The Environment and International Society: Issues, Concepts, and Context

Abstract

International environmental law is the study of the norms, means and processes to address global and regional environmental challenges. The world’s domestic and transboundary ecosystems are under enormous stress. International environmental law is the study of how international law and policy can be used to address these stresses. International law includes principles, rules, and norms that are binding on nations and sub-national actors. Environmental legal principles and policy prescriptions emerge from the use of international sources and processes to make law and to cooperate to solve problems. This section provides a brief survey of threshold principles in international law including common issues, concepts and definitions. It includes how these concepts are shaped by external and emerging notions of global trade, economics, sustainability and environmental rights.

Keywords: environmental law, international law

JEL Classification: K32, K33