite a number of areas which arguably should have been afforded more attention. However, this would be to deny that the ambition to establish the general framework of international environmental law necessarily is at the expense of great detail. Rather than the amount of detail therefore, the book should be judged on the extent to which it succeeds in its attempt to define and delimit international environmental law as a separate branch of international law. This, it is submitted, it has achieved with great persuasiveness and authority. International Environmental Law therefore is indispensable for any international law library and compulsory reading for anyone interested in this fascinating and fast growing discipline. Hun Somsen School of Law, Warwick University European Environmental Law Review D< nber 1992 Book Reviews Wildland Fires and the Law (Legal aspects offores2Jires worldwide) Published by Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, £45.50, 180pp, ISBN 07923 19745. This book, published under the direction of Professor Jacques Bourrinet, is the result of a world conference on wildland fires and their legal aspects convened in Aix-enProvence (France) from 12-14 December 1991, and organized by the Centre $Etudes et de Recherches Internationale et Communautaires (CERIC) of the University of AixMarseilles 111, in conjunction with the Union Rigionale du sud-est pour la sauvegarde de la vie, de la Nature et de l'environnement (URVN). The participants at this meeting were experts coming from fourteen countries where wildland fires are most common and most damaging, scattered over four continents. Strangely enough these participants achieved unanimity at the end of the debates on a set of detailed recommendations to governments and public authorities, concerning the most controversial and often debated issues of forest fire. Thus, the conclusions of the Conference (entitled the "Charter of Aix-en-Provence") deal with six main themes: - Ground occupancy and construction law in forests, - Brush management and additional preventive measures, - Organization of active management, - Reafforestation, - Compensation for damage caused by fires, - Penal sanctions and their application. The original contribution of this book to the general knowledge of prevention and active management of wildland fires is a detailed treatment of the legal aspects, and even the niceties of this scourge. It will be of interest to specialists in developed and developing countries alike, since it reflects the exwerience of countries as diverse as, for instance, the United States, China, Brazil, France, Russia, Morocco, India and Cameroon. Mosr of the reports submitred to the Conference are reproduced in full, together with extensive resumes of the debates and the agreed conclusions. and a group of distinguished scientists. The grim warning is that despite the major gains achieved in the twenty years since the Stockholm Conference, the overall state of the global environment has deteriorated and the pace of destruction is speeding up. Dr Tolba concludes that although it had been hoped that the Rio Conference would be a turning point, the environment is now taking a back seat everywhere to the global recession, "Disillusionment is setting in so that little is being done to implement UNCED's Agenda 2 1 plan to save the planet . . . Sustained economic recovery depends on long term plans to safeguard our environment . . . Twenty years from now the youth of today will have to cope with the problems we created because we allowed a down-turn in the world economy to distract us from what had to be done and what the world agreed at UNCED and elsewhere must be done". The rewort sers out a series of targets for safeguarding the biosphere which include: - a global plan to reduce year 2000 levels of marine pollution to 1990 levels; - reafforestation targets to hale the net destruction of forest cover by 2010; - mandatory application of environmental and natural resource accounting; - stabilisation by 2000 of consumption of power by high energy using nations at 1992 rates. The report is available from Chapman & Hall, c/o ITFS, Cheriton House, North Way, Andover, Hampshire, UK, SPlO 5BE, fax: 0264 364418. Price £65 hardback or £24.95 paperback. Philippe Blarnont, President URVN Publications Packaging The Club de Bruxelles has published a 150 page study "Packaging in the Single European Market" which analyses the proposed EC waste packaging Directive and assesses the present policy towards waste packaging in both the Member States and in third countries. The study is available in French or English at a price of 11,300 Belgian Francs (plus BF678 VAT for those purchasing in Belgium), inclusive of post and packing from Club de Bruxelles, 10 Rue du College Saint-Michel, B-1150 Brussels, fax: 322 770 6671. "Maastricht and the Environment" is the latest publication from the London office of the Institute for European Environmental Policy. Written by Barbara Verhoeve, Graham Bennett and David Wilkinson, the book seeks to unravel precisely what the Treaty would mean for the Community's environmental policy and is an expanded and updated version of an earlier provisional report. Available from IEEP London, 158 Buckingham Palace Road, London SWlW 9TR at a price of £10.00 including post and packing. The Environment and the Recession This month the United Nations Environment Programme has published a grim warning on the state of the environment. The 850 page report "The World Environment 1972-92: Two Decades of Challenge", has been edited by UNEP Executive Director Dr Mostafa Tolba http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png European Energy and Environmental Law Review Kluwer Law International

International Environmental Law

European Energy and Environmental Law Review , Volume 1 (6) – Jan 21, 1992

Loading next page...
 
/lp/kluwer-law-international/international-environmental-law-gsJt00w2yB

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Kluwer Law International
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer Law International
ISSN
0966-1646
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

European Environmental Law Review December 1992 Eurobrief involved in following up those agreements. The emphasis will be on practical approaches to sustainable development at the local, national and international levels. A consultation note on the plans for the conference will be issued and views are invited from interested sectors. Copies of the note are obtainable from Craig Jones, Department of the Environment, Romm A305, Romney House, 43 Marsham Street, London SWlP 3PY, fax; 071 276 8861. Book Reviews International E~vironmentak Law Alexandre Kiss and Dinah Shelton Published by Graham & Trotman, 1991, £80 (hardback) As the aurhors point out in their introduction, international environmental law is perhaps the newest branch of international law. Indeed, international environmental lawyers have become accustomed to the charge that their discipline is too amorphous a concept to justify autonomous scholarly attention. Yet, long before the subject became fashionable, through his countless publications on the subject Alexandre Kiss has been instrumental in the building of a consensus acknowledging the uniqueness of the body of international law whose purpose it is to protect the environment. Although a substantial amount of literature has been built up over the past fifteen years concerning aspects of international environmental law, International Environmental Law represents the first major attempt published in English to address the whole theme in a holistic yet coherent way. In most respects, the book adheres to the format and language of Kiss' Droit International de 1'Environnement which was published by Pedone in 1989. By addressing the object, nature and evolution of international environmental law at some length in the first two chapters - often involving arguments of a philosophical rather than a legal nature - the authors underscore the uniqueness of the discipline and at the same time provide the framework for the remainder of the book. Perhaps surprisingly, a treatment of international institutional cooperation in Chapter 1 1precedes a much 1 shorter chapter devoted to the sources of international environmental law. Although somewhat unconventional, the merit of the approach is that it serves to stress the special importance of the role international organisations play i the formation and n implementation of international environmental law. The sources, though dealt with along traditional lines (ie Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice), have been explained so as once more to underline the autonomous character of international environmental law. This is achieved by highlighting certain common features relating to, for example, the supervision of the implementation of environmental treaties, simplified procedures for amendment and common mechanisms relating to environmental cooperation. Apart from the traditional sources enumerated in Article 38(1) of the court's statute, attention is paid to "new sources of law" like so-called soft law declarations adopted by international organisations, which have played a role of great significance in this field. Chapter V then deals with what the authors term "international common law of the environment" comprising norms that are derived from customary rules, general principles of law and resolutions of international organisations. Most of these rules relate to transfrontier pollution and, as one would expect, the classical cases in this context (Corfu Channel, Trail Smelter and Lake Lanoux) are discussed, as well as later codifications of these principles by international organisations. The ensuing chapter devotes some 150 pages to the regulation of "environmental sectors" - oceans, inland waters, air, soil and wildlife reflecting the sheer number of international environmental treaties. Although numerous developments have taken place since the book was published (not least the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in June of this year), by emphasising the legal techniques common to different sectors this does not undermine the pertinence of this part of the book. The problem of rranssectoral environmental damage is addressed in Chapter VII. Toxic and dangerous wastes, radioactivity, ozone depletion and global warming and the emerging regulatory framework are the main examples in this context. The issue of international responsibility for environmental h a m completes the book. Although the main points are adequately spelled out one feels that, in view of the complexity of this matter, the authors are perhaps rather brief. One may of course be tempted to generalise in this last remark. Even though this is a substantial work, there are quite a number of areas which arguably should have been afforded more attention. However, this would be to deny that the ambition to establish the general framework of international environmental law necessarily is at the expense of great detail. Rather than the amount of detail therefore, the book should be judged on the extent to which it succeeds in its attempt to define and delimit international environmental law as a separate branch of international law. This, it is submitted, it has achieved with great persuasiveness and authority. International Environmental Law therefore is indispensable for any international law library and compulsory reading for anyone interested in this fascinating and fast growing discipline. Hun Somsen School of Law, Warwick University European Environmental Law Review D< nber 1992 Book Reviews Wildland Fires and the Law (Legal aspects offores2Jires worldwide) Published by Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, £45.50, 180pp, ISBN 07923 19745. This book, published under the direction of Professor Jacques Bourrinet, is the result of a world conference on wildland fires and their legal aspects convened in Aix-enProvence (France) from 12-14 December 1991, and organized by the Centre $Etudes et de Recherches Internationale et Communautaires (CERIC) of the University of AixMarseilles 111, in conjunction with the Union Rigionale du sud-est pour la sauvegarde de la vie, de la Nature et de l'environnement (URVN). The participants at this meeting were experts coming from fourteen countries where wildland fires are most common and most damaging, scattered over four continents. Strangely enough these participants achieved unanimity at the end of the debates on a set of detailed recommendations to governments and public authorities, concerning the most controversial and often debated issues of forest fire. Thus, the conclusions of the Conference (entitled the "Charter of Aix-en-Provence") deal with six main themes: - Ground occupancy and construction law in forests, - Brush management and additional preventive measures, - Organization of active management, - Reafforestation, - Compensation for damage caused by fires, - Penal sanctions and their application. The original contribution of this book to the general knowledge of prevention and active management of wildland fires is a detailed treatment of the legal aspects, and even the niceties of this scourge. It will be of interest to specialists in developed and developing countries alike, since it reflects the exwerience of countries as diverse as, for instance, the United States, China, Brazil, France, Russia, Morocco, India and Cameroon. Mosr of the reports submitred to the Conference are reproduced in full, together with extensive resumes of the debates and the agreed conclusions. and a group of distinguished scientists. The grim warning is that despite the major gains achieved in the twenty years since the Stockholm Conference, the overall state of the global environment has deteriorated and the pace of destruction is speeding up. Dr Tolba concludes that although it had been hoped that the Rio Conference would be a turning point, the environment is now taking a back seat everywhere to the global recession, "Disillusionment is setting in so that little is being done to implement UNCED's Agenda 2 1 plan to save the planet . . . Sustained economic recovery depends on long term plans to safeguard our environment . . . Twenty years from now the youth of today will have to cope with the problems we created because we allowed a down-turn in the world economy to distract us from what had to be done and what the world agreed at UNCED and elsewhere must be done". The rewort sers out a series of targets for safeguarding the biosphere which include: - a global plan to reduce year 2000 levels of marine pollution to 1990 levels; - reafforestation targets to hale the net destruction of forest cover by 2010; - mandatory application of environmental and natural resource accounting; - stabilisation by 2000 of consumption of power by high energy using nations at 1992 rates. The report is available from Chapman & Hall, c/o ITFS, Cheriton House, North Way, Andover, Hampshire, UK, SPlO 5BE, fax: 0264 364418. Price £65 hardback or £24.95 paperback. Philippe Blarnont, President URVN Publications Packaging The Club de Bruxelles has published a 150 page study "Packaging in the Single European Market" which analyses the proposed EC waste packaging Directive and assesses the present policy towards waste packaging in both the Member States and in third countries. The study is available in French or English at a price of 11,300 Belgian Francs (plus BF678 VAT for those purchasing in Belgium), inclusive of post and packing from Club de Bruxelles, 10 Rue du College Saint-Michel, B-1150 Brussels, fax: 322 770 6671. "Maastricht and the Environment" is the latest publication from the London office of the Institute for European Environmental Policy. Written by Barbara Verhoeve, Graham Bennett and David Wilkinson, the book seeks to unravel precisely what the Treaty would mean for the Community's environmental policy and is an expanded and updated version of an earlier provisional report. Available from IEEP London, 158 Buckingham Palace Road, London SWlW 9TR at a price of £10.00 including post and packing. The Environment and the Recession This month the United Nations Environment Programme has published a grim warning on the state of the environment. The 850 page report "The World Environment 1972-92: Two Decades of Challenge", has been edited by UNEP Executive Director Dr Mostafa Tolba

Journal

European Energy and Environmental Law ReviewKluwer Law International

Published: Jan 21, 1992

There are no references for this article.