Failures of environmental law to preserve, protect and improve the environment are caused by law’s contingency and constitutional presumptions of supremacy over the self-regulatory agency of nature. Contingency problems are intrinsic to law and, therefore, invite deployment of technologies. Constitutional presumptions can be corrected through geo-constitutional reform. The latter requires the elaboration of geo-constitutional principles bestowing authority on nature’s self-regulatory agency. It is suggested that principles of autonomy, loyalty, pre-emption, supremacy and rights have potential to serve that aim and imply proactive roles for technologies in environmental governance. Geo-constitutional reform is necessary to prevent the fatal collapse of the natural regulatory infrastructure enabling life and a future of environmental governance by design. Once environmental catastrophe has materialized, however, geo-constitutionalism loses its raison d’être.

Chapter 3 provides a detailed overview of the current state of international law. It begins by explaining the extent to which environmental rights are protected in international law. This includes an examination of the recent resolution of the United Nations General Assembly which recognised the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The chapter also looks at a number of specific human rights, such as the right to life and the right to an adequate standard of living, exploring the way these rights have been applied by courts and tribunals in environmental cases. The chapter also explains the role of intergenerational equity as a long-standing principle of international environmental law, albeit it one which often lacks legal force. Finally, the chapter provides some examples from domestic law where the environmental rights of future generations have been protected. Overall, the chapter demonstrates that, while there is now widespread recognition of the environmental dimensions of human rights and growing protections at the domestic level, international human rights law still provides only limited protection of environmental rights and no explicit protection of the rights of future generations.

Chapter 9 addresses a selection of contract law issues including licensing and collaboration agreements from a practical point of view. It also engages with competition law, international trade law, and environmental law aspects of beer law. The chapter includes a section devoted to the legal issues that are associated with cross-border internet sales of beer.

During the Symposium held in Manhattan in 2004 coining the One Health approach, the role of environmental law was underlined. The IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, through its representative from Southeast Asia, insisted on the importance of biodiversity conservation and the protection of wildlife while massive culling measures were taken to counteract zoonotic diseases. In this chapter we will show how the development of the One Health approach has been historically favoured by environmental law, acknowledging the interactions between health and biodiversity. We will detail how it has spread into the multilateral environmental agreements in relation to biodiversity conservation and how the environmental protection arena has evolved quite independently from the health sector in implementing the One Health approach until UNEP joined the FAO-OIE (WOAH)-WHO forces and the input from the OHHLEP (One Health High Level Expert Panel) in that respect. We will conclude with examples of One Health implementation in relation to environmental law, whether they concern research projects or training, notably in Southeast Asia.

We highlight the essential role of law and governance in advancing the transformative potential of One Health. While One Health has traditionally focused on public health and zoonotic disease, its broader application encompasses challenges such as biodiversity loss, climate change, and antimicrobial resistance. Despite its potential, One Health remains underutilised in governance and law, with much of its implementation focused on siloed scientific endeavours.

This book addresses these gaps, demonstrating how legal frameworks can embed and sustain One Health principles. It explores diverse themes, including multilevel governance, Indigenous Knowledge systems, environmental law, and emerging legal mechanisms, to showcase the interdisciplinary nature of One Health. Contributors emphasise the need for multisectoral collaboration, enforceable standards, and cross-disciplinary engagement to address governance barriers and ensure holistic, equitable outcomes.

By presenting a vision for the institutionalisation of One Health through law and policy, this volume challenges traditional approaches and offers pathways for integrating One Health into governance systems.

The adoption of the Deforestation-free Products Regulation represents a significant step forward in the protection of forests, both in the EU and in non-EU countries. In particular, it aims at minimising the risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with products that contain, have been fed with, or have been made using certain commodities (cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood). Environmental protection is achieved through provisions affecting the placing and making available of and export from the EU market of the relevant products, including a due diligence framework to ensure that such commodities are deforestation-free and legal under the law of the country of origin. While the Regulation has a clear environmental goal, it could also be seen as an operationalisation of the One Health approach as it tackles several drivers of environmental degradation (land-use change, biodiversity decline, and GHG emissions/climate change). In particular, this Regulation makes for a noteworthy case study in light of its extraterritorial reach, and it is examined in view of the unacknowledged ramifications for the One Health.

Cumulative environmental impacts are a central problem that contemporary environment-related laws must face, from laws that allocate natural resources such as forests and water, to rights-based approaches to nature and human health. This introduction sketches the basic characteristics of a cumulative environmental problem – accumulating, incremental harms at different scales, caused by many and diverse actors, with the added complexity of interacting and uncertain effects addressed by multiple legal regimes. It explains why addressing cumulative environmental problems requires reaching across disciplines, legal contexts, and jurisdictions. The CIRCle Framework is introduced - a Framework of four integrated functions of formal rules for responding to cumulative environmental problems – conceptualization, information, regulatory intervention, and coordination. The chapter also introduces case studies of laws addressing environmental justice concerns related to groundwater in the Central Valley of California, cumulative harms to the biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and cumulative impacts to grasslands as biocultural landscapes in South Tyrol, Italy.

This chapter explores the integration of the One Health (OH) approach into the European Union’s agri-food legal and policy framework, focusing on the 2023–2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It does so within the broader context of the European Green Deal and its Farm to Fork Strategy, which aim to steer the EU toward sustainable agri-food systems. OH has gained global prominence, especially among intergovernmental organizations, but its implementation in the context of agri-food policy and legislation remains limited, even though the transition to sustainable agri-food systems is one of the most critical challenges of our time, and one of the most complex issues that would benefit from a holistic approach to health.

The chapter traces the evolution of OH in EU policy, from its origins in antimicrobial resistance to its potential role in advancing sustainability. It evaluates the extent to which OH principles are reflected in the CAP Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, by analysing its objectives, conditionality systems, and incentives related to sustainable agricultural practices.

The analysis concludes that, although the CAP incorporates various OH-related measures, such as provisions concerning animal welfare and biodiversity, it does not adopt OH as a unifying legal or policy basis. In fact, the integration of OH remains fragmented and superficial, hindered by conflicting policy objectives, inconsistent implementation, and a lack of legal clarity. For OH to truly serve as a guiding principle in EU agri-food law, it must be embedded through coherent legal tools, cross-sectoral coordination and inclusive governance mechanisms.

This chapter provides a bird’s eye view of the landscape of laws that can deliver the CIRCle Framework functions of conceptualization, information, regulatory intervention, and coordination to address cumulative environmental problems. Its scope is broad, covering traditional and customary laws; environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment; natural resources, land use planning, conservation, pollution, and other environment-related laws; and broader areas of public law, including constitutional environmental rights. It also discusses the way international treaties and development bank policies deal with cumulative impacts. The chapter provides a simple compass for navigating this landscape: considering whether the dominant focus of the law is a matter of concern that is threatened by cumulative impacts (e.g., environmental justice, national parks), impacts (e.g., environmental impact assessment, water pollution), or activities (e.g., road construction, mining), or whether it instead indirectly influences a cumulative environmental problem (e.g., laws for intergovernmental coordination).

Most American environmental law scholarship overlooks the role of cities in environmental law and policy. Instead, scholars typically focus on federal environmental law. This book emphasizes the potential for leading cities to play a meaningful role in protecting the environment. It offers a framework for understanding the factors that give to, and constrain, local environmental law and policy. Local environmental policy may emerge from the top from local elites centrally concerned with local economic development, and from the “bottom up” from community groups. However, there are limits on the costs that local governments can impose on local actors to address global environmental problems, such as limiting climate change, given the overriding importance that local governments attach to promoting economic development. The book offers case studies of local environmental efforts in New York City to illustrate the promise and limitations of local environmental policy. Taking into account the opportunities and constraints at the local level, the book outlines a high-level agenda of actions that local governments in large cities should undertake to adapt to climate change and contribute to decarbonization.

This case study examines the human rights implications arising from the construction of Cambodia’s largest hydroelectric dam, the Lower Sesan II. As a long-standing initiative intended to dramatically expand access to reliable energy sources within Cambodia, the Lower Sesan II was adopted by and labeled a “key project” of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, project developers and contractors face significant criticism as the construction efforts have displaced Indigenous communities and failed to address environmental reports that projected a substantial disruption to local biodiversity, adverse effects that were later documented by local groups and nongovernmental organizations. Drawing from international, transnational, and domestic sources of law, and interviews with various community stakeholders, this study illustrates how Chinese parties building BRI projects engage with applicable human rights obligations through the example of the Lower Sesan II and discusses the consequences of noncompliance.

This chapter explores gender dimensions of biodiversity and nature conservation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It sheds light on the nature, scope, meaning, and barriers to gender-responsive implementation of biodiversity treaties in the region, and strategies to overcome these barriers and promote inclusive and equitable conservation efforts. Furthermore, the chapter will address the barriers to implementing gender-responsive biodiversity policies, such as societal norms, limited awareness, and institutional challenges. It will examine the importance of capacity building, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge-sharing platforms in overcoming these barriers and fostering an enabling environment for gender-responsive conservation practices. By emphasizing the value of gender equality and inclusivity in biodiversity governance, this chapter seeks to contribute to the ongoing discourse on integrating gender perspectives into environmental law and policymaking. The findings and recommendations presented aim to inform policymakers, practitioners, and researchers, providing actionable insights for promoting gender-responsive implementation of biodiversity and nature conservation treaties in the MENA region and beyond.

This chapter examines the importance of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as tools for the management of fish and a wide range of other aquatic species below water. Drawing lessons from the MPA legal framework in Morocco, it examines the legal gaps and barriers in the management of MPAs and proposes recommendations on how to strengthen the management of MPAs to advance biodiversity and the protection of the marine and ocean ecosystem. This chapter examines how such legal barriers and gaps to the management of MPAs in Morocco can be coherently addressed to advance biodiversity and the conservation of the marine ecosystem.

Readers are presented with achievable reforms of laws and policies discussed in earlier chapters.