International Judicial Practice on the Environment: Questions of Legitimacy

506 Pages·2019·5.221 MB·English

by  Christina Voigt (editor)

International Judicial Practice
on the Environment
Questions of Legitimacy
Edited by Christina Voigt
Studies on International Courts and Tribunals

‘Thisinsightfulbookexploresthejudicialturnininternationalenviron-
mental law through the lens of legitimacy, with an impressive group of
scholars examining how international litigation is contributing, in a
mostlypositiveway,tothenormsandprocessesofglobalenvironmental
governance.Forscholars,practitioners,andjudges,thebookprovidesan
indispensable and up-to-date account of environmental litigation in
contemporaryinternationallaw.’
ProfessorTimStephens,UniversityofSydneyLawSchool
‘Thesurgeininternationalenvironmentaladjudicationthatsomefore-
saw a quarter of a century ago, on the eve of the Rio Conference on
Environment and Development, has now become a widespread phe-
nomenon,andonethatisparticularlychallengingtokeepabreastwith,
even for specialists. This volume presents the state of the art in inter-
national environmental adjudication, providing detailed treatment of
themaindevelopmentsfromtheanalyticalprismof“legitimacy”,with
its many faces. It is a significant contribution to knowledge and a
necessary addition to the library of both international and environ-
mentallawyers.’
JorgeE.Viñuales,HaroldSamuelProfessorofLawandEnvironmental
Policy,UniversityofCambridge

INTERNATIONAL JUDICIAL
PRACTICE ON THE ENVIRONMENT
More and more environmental cases are being heard and decided by
international courts and tribunals that lack special environmental
jurisdiction. This situation raises fundamental questions about the
legitimacy of the environmental practice of international courts. This
bookaddresses, inter alia,questions of who has legal standing to bring
an environmental claim before an international court, on which legal
norms the case is decided and whether judges have the necessary
expertisetoadjudicateenvironmentalcasesthatareoftenofacomplex
nature. It analyses the challenges that international courts face, the
possibilities that they have, and the advances that international judicial
practicehasbeenabletomakeinprotectingtheenvironment.Through
the prism of legitimacy, important insights emerge as to whether
international courts and tribunals are fit for addressing some of the
mostpressingglobalchallengesofourtime.
christina voigt is Professor at the Department of Public and
InternationalLaw,UniversityofOslo,Norway.Sheisanexpertininter-
national environmental law and works in particular on legal issues of
climatechange,environmentalmultilateralism,sustainability,andinter-
national courts and environmental protection. She is a member of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World
Commission on Environmental Law, the chair of the Commission´s
Climate Change Specialist Group and a member of the IUCN Task
Force on Climate Change. In 2009, she was awarded the first IUCN
Academy of Environmental Law Junior Scholarship Prize. She is the
author of Sustainable Development as a Principle of International Law
(2009),numerousacademicarticlesandseveraleditedvolumes.Shealso
serves as principal legal advisor to the Government of Norway in the
UnitedNations(UN)climatenegotiations.
STUDIES ON INTERNATIONAL COURTS AND
TRIBUNALS
GeneralEditors
AndreasFøllesdal,UniversityofOslo
GeirUlfstein,UniversityofOslo
Studies on International Courts and Tribunals contains theoretical and
interdisciplinaryscholarshiponlegalaspectsaswellasthelegitimacyand
effectivenessofinternationalcourtsandtribunals.
Otherbooksintheseries
MadsAndenasandEirikBjorge(eds.)AFarewelltoFragmentation:
ReassertionandConvergenceinInternationalLaw
CeciliaM.BaillietandNobuoHayashi(eds.)TheLegitimacyof
InternationalCriminalTribunals
AmreiMüllerwithHegeElisabethKjos(eds.)JudicialDialogueand
HumanRights
NienkeGrossman,HarlanGrantCohen,AndreasFøllesdaland
GeirUlfstein(eds.)LegitimacyandInternationalCourts
RobertHowse,HélèneRuiz-Fabri,GeirUlfsteinandMichelleQ.Zang
(eds.)TheLegitimacyofInternationalTradeCourtsandTribunals
TheresaSquatrito,OranYoung,AndreasFøllesdalandGeirUlfstein
(eds.)ThePerformanceofInternationalCourtsandTribunals
MarleneWind(ed.)InternationalCourtsandDomesticPolitics
FreyaBaetens(ed.)LegitimacyofUnseenActorsinInternational
Adjudication
MartinScheinin(ed.)HumanRightsNormsin‘Other’International
Courts
I N T E R N A T I O N A L
J U D I C I A L P R A C T I C E O N
T H E E N V I R O N M E N T
Questions of Legitimacy
Edited by
CHRISTINA VOIGT
UniversityofOslo
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DOI:10.1017/9781108684385
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Names:Voigt,Christina,1971–editor.
Title:Internationaljudicialpracticeontheenvironment:questionsoflegitimacy/editedby
ChristinaVoigt,UniversitetetiOslo.
Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY,USA:CambridgeUniversity
Press,2019.|Series:Studiesoninternationalcourtsandtribunals|Includesindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2018037699|ISBN9781108497176
Subjects:LCSH:Environmentallaw,International–Cases.|Environmentallaw–European
Unioncountries–Cases.|Internationalcourts.|Politicalquestionsandjudicialpower.
Classification:LCCK3585.I5822019|DDC344.04/6–dc23
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CONTENTS
ListofContributors pagex
Acknowledgements xv
TableofCases xvii
Introduction InternationalCourtsandtheEnvironment:the
QuestforLegitimacy 1
christina voigt
PART I ProceduralLegitimacyofJudicialEnvironmental
Practice:AccesstoJustice 23
1 TheEnvironmentbeforetheEuropeanCourtof
Justice 25
ludwig krä mer
2 TheEUAarhusRegulationandEUAdministrativeActsBased
ontheAarhusRegulation:theWithdrawaloftheCJEUfrom
theAarhusConvention 52
katja rath
3 AccesstoJusticebeforeEUCourtsinEnvironmentalCases
againsttheBackdropoftheAarhusConvention:Balancing
PathologicalStubbornnessandCognitiveDissonance? 74
hendrik schoukens
PART II LegitimacyandScientificCertainty:
EnvironmentalAdjudication,UseofExperts
andtheLimitsofScience 119
4 ScientificUncertainties:aNightmareforEnvironmental
Adjudicators 121
tracey kanhanga
vii
viii contents
5 Ignorance,UncertaintyandBiodiversity:Decision-Making
bytheCourtofJusticeoftheEuropeanUnion 146
volker mauerhofer
PART III JudgesasLaw-Makers:Legitimate
DevelopmentofEnvironmental
Law 165
6 SustainableDevelopmentbeforeInternationalCourtsand
Tribunals:DutytoCooperateandStates’Good
Faith 167
kazuki hagiwara
7 TheParisAgreement:NewLegalAvenuestoSupporta
TransboundaryHarmClaimontheBasisofClimate
Change 188
kurt winter
8 TheCourtofJusticeoftheEuropeanUnionandtheHigh
LevelofEnvironmentalProtection:TransformingaPolicy
ObjectiveintoaConceptAmenabletoJudicial
Review 212
delphine misonne
PART IV LegitimacyofOutcomes:Performance,
Effects(andSide-Effects) 237
9 WhenEnvironmentalProtectionandHumanRights
Collide:FourHeuristicsofConflictResolution 239
marie-catherine petersmann
10 SilentImplicationsofUS-TunaII:GreeningMarket
BehaviourthroughtheWTO 262
cristiane derani and arthur rodrigues
dalmarco
11 AdjudicationofEnvironmentalImpactAssessmentClaims
beforeInternationalCourtsandTribunals 288
andrew b. loewenstein
12 LitigationasaClimateRegulatoryTool 311
jacqueline peel and hari m. osofsky