A Global Environmental Right

The development of an international substantive environmental right on a global level has long been a contested issue. To a limited extent environmental rights have developed in a fragmented way through different legal regimes. This book examines the potential for the development of a global environmental right that would create legal duties for all types of decision-makers relating to the environment and provide the bedrock for a reformed system of international environmental governance.

Taking a problem solving approach, the book seeks to demonstrate how straightforward and logical changes to the existing global legal architecture would address some of the fundamental root causes of environmental degradation and argues for the development of a new environmental right that would create clear legal duties for all types of decision-makers. It puts forward a draft global environmental right that would integrate those duties within reformed systems of environmental governance and a rational framework for business and industry to adhere to in order that those systems could be made operational.

This innovative and interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to students and researchers of international environmental law, environmental politics, environmental economics, and environmental management, as well as those studying the WTO, international trade law, human rights law, constitutional law and corporate law