Transboundary Pollution

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 is the first collection of international legal documents related to the new, highly controversial & politically sensitive issue of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes & their disposal. It will be of invaluable assistance to practicing lawyers & other experts, academics as well as students, concerned with the rapid developments in international environmental law. The global instruments cover the basic system of the UNEP Basel Convention/IAEA Code & the documents of various United Nations organizations, whose interest with hazardous waste movements has increased considerably due to the preparations for the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment & Development (UNCED). Numerous regional instruments included are: those of the UN ECE, OECD, EEC & other organizations of the industrialized states; instruments related to Antarctica; & to the major developing state regions (Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, South Atlantic Zone, Asia & the Pacific), including the 1998 ACP-EEC Lome IV Convention & the 1991 OAU Bamako Convention. Two US treaties on hazardous waste export controls with Mexico & Canada form notable instances of bilateral measures. Some documents of Greenpeace & other non-governmental organizations are also added. An incisive Editors' Introduction & a comprehensive general index provide the reader with easy access to these vital instruments. This timely work aims to clarify & aid the increasingly intricate international debate on hazardous waste production & disposal, & reduce the conflict between North & South on the export of such waste to Third World countries. In addition, the prospects of South-South traffic, as developing states push towards industrialization, underline the urgent need for prompt & tough action. The Editors Barbara Kwiatkowska & Alfred Soons, both experienced authors on international law issues have been guided in the preparation of this unique collection by several outstanding experts, members of the Volume's Advisory Board, including Francis Njenga, S ecretary-General, Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee , New Delhi, Peter Sand, Principal Legal Officer, UNCED-Geneva, Henri Smets, Environment Directorate, OECD, Paris, Lee A. Kimball, Senior Associate, World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C. , Hans Lammers, Deputy Legal Adviser, Netherlands Foreign Office, The Hague & Iwona Rummel-Bulska, Chief, Environmental Law & Institutions Unit & Coordinator of the Basel Convention, UNEP-Nairobi/Geneva. The leading role of UNEP in seeking satisfactory solutions to the new environmental problems raised by hazardous wastes is accentuated in the Preface to the book by the honourable Dr Mostafa K. Tolba, E xecutive-Director of UNEP. The 'collective approach is' as he rightly put it 'our only option to care & share the only one Earth'.

This volume complements Shared Space: Rethinking the U.S.-Mexico Border Environment, edited by Lawrence Herzog and Environmental Management on North America's Borders, edited by Richard Kiy and John Wirth. This volume expands the range of issues addressed in previous volumes as well as focuses on comprehensive assessments of cooperative efforts of the U.S. and Mexico to solve environmental problems. All environmental media are addressed along the border: land, air, water, as well as sources of pollution (transportation, agriculture, energy, industrial production, urban growth, hazardous waste generation) and biodiversity resources (migratory aquatic and terrestrial forest and insect species). Academic, government, environmental management and policy audiences can benefit from the volume to address environmental policy for borders around the world because the chapters integrate natural science and social science theory, analytical methods and data into the arena of international environmental policy analysis.

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.

Few countries are likely to have a more important global environmental role in coming years than the People s Republic of China. Professors Faure and Song have prepared a remarkable collection of essays that provide valuable insight on one key aspect: China s engagement with issues of liability for environmental damage at the domestic and international levels. There is much to be learnt from the pages of this commendable, rich and accessible work. Philippe Sands QC, University College London and Matrix Chambers, UK This book considers the ways in which transboundary environmental pollution can be remedied through a variety of legal instruments. Particular attention is paid to the pollution of the Songhua river in China, but legal remedies to transboundary pollution are also discussed in a broader context. The focus of the book is on international environmental law and international conventions as well as the application of national environmental law in a transboundary legal context. Thus contributions also concentrate on voluntary approaches, the importance of transboundary environmental impact assessment and the application of national criminal law to transboundary pollution. Not only is transboundary pollution discussed from the perspective of international law, but also from that of the application of national law to transboundary pollution, thus centering on private law, administrative law and criminal law. As such, this book will be of great interest to academics, practitioners and students.

This book describes current scientific understanding of European transboundary air pollution starting with an historical account. The way science has become a driving force for policy action, including the models used, the economic instruments and the complexity of science-policy interaction, are dealt with in some detail. The book closes by treating expected future trends, including the accumulating evidence of intercontinental transport of air pollutants and the globalisation of air pollution management related to its strong links with climate change. The primary target group of this book is university students in environmental science and related areas. It is also likely to be of interest to professionals working in environmental administration, in particular those with emphasis on air pollution.

Effective protection of the marine and terrestrial environment increasingly requires cooperation between neighbouring States, international organizations, government entities and communities within States. This book analyses key aspects of transboundary environmental law and policy and their implementation in Asia, Australasia and Australian offshore territories, and surrounding areas beyond national jurisdiction including Antarctica. It discusses the potential for implementing key transboundary environmental mechanisms such as the 1991 Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention) and its 1997 Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (Kiev Protocol) in Australia and Asia drawing on experience from other regions and the potential application of these agreements to all UN member states. The book makes an innovative contribution to research in the area of transboundary environmental governance particularly as it applies to Asia, Australasia and international areas, supplementing similar research which has predominantly focused on Europe and North America.