Environmental Law And Sustainability After Rio

‘This volume is a timely addition which provides a review of the shortcomings of some crucial aspects of environmental law and policy, from which there are lessons to be learned. Environmental law specialists from universities around the world have contributed to this exceptional book. It offers valuable and wide-ranging insights and is highly recommended reading.’
– Nikita Lopoukhine, Chair, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas

‘The Rio Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 was a watershed in environmental law and sustainable development. It unleashed hopes and expectations particularly for the developing countries and the poor and disadvantaged in the global community. The editors have admirably, through a galaxy of leading and eminent intellectuals from the North and the South, analysed the promise of Rio and its impact in the last two decades. It is a remarkable balance sheet of success and failure, of achievements and disappointments. The narrative is compelling and gripping. A must-read for courses in environmental law and policy.’
– Parvez Hassan, Former Chair, IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, 1990–1996, President, Pakistan Environment Law Association

This book examines the development of environmental law in the period since the ground-breaking 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development or ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio de Janeiro.

It demonstrates that a great deal has been achieved in the field of environmental law since the 1990s. However, the extraordinary environmental crises facing humanity in the 21st century indicate a continuing urgent need for the generation of robust policies and frameworks concerning ecological, socio-cultural and economic sustainability, implemented through appropriately innovative legal mechanisms. The book is divided into five sub-themes of sustainability: history, principles and concepts; environmental rights, access to justice and liability issues; natural resources; energy and climate change; and nature conservation. It includes expert legal opinion on developments to date, engaging with key themes from a broad selection of jurisdictions and perspectives. The analyses extend across public and private law to reflect the manifold areas which are rightly and necessarily the concern of environmental and sustainability law. Its contents offer not only critiques of developments to date, but also constructive engagement with matters of pressing concern to all.

Written from a global perspective, this book will be an invaluable reference for academics, postgraduate students, practitioners and policy-makers concerned with environmental law and sustainability.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Environmental Law and Sustainability after Rio
Jamie Benidickson, Ben Boer, Antonio Herman Benjamin and Karen Morrow

PART I: HISTORY, PRINCIPLES AND CONCEPTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
2. Reflecting on Rio: Environmental Law in the Coming Decades
Nicholas A. Robinson

3. Capacity Building in Environmental Law in African Universities
Charles Odidi Okidi

4. Local Agenda 21: A Rights-based Approach to Local Environmental Governance
Anél du Plessis

5. Brazilian ‘Socioambientalismo’ and Environmental Justice
Fernanda de Salles Cavedon and Ricardo Stanziola Vieira

6. Risk Society and the Precautionary Principle
Miriam Alfie Cohen and Adrián de Garay Sánchez

7. Measuring the Environment through Public Procurement
Nicola Lugaresi

PART II: ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS, ACCESS TO JUSTICE
AND LIABILITY ISSUES
8. A Sustainable and Equitable Legal Order
Werner Scholtz

9. The Courts and Public Participation in Environmental Decision-
making
Karen Morrow

10. Enchanced Access to Environmental Justice in Kenya
Robert Kibugi

11. Towards a New Theory of Environmental Liability Without Proof of Damage
José Juan González

12. Diffuse Damages in Environmental Torts in Brazil
Arlindo Daibert

PART III: NATURAL RESOURCES AND SUSTAINABILITY
13. Transboundary Aquifers: Towards Substantive and Process Reform in Treaty-making
Joseph W. Dellapenna and Flavia Rocha Loures

14. Achieving Sustainability: Plant Breeders’ and Farmers’ Rights
Mekete Bekele Tekle

PART IV: ENERGY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABILITY
15. International Law and Sustainable Energy: A Portrait of Failure
David Hodas

16. Cross-border Gas Pipelines and Sustainability in Southern Africa
Willemien du Plessis

17. Is EU Climate Change Policy Legally Robust?
Javier de Cendra de Larragán

18. Combating Climate Change in Uganda
Emmanuel Kasimbazi

PART V: NATURE CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY
19. Contractual Tools for Implementing the CBD in South Africa
Alexander Paterson

20. Mangrove Swamps and Sustainability
Marcelo Nogueira Camargos and Solange Teles da Silva

21. The Amazonian Treaty and Harmonisation of Environmental Legislation
José Augusto Fontoura Costa, Solange Teles da Silva and Fernanda Sola

Index