Law And The Management Of Disasters

Disasters raise serious challenges for contemporary legal orders: they demand significant management, but usually amidst massive disruption to the normal functioning of state authority and society. When dealing with disasters, law has traditionally focused on contingency planning and recovery. More recently, however, ‘resilience’ has emerged as a key concept in effective disaster management policies and strategies, aiming at minimising the impact of events, so that the normal functioning of society and the state can be preserved. This book analyses the contribution of law to resilience building by looking at law’s role in the different phases of the disaster regulatory process: risk assessment, risk management, emergency intervention, and recovery. More specifically, it addresses how law can effectively contribute to resilience-oriented distaster management policies, and what legal instruments can support effective resilience-building.

Disasters raise serious challenges for contemporary legal orders: they demand significant management, but usually amidst massive disruption to the normal functioning of state authority and society. When dealing with disasters, law has traditionally focused on contingency planning and recovery. More recently, however, ‘resilience’ has emerged as a key concept in effective disaster management policies and strategies, aiming at minimising the impact of events, so that the normal functioning of society and the state can be preserved. This book analyses the contribution of law to resilience building by looking at law’s role in the different phases of the disaster regulatory process: risk assessment, risk management, emergency intervention, and recovery. More specifically, it addresses how law can effectively contribute to resilience-oriented distaster management policies, and what legal instruments can support effective resilience-building.

This book looks at how legal frameworks can and do reduce risks arising out of disasters. The volume: analyses existing disaster laws and the challenges on the ground; brings together case studies from some of the most vulnerable regions; and proposes solutions to avert existing and possible future crises. The book offers appropriate legal frameworks for disaster management which could not only offer sustainable institutional reforms towards community resilience and preparedness but also reduce risk within the frameworks of justice, equity and accountability. It examines the intricacies of governance within which governments function and discusses how recent trends in infrastructure development and engineering technology could be balanced within the legal principles of ethics, transparency and integrity. The chapters in the volume suggest that legal frameworks ought to resonate with new challenges of resource management and climate change. Further, these frameworks could help secure citizens’ trust, institutional accountability and effective implementation through an unceasing partnership which keeps the community better prepared and more resilient. This volume will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of disaster management, law, public policy, environment and development studies as well as policymakers and those in administrative, governmental, judicial and development sectors.

In Disaster Management and International Space Law Diego Zannoni offers a systematic analysis of the main legal issues involved in both preventive measures regarding disasters and their relief phase, with a special focus on major space applications.

International law’s role in governing disasters is undergoing a formative period in its development and reach, in parallel with concerted efforts by the international community to respond more effectively to the increasing number and intensity of disasters across the world. This Research Handbook examines a broad range of legal regimes directly and indirectly relevant to disaster prevention, mitigation and reconstruction across a spectrum of natural and manmade disasters, including armed conflict.

Disaster Law and Policy examines the growing field concerned with disaster prevention, emergency response, compensation and& insurance, human rights, and community recovery. The first book on disaster law to appear in the wake of Katrina, this fascinating text provides the key building blocks for a thoughtful analysis of the issues that surround disaster-relief policy and procedure. Exploring the legal issues that surround Katrina and other natural disasters in the U.S. and around the world, Disaster Law and Policy, features: effective tools for legal analysis of issues emerging from disastrous events discussion problems and class exercises an interdisciplinary approach that combines law, public policy, economics, and science broad coverageand—from environmental and land use law to insurance, tort law, and civil rights issues discussion of public expectations of government response in crisis, compared to actual government and private sector preparedness and capabilities examination of post disaster issues such as Medicaid, the role of environmental litigation, communications, law enforcement, evacuation, and the work of the Army Corps of Engineers on the levees in New Orleans Adopting a wider perspective that looks at the legal ramifications of disasters across the United States and around the world, the Second Edition offers: a new chapter on the causes of disasters and their relationship to laws designed to protect health, safety, and the environment a new chapter on risk and uncertainty that examines the latest ideas to come out of economics, complexity theory, and organizational management a new chapter on international disaster law that looks at recent developments in disaster-risk management, the protection of human rights, and the preservation of ecosystem services Coverage includes discussion of the 2005 Asian Tsunami, Chinaand’s Sechuan Earthquake, and Cycloe Nargis in Mynamar/Burma a new chapter on recovery from disaster that features an extended class exercise A unique and timely text in a burgeoning field, Disaster Law and Policy, Second Edition, is ideal for use in a seminar or a course on disaster issuesand—or as a supplement in courses on environmental law or land use.

With a Foreword by Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Over the last decades natural and man-made disasters have been increasing in terms of frequency, size, number of people affected and material damage caused. There is growing awareness of the importance of adequate national and international legal frameworks for disaster prevention, mitigation and response. The implementation of these frameworks, however, poses serious challenges. This book analyses International Disaster Response Law as developed in recent times and identifies the main existing normative gaps. The authors address the rights and duties of States in preventing and mitigating disasters, in facilitating access to their territory for humanitarian relief actors, as well as issues related to liability and compensation. Due attention is paid to European Union law governing disaster response (and to its reform in the light of the Lisbon Treaty) and to the main trends in domestic legislation. Human rights obligations are thoroughly examined and the potential relevance of international criminal law is assessed. Additional topics such as the status of relief personnel, the hindrances to the delivery of relief consignments by customs and excise administration, the use of civilian and military defence assets in emergency situations, the mechanisms and procedures available to offer financial support for recovery and rehabilitation, risk insurance, and the issue of corruption during disaster-related activities are specifically addressed. By drawing on the expertise of lawyers, political scientists, economists and humanitarian practitioners, the book promotes much-needed interdisciplinary dialog and sheds light on a largely uncharted field of research. It is therefore essential reading for academics and practitioners in international and EU law, policy makers, civil protection and humanitarian operators and for anyone interested in exploring the legal facets of the international community’s response to large-scale calamitous events. Over the last decades natural and man-made disasters have been increasing in terms of frequency, size, number of people affected and material damage caused. There is growing awareness of the importance of adequate national and international legal frameworks for disaster prevention, mitigation and response. The implementation of these frameworks, however, poses serious challenges. This book analyses International Disaster Response Law as developed in recent times and identifies the main existing normative gaps. The authors address the rights and duties of States in preventing and mitigating disasters, in facilitating access to their territory for humanitarian relief actors, as well as issues related to liability and compensation. Due attention is paid to European Union law governing disaster response (and to its reform in the light of the Lisbon Treaty) and to the main trends in domestic legislation. Human rights obligations are thoroughly examined and the potential relevance of international criminal law is assessed. Additional topics such as the status of relief personnel, the hindrances to the delivery of relief consignments by customs and excise administration, the use of civilian and military defence assets in emergency situations, the mechanisms and procedures available to offer financial support for recovery and rehabilitation, risk insurance, and the issue of corruption during disaster-related activities are specifically addressed. By drawing on the expertise of lawyers, political scientists, economists and humanitarian practitioners, the book promotes much-needed interdisciplinary dialog and sheds light on a largely uncharted field of research. It is therefore essential reading for academics and practitioners in international and EU law, policy makers, civil protection and humanitarian operators and for anyone interested in exploring the legal facets of the international community’s response to large-scale calamitous events.