Sustainable Development In International Law Making And Trade

This timely book provides an accessible insight into how the concept of sustainable development can be made operational through its translation into legal terms. Understood as a multidimensional legal principle, sustainable development facilitates coherent international law making. Using this notion as an analytical lens on the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, the book considers the unresolved question of what a sustainable and coherent agricultural trade agreement could look like.

Also available as an e-book In a relatively short time the concept of “sustainable development” has become firmly established in the field of international law. The World Commission on Environment and Development concisely defined sustainable development as follows: “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This definition takes into account the needs of both the present and future generations as well as the capacity of the earth and its natural resources which by clear implication should not be depleted by a small group of people (in industrialized countries). The aim of this book is threefold : to review the genesis and to clarify the meaning of the concept of sustainable development, as well as to assess its status within public international law. Furthermore, it examines the legal principles that have emerged in the pursuit of sustainable development. Lastly, it assesses to what extent the actual evolution of law demonstrates the balance and integration with all pertinent fields of international law as urged by the Rio, Johannesburg, and World Summit documents. This is the second volume in the Hague Academy of International Law Pocket Book series; it contains the text of the course given at the Hague Academy by Professor Schrijver.

'This masterly written collection, from many experts, focuses on the efforts of policy makers, as well as regional and national interest groups, to invoke International Law as the tool for realizing the objectives of sustainable development. The authors provide a rich vein of recent State and organizational practices that can be profitably mined by both academics and practitioners exploring contemporary perspectives.' ASIL Newsletter UN21 Interest Group, June 2005.

In Johannesburg at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, over one hundred and eighty states assumed a collective responsibility to advance and strengthen the interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development economic development, social development, an environmental protection at the local, national, regional and global levels. This remarkable collection of papers, sponsored by the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), demonstrates that sustainable development serves as a unifying concept with the potential to facilitate much-needed respect for international law and timely implementation of diverse and overlapping international commitments. It builds on the substance of a rich and complex debate at the intersections among economic, social, and environmental law, bringing together a broad cross-section of viewpoints and voices. The authors review recent developments in WTO discussions and negotiations, and in the recent decisions of the WTO Appellate Body, from a sustainable development law perspective. They also survey relevant new developments in trade and economic agreements at regional, inter-regional and bi-lateral levels. The various essays focus on sustainable development aspects of key issues in recent trade negotiations such as the Singapore Issues (investment, competition, trade facilitation, and government procurement), intellectual property rights, investment arbitration and the linkage between the WTO and multilateral environmental accords, (MEAand¿s).. Among the specific topics covered are the following: Emerging areas of law and policy in trade and sustainable development, The underlying development agendas in global trade law negotiations, Cooperation and potential negotiation on international competition law, Sustainable development aspects of intellectual property rights negotiations, Overlaps between multilateral environmental accords (MEAand¿s) and the WTO, Recent developments in WTO dispute settlement procedures and proceedings, Human rights and environmental opportunities from trade liberalisation and increased market acces, Human rights and environment impact assessment techniques used to analyse trade agreements, Recent developments in bi-lateral and regional trade agreements. Trade, investment, and competition law practitioners and negotiators in developed and developing countries will find this book of great value, as will development and environment law professionals with responsibility for trade and WTO law related matters. With rich contributions from leading trade law practitioners, academics, and WTO panel and appellate body roster members, Sustainable Developments in World Trade Law offers a constructive, timely and accessible expert analysis of recent discussions and advances in the field, providing an integrated and essential guide to some of the most important issues in international economic law today.

"This book investigates the concept of sustainable development, its understanding in legal theory and its implementation and enforcement in international law and domestic legal systems." --introd.

The current international investment law system is insufficiently compatible with sustainable development. To better address sustainable development concerns associated with transnational investment activities, international investment agreements should be made more compatible with sustainable development. Integrating Sustainable Development in International Investment Law presents an important systematic study of the issue of sustainable development in the international investment law system, using conceptual, normative and governance perspectives to explore the challenges and possible solutions for making international investment law more compatible with sustainable development. Chi suggests that to effectively address the sustainable development concerns associated with transnational investment activities, the international investment agreements system should be reformed. Such reform should feature redesigning the provisions of the agreements, improving the structure of international investment agreements, strengthening the function of soft law, engaging non-state actors and enhancing the dispute settlement mechanism. The book is primarily aimed at national and international treaty and policy-makers, lawyers and scholars. It is also suitable for graduate students studying international law and policy-making.

This book explores the changing nature of international law and its ability to respond to the contemporary issues related to international environment, trade and information technology. The evolution of international law has reached a stage where we are witnessing diminishing power of the state and its capacity to deal with the economic matters challenging the existing notions of territory and sovereignty. Recent trends in international law and international relations show that states no longer have exclusive control over the decision-making process at the global level. Keeping this in mind, the book brings together the perspectives of various international and national scholars. The book considers diverse issues such as, sustainable development, climate change, global warming, Rio+20, technology transfer, agro-biodiversity and genetic resource, authority for protection of environment, human right to water, globalization, human rights, sui generis options in IP laws, impact of liberalization on higher education, regulation of international trade, intellectual property rights, collective administration of copyright, broadcast reproduction rights, implementation of copyright law, communication rights under copyright law, arbitration for IP disputes, doctrine of exhaustion of rights, trans-border reputation of trademark, information as an asset, cyber obscenity and pornography, e-governance, taxation of e-commerce, computer crime, information technology, domain names, research excellence in legal education, ideological perspective on legal education, challenges for law teachers, and clinical legal education. The topics, though diverse, are closely interrelated, with the common concern throughout being that the global environment, international trade, information technology and legal education need appropriate national normative and institutional responses as well as the global cooperation of members of the international community. Presenting reflections of a number of Asian, African and European scholars on these varied facets, the book is of great value to scholars, practitioners, teachers and students associated with contemporary international law.

Sustainable development, as defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development, is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." More specifically, sustainable development is a process of change that seeks to improve the collective quality of life by focusing on economically, socially, and environmentally sound projects that are viable in the long-term. Sustainable development requires structural economic change and the foundation of that change is investment. In developing nations with low levels of domestic savings, investment predictably comes from abroad in the form of foreign direct investment. A large and ever expanding number of international investment agreements are in place to govern these transactions. While these accords seek to foster development while mitigating the risk involved in these types investments, many questions remain unresolved. This highly insightful book reflects the contributions of a variety of world renowned experts each of which is designed to provide the reader with valuable perspective on recent developments in investment law negotiations and jurisprudence from a sustainable development law perspective. It offers answers to pertinent questions concerning advancements in investment law, including the negotiation of numerous regional and bilateral agreements as well as the increasing number of disputes resolved in the World Bank's International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), from different developed and developing country perspectives. It lays out future directions for new treaty negotiations and dispute settlement proceedings, as well as ongoing investment promotion efforts, against a background of rapidly evolving international relationships between economic, environment and development law. It focuses on key issues in investment laws which have emerged as priorities in the negotiation of bilateral and regional investment agreements, and have been clarified through recent decisions of the ICSID and other arbitral panel awards.

The Roles of International Law in Development provides an in-depth analysis of the relationship between public international law and development. Unlike the existing body of literature on public international law, this book investigates how international law and development interact, and evaluates how significant a role international law plays in development. Bringing together a collection of perspectives from contributors working across multiple development fields, the chapters explore the relevance and applicability of international law to particular sectors and issues implicated in development activities. They analyse how international law rules and processes can influence procedural and substantive aspects of development policies as these regulate various forms of financial support, trade, technical assistance, and policy dialogue. They also explore whether, and how, development could be more effective and yield more equitable and sustainable outcomes if the relevant and applicable rules of international law were better understood, consistently incorporated, and appropriately applied in development activities. One of the foundational premises of this book is that development policy and practice should be grounded more systematically in international law, rejecting the notion that development policy is a 'self-contained' regime operating in a legal vacuum. By reflecting the substantive rules of international law, this in turn anchors development in international legal accountability.