Environmental Principles
From Political Slogans to Legal Rules
Published on 7. November 2002
Book
Hardback
482 pages
978-0-19-925474-3 (ISBN)
Description
This book traces the evolution of environmental principles from their origins as vague political slogans reflecting fears about environmental hazards to their embodiment in enforceable laws. Since the early 1970s environmental issues have taken on an ever increasing profile. This has been due in part to a fundamental change in the type and scale of risk posed by industry. Issues such as global warming, GM food, and mad cow disease typify the new kinds of risk:
potentially catastrophic consequences could ensue yet there is no scientific agreement over their precise causation, duration and other concerns. Environmental law has always responded to risks posed by industrial society but the new generation of risks have required a new set of environmental principles,
emerging from a combination of public fears, science, ethics and established legal practice. This book shows how three of the most important principles of modern environmental law grew out of this new age of ecological risk: the polluter pays principle, the preventive principle and the precautionary principle. The author examines the legal force of these principles and in the process offers a novel theory of norm formation in environmental law by unearthing new grounds of legality.
The book will be of interest to all with an interest in environmental law and policy, in the relationship between law and science, and in the ways in which political and ethical values can become embodied in laws.
potentially catastrophic consequences could ensue yet there is no scientific agreement over their precise causation, duration and other concerns. Environmental law has always responded to risks posed by industrial society but the new generation of risks have required a new set of environmental principles,
emerging from a combination of public fears, science, ethics and established legal practice. This book shows how three of the most important principles of modern environmental law grew out of this new age of ecological risk: the polluter pays principle, the preventive principle and the precautionary principle. The author examines the legal force of these principles and in the process offers a novel theory of norm formation in environmental law by unearthing new grounds of legality.
The book will be of interest to all with an interest in environmental law and policy, in the relationship between law and science, and in the ways in which political and ethical values can become embodied in laws.
Reviews / Votes
This book is a formidable feat of legal scholarship ... likely to remain a milestone for years to come and one which no-one working in this field can ignore. * Chris Miller, Environmental Law Review * De Sadeleer's Environmental Principles is a tour de force, a showpiece of legal as well as contextual analysis, a constant proof of the author's sharp intellect, a reference book. * Geert van Calster, International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics (2004) * Environmental Principles is an exciting and passionate book. ... it is an important work and it will, without a doubt, become a touchstone for debate in this area. * Liz Fisher, Yearbook of European Environmental Law * ... de Sadeleer's book is an impressive contribution to environmental law scholarship and a step forward in thinking about the nature and functions of the environmental principles. .... It communicates complex ideas with clarity. It deserves to be widely read. * Michael G. Doherty, King's College Law Journal (2003) * This book constitutes a veritable font of knowledge and facilitates access to both continental and Anglo-Saxon doctrine spanning the last 20 years. Its efforts at achieving a synthesis of the various theories and opinions prevailing in the field of environmental law must be duly commended. For all these reasons, Nicolas de Sadeleer's is a requisite reading of everyone interested in the development of modern law. * Leiden Journal of International Law * ... will undeniably prove useful to a great number of actors involved in the field (such as policy-makers, civil society representatives, members of the scientific community, and so on) ... one finds here an original conceptual frame as well as a careful effort at defining principles of environmental law, which too often suffer from vagueness in their apprehension or formulation. * Leiden Journal of International Law * ... brings a fresh and original perspective to the study of international law. * Leiden Journal of International Law * ... impressively-researched ... This book can be warmly recommended to anyone with an interest in the theory, development and practical working of environmental law ... it is well written and logically structured, with clear section headings as useful signposts to the direction of argument. * Journal of Environmental Law * Environmental Principles is a tour de force, a showpiece of legal as well as contextual analysis, a constant proof of the author's sharp intellect, a reference book. I would unreservedly recommend acquisition. And not just by lawyers. * European Environmental Law Review *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 164 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
826 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-925474-3 (9780199254743)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
01/2005
Oxford University Press
€65.61
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Person
Nicolas de Sadeleer teaches environmental law at the Facultes universitaires Saint-Louis in Brussels, where he is Director of their Environmental Law Centre, CEDRE. He was awarded a PhD with distinction in 1998 by Saint-Louis for his work on the application of environmental law principles to positive law. An updated version of the thesis was published in November 1999 in Belgium and Paris (Les principes du pollueur-payeur, de prevention et de
precaution, Brussels, Bruylant/ Paris, AUF, 1999, 437 pp.). He is a guest lecturer in Universite catholique de Louvain.
He is also a member of the IUCN and sits on the board of Environment Law Network International.
precaution, Brussels, Bruylant/ Paris, AUF, 1999, 437 pp.). He is a guest lecturer in Universite catholique de Louvain.
He is also a member of the IUCN and sits on the board of Environment Law Network International.
Content
PART I: GENERAL INTRODUCTION; THE POLLUTER PAYS, PREVENTION AND PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLES: THREE APPROACHES TO ENVIRONMENTAL RISK; CONCLUSIONS OF PART ONE; PART II: THE LEGAL STATUS AND ROLE OF THE POLLUTER-PAYS, PREVENTIVE AND PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLES: A SHIFT FROM MODERN TO POST-MODERN LAW; INTRODUCTION; CONCLUSIONS OF PART TWO; FINAL CONCLUSIONS