Editorial

• Published date: 01 November 1999
• Date: 01 November 1999
• Author: Jürgen Lefevere
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9388.00187-i3

Volume 8 Issue 3 1999 Editorial

In the autumn of 1989, James Cameron and Philippe

Sands founded what was later to become the Foundation

for International Environmental Law and Development

(FIELD). FIELD’s founders perceived a need for a new

and unique type of organization with the objective of sti-

mulating the development of international environmen-

tal law. The idea was to create an organization with a

role which could probably best be described as pos-

itioned between that of a traditional law-firm, an environ-

mental NGO and a research organization. Working on a

non-profit basis and with an environmental conscious-

ness, its main aim was to provide legal advice to those

who needed it most, at times and places where it would

be most effective. Ten years on, FIELD has grown into a

mature organization. With a total of 14 staff, of which 9

are lawyers, FIELD is now active in a number of areas of

international and regional environmental law, covering

issues such as climate change, biodiversity and trade

and environment.

This issue of RECIEL commemorates the 10

th

anniversary

of FIELD. In its thematic section the reader will find a

collection of articles by current and past FIELD lawyers.

Most of the articles cover more specific issues of inter-

national and European Community environmental law in

which FIELD staff are or have recently been involved.

Among the thematic articles the reader will also find two

more general ‘thinkpieces’ by Philippe Sands and James

Cameron. These two contributions aim to stimulate and

give direction to the discussion on the current status

and the future of international environmental law.

The first article in the thematic section of this issue of

RECIEL is written by Philippe Sands, entitled ‘Inter-

national Environmental Law Ten Years On’. He begins by

stating that although we have seen important develop-

ments in international environmental law over the last

ten years, ‘there is a sense that most environmental

agreements have not reached their objectives’. Philippe

Sands subsequently identifies and discusses six key

issues which will need to be addressed in order to over-

come the apparent lack of effectiveness of international

environmental agreements. Among these issues are the

increasing importance of risk assessment, the different

forms of application of the integration principle, the role

of non-state actors in environmental policy making and

the closely related issues of implementation and com-

pliance. James Cameron discusses in his contribution on

‘Globalization and the Ecological State’ the effect of glo-

balization on the role of the state in environmental law

and policy making. In 14 propositions he discusses the

changing role of the state. Rather than representing a

national interest, he sees the state as increasingly con-

necting global and local interests. In its decision making

iii

it needs more than ever to involve and co-operate with

private actors. He tests his propositions by looking at

two recent and unique developments in international

law, the development of the Clean Development Mech-

anism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol, and the inter-

national debate on trade, environment and development

within the WTO.

Climate change and the issues left unresolved by the

1997 Kyoto Protocol continue to be one of the main

items on the international environmental agenda. Cli-

mate change has always formed an important aspect of

FIELD’s work, which is reflected in the contributions by

Jacob Werksman and Farhana Yamin. In his article on

greenhouse gas emissions trading and the WTO, Werks-

man discusses the compatibility of one of the new ‘flex-

ible mechanisms’ developed under the Kyoto Protocol

with WTO rules and procedures. With the current mush-

rooming of national and regional emissions trading

initiatives, questions on their compatibility with WTO

rules are increasingly surfacing. The flexible mech-

anisms are also examined in the contribution by Farhana

Yamin. In her article entitled ‘Equity, Entitlements and

Property Rights under the Kyoto Protocol: the Shape of

Things to Come’, Yamin stresses the importance of

observing equity considerations in the climate negoti-

ations, the application of targets set by the Kyoto Proto-

col and, most importantly, the operation of the mech-

anisms and the ‘things’ traded thereunder.

The next two articles are both related to the issue of

fisheries. Although during the last decade a number of

efforts have been made to address the enormous impact

of fishing on fish stocks and marine biodiversity, these

have not managed to bring to a halt the overexploitation

of the world’s oceans. The contributions by Beatrice

Chaytor and Greg Rose discuss two key aspects of the

fisheries debate. Chaytor addresses the issue of fisheries

subsidies. Fisheries subsidies are increasingly recog-

nized as an important cause of unsustainable fishing

practices. She discusses strategies for the reduction or

elimination of these subsidies by using existing inter-

national agreements. Greg Rose looks at ways to reduce

the impact of over-fishing on marine biodiversity. He dis-

cusses ways of bridging the gap between international

laws on fisheries management and on biodiversity pro-

tection in order to provide a complete regime to protect

marine biodiversity.

The last three articles in the thematic section discuss

three very different issues. The first article looks at the

protection of groundwater quantity, an issue which has

until recently been left unaddressed in European Com-

munity environmental legislation. Ju

¨rgen Lefevere dis-