Carl Bruch

International law protecting the environment during armed conflict: gaps and opportunities

There are three key deficiencies in the existing body of international humanitarian law (IHL) relating to protection of the environment during armed conflict. First, the definition of impermissible environmental damage is both too restrictive and unclear; second, there are legal uncertainties regarding the protection of elements of the environment as civilian objects; and third, the application of the principle of proportionality where harm to the environment constitutes ‘collateral damage’ is also problematic. These gaps present specific opportunities for clarifying and developing the existing framework. One approach to addressing some of the inadequacies of IHL could be application of international environmental law during armed conflict. The detailed norms, standards, approaches, and mechanisms found in international environmental law might also help to clarify and extend basic principles of IHL to prevent, address, or assess liability for environmental damage incurred during armed conflict.

Assessing the Assessments: Improving Methodologies for Impact Assessment in Transboundary Watercourses

Transboundary impact assessment (TIA) has become an important environmental management tool, particularly where a project may have transboundary impacts. With the growing practice of TIA, it becomes important to consider the accuracy of the transboundary impact assessments that are being conducted. If TIA is a planning tool designed to provide a basis for making an informed decision, does it actually provide the necessary information? This paper summarizes lessons learned in pilot testing a methodology to assess the accuracy of TIAs.

Legal Mechanisms for Addressing Wartime Damage to Tropical Forests

Summary The tactics of war have profound impacts on tropical forest ecosystems, and modern weapons technologies have greatly increased their destructive potential. Some legal protection is afforded by customary international law, and the international community responded to the Vietnam War by adopting, inter alia, the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions and the 1976 Environmental Modification Convention, which prohibit “long-term” (or “long-lasting”), “widespread,” and “severe” environmental damage. Nevertheless, many regard these and other existing conventions as inadequate, especially as applied to internal conflicts. More recently, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature-World Conservation Union (IUCN) put forth a Draft Convention on the Prohibition of Hostile Military Activities in Internationally Protected Areas. This paper analyzes the IUCN Draft Convention-particularly issues of prior designation of protected areas, waiver of protection, and monitoring and enforcement-and compares it to other relevant area-based treaties, such as the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property and the 1972 World Heritage Convention. The paper also highlights other recent legal developments that may help prevent, remediate, or punish wartime damage to tropical forests, such as the nascent International Criminal Court; liability mechanisms for providing compensation for wartime damage; environmental guidelines for military, peacekeeping and humanitarian operations; import bans and trade embargoes; and a proposed no-fault remediation fund.

Legal Frameworks Governing Water in the Middle East and North Africa

For millennia, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have developed laws, regulations and other rules to govern their scarce water. These laws have been updated in recent years. This review of the legal frameworks (including regulations, decrees and other rules) reveals both progress and gaps in managing water quality, water quantity and procedural aspects. Of note, while the general frameworks are usually in place, in many instances the necessary details are lacking to give effect to the goals. However, in some instances the legal frameworks governing water lack certain key principles or approaches. In order to effectively meet the growing demands on their water resources, MENA countries will need to further strengthen and develop their legal frameworks.

Legalizing adaptation: water law in a changing climate 1

Adaptation to climate change will play a critical role in water management in the coming decades, necessitating reform of the legal, regulatory, and institutional frameworks that govern water allocation, use, and quality to integrate adaptive water management. Legal and regulatory tools can also facilitate adaptive responses. This article provides an overview of the ways in which water laws, regulations, and institutions will need to be rethought and reformulated and offers some thoughts on the future of governing for adaptation in the water sector.

Assessing the assessments: improving methodologies for impact assessment in transboundary watercourses

Transboundary impact assessment (TIA) has become an important environmental management tool, particularly where a project may have transboundary impacts. With the growing practice of TIA, it becomes important to consider the accuracy of the transboundary impact assessments that are being conducted. If TIA is a planning tool designed to provide a basis for making an informed decision, does it actually provide the necessary information? This paper summarizes lessons learned in pilot-testing a methodology to assess the accuracy of TIAs.

Adaptation in the Tisza: innovation and tribulation at the sub-basin level

ABSTRACT This article explores the elements limiting adaptive governance in the Tisza sub-basin, considers policy options available to the sub-basin, and concludes that more attention must be paid to frameworks governing adaptation in transboundary sub-basins where resources are limited. The Tisza is the largest sub-basin in the Danube River basin, and faces increasing water management pressures exacerbated by climate change. The Tisza countries have experienced challenges with managing climate change adaptation in a nested, consistent and effective manner pursuant to the EU Water Framework Directive. This is due to inefficiencies in climate change adaptation, such as weakened vertical coordination.

Human conflict: targeting natural resources.

The special issue on Human Conflict (18 May, p. [818][1]) largely ignores a central dimension of violent conflict: the complex role of natural resources in the onset ([ 1 ][2]) and conduct of conflict, peacemaking, and recovery from conflict. Grievances over access to land have been central to wars

Disasters and Security: Key Concepts

This document defines and contextualizes key concepts linking environmental, human, and theater security, including “security,” “environmental security,” and “human security.” It then introduces disaster risk management as a framework for engaging military and civilian authorities in developing a whole-of-government approach and building resilience to climate change and climate-induced disasters.

Disaster Risk Management: Assessing and Leveraging Existing Capacities

This chapter highlights existing institutions and capacities that can be deployed for disaster risk management. It starts with a discussion of the process for assessing capacities and some of the key international, regional, and national actors in the military and civilian sectors with technical expertise, capacity, and authority to address climate change-related natural disasters, including those that work on planning, preparedness, response, and recovery. It then considers tools for building adaptive capacity, including a course on “Climate Change, Disasters, and Security” and a suite of tools on environmental peacebuilding.