Human, Development & Other Rights-based Legal Approaches to International Environmental Law?

1/5 Read first the philosophically and comparative law oriented material at

a. “The Deep Ecological Movement: Some Philosophical Aspects”. Arne Naess. Philosophical Inquiry vol.8 pp. 10-20

b. Sagasti, Francisco R. and Michael E. Colby. “Eco-Development and Perspectives on Global Change from Developing Countries” in Global Accord:Environmental Challenges and International Response. Ed. Nazli Choucri. Cambridge; The MIT Press, 1993.

c. Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVG) Order of the First Senate of 24 March 2021 (German Federal Constitutional Court order on the failure to adopt suitable legislation and measures against climate change–  a longish decision, so everyone should read the headnotes, and we shall assign a group to study and report back on the entire decision). 

2/5 Read for a representative general third generation rights approach Prof Stephen Marks, “The Human Right to Development: Between Rhetoric and Reality” 17 Harvard Human Right Journal 137 (2004) (NB—note that Marks is actually a medical doctor and public health scholar; the global public health people all rely ultimately on second or third generation ideas about a human right to health or life– listen closely in public health and vaccine discussions of the current COVID-19 pandemic, and you probably will hear some references to rights to health or rights to life, as the public health sector has seemingly adopted rights-analysis to address the issue of the guaranteed delivery of quite often expensive medical services; similarly, gun violence and related deaths may now be included in public health analysis under a rights-based narrative)

3/5 Please reread from the rights perspective the initial international environmental law UN declaration approach the 1972 Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment as the modern beginnings of international environmental law.

4/5 Read as a bridge between the 1972 Stockholm Declaration era and 1992 Rio Declaration, concerning the Brundtland Report and its critics World Commission on Environment and Development. “From One Earth to One World: an Overview by the World Commission on Environment and Development”. From Our Common Future. New York; Oxford, U.P, 1987. pp 1-23 (note that the Brundtland Commission document, predating the 1992 Rio Conference by five years, is the first time “sustainable development” appears in the upper reaches of the developing international environmental law narrative)

5/5 Then read the 1992 Rio Declaration on the Environment and Development and again the 2002 Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, recognizing the progression in terms of the various UN meetings from 1972 Stockholm to 1992 Rio to 2002 Johannesburg. How would you describe them in legal terms?

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