The Environment, Risk and Liability in International Law, by Julio Barboza, published by Brill, 2011, 206pp., €113.00, hardback.

• Published date: 01 April 2014
• Date: 01 April 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12058
• Author: Elisa Ruozzi

sharing agreement with no annexes,

moving away from Kyoto’s rigid

division between Annex B and non-

Annex B countries.

Chapter 7 focuses on one way of

implementing the bottom-up

approach, which is the inclusion

of climate change provisions in

regional trade agreements (RTAs).

Leal-Arcas acknowledges that the

WTO is losing its centrality in favour

of bilateral and plurilateral trade

agreements. This is related to the

challenge of negotiating interna-

tional agreements covering a wide

range of topics and involving many

parties. RTAs are allowed under

Article XXIV of the GATT, the

Enabling Clause, and Article V of the

General Agreement on Trade in Ser-

vices, but they can compromise the

WTO’s non-discrimination prin-

ciple if they become the general

rule rather than the exception. The

chapter concludes with an overview

of the possibilities of including

climate change clauses in RTAs.

For the time being, such clauses

merely involve an agreement to

cooperate on matters related to

environmental protection. RTAs

now under negotiation, such as the

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agree-

ment or an EU-US Free Trade

Agreement, offer opportunities for

including stronger climate change

clauses – although a lack of political

will suggests that this will not be

easy.

Chapter 8 analyzes the trade impli-

cations of geoengineering, which

can be defined as ‘the manipulation

of the natural habitat . . . in order to

somehow abate or counteract the

effects of natural and anthropogenic

climate change and global warming’

(p. 419). The legal implications of

geoengineering for international

trade have hardly been discussed

and many doubts arise. However, it

is clear that geoengineering will

have different trade implications

(i.e., through capital investments or

trade sanctions). Leal-Arcas there-

fore suggests that a comprehensive

international agreement is needed,

covering issues such as rules re-

garding the commercial use of

geoengineering and its trade-related

aspects.

Chapter 9 contains 13 short recom-

mendations related to a wide range

of important topics – for instance,

whether cap-and-trade systems or

carbon taxes are to be preferred,

and how a two-speed international

agreement on climate change could

be designed.

In conclusion, this book offers a very

comprehensive, original, up-to-date

and well-documented account of

the main issues relating to climate

change and international trade. On a

minor critical note, it would have

been good to include a few sections

assessing how restricting climate

change negotiations to a few negoti-

ating parties would be rendered

compatible with the need for legiti-

macy of international decisions. In

any case, the approach advocated by

Leal-Arcas seems more realistic

than the current consensual regime,

where every country advances at the

speed of the slowest one.

Daniel Pérez Rodrı´guez

PhD Candidate

Universitat Pompeu Fabra,

Barcelona

The Environment, Risk and

Liability in International

Law,byJulio Barboza,

published by Brill, 2011,

206pp., €113.00, hardback.

Published in the same year as the

well-known advisory opinion issued

by the Seabed Disputes Chamber of

the International Tribunal of the

Law of the Sea,1and addressing

closely related issues, The Environ-

ment, Risk and Liability in Interna-

tional Law tackles one of the most

complex problems in contemporary

international environmental law –

namely the concepts of ‘responsibil-

ity’ and ‘liability’ for environmental

damage.

Julio Barboza was appointed in

1985 as Special Rapporteur by the

International Law Commission

(ILC) of the United Nations on the

topic of ‘international liability for

injurious consequences arising out

of acts not prohibited by interna-

tional law’, following the first

Special Rapporteur Robert Q.

Quentin-Baxter. It is in light of his

experience as Special Rapporteur

that the author carries out his

analysis of the concept of ‘liability

for environmental damage’. In par-

ticular, the analysis compares

‘liability’ with the concept of

‘responsibility’ for wrongful acts,

both from a theoretical and an his-

torical point of view. The core argu-

ment is that liability without fault

not only constitutes the most effec-

tive legal tool in the pursuit of

global environmental protection,

but it also forms the object of an

existing – though not yet applied –

customary norm. This argument is

supported by a detailed legal analy-

sis, and is illustrated through a

reconstruction of the ILC’s work on

the topic.

Chapter 1 provides a definition

of ‘liability without fault’ and

describes its constitutive elements,

whereas Chapter 2 goes to the heart

of the subject. It examines some of

the main issues and peculiarities of

international environmental law,

including the definition of ‘risk’, the

problems surrounding causality,

and the distinction between hazard-

ous and noxious activities. Chapter

2 further establishes a link between

liability and prevention. More spe-

cifically, Barboza underscores that

1International Tribunal for the Law of the

Sea, Seabed Disputes Chamber, 1 February

2011, Advisory Opinion, Responsibilities and

Obligations of States Sponsoring Persons

and Entities with Respect to Activities in the

Area, found at: <http://www.itlos.org>.

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Review of European Community & International Environmental Law

Book Reviews RECIEL 23 (1) 2014

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