David M. Ong

The 1979 and 1990 Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Agreements: A Model for International I Legal I Co-operation in Common Offshore Petroleum Deposits?

Offshore petroleum deposits straddling delimited or claimed maritime boundaries increasingly lead to bilateral joint development agreements between coastal states purporting to resolve the international and domestic legal issues raised by such situations. This article will examine one of the lesser known but arguably more successful of these joint development agreements in recent times, namely, the 1990 Agreement between Malaysia and Thailand on the establishment of the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority. The background to and negotiating process of the Agreement and the legal regime thus instituted will be examined. The article also considers the impact of this and other bilateral joint development precedents upon the possible development of a general or regional customary rule of international law requiring states to enter into joint development arrangements when confronted by similar situations.

Research Handbook on International Environmental Law

This wide-ranging and comprehensive Handbook examines recent developments in international environmental law (IEL) and the crossover effects of this expansion on other areas of international law, such as trade law and the law of the sea. The expert contributors offer analyses of foundational issues in IEL, such as responsibility for environmental damage, sustainable development and the precautionary principle, alongside studies in topical subject areas including marine protection and the law of international watercourses. This Research Handbook offers an in-depth analysis of IEL, both as a field of law in its own right, and as part of the wider system of international law. It gives a comprehensive view of IEL in all its forms and complexity. With thorough examination of specific environmental regimes and compliance mechanisms, this handbook will be an indispensable resource for legal scholars, students and practitioners alike.

Global project finance, human rights and sustainable development

Part I. The Framework: 1. An introduction to the issues Sheldon Leader 2. The linkages between project finance and sustainable development Annie Dufey and Maryanne Grieg-Gran 3. Project finance and the relevant human rights Ozgur Can Kahale 4. Applying international environmental principles within project-financed transnational investment agreements David M. Ong Part II. Special Topics: 5. Risk management, project finance, and rights-based development Sheldon Leader 6. Freezing the balancing act?: Project finance, legal tools to manage regulatory risk, and sustainable development Lorenzo Cotula 7. Human rights impact assessments and project finance Tamara Wiher 8. Project finance investments and political risk: an empirical investigation Claudia Girardone and Stuart Snaith 9. Insurance as a risk management tool: a mitigator or an aggravant? Rasmiya Kazimova 10. Irreparable damages, project finance and access to remedies by third parties Judith Schonsteiner Part III. Case Studies: 11. The implications of the Chad-Cameroon and Sakhalin transnational investment agreements for the application of international environmental principles David M. Ong 12. The human rights and sustainable development implications of the project finance arrangements for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project Annie Dufey with contribution from Rasmiya Kazimova 13. The Orion and CMB pulp plants in Uruguay Annie Dufey with contribution from Diana Morales 14. The Newmont and Anglogold mining projects Nii Ashie Kotey and Poku Adusei 15. Overview and recommendations Sheldon Leader and Rasmiya Kazimova.

A Bridge Too Far? Assessing the Prospects for International Environmental Law to Resolve the South China Sea Disputes

Doctrinal approaches to the South China Sea island and maritime jurisdiction disputes have traditionally invoked the international law on territorial sovereignty acquisition and the law of the sea for their resolution. However, neither of these two fields of international law and their established institutions has succeeded in settling these disputes. This paves the way for consideration of other, related but less historically and politically significant international legal developments establishing constraints against the activities undertaken on and around many of the South China Sea insular formations. In this paper, the potential for international environmental law to resolve the South China Sea disputes will be examined. Specifically, international environmental law governing ‘shared’ water bodies and their application in relevant international case law will be assessed. These obligations will be mapped onto the South China Sea disputes, with a view to providing the means for co-operation towards the resolution of these disputes.

Regulating environmental responsibility for the multinational oil industry: continuing challenges for international law

States utilise international law to create opportunities within global markets for private transnational economic actors, such as multinational oil companies, to invest and/or operate within foreign jurisdictions. However, there is a lack of directly enforceable international mechanisms against these private actors when they cause environmental damage abroad. International law responses to this problem range from the establishment of international compulsory compensation schemes, the proposed expansion of the doctrine of State responsibility to include liability for private actors and more recently, through litigation in the home States of multinational oil companies. However, both international jurisprudence and US, Dutch and British domestic case law reveal an ambivalence towards holding such private transnational economic actors legally accountable in their home State jurisdictions for violations committed abroad. Certain States (the USA and France) have responded to this ambivalence by reasserting their domestic regulatory powers to require immediate clean-up and compensation, prior to domestic judicial litigation, whereas other States (Nigeria) are unable to achieve the same level of effective enforcement due to their weaker political and economic bargaining positions.

Implications of the Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitral Tribunal Award for the Balance Between Natural Environmental Protection and Traditional Maritime Freedoms

This paper will examine the implications of the Chagos Marine Protected Area (MPA) Arbitral Tribunal Award in terms of its contribution to international environmental law in general, before considering its specific implications for the future designation of marine protected areas (MPAs). The outline of this paper is as follows: First, the Chagos MPA Award will be assessed in terms of its implications for the designation of the dispute between Mauritius and the UK as ‘environmental’ for the purpose of triggering the compulsory and binding dispute settlement provisions of the 1982 UNCLOS; and second, the Tribunal’s interpretation and application of relevant UNCLOS provisions prescribing consultations between interested States over any MPA designation will be considered specifically in light of other proposed MPA designations, for example, around the Pitcairn islands in the South Pacific.

Prospects for integrating an environmental sustainability perspective within the university law curriculum in England

This paper postulates an integrative method for acquiring a foundational environmental law knowledge base, composed of the relevant environmental principles and techniques, within the “core”/compulsory modules of the standard university law curriculum in England. The proposal is to introduce an environmental sustainability agenda within the teaching of the university law degree. This would entail the incorporation of no more than two or three lecture contact hours within each of the “core”/compulsory subjects to induce an appreciation of the ways in which environmental protection issues are being integrated into every major field/area of law. It involves the introduction of selected environmental law case studies within the standard lecturing/teaching schedule for each of the “core” modules within the university law school curriculum, following a foundational introduction to the main principles and techniques of environmental law. These case studies are expressly chosen to align with significant elements of the teaching of individual “core” law subjects. In this way, the entire cohort of undergraduate LLB students will be appraised of environmental law developments within the specific contexts of the “core” subjects of the law curriculum, rather than environmental law being taught to a much smaller group of students who choose it as a “stand alone”, specialised, niche, but thereby arguably also marginalised, optional module within the undergraduate law curriculum. It is hoped that this approach will transcend the specialist but arguably marginal way in which environmental law is currently being taught within English universities generally.

Public Accountability for Private International Financing of Natural Resource Development Projects: The UN Rule of Law Initiative and the Equator Principles

A striking feature of public international financing of natural resource development projects in developing economies is the introduction of public accountability mechanisms to ensure that these projects comply with social and environmental principles and standards. For example, natural resource development projects funded through the World Bank group are subject to the Inspection Panel mechanism in relation to complaints about the negative social and environmental impacts of such projects. As the public international financing of such projects is increasingly giving way to private international finance, this paper will examine whether similar accountability mechanisms have been developed for this type of private international financing for such projects. Within this context, the third iteration of the Equator Principles has recently been adopted by a growing number of private international financing institutions in the ‘project finance’ field, namely, the Equator Principles Financial Institutions (EPFIs). By comparing the accountability mechanisms established by public and private international finance institutions against objectively set criteria for such mechanisms, based on the UN’s international ‘rule of law’ project, this paper will assess whether there has been adequate replication of public accountability standards in the movement from public to private international financing of natural resource projects, especially within developing economies.

Global Project Finance, Human Rights and Sustainable Development: Case studies

Part I. The Framework: 1. An introduction to the issues Sheldon Leader 2. The linkages between project finance and sustainable development Annie Dufey and Maryanne Grieg-Gran 3. Project finance and the relevant human rights Ozgur Can Kahale 4. Applying international environmental principles within project-financed transnational investment agreements David M. Ong Part II. Special Topics: 5. Risk management, project finance, and rights-based development Sheldon Leader 6. Freezing the balancing act?: Project finance, legal tools to manage regulatory risk, and sustainable development Lorenzo Cotula 7. Human rights impact assessments and project finance Tamara Wiher 8. Project finance investments and political risk: an empirical investigation Claudia Girardone and Stuart Snaith 9. Insurance as a risk management tool: a mitigator or an aggravant? Rasmiya Kazimova 10. Irreparable damages, project finance and access to remedies by third parties Judith Schonsteiner Part III. Case Studies: 11. The implications of the Chad-Cameroon and Sakhalin transnational investment agreements for the application of international environmental principles David M. Ong 12. The human rights and sustainable development implications of the project finance arrangements for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project Annie Dufey with contribution from Rasmiya Kazimova 13. The Orion and CMB pulp plants in Uruguay Annie Dufey with contribution from Diana Morales 14. The Newmont and Anglogold mining projects Nii Ashie Kotey and Poku Adusei 15. Overview and recommendations Sheldon Leader and Rasmiya Kazimova.

Global Project Finance, Human Rights and Sustainable Development: The framework

Part I. The Framework: 1. An introduction to the issues Sheldon Leader 2. The linkages between project finance and sustainable development Annie Dufey and Maryanne Grieg-Gran 3. Project finance and the relevant human rights Ozgur Can Kahale 4. Applying international environmental principles within project-financed transnational investment agreements David M. Ong Part II. Special Topics: 5. Risk management, project finance, and rights-based development Sheldon Leader 6. Freezing the balancing act?: Project finance, legal tools to manage regulatory risk, and sustainable development Lorenzo Cotula 7. Human rights impact assessments and project finance Tamara Wiher 8. Project finance investments and political risk: an empirical investigation Claudia Girardone and Stuart Snaith 9. Insurance as a risk management tool: a mitigator or an aggravant? Rasmiya Kazimova 10. Irreparable damages, project finance and access to remedies by third parties Judith Schonsteiner Part III. Case Studies: 11. The implications of the Chad-Cameroon and Sakhalin transnational investment agreements for the application of international environmental principles David M. Ong 12. The human rights and sustainable development implications of the project finance arrangements for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project Annie Dufey with contribution from Rasmiya Kazimova 13. The Orion and CMB pulp plants in Uruguay Annie Dufey with contribution from Diana Morales 14. The Newmont and Anglogold mining projects Nii Ashie Kotey and Poku Adusei 15. Overview and recommendations Sheldon Leader and Rasmiya Kazimova.