Crosscutting Program

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Session Type: AALS Crosscutting Programs

Session Capacity: 198

Hotel: New York Hilton Midtown

Room: Sutton Center

Floor: Second Floor

The unprecedented degradation of the planet’s vital ecosystems is one of the most pressing issues confronting the international community today. Despite the proliferation of legal instruments to combat environmental degradation, the global economy continues to exceed ecosystem limits, thereby putting present and future generations at risk and threatening the integrity of the planet’s biodiversity.

International environmental law has generally failed to halt or reverse the rapid deterioration of the planet’s life support systems. Conflicts between affluent and poor countries (the North-South divide) over environmental priorities, over the allocation of responsibility for environmental harm, and over the relationship between environmental protection and economic development have generated gridlock in environmental treaty negotiations as well as inadequate compliance with existing agreements. The fragmentation of international law has also created regulatory gaps in areas of acute concern to vulnerable communities in the global South (such as food, water, and energy) and inconsistencies between environmental and economic law and policy.

This panel examines the ways in which North-South conflicts have compromised the effectiveness of efforts to protect the global environment, and discusses strategies to bridge the North-South divide. Drawing upon the expertise of the panelists in areas as diverse as energy justice, food justice, human rights, climate change, and international economic law, this panel examines the limitations and promise of international environmental law through multi-disciplinary lenses. All of the speakers are experts in international environmental law and in one or more areas of international law that have a direct impact on the environment. Each presenter will discuss the North-South divide in international environmental law through his or her particular area of expertise. The program will thus be of interest to faculty who teach or write in the area of international economic law, international environmental law, human rights law, food law, energy law, climate change, sustainable development, environmental justice, and law and development.