The International Law Of Pollution

Waste management poses increasing challenges to both the protection of the environment and to human health. To face these challenges, this book claims that environmental law needs to shift attention from media-specific pollution regimes to integrative life-cycle approaches of waste management i.e., from the prevention of waste generation to the actual handling of wastes. Furthermore, the cooperation of States and the establishment of coordinated activities is essential because states can no longer have separate standards for wastes posing transboundary risks and for ‘purely domestic’ wastes. Drawing upon both International and EU law, the book provides a detailed analysis of the regimes set up to deal with the transboundary movement of wastes and ship-source pollution, so as to elucidate the obligations and legal principles governing such regimes. It concludes that treaty obligations concerning transboundary movements of wastes are inapplicable to ship wastes while on board ships and on land. However, despite the limitations of the transboundary movement of wastes regime, the principle of Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) embodied in this regime has gradually transformed into a legal principle. ESM works to address the legal gaps in the regulation of wastes, and consequently, it provides the desired coherence to the legal system since it acts as a bridge between several regulatory and sectoral levels. Furthermore, ESM offers a new light with which to understand and interpret existing obligations, and it provides a renewed impetus to regimes that directly and indirectly govern wastes. This impetus translates into greater coordination and the establishment of cross-sectional policies. By offering alternative ways to solve problems linked to the management of ship wastes in the sea-land interface, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in International Environmental Law.

The topic of the essays in this book, the threat posed to our environment by various sources and types of pollution, is a matter of serious and growing concern. The contributors are leading international experts from a variety of legal systems and backgrounds and include Andronico Adede, Ian Brownlie, Pierre-Marie Dupuy, Johan Lammers, and Paul Szasz. International Law and Pollution provides an overview of international legal principles and institutional efforts relevant to pollution and then focuses on two particularly acute problems: nuclear pollution and acid rain. A variety of substantive issues must be confronted in order to deal with the full range of international pollution, and various institutional approaches must be utilized in the prevention, cleanup, and compensation efforts. For example, pollution from nuclear accidents results from a single event, whereas acid rain is a product of chronic emissions; the legal and policy concerns differ accordingly. In the overview, Daniel Barstow Magraw discusses fundamental concepts of international pollution, analytic distinctions among types of pollution, paradigmatic responses to pollution, and the relationship among environmental protection, economic development, and human rights. Other authors examine the existing and evolving principles of customary international law relevant to pollution, the U.N. International Law Commission's work on international liability and international watercourses, and a practitioner's perspective. The chapters on nuclear pollution analyze the conventional regimes and customary principles applicable to this field (including the Chernobyl disaster) and the determination and measurement of damages. Finally, the chapters on acid precipitation summarize the scientific background of the problem and present the multilayered European efforts to control acid rain as well as the Canada-United States acid rain controversy. International Law and Pollution will be of interest to scholars and students of environmental law and international law.

Assessing the basic principles, structure and effectiveness of the international legal system concerning the protection of the world's natural environment, this text has been updated to take account of developments in genetically modified organisms and biotechnology.

At present there is no clear model under international law with which to determine compensation for environmental damage. After showing that no existing standard of compensation defined by the theory and practice of international law is adequate to cover all cases involving environmental damages - and that such a broad standard or set of standards may in fact be ultimately unachievable - the author of this important book develops a 'fair compensation' regime from an analysis of existing international dispute adjudication mechanisms, and presents this model as the best possible current approach to the conciliation of international responsibility and environmental interests.

This book focuses on how public and private international law address civil liability for transboundary pollution. In public international law, civil liability treaties promote the implementation of minimum procedural standards in domestic tort law. This approach implicitly relies on private international law to facilitate civil litigation against transboundary polluters. Yet this connection remains poorly understood. Filling the gap, this book engages in a meaningful dialogue between the two areas and explores how domestic private international law can reflect the policies developed in international environmental law. It begins with an investigation of civil liability in international environmental law. It then identifies preferable rules of civil jurisdiction, foreign judgments and choice of law for environmental damage, using Canadian private international law as a case study and making extensive references to European law. Liability for transboundary pollution is a contentious issue of the law, both in scholarship and practice: international lawyers both private and public as well as environmental lawyers will welcome this important work.

This important new book provides a comprehensive overview of the international legal principles governing transboundary pollution. In doing so, the experts writing in this book examine the practical applications of the State responsibility doctrine in

This book analyzes the law and policy for the management of global common resources. As competing demands on the global commons are increasing, the protection of environment and the pursuit of growth give rise to all sorts of conflicts. It also analyzes issues in the protection of the global commons from a fairness, effectiveness and world order perspective. The author examines whether policymaking and trends point to a fair allocation of global common resources that is effective in protecting the environment and the pursuit of sustainable development. The author looks at the cost-effectiveness of international environmental law and applies theories of national environmental law to international environmental problems. Chapters include analysis on areas such as marine pollution, air pollution, fisheries management, transboundary water resources, biodiversity, hazardous and radioactive waste management, state responsibility and liability.

International Environmental Law offers a concise, conceptually clear, and legally rigorous introduction to contemporary international environmental law and practice. The book covers all major environmental agreements, paying particular attention to their underlying structure, main legal provisions, and practical operation. It blends legal and policy analysis, making extensive reference to the jurisprudence and scholarship, and addressing the interconnections with other areas of international law, including human rights, humanitarian law, trade and foreign investment. The material is structured into four sections - foundations, substantive regulation, implementation, and influence on other areas of international law - which help the reader to navigate the different areas of international environmental law. Each chapter includes charts summarising the main components of the relevant legal frameworks and provides a detailed bibliography. Suitable for practicing and academic international lawyers who want an accessible, up-to-date introduction to contemporary international environmental law, as well as non-lawyers seeking a concise and clear understanding of the subject.