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This
initiative addresses two general questions:
What has been the contribution of
international environmental law at the global level? How can that
contribution be greater? The focus of the initiative's first
conference was analyzing factors related to the success of
international environmental institutions. The ultimate aim of this
research program is to contribute to countering environmental
deterioration world wide, and moving more rapidly toward improvements in
environmental quality.
In the last two decades over two hundred
and fifty international legal instruments have been adopted.
Overall, almost one thousand international legal instruments have had at
least one provision addressing the environment. The proliferation of
global treaties, conventions, and protocols on environmental protection
has been dramatic.
We are now approaching what some scholars
characterize as a third dimension of the development of international
environmental law. The first generation began with the United Nations
Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972.
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UNITED NATIONS
FRAMEWORK CONVENTION
ON CLIMATE CHANGE
The Parties to this Convention,
acknowledging that change in the Earth's climate and its adverse effects
are a common concern of humankind,
Concerned that human activities have been
substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse
gases, that these increases enhance the natural greenhouse effect, and
that this will result on average in an additional warming of the Earth's
surface and atmosphere and may adversely affect natural ecosystems and
humankind,
Noting that the largest share of
historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases has originated
in developed countries, that per capita emissions in developing countries
are still relatively low and that the share of global emissions
originating in developing countries will grow to meet their social and
development needs,
read more of the FCCC...
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We are now approaching what some
scholars characterize as a third dimension of the development of international
environmental law. The first generation began with the United Nations
Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972.
 These
early efforts were characterized by articulation of general principles and
frameworks for further action and called for monitoring, research and exchange
of information. More recent instruments focus on emission reductions and
technology changes and implementation and compliance, through dispute
resolution and enforcement regimes or innovative economic instruments or other
forms of incentives. Strategies include central international environmental
funds, emission trading techniques and differentiation of responsibilities for
richer and poor nations.
In October 1999, an
international conference funded by the
National Science Foundation
Division on Law and Social Sciences, the
UCI Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies, and the multi-campus
University of California Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation was
held on the campus of the University of California, Irvine.
The October 1999
Irvine Conference aimed to add to the policy discussion of the efficacy of
international environmental law. The conference, which will be published in the
Fall 2001 issue of UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy included presentations
and discussions of papers on The Montreal Protocol, The Climate Change
Convention, The Mediterranean Protocol, The NAFTA Environmental Side Agreement,
and Forestry Regulation. The conference also included treatments of criminal law
and the international environment, as well as overall strategies for reaching
the goals of international environmental law.
For more information about the Third Generation
of Environmental Law Conference, visit our Activities
page.
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