The process towards a Global Pact for the Environment at the United Nations: From legal ambition to political dilution

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12331
• Author: José Juste Ruiz
• Date: 01 November 2020
• Published date: 01 November 2020

RECIEL. 2020;29:479–490.  

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  479wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel

1 | IN T R O D U C T I O N

The process ‘Towards a gl obal pact for the environ ment’ began with

a French initiative o n the back of the diplomatic s uccess achieved by

the adoption of t he Paris Agreement on climate ch ange at the 21st

Conference of the P arties (COP 21) to the United N ations (UN)

Framework Convent ion on Climate Change in 2015.1 The i dea to

prepare such an in strument originate d from the work of the

Committee on t he Environment of the Club d es Juristes, a French

legal think tank chaired by Laurent Fabius, President of the French

Constitutio nal Court and former COP 21 Pre sident. The purpose of

the pact would b e to respond to the fragmentat ion of international

environmenta l law by adopting an international t reaty which would

lay down its fund amental principles a nd give more coherence to this

branch of intern ational law. To that end, the Club des Juri stes put to-

gether an interna tional network of over 100 ju rists from all legal t ra-

ditions and repr esenting over 40 nation alities, called th e Group of

Expert s for the Pact. Afte r September 2016, the Gr oup of Experts

prepared the p reliminary draf t for a global treaty on t he environ-

ment. The defi nitive version of this draft w as adopted after final re-

finements we re incorporated on 24 June 2017 at an ac ademic event

held at the Sorb onne. In September 2017, the promoters of the in i-

tiative publish ed a white paper entitle d ‘Towards a Global Pact for

the Environment ’, which included the ar ticulated text of the p ro-

posed draft co nvention.2

 1The idea of a glob al treaty for th e environment is n ot new. In 1987, the Brundtla nd

report on ‘O ur Common Futur e’ envisaged a Conv ention on Enviro nmental Prote ction

and Sustai nable Develop ment to be prepar ed by the United Nat ions Genera l Assembly

(‘Report o f the World Commis sion on Environm ent and Develop ment: Our Comm on

Future’ (1987) n.org/conte nt/docum ents/5987o

ur-commo n-future.pdf> para s 85–86). In 1989, Professor Al exandre Kiss a dvocated a

general conve ntion that woul d declare the obl igation to prote ct and preser ve the whole

biosphere , set out the funda mental princ iples derive d from that oblig ation and inclu ded

the provisio ns required to cla rify its imp lementation , as with the Unite d Nations

covenants on h uman rights (A K iss, ‘Nouvel les tendances e n droit internat ional de

l’environne ment’ (1989) 32 German Yea rbook of Intern ational Law 241, 258). I n 1995,

the Internat ional Union for t he Conserva tion of Nature (IU CN), in cooperat ion with the

Internatio nal Council for E nvironmenta l Law (ICEL), pres ented the text of t he Draft

Covenant on Env ironment and De velopment as a mo del for a compreh ensive

conventiona l instrument o n principles an d rules relate d to environment a nd developmen t

(available at -rev3.pdf>). In

2017, the Centre Inter national de Dro it Comparé de l’ Environneme nt (CIDCE) of the

Universit y of Limoges pres ented a draft of t he Internation al Covenant on the H uman

Right to the Env ironment as a poss ible third pac t additional to t he 1966 Internatio nal

Covenants on C ivil and Politi cal Rights an d Economic, Soc ial and Cultura l Rights

(available at the-Inter natio

nal-Coven ant-on-the-Human -Right -to-the-Envir onment_15.II_.2017_EN.pdf>).

 2Le Club des Jur istes, ‘Whi te Paper: Towards a Gl obal Pact for t he Environment ’ (2017)

vir onment.org/uploa ds/White -paper -Globa l-pact-for-the-envir

onment.pdf>.

Received: 3 Dece mber 2019 

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  Accepted: 25 March 2 020

DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12331

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The process towards a Global Pact for the Environment at the

United Nations: From legal ambition to political dilution

José Juste Ruiz

© 2020 John Wile y & Sons Ltd

Correspondence

Email: jose.juste@uv.es

Funding information

Generalitat Valenciana, Grant/Award

Number: AIC O/2018/137; Ministerio de

Educación , Cultura y Depor te, Grant/Award

Number: DER 2017-85443P MINECO/

AEIFEDER, UE

Abstract

This article exa mines how instrumental t he ongoing process towards a Globa l Pact for

the Environment – launche d by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 May 2018 –

may be in strength ening the normative and governan ce system for meeting the chal lenges

represented by environmental degradation in the context of sustainable development. It

reviews the origins, evol ution and current status of t he process towards achieving a Glo bal

Pac t for the Env ironm ent unt il the set back exp erien ced in Na irobi in May 2019. Arg umen ts

stressing the valu e of a normative approach to the govern ance of the Earth system a re

weighed against the m anifest preference of States for poli tical action to ensure the bet ter

implementation of ex isting norms. The art icle ends by making a case for an integ rative

policy-and-law approac h with a view to adopting a robust declarat ion that expresses the

firm commitment of St ates to protect and restore the integr ity of the Earth system.