This volume examines the impact of globalization on international environmental law and the implementation of sustainable development in the Global South. Comprising contributions from lawyers from the Global South or who have experience in the Global South, this volume is organized into three parts, with a thematic inquiry woven through every chapter to ask how law can enable economies that can be sustained, given the limited carrying capacity of the earth. Part I describes and characterizes the status quo of environmental and economic problems in the Global South during the process of globalization. Some of those problems include redistribution of environmental burden on the public through over-reliance on the state in emerging economies and the transition to public-private partnerships, as well as extreme uncontrolled economic expansion. Building on Part I, Part II takes an international perspective by presenting some tools that are in place during the process of globalization that lead to friction and interfaces between developed and developing economies in environmental law. Recognizing the impossibility of a globalized Northern economy, the authors in Part III present some alternatives through framework ideas of human and civil rights, environmental rights, and indigenous persons’ rights, as well as concrete and specific legal tools to strengthen justice and rule of law institutions. The book gives new perspectives to familiar approaches through concrete examples by professional practitioners and theoretical discourse by academic researchers, and can thereby form the basis for changes in practices, as well as further discussions and comparisons. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental law, sustainable development, and globalization and international relations, as well as legal professionals and practitioners.

“Globalization” is a word with many meanings. Some people say globalization is responsible for having lifted millions of people out of poverty over the past decades. Other people say that globalization is neocolonialism. All will agree that the processes that accompany globalization have had tremendous impacts on the environment. Commodification of the environment along with environmental degradation have led to an almost universal awareness of the negative effects of such crises as disrupted climate. The conservation and restoration of the environment, as well as the protection of biodiversity are essential for human life, including its economic components. The international community has responded to the challenge by shifting away from the Brundtland Commission's intergenerational concept of “development which meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” to equating “development” with economic development under the New York Convention. and reserving a third and separate pillar for economics over and against social concern and the environment. However promising the concepts “sustainable development” and “sustainability” may have been, they have become overused and meaningless. Like worn-out coins, they became just placeholders. To re-inscribe meaning in the metal of sustainable development, the authors in this book examine environmental problems caused, facilitated or exacerbated by globalization, as seen from the perspectives of the Global South and emerging economies. Investments, trade and technological advances are key driving forces of transition in these countries. The economic development component (also known as “green-growth” policies) may be preferred by globalizing forces, which also regard it as most suitable to cope with climate disruption, for example. With the globalization of economics comes some aspects of the globalization of law. The globalization of environmental law that is currently under formation in the Global South addresses the integration of the ecological and economic components by analyzing the contribution of emerging and developing economies. Sometimes, environmental law is part of the solutions; sometimes environmental law is part of the problems. In this book, the terms “Global South” and “emerging economies” are included as alternative conceptualizations to the “developed” and “developing” countries. But this alternative conceptualization itself is a divide that enables globalization.In the chapters of this book, the perspectives of the Global South and emerging economies are presented by lawyers from Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Mongolia, Nigeria, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as from the European states of France, Georgia, Germany and Slovakia. The authors are natives of either emerging economies or of the Global South, or work extensively in those regions. All of the book's themes are mentioned in the title: globalization, environmental law, sustainable development, the Global South, implementation and challenges.

This comprehensive Research Handbook offers an innovative analysis of environmental law in the global South and contributes to an important reassessment of some of its major underlying concepts. The Research Handbook discusses areas rarely prioritized in environmental law, such as land rights, and underlines how these intersect with issues including poverty, livelihoods and the use of natural resources, challenging familiar narratives around development and sustainability in this context and providing new insights into environmental justice.

Situating the global poverty divide as an outgrowth of European imperialism, this book investigates current global divisions on environmental policy.

State-of-the-art examination of the critical effects of globalisation on environmental governance.

This book is both breathtaking in its scope and impressive in its attention to legal and institutional detail in situating developing countries in the evolving body of international economic law. Essays in this volume canvas most important areas of international economic law, including international trade law, international financial regulation, the regulation of foreign direct investment and multinational corporations, foreign aid, the enforcement of human rights standards and core international labour standards on multinational corporations, international enforcement of anti-corruption conventions, international competition law, international intellectual property rights, and international environmental law. A pervasive theme, compellingly developed, in most of these papers is the asymmetric structure of international institutions that generate rules in these various areas, in which developing countries are mostly rule takers, rather than equal participants. The current global financial crisis may provide a welcome opportunity for re-evaluating these institutional asymmetries. In any such re-evaluation, this book will provide a veritable cornucopia of constructive new insights.

Put quite simply, the twin impacts of globalization and environmental degradation pose new security dangers and concerns. In this new work on global security thinking, 91 authors from five continents and many disciplines, from science and practice, assess the worldwide reassessment of the meaning of security triggered by the end of the Cold War and globalization, as well as the multifarious impacts of global environmental change in the early 21st century.

In a relatively short time the concept of “sustainable development” has become firmly established in the field of international law. The World Commission on Environment and Development concisely defined sustainable development as follows: “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This definition takes into account the needs of both the present and future generations as well as the capacity of the earth and its natural resources which by clear implication should not be depleted by a small group of people (in industrialized countries). The aim of this book is threefold : to review the genesis and to clarify the meaning of the concept of sustainable development, as well as to assess its status within public international law. Furthermore, it examines the legal principles that have emerged in the pursuit of sustainable development. Lastly, it assesses to what extent the actual evolution of law demonstrates the balance and integration with all pertinent fields of international law as urged by the Rio, Johannesburg, and World Summit documents. This is the second volume in the Hague Academy of International Law Pocket Book series; it contains the text of the course given at the Hague Academy by Professor Schrijver. Cet ouvrage répond à trois objectifs : examiner la naissance du concept de développement durable, clarifier sa signification et évaluer son statut dans le droit international public. Il examine également les principes juridiques nés de la poursuite du développement durable. Enfin, il examine l’évolution actuelle du droit par rapport aux exigences énoncées à Rio, à Johannesburg et au cours du dernier sommet mondial en ce qui concerne l’intégration du concept de développement durable dans tous les domaines pertinents du droit international.