[Review of] Marie-Catherine Petersmann. When environmental protection and human rights collide: the politics of conflict management by regional courts
Publication date
2023-12-09
Document type
Rezension in Artikelform
Author
Organisational unit
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Series or journal
European Journal of International Law
ISSN
Periodical volume
34
Periodical issue
4
First page
1033
Last page
1040
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Language
English
Abstract
Why has international environmental law failed? There are many accounts of how we got to a point where the environmental catastrophe is no longer a threat but a fact. Accordingly, there is good reason to question the efficacy of legal responses to pressing global environmental problems that challenge nothing less than the very existence of the planet. Yet the traditional narrative of international environmental law still clings to a story of progress. Starting from the founding myth of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, international environmental law is still commonly presented as a relatively new body of law that transcends the limits of national jurisdictions and represents the international community's interest in the protection and preservation of the world's resources. The progress narrative is underpinned by another discourse that highlights the linkage of environmental protection with the other dominant legal discourse since the 1970s: human rights. Ever since the Stockholm Conference, human rights have appeared as a mobilizing factor for environmental protection and have initiated a development that can also be characterized by the semantic shift from 'nature' to 'environment'. The first two principles of the Stockholm Declaration stake out the field: [1] Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.… [2] The natural resources of the earth, including the air, water, land, flora and fauna and especially representative samples of natural ecosystems must be safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generations through careful planning or management, as appropriate.
Version
Published version
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