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This comprehensive Research Handbook is the first study to link law and Earth system science through the epistemic lens of the planetary boundaries framework. It critically examines the legal and governance aspects of the framework, considering not only each planetary boundary, but also a range of systemic issues, including the ability of law to keep us within the planetary boundaries'safe operating space.The expert contributors investigate the current and potential role of law in relation to the complex task and regulatory challenges of governing the Earth system. They explore three thematic areas: the overarching legal, ethical and governance dimensions of the planetary boundaries; their diverse international law dimensions and the challenges they raise for international law; and the extent to which the law already provides for some of the aspects illuminated by each planetary boundary, alongside opportunities for legal reform.Lawyers, Earth system scientists and governance experts will benefit from the mapping of the next stage of international environmental law included in the chapters. The book will also be a key resource for regulators, legislators and policy-makers looking for an in-depth study of the relationship between law and each of the nine planetary boundaries.

Building on the previously established Millennium Development Goals, which ran from 2000-2015, the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the UN with a roadmap for development until 2030. This topical book explores the associated legal and normative implications of these SDGs, which in themselves are not legally binding.The 17 goals and 169 targets of the SDGs cover areas as crucial as poverty reduction, climate change, clean water and access to justice. Combining both thematic and goal-specific analysis, expert contributors establish the relevance not just of international law, but also of a broader range of normative frameworks including constitutional norms, domestic regulatory law and human rights. Connecting the SDGs to wider debates in international law and politics, this book ultimately demonstrates that law has an important constitutive and instrumental role to play in both implemention and analysis.The first of its kind to offer a specific focus on the relationship between law and the SDGs, this much-needed book will prove invaluable for scholars in the field of international sustainable development. Its insightful observations will also provide food for thought for both related international organizations and national government officials.Contributors include: S. Adelman, H. Aust, M. Barnard, L. Collins, N. Cooper, A. du Plessis, D. French, L. Kotzé, G. Long, O. McIntyre, K. Morrow, N. Sánchez Castillo-Winckels, W. Scholtz, N. Soininen

'In summary, the book provides an interesting mix of energy topics and perspectives that appears somewhat eclectic at first glance.... the book is a very useful and scholarly addition to the literature on energy governance and is recommended reading for all those who need to be better informed on the challenges and some of the solutions available at the current time.'- David Grinlinton, Journal of Energy & Natural Resources LawThis timely book makes an original and in-depth contribution to the debate about how to transform our energy governance systems into ones that support a fair, safe and sustainable society. It combines perspectives from leading scholars to provide a global outlook on alternative approaches to energy governance and innovative experiences. Taken as a whole, it offers a unique overview of some of the innovative and novel ways in which law can support the shift to sustainable and equitable energy systems.The first section lays the conceptual and theoretical foundations for alternative approaches to energy governance, including its constitutional foundations, the role of human rights, and an environmentally just system that seeks universal access to energy for all. The second section showcases concrete innovative experiences in energy governance from around the globe, including smart cities, the role of the courts, energy efficiency of buildings and the harnessing of energy from waste. Finally, the authors consider the social justice dimension, discussing the exploitation of energy resources by multinational companies in developing countries and the importance of agricultural production, distribution and consumption in energy transformation. This unique overview of state-of-the-art approaches to transformation of energy governance is vital reading for policy makers and both legal and non-legal scholars concerned with energy law, sustainability and justice, and global governance.Contributors: K. Bosselmann, J. Bowie, N. Chalifour, E. Daly, T. Daya-Winterbottom, C. Derani, A. Guerry, J. Jaria I Manzano, L. Kotzé, E. Le Gal, L. Lin-Heng, M. Low, J.R. May, E.C. Okonkwo, R.L. Ottinger, C. Pappalardo, T. Parejo-Navajas, M.P. Samonte Solis, M.K. Scanlan, J. Wentz

Professors Grear and Kotzé have masterfully fashioned a landmark work on human rights and the natural environment. This Research Handbook is more than just a library of current ideas about this important topic; it is an intellectual tour de force that stimulates new thinking on the place of social justice and moral responsibility in the Anthropocene.'- Benjamin J. Richardson, University of Tasmania, Australia'As the connections between human rights and the environment become deeper and broader, this Handbook offers an indispensable point of reference. A seriously impressive group of scholars addresses a seriously interesting range of themes that inform and challenge the totality of our understanding.'- Philippe Sands, University College London, UKBringing together leading international scholars in the field, this authoritative Handbook combines critical and doctrinal scholarship to illuminate some of the challenging tensions in the legal relationships between humans and the environment, and human rights and environment law.The accomplished contributors provide researchers and students with a rich source of reflection and engagement with the topic. Split into five parts, the book covers epistemologies, core values and closures, constitutionalisms, universalisms and regionalisms, with a final concluding section exploring major challenges and alternative futures.An essential resource for students and scholars of human rights law, the volume will also be of significant interest to those in the fields of environmental and constitutional law.Contributors: S. Adelman, U. Beyerlin, K. Bosselmann, D.R Boyd, P.D. Burdon, L. Code, L. Collins, S. Coyle, C.G Gonzalez, E. Grant, A. Grear, E. Hey, C.J. Iorns Magallanes, B. Jessup, A. Jones, A. A. Khavari, L.J. Kotzé, R. Lyster, K. Morrow, A. Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, W. Scholtz, P. Simons, S. Thériault, F. Venter

Transboundary Governance of Biodiversity compiles critical analysis of the regulatory frameworks applicable to the transboundary governance of biodiversity by specialists from Europe and Africa. Drawing on their vast experience as lawyers, political scientists and natural resource management experts, they provide a critique and contemporary perspectives on what has become one of the most challenging aspects of global environmental governance in the Anthropocene: effective biodiversity conservation in times of unprecedented environmetal crises. With a unique North-South focus and a legal focus infused by multi-disciplinary regulatory dimensions, this peer-reviewed publication offers a comprehensive analysis of international and regional environmental law frameworks applicable to the transboundary governance of biodiversity.

This book is a novel, sophisticated, broad ranging and insightful study of the idea of global environmental governance but from a legal dimension and perspective. While recognizing that concepts and ideas used to describe governance are generally abstract, vague and slippery, this project brings clarity to the field by being theoretically informed, contextually sensitive and pragmatically circumscribed. Its conclusions and arguments open up a field of inquiry that has to be genuinely interdisciplinary and in that sense has great potential to contribute to a better understanding of environmental themes and issues. This book is destined to become a landmark for legal academics who will write about environmental governance in that its concern is with the global governance of nature rather than a text that uses the environment as a pretext for understanding governance. It is well written, easy and enjoyable to read and while it traverses through diverse bodies of literature it manages to effectively communicate with a variety of scholarly communities.'- Afshin Akhtarkhavari, Griffith Law School, Australia'Fourth generation global environmental regulation attempts to address the complex realities of an interconnected environment, global environmental problems and collective regulatory responses. It merits conceptual clarity. Louis Kotzé reveals the legal contours and content of global environmental governance by chipping away such parts of the conceptual marble block as are not needed. For the environmental lawyer, it is a welcome - and much needed - process of elimination. This book provides a toolkit for lawyers to engage critically with the extra-legal concept of environmental governance. Its scrutiny and careful analysis contribute meaningfully to the environmental discourse.'- Christine Voigt, University of Oslo, Norway'Global Environmental Governance is a truly important book. Drawing on a multitude of disciplines, award-winning environmental law Professor Louis Kotzé masterfully explains the emerging concept of'global environmental governance'and its elements of globalism, environmental law, regulation, and governance theory. He makes a compelling case that the world has outgrown the'sustainability'model and moved toward this more all-encompassing approach to environmental regulation. This admirable book makes global environmental governance theory understandable and pertinent so environmental leaders, lawyers, and regulators can engage comfortably with this new vision for an ecologically and economically healthy world.'- George (Rock) Pring, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, USThis timely book brings much-needed clarity to the concept of'environmental governance'as manifested in the global regulatory domain. The author argues that despite being used as a fashionable term by many - including economists, political scientists, environmentalists and, increasingly, lawyers - its theoretical contours and conceptual content remain unclear, incoherent, and inconsistent. In addressing this problem, the book begins by describing globalization as a general context of governance. It comprehensively interrogates and clarifies both the governance and global governance concepts, and then explains aspects and components of global environmental governance. Finally it investigates the role of law in global environmental governance.Providing a much-needed definition of environmental governance and global environmental governance, this comprehensive study will appeal to academics and researchers, post-graduate and under-graduate students, intergovernmental organizations such as UNEP, WTO, IUCN, as well as governments and governmental agencies involved with environmental regulation.

Compliance and enforcement are critical elements of assuring that international environmental treaties and domestic environmental laws actually produce desired environmental outcomes. This timely work provides a comprehensive worldwide perspective on how to assure compliance with and enforcement of environmental laws more effectively. Bringing together both leading academics and environmental professionals from 15 countries, the book addresses a range of key issues including the enforcement of multilateral agreements, compliance strategies and tools, the role of courts and citizens, protection of natural resources, and compliance issues related to economic instruments. This comprehensive resource will strongly appeal to environmental enforcement professionals working for governments or international organizations, who are seeking new ideas for compliance and enforcement programs. Academics researching environmental law and international affairs will also find this book valuable.

Although the concept of ‘environmental governance'has yet to be precisely defined, it is already clear that domestic courts worldwide are playing an increasingly important role in developing, interpreting, applying and enforcing environmental law. This important book investigates the environmental legal frameworks, court structures and relevant jurisprudence of nineteen countries, representing legal systems and legal cultures from a diverse array of countries situated across the globe. In doing so, it distils comparative trends, new developments, and best practices in adjudication endeavours, highlighting the benefits and shortcomings of the judicial approach to environmental governance. Among the many judicial initiatives and issues covered in this book the reader will find discussions of the following: promoting constitutional rights to a healthy environment; reconciling environmental and aboriginal rights; recognizing public rights to the environment in laws protecting private property; promoting the separation of powers doctrine; pronouncing on the validity of executive and legislative action; distilling the mandate of environmental authorities; creating specialist environmental courts or tribunals; applying international environmental principles in the domestic context; interpreting and rectifying legislative anomalies; creatively using comparative jurisprudence to circumvent domestic statutory deficiencies; imposing liability on offenders to rehabilitate damaged environments; developing common law remedies to rectify environmental harm; reducing costs and risks associated with environmental litigation; relaxing or removing procedural constraints to facilitate public interest litigation; combating undue political interference; setting ecological limits to the use and development of natural and physical resources; and generating public awareness and political will. Written by leading academics and practitioners from the selected countries, each chapter includes detailed analysis of relevant court judgments as well as suggestions for reform. As a critical and informative exposition of current issues relating to the judiciary and environmental governance, this book contributes to a better understanding of the manner in which sustainable environmental governance may be achieved by way of judicial intervention. It will be an invaluable tool for judges, decision makers, environmental law scholars and private sector actors from around the world to further advance their knowledge of environmental law, governance, reform and implementation at the national, regional and international levels.