A Global Environmental Right

The development of an international substantive environmental right has long been a contested issue. Concurrently, environmental rights have developed in a fragmented way and to a limited extent through different legal regimes. This book examines the potential for the development of a global environmental right which would create legal duties for all decision-makers relating to the environment and provide the bedrock for a new system of international environmental governance.

The book analyses not only traditional international environmental law and human rights law but also the development of corporate law, the development of the GATT and the WTO. It uses this basis to build an understanding of the wider international legal architecture and why that architecture often leads to poor outcomes for the environment. The book summarizes the state of scientific knowledge, as it is this, which drives the justification for legal reform. It also analyses existing systems that have developed within the practice of decision-making processes to demonstrate the role that they can play within new systems of environmental governance.

Taking a problem solving approach, the book seeks to demonstrate how straightforward and logical changes to the architecture would solve fundamental problems and argues for the development of a new environmental right that creates clear legal responsibilities for decision-makers, illustrating how governments and institutions would need to adjust to make the changes operative and successful. This problem solving approach extends to the provision of a draft treaty annexed to the book.

This innovative and interdisciplinary book is of great interest to students and researchers in international environmental law, environmental politics, environmental economics, and environmental management, as well as those studying more specifically the WTO, international trade law, human rights law, constitutional law and company law.