Routledge Globalization, Environmental Law, and Sustainable Development in the Global South: Challenges for Implementation (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)

This volume examines the impact of globalization on international environmental law and the implementation of sustainable development in the Global South. Comprising contributions from lawyers from the Global South or who have experience in the Global South, this volume is organized into three parts, with a thematic inquiry woven through every chapter to ask how law can enable economies that can be sustained, given the limited carrying capacity of the earth. Part I describes and characterizes the status quo of environmental and economic problems in the Global South during the process of globalization. Some of those problems include redistribution of environmental burden on the public through over-reliance on the state in emerging economies and the transition to public-private partnerships, as well as extreme uncontrolled economic expansion. Building on Part I, Part II takes an international perspective by presenting some tools that are in place during the process of globalization that lead to friction and interfaces between developed and developing economies in environmental law. Recognizing the impossibility of a globalized Northern economy, the authors in Part III present some alternatives through framework ideas of human and civil rights, environmental rights, and indigenous persons’ rights, as well as concrete and specific legal tools to strengthen justice and rule of law institutions. The book gives new perspectives to familiar approaches through concrete examples by professional practitioners and theoretical discourse by academic researchers, and can thereby form the basis for changes in practices, as well as further discussions and comparisons. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental law, sustainable development, and globalization and international relations, as well as legal professionals and practitioners. Review "This book is a must-read for anyone working in international environmental law, sustainable development, or international economic law. It provides fresh perspectives on the interactions between international economic and environmental law, from a wide variety of countries in the Global South. The subject matter of the chapters is broad, spanning tax, trade and corporate law, as well as adverse impacts of oil pipelines and mitigating environmental risk in privately financed infrastructure projects. This book illustrates how critical it is for international law to serve the needs of those in the Global South. A fantastic read, highlighting authors from (or who work in) the Global South. This work fills a critical gap in the literature, illustrating the multifold implementation challenges facing the Global South. I have been waiting for a book like this to be written―and the authors and editors have done a great service to all of us who work on environmental and developmental issues involving the Global South."Lisa Benjamin, Assistant Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. "This book is very interesting because of the topics covered and their articulation by authors from various places. Navigating in and from environmental law (in the strict sense) is a matter of special importance in academia. Faced with the concept of development and the hegemony that certain disciplines such as economics impose, from the Global South we propose other diverse concepts, such as Summa Kaway, Summa Qamaña (Good Living and Living Well, respectively) in the Ecuadorian and Bolivian versions. The question of whether it is feasible to advance alternative constitutional approaches to the conceptualization and foundation of environmental law, environmental rights, environmental justice, the environmental state of law and rights, environmental citizenship, or environmental democracy is a great challenge that we must meet."Gregorio Mesa Cuadros, Professor of Law and Director of the Research Group on Collective and Environmental Ri