Don Anton

Environmental Protection and Human Rights: Abbreviations

With unique scholarly analysis and practical discussion, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to the relationship between environmental protection and human rights being formalized into law in many legal systems. By illuminating human rights theory and the institutions that can be employed to meet environmental goals, this book instructs on environmental techniques and procedures that assist in the protection of human rights. The text provides cogent guidance on a growing international jurisprudence on the promotion and protection of human rights in relation to the environment that has been developed by international and regional human rights bodies and tribunals. It explores a rich body of case law that continues to develop within states on the environmental dimension of the rights to life, to health, and to public participation and access to information. Five compelling contemporary case studies are included that implicate human rights and the environment, ranging from large dam projects, to the creation of a new human rights, to a clean environment.

Environmental Protection and Human Rights: Contents

With unique scholarly analysis and practical discussion, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to the relationship between environmental protection and human rights being formalized into law in many legal systems. By illuminating human rights theory and the institutions that can be employed to meet environmental goals, this book instructs on environmental techniques and procedures that assist in the protection of human rights. The text provides cogent guidance on a growing international jurisprudence on the promotion and protection of human rights in relation to the environment that has been developed by international and regional human rights bodies and tribunals. It explores a rich body of case law that continues to develop within states on the environmental dimension of the rights to life, to health, and to public participation and access to information. Five compelling contemporary case studies are included that implicate human rights and the environment, ranging from large dam projects, to the creation of a new human rights, to a clean environment.

The 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and the Future of International Environmental Protection

This opinion piece addresses concerns about the suitability of the continuing use of sustainable development as a concept around which to organize international environmental protection. Despite advances made in international environmental law over the last 40 years, progress in abating global greenhouse gas continues to be slow, and predictions about global average temperature increases remain disturbing. The upcoming GEO5 publication based on the United Nations Environment Programme‘s Global Environmental Outlook data portal reveals that prospects for improvements in global environmental standards are grim. Some of the challenges facing the advancement of international environmental law can be largely attributed to inefficiencies associated with treaty congestion; however, there is a more fundamental reason why international environmental law remains ineffective. There has been little, if any, progress because we have been focusing solely on the concept of sustainable development for the last quarter century. It is clear that ‗sustainable development‘ has become too malleable a theory to serve its vital purpose. Consequently, it needs to be replaced with a straightforward title for the environmental movement. The international community needs to reconsider its approach in dealing with today‘s pressing environmental concerns.

ICJ's Decision in Australia v. Japan: Giving up the Spear or Refining the Scientific Design?

The case Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan) decided by the International Court of Justice is a landmark that introduces new parameters for measuring the “reasonableness” of scientific research by permit under the International Convention on Whaling. However, aspects of these parameters and how they may be applied in future cases remain uncertain. Because the Courts interpretation of the language “for purposes of scientific research” avoids defining scientific research, the Courts decision provides only a limited degree of clarification for States that intend to operate scientific whaling programs under Article VIII of the Convention. The Courts reasonableness test is unlikely to prevent scientific whaling. States who no longer support the dual object and purpose of the Whaling Convention may want to consider negotiating a new international instrument that would be more protective of whales and their habitat.

Negotiating the Settlement of the Timor Sea Boundary Dispute between Australia and Timor Leste

Australia’s relationship with independent Timor Leste – and before that with Portugal as the administering power over the territory of East Timor under Chapter xiii of the Charter of the United Nations – has been fraught for decades, driven by a disagreement over the delimitation of a Timor Sea maritime boundary that divides the opposite coastlines of both countries. This brief note considers the impact of the compulsory conciliation proceedings initiated by Timor Leste against Australia, under Article 298(1)(a)(i) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in April 2016, on this long-standing disagreement. It indicates that the resumption of delimitation negotiations gives reason for hope, but cautions that Indonesia should be included in the negotiations given uncertainties the surround the Indonesian lateral boundary.