Suchergebnisse

Abstract: Have international courts been too conservative in handling environmental cases? The overall conclusion is obvious: progressive arguments about the environment do not normally appeal to States, and they are therefore not made in court. The very considerable progress in developing international environmental law we have witnessed in the thirty years since I started writing on the subject has not been led by courts or tribunals. Inter-State litigation is an important and useful tool in upholding the rule of law, affirming the development of a coherent body of law, and applying it to the facts, but it is not the way to answer the problems posed by those who seek better, more progressive, or more radical solutions to the world's many environmental problems. For that we must turn to governments and international institutions. Stronger political action on achieving the objectives of multilateral environmental agreements is what the world needs to tackle its growing environmental crisis, not more law-making or more litigation.

AbstractThe 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change is relevant to human rights law, not for what it says about human rights— which is next to nothing—but for what it says about the need to address the risk of climate change taking global temperatures above 1.5 or 2 °C. The Agreement could work, or it could fail by a large margin, but those who want to influence the outcome can still do so. That includes the human rights community. Since climate change is plainly a threat to human rights, how should the UN human rights institutions respond? Should they use their existing powers of oversight to focus attention on how States parties implement (or fail to implement) commitments made in the Paris Agreement? Or should they recognize a right to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment? Either choice would represent a significant contribution to the debate on human rights and climate change, giving humanity as a whole a voice that at present is scarcely heard.

How do treaties evolve? How in particular do we ensure the [durability over time] of a globalconvention, intended to elaborate [a new and comprehensive regime for the law of the sea] ?1Earlier attempts to do so all failed. Why should the most recent attempt be any more successful?