Gregory L Rose

Australian approaches to international environmental law during the Howard Years

This paper provides an overview of major Australian developments in international environmental law during the term of the Howard government.

Australian law to combat illegal logging in Indonesia: a gossamer chain for transnational enforcement of environmental law

Two countries’ combined crime-fighting ability might be greater than the sum of their individual capacities where their capabilities complement each other. This article investigates transnational coordination against environmental crime. Australian utilization of mutual legal assistance and anti-money laundering mechanisms to prosecute offences related to illegal logging in Indonesia are examined as a case study. In theory, interrupting the transfer of proceeds of environmental crime across national borders enhances transnational law enforcement. The case study demonstrates that difficult legal obstacles can obstruct practical cooperation between neighbouring countries combating transnational environmental crime in the timber sector. Therefore, international harmonization of environmental crime laws is needed.

A new creative Kurdish constitution in the Middle East

The uprising in Syria since 2011 has created opportunities for creative approaches to Kurdish self-rule. The decision of Bashar al-Assad’s armed forces to withdraw from Kurdish cities in Northern Syria enabled Kurdish parties to take charge of local state institutions, declare self-rule, and to replace Syria’s flags with their own. The Democratic Union Party (Syria) announced a new constitution on 21 July 2013 that it called a “social contract”. On the basis of that constitution, Kurdish autonomous self-rule was formed comprising of three initial cantons. The principle of equality of all groups and the renunciation of the nation-state are revolutionary dimensions of the new constitution. In this paper, the new constitution’s creative dimensions are described and analyzed using a descriptive-analytic approach. The study aims to describe the articles of the constitution to analyze how minority Yazidis, Armenians, Arabs, Christians, Chechens, and Kurds might promote this model for the rest of Syria as a form...