A new book by Dr Martin Hedemann-Robinson analyses the nature, extent and current state of the legal framework for enforcing international environmental law.
Enforcement of International Environmental Law: Challenges and Responses at the International Level (Routledge), considers the scope and impact of international rules of law that have a remit to require or promote compliance by states with their international environmental legal obligations.
Dr Hedemann-Robinson says: ‘Making the writ of international environmental law run in law and practice is no easy business. For although it is clear that the international community has generated several multilateral environmental agreements, it has been far less successful in developing means to ensure that contracting parties honour them in practice. There is no inherent or automatic jurisdiction for any international institution to take steps to ensure that they are actually fulfilled. Implementation remains a matter exclusively for nation states to determine in accordance with their respective legal systems, unless they agree through international accord to establish supervisory powers at the supranational level.’
In his new book, Dr Hedemann-Robinson explores what legal provisions and mechanisms have been developed at international level to assist with the challenge of improving the way in which states comply with international environmental law.
Dr Hedemann-Robinson is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Kent Law School. He is a former legal administrator of the European Commission. His current research interests lie primarily in the areas of European Union and International Environmental Law, notably in relation to law enforcement. A second edition of his book Enforcement of European Union Environmental Law was published by Rutledge in 2015.