The existing methods to make international law for the environment are slow, cumbersome, expensive, uncoordinated and uncertain. Nearly thirty years after the Stockholm Declaration, we still lack the legal and institutional mechanisms to deal effectiv ...
The existing methods to make international law for the environment are slow, cumbersome, expensive, uncoordinated and uncertain. Nearly thirty years after the Stockholm Declaration, we still lack the legal and institutional mechanisms to deal effectively with transboundary and biospheric environmental degradation.
The convention-protocol approach does not attempt to resolve all substantive issues in a single set of negotiations. Rather, it segregates the negotiation of separate issues into separate agreements. The convention-protocol approach involves at least two separate enactments, one "convention" and one or more "protocols." States first adopt a framework convention that calls for cooperation in achieving broadly-stated environmental goals. The parties to the convention then negotiate separate protocols. The convention sets forth vague substantive provisions that serve mainly to acknowledge that the subject of the treaty is a matter worthy of serious further consideration. The convention includes procedural provisions that, in contrast to its substantive terms, are quite specific. The convention contemplates that one or more subsequent protocols will be created and administered largely under the procedures set forth in the convention. The protocols provide the substantive detail of the treaty regime.
The convention-protocol approach to multilateral environmental agreements is used in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, it was used in a series of regional agreements pertaining to pollution of shared water system. The Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution is an example of the convention-protocol approach, and it has led to the creation under its procedural provisions of numerous detailed protocols. The Framework Convention on Climate Change has so far led to the creation of only one subsequent text, the Kyoto Protocol.
The existing international law-making process in the field of environment have to improve; to improve the mechanisms for identifying legislative priorities; to ensure that all relevant actors participate in the law-making process, including the negotiation, implementation, review and governance of international agreements; and to rationalize the law-making process by improving co-ordination between international organizations.
Keyword;
international law-making, framework convention-protocol, global commons, theory of intergenerational equity, scientific uncertainty, NGO(Non-governmental Organization), carrots and sticks