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The article reviews the book "Sustainable Development, Evaluation and Policy-making: Theory, Practice and Quality Assurance" edited by Anneke von Raggamby and Frieder Rubik.

The article reviews the book "Roads from Rio: Lessons Learned from 20 Years of Multilateral Environmental Negotiations" edited by Pamela S. Chasek and Lynn M. Wagner.

In this article, the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Protocol to the Espoo Convention is introduced and analyzed. As an outcome of international processes aimed at the institutional adoption of sustainable development policy, the need for strategic environmental assessment has become obvious given the experiences with environmental impact assessment as an effective environmental policy tool for projects. The introduction of SEA and the adoption of a specific international legal instrument are also situated within ongoing international good governance and (new) public management developments which aim at improving decision making. In this context, the application of SEA and the SEA Protocol is analyzed focusing on its features, approaches and opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the dispute between Argentina and Uruguay at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2006. Argentina questioned Uruguay's decision in constructing a polluting paper mill at the Uruguay River without consultations since it may cause environmental damage. The ICJ ruled the the plant will continue to operate despite Uruguay's violation of a treaty that permitted them to construct but it informed Uruguay of its failure to inform Argentina of its plan to build the mill.

Due to its particular institutional context, Belgium has different environmental assessment systems based on separate sets of legislation (federal and regional). All sets contain arrangements on transboundary approaches as well as provisions to assure the quality of the statements or reports. Regarding the intra-Belgian environmental assessment systems, the Espoo Convention has inspired the regional governments to adopt a cooperation agreement. This convention is also applied in the bilateral arrangements of the regional government of Flanders with the neighbouring state of the Netherlands. Internal (at national or subnational level) institutional arrangements have an impact on the feasibility of good impact assessments in a transboundary context. Experiences with transboundary impact assessment may inspire internal policy developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the future of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and sustainability in Europe. Requirements for SEA; Role of SEA in enhancing the integration of environmental policy integration and sustainable development; Contents of the SEA Directive.