Articles
Middle Eastern and North African Hydropolitics: From Eddies of Indecision to Emerging International Law, Elizabeth Burleson
Johannesburg and Beyond: The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Rise of Partnerships, S. Jacob Scherr & R. Juge Gregg
The Tragedy of the Commonwealth and the Vision of Wendell Berry, Nathaniel Stewart
Notes
Reshaping Environmental Criminal Law: How Forfeiture Statutes Can Deter Crime, Amanda Doty
Environmental Displacement: Coordinating Efforts to Find Solutions, Tracey King
Middle Eastern and North African Hydropolitics: From Eddies of Indecision to Emerging International Law
By Elizabeth Burleson
This article analyzes Middle Eastern and North African hydropolitics in light of emerging international law. By applying the multifactor-balancing test of the United Nations International Law Commission’s Draft Convention on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the article argues that Israelis and Palestinians can build consensus. The article explores various means by which this collaborative process can occur, including the use of existing co-aquifer agreements and international treaties. In the former case, agreements between Switzerland and France are used to demonstrate the successful implementation of collaborative water monitoring by a joint commission between states. In the latter case, North African fossil aquifer agreements offer Palestinians and Israelis examples of state practice between countries emerging from armed conflicts that have marred recent foreign relations. The article concludes that emerging international water standards and multifactor balancing can enable Israelis and Palestinians to achieve sustained peace and security.
Johannesburg and Beyond: The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Rise of Partnerships
By S. Jacob Scherr & R. Juge Gregg
This article provides the background and context for the emergence of the partnership approach at the Johannesburg, South Africa World Summit on Sustainable Development as a means to fill the growing "implementation gap" between governmental commitments and action. The article reviews international efforts to ensure that the partnerships meet their objectives and identifies some of the principal obstacles to doing so. Three key U.S. partnerships announced in Johannesburg are examined in this regard: the Water for the Poor Initiative, the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, and the Clean Energy Initiative. The article then explores the continuing international controversy surrounding U.S. efforts to promote partnerships as opposed to new treaty commitments, as evidenced in the cases of mercury and climate change. Finally, the article concludes that just as traditional international regimes have experienced implementation problems, shifting the approach from treaties and plans of action to partnerships alone does not automatically produce action. Effective engagement by civil society is essential to assure concrete, on-the-ground results.
The Tragedy of the Commonwealth and the Vision of Wendell Berry
By Nathaniel Stewart
This article explores some of the legal and economic aspects of what the author Wendell Berry calls the "commonwealth" and highlights several tensions within his efforts to prevent its tragic ruin. After exploring Berry's vision of the commonwealth and land use, this article looks both at how that commonwealth is destroyed—though the legally fictional “corporate person” and its remote concept of land ownership, for example—and how Berry hopes to save it, such as by eliminating the legal concept of the corporate person. After exploring some of Berry’s proposals in his own words, the article then examines these proposals by analyzing their relationship to common law tradition, the problem of knowledge, protectionist pricing, and the legal artifice of corporate ownership. In conclusion, the article questions the wisdom and healing power of his prescribed, homeopathic remedy.
Reshaping Environmental Criminal Law: How Forfeiture Statutes Can Deter Crime
By Amanda Doty
Many countries have adopted asset forfeiture provisions in their environmental protection statutes, with the appealing result of both preventing crime and funding law enforcement. This note examines and critiques the effectiveness of asset forfeiture laws in deterring environmental crime. In examining the development of asset forfeiture’s use in environmental statutes, the note discusses deterrence theory and the impact that forfeiture may have on the crime for which the statute is designed to punish. The note examines the "broken windows" theory of crime prevention, explains the application of this theory to forfeiture, and argues that this theory should be considered by legislatures when crafting forfeiture statutes. This note concludes that as countries continue to develop their environmental laws, their leaders should consider adding asset forfeiture as an option for law enforcement because it might deter environmental crime as well as crime as a whole by creating order in the community.
Environmental Displacement: Coordinating Efforts to Find Solutions
By Tracey King
This note proposes a mechanism that coordinates the efforts of various organizations that address facets of environmental displacement, thereby maximizing their effectiveness. After describing the problem of environmental displacement, the note describes individuals who migrate for environmental reasons, distinguishing between refugees, environmental migrants, and environmentally displaced persons. In this regard, the note argues that the current definition of a refugee does not and should not include most individuals that migrate for environmental reasons. The note distinguishes between environmental migrants and environmentally displaced persons, the former similar to other migrants and the latter similar to refugees. As a result, the note argues that the international community should work to address the problem of environmental displacement for humanitarian, equity, global security, and environmental reasons. The note proposes a mechanism to deal with this issue, focusing on five areas: prevention, preparedness, mitigation, rehabilitation, and resettlement.
