Fifty Years of International Environmental Law
Fifty Years of International Environmental Law
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USDThis book explores the seminal importance of the first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm 1972 – the Stockholm Conference – for the development of international environmental law. By bringing together world leading experts from academia and legal practice, the book charts the development of international environmental law in the 50 years since 1972 in the areas of nature and biodiversity, chemicals and waste, oceans and water, and atmosphere and climate, and with respect to structures and institutions, consumption and production, and human rights and participatory rights in environmental matters. It analyses how the ideas and concepts of the Stockholm Conference have influenced this development and explores the novel ideas that have emerged since then. It describes the approaches of the developed and developing countries in this process and the relationship between international environmental law and other areas of law, such as the law of the sea and international economic law.
- Provides a comprehensive overview of the development of international environmental law
- Juxtaposes the situation when international environmental law first emerged with the present situation in specific areas as well as more generally
- Explores the development many law and policy areas from 1972 onwards, providing readers with easy access to many distinct fields of international environmental law
Product details
February 2026Hardback
9781009445771
454 pages
229 × 152 mm
Not yet published - available from February 2026
Table of Contents
- Introduction:
- 50 years of shaping international environmental law Jonas Ebbesson and David Langlet
- Part I. Concepts, Structures, and Institutions:
- 1. Stockholm 1972 and the birth of international sustainable development law Nico Schrijver
- Â 2. The missed link between international economic law and social and environmental issues Ellen Hey
- 3. On the international environmental governance architecture: looking back to look ahead for our common future Bharat H. Desai
- Part II. Human Rights, Participatory Rights, and the Rule of Law:
- 4. Litigating human rights and the environment in international tribunals 1972–2022: how far have we progressed? Dinah Shelton
- 5. Environmental rule of law: from Stockholm 1972 to 2022 and beyond Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Alvin Gachie, Leonie Geene, Macharia Kaguru and Jan Maina
- 6. The development of environmental access rights and protection of environmental defenders Ben Boer and Rowena Cantley-Smith
- Part III. Consumption, Production, Chemicals, and Waste:
- 7. Unrealised ambition or unattainable goal? Sustainable consumption and production in international law Eva R. van der Marel and Catherine Redgwell
-  8. International regulation and the management of mining since the 1972 Stockholm conference: from local to global concerns Timo Koivurova
- Â 9. Chemicals and wastes in international environmental policy and law: from trail smelter to a circular economy Katharina Kummer Peiry
- 10. The unfinished agenda of Stockholm 1972: a rights-based approach to chemicals and wastes Marcos A. Orellana
- Â 11. The dynamics of international and European Union law on waste and chemicals: past, present, and future Carl Dalhammar
- Part IV. The Atmosphere:
- 12. Implementing principle 21 of the Stockholm declaration: regional efforts to regulate transboundary air pollution Phoebe Okowa and Sean O'Reilly
- 13. Climate protection 50 years after Stockholm: international law at the precipice Jutta Brunnée
- 14. A southern state of mind: from being 'mindful of … effects on climate' to climate litigation in the global South Jacqueline Peel
- 15. Trade and atmospheric protection at Stockholm+50: plus ça change? Harro van Asselt
- Part V. Waters:
- 16. The Stockholm declaration at sea: influences on the content and context of the law of the sea Richard Barnes
-  17. Linking international regimes on oceans and fresh water since the 1972 Stockholm conference: the case of preventing land-based marine plastic pollution via international watercourses Yoshifumi Tanaka
- Part VI. Nature and Biodiversity:
- 18. The progressive development of international biodiversity law from the 1972 Stockholm conference to the synergistic protection of biodiversity and human rights, including at the ocean-climate nexus Elisa Morgera
- 19. Aspirations of developing countries in biodiversity treaty-making processes: dreams deferred? Dire D. Tladi
- 20. The influence of the Stockholm conference on the development of nature protection law at an international level and in Europe Nicolas de Sadeleer
- Â 21. Fifty years of international law-making on the environment: women shaping legal principles and solidarity Claudia Ituarte-Lima
-  Annex 1. Declaration of the United Nations conference on the human environment, 1972
- Annex 2. Stockholm+50: A healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity, summary points of leadership dialogues and outcome.
