The Prevention Principle In International Environmental Law

The book provides a systematic and comprehensive study of the prevention principle in international environmental law.

Prevention is recognized as a cornerstone of international environmental law, but this principle remains abstract and elusive in terms of exactly what is required of states to prevent environmental harm. In this illuminating work, Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli addresses this issue by offering a systematic, comprehensive assessment in which she clarifies the rationale, content, and scope of the prevention principle while also placing it in a wider legal context. The book offers a detailed analysis of treaty law, custom codification works, and case law before culminating in a conceptualization of prevention based on three definitional traits: 1. Its anticipatory rationale; 2. Its due diligence content; and 3. Its wide spatial scope to protect the environment as a whole. This book should be read by anyone seeking to understand the evolving principle of prevention in international environmental law, and how it increasingly shares common ground with reparation in the arena of compliance control.

The book provides a systematic and comprehensive study of the prevention principle in international environmental law.

Papers presented at the meetings facilitated by the Sanders Institute at the Faculty of Law of the Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Law School of the University of Hull.

Emerging Principles of International Environmental Law is ideally suited for any law or environmental studies student, practitioner or law academic who is interested in the legal status of emerging principles in the field of international environmental law. Among its highlights, the text examines the interaction of principles/concepts such as sustainable development, the precautionary principle etc., with one another and how the present international environmental law regime has taken the vast disparity between developed and developing countries into account in designing innovative methods to accommodate this disparity.

The controversial question of whether or not at present the precautionary principle is to be considered a norm of customary international law is the key theme of this work, which treats the issue as part of a broader discussion of the principle's legal status on the international plane. This discussion, In turn, Is put in perspective by an account of the short but remarkable history of the principle in international environmental law and policy. The greater part of this study consists of the mapping and analysis of state practice in respect of the precautionary principle. Pertinent treaties, declarations, decisions of international organizations and domestic instruments pass in review. The book then applies the generally accepted principles governing the formation of customary international law to this body of state practice. This manuscript was awarded the François Prize 2001 by the Netherlands Society of International Law / Netherlands Branch of the ILA. `[The precautionary principle] has been cited in an increasing number of legal proceedings, including those in the International Court of Justice, The International Tribunal For The Law of the Sea And The WTO Appellate Body, As well as in the courts of a large number of states, including the supreme courts of India and Canada.' (from the Preface by the Series Editors)

This second edition of Philippe Sand's leading textbook on international environmental law provides a clear and authoritative introduction to the subject, revised to December 2002. It considers relevant new topics, including the Kyoto Protocol, genetically modified organisms, oil pollution, chemicals etc. and will remain the most comprehensive account of the principles and rules relating to environmental protection and the conservation of natural resources. In addition to the key material from the 1992 Rio Declaration and subsequent developments, Sands also covers topics including the legal and institutional framework, the field's historic development and standards for general application. This will continue to be an invaluable resource for both students and practitioners alike.