Editorial
by
Professor Evangelos Raftopoulos,
Editor and Director of MEPIELAN Centre,
Panteion University of Athens, Greece
Welcome to the first edition of MEPIELAN E-Bulletin in 2012.
We are gratified to see that the previous editions of 2010 and 2011 of
the Bulletin have been so well received by many readers. According to
the latest figures, there have been over 7.200 visits to the Bulletin’s
website from 139 countries worldwide. My gratitude and thanks go to all
those who have been instrumental in the continuing success of this
Bulletin.
I am pleased to report that there is a flourishing progress of the
Bulletin at all levels. Its vision to be a dynamic forum for
inter-disciplinary knowledge and discussion and an advocate, through
insightful articles of current importance, of promoting and developing
international common interest and its multifarious governance, is
zestfully met with the increasing engagement of distinguished academic
experts and scholars as well as promising young researchers. This
edition features several new articles shedding light on hotly debated
issues of international law and policy, environment and development.
While continuing the unending flow of thematic news, this edition also
presents a new international case of interest and it serves as a
showcase for new books which are knowledge-advancing and
theoretically-informed.
A Guest Article written by
Tullio Scovazzi, Professor of
International Law, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy, offers an
authoritative and timely overview of the nature and extent of Maritime
Zones in the Mediterranean, illustrating the contextual peculiarities
reflected in the patchwork of the present legal regimes of sui generis
zones (fisheries zones, ecological zones) and of the established, or
officially declared, exclusive economic zones. As he underlines, this
situation is directly related to the more general present picture of the
Mediterranean Sea: a semi-enclosed “sea in transition towards a
generalized exclusive economic zone regime” where, however, “some high
seas areas still exist”.
Three Insight Articles also feature this edition:
Nilufer Oral, Lecturer at Istanbul Bilgi University Law School,
skillfully presents a critical analysis of the 2002 Black Sea
Biodiversity and Landscape Conservation Protocol, developed in the
framework of the 1992 Bucharest Convention on the Protection of the
Black Sea against Pollution. Illustrating the particular geomorphology
of the Black Sea and the anthropogenic factors of the decline of its
biodiversity, she sheds light on the process of development this
Protocol, its important characteristics, and its contextual
interconnections at global and regional levels (UN Convention on
Biological Diversity, relevant Mediterranean Protocols to the Barcelona
Convention, European norms and strategies), while she underlines,
pending its entry into force, the importance of a practical, declarative
approach to its implementation through the adoption of a Strategic
Action Plan.
Alexandros Kailis, a Ph. D. Candidate and a Researcher at the
MEPIELAN Centre, offers an insightful presentation of the newly
developed EU Maritime Strategy for the Atlantic Ocean that constitutes
an implementation step towards the EU policy approach to integrated and
context-relevant maritime governance. Elaborating on the main thematic
areas of this Strategy, notably the challenges and opportunities posed
by the Atlantic Ocean area, the necessary EU tools (financial, legal and
political) for meeting them as well as on the importance of effectively
engaging, apart from the EU institutions, a wide range of Atlantic
stakeholders, he rightly underscores the potential impact of this
Strategy on the establishment of an integrated governance framework for
the Atlantic.
Stavrianna Kaisari, Researcher, eloquently provides a very
critical and thought-provoking article on the Green Economy, one of the
central themes of “Rio+20”, questioning its rationale for a new
development paradigm and challenging the belief that it will generate a
win-win solution for economy and the environment. She builds her
argument on the inadequacies and inequities of the Green Economy model
and its underlying “northern way of thinking”, based on the neo-liberal
ideology, which produces overwhelming generalizations ignoring the
importance of contextuality in evaluations and governance and
perpetuating the “reality” of unequal power relationship between North
and South.
Finally, a Critical Forum Article by
Erifyli Paspati, a Ph.D
Candidate at the Panteion University of Athens, usefully focus on the
latest developments in Climate Change Negotiations, pointing to the
complexity of the negotiating frames which led to the Durban negotiation
process, assessesing the more constructive and the greyer areas of the
outcomes of the Durban Platform, and arguing that the Durban Package has
produced a credible outcome that may have a positive impact on the
continuing climate change negotiations.
MEPIELAN E-Bulletin
is a dynamic electronic newsletter of MEPIELAN
Centre, Panteion University of Athens, Greece. It features guest
articles, insights articles, critical forum textual contributions and
reflections, specially selected documents and cases, book reviews as
well as news on thematic topics of direct interest of MEPIELAN Centre,
presented in a clear, insightful and attractive way whilst shedding
light on topical issues of environmental law, governance and policy
significance. Content bridges theory and practice perspectives of
international law, international environmental law, sustainable
development, and international negotiating process, and includes
notifications of MEPIELAN cooperation updates and news. The Bulletin is
an addition to our communication instruments which include an edited
Series, the MEPIELAN Studies in International Environmental Law and Negotiation.
It is hoped that its content will contribute to a scholarly debate on
important issues of current interest, providing an independent, open
access forum for the promotion of innovative ideas and enlightened
critical views of distinguished authors. The Bulletin further aims at
offering a knowledge- and information-sharing platform for MEPIELAN
audience, striving to serve a modern thinking and questing community, in
the hope that it will stimulate constructive discussions on the issues
presented. The audience includes academics, researchers, university
students, international lawyers, officials and personnel of
international organizations and institutional arrangements, heads and
personnel of national authorities and administration at all levels
(national, regional and local), members of Non-Governmental
Organizations, as well as the relevant private sector.
My deepest appreciation goes to the authors of the expert articles and other contributions to this edition, to the members of the editorial team, and to our worldwide audience sharing with us the ideas and message of this Bulletin. Indeed, time reveals the importance of launching and sustaining a scholarly E-Bulletin in a time of utmost crisis.