In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Trade & Economic Law

21 Feb

Over at Discover.com, Brian Lamb reports on a lecture by Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, an American Jesuit who is a research astronomer for the Vatican Observatory (and has archived blog posts here). On the issue of asteroid mining (which we tangentially touched upon in this discussion on legal issues related to mining the Moon), Lamb describes the opening of  Brother Consolmagno's argument: Can...

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12 Feb

[C. Ford Runge is the Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied Economics and Law at the University of Minnesota.] Mairon G. Bastos Lima is to be congratulated for his coherent and ambitious proposal to rationalize the governance of biofuels through multilateral applications of the Rio and Good Governance principles. As he correctly observes, biofuels policies are highly nationalistic and lack...

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12 Feb

[Mairon G. Bastos Lima is a PhD researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.] I thank the moderators of Opinio Juris for giving me this opportunity to reflect upon my article, entitled 'Biofuel Governance and Interational Legal Principles: Is It Equitable and Sustainable?'. Global climate change, energy insecurity, and the underdevelopment of rural areas have been crucial...

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11 Feb

Professor Osofsky’s response to my article is convincing and her exploration of the gaps in my earlier discussion of climate reparations is welcome — in fact, it is encouraged. The hope in writing an article on climate reparations was to investigate seriously alternate avenues for remedy for the climate vulnerable and encourage creativity across scales, between novel claimants, and...

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11 Feb

[Hari M. Osofsky is Associate Professor at Washington and Lee School of Law.] In Climate Reparations, Professor Maxine Burkett makes a compelling case for viewing climate justice problems though a reparative lens. She articulates thoughtfully the barriers to achieving meaningful justice under existing frameworks and proposals, as well as the profound ethical dilemmas posed by the inequities regarding emissions, impacts, and...

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11 Feb

[Associate Professor Maxine Burkett is the Director of the Center for Island Climate Adaption and Policy at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai'i at Manoa.] With the uncertain — and deeply disappointing — conclusion of the COP15, one thing has become crystal clear: states and vulnerable communities must explore alternative avenues to address the climate crisis and...

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10 Feb

We are delighted to introduce the inaugural online symposium issue of the Melbourne Journal of International Law ('MJIL') hosted by Opinio Juris. We would like to thank Opinio Juris, and Kevin Jon Heller in particular, for inviting us to participate in this partnership. We hope that this partnership contributes to the global reach of Opinio Juris by providing an Asia-Pacific...

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29 Jan

Many thanks to Peter, Kal and Scott for their very thoughtful comments.  As Peter notes, The Art and Craft of International Law focuses more on process and design than on doctrinal issues.  Whether or not he is correct that international environmental law lacks common principles or norms that give it substantive coherence, the premise of my book is that it...

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25 Jan

  How and why do international environmental norms arise? In what ways do they affect behavior? Do they change what states and individuals actually do, and, if so, why? How effective are they in solving international environmental problems? These are some of the questions I examine in my new book, The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law. My decision to write the book...

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15 Jan

The current issue of Foreign Affairs has an article called A Few Dollars at a Time: How to Tap Consumers for Development, which describes the "innovative financing" movement in which private companies find ways for their customers to contribute to international development. This morning, I came across an example that I guess you could call "innovative aid" as it isn't...

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