Editorial
by
Professor Evangelos Raftopoulos,
Editor and Director of MEPIELAN Centre,
Panteion University of Athens, Greece
Welcome to the new edition of
MEPIELAN E-Bulletin.
I am grateful to my distinguished colleagues and very promising young
academics and researchers who have been instrumental in the success of
this Bulletin, contributing fresh thinking, innovative ideas and
insightful perspectives to the understanding of complex
interdisciplinary issues of international law and policy, environment
and development. This advanced knowledge is well disseminated and shared
worldwide and the latest figures keep us realistically optimistic. The
Bulletin’s website receives visitors from 159 countries worldwide which
include academics, researchers, officials from public authorities,
officials from intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, university
students and private sector. Importantly, Bulletin’s articles and
elaborated news are internationally quoted.
The Guest Article of this edition is authored by
Peter M. Haas,
Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst,
Department of Political Science, USA, who insightfully identifies the
two distinctive features of international environmental governance, the
multitude of actors and the range of distinct governance components
collectively performed, and highlights the creativity impact of their
effective interconnection, emphatically pointing to “the value of
analyzing networks of non-state actors as determinants of collective
action and environmental integrity.”
Two Insight Articles, unveiling powerful law and policy arguments, also feature this edition:
Meinhard Doelle, Professor of Law and Director of the Marine
& Environmental Law Institute (MELAW), Schulich School of Law,
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada presents a profound and very
topical analysis of liability for loss and damage in the UN Climate
Regime which is expected to be part of the post 2020 UN Climate Regime.
He meticulously explores the state of negotiations of loss and damage in
the framework of the UN Convention on Climate Change and the importance
of this issue in the current negotiation agenda as providing “the much
needed motivation for all Parties to take mitigation and adaptation
efforts more seriously”. And he perceptively analyzes the complex
aspects of integrating liability for loss and damage into the climate
regime as a complementary or alternative approach motivating effective
and adequate action ranging from mitigation, adaptation, finance and
technology transfer to capacity building. Indeed, the present “pattern
of making the future generations pay for the lack of ambition today”
should discontinue and a prospective development of a loss and liability
mechanism provides the potential for an adequate solution.
Dr. Konstantinos Tsimonis, Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of
Politics and International Studies, SOAS, University of London, UK, who
has productively spent five years in Beijing writing his Doctoral thesis
and is fluent in Chinese, brings forward his deep knowledge and
experience (his «βίος θεωρητικός») on social organization and governance
in China. Projecting a well-founded contextual theoretical approach,
he discusses the rationale of “dual registration” system for all social
organizations, requiring first obtain the professional sponsorship of a
government (or Party) agency before they can apply for registration with
the Civil Affairs Department, and its pending reform, taking the view
that, overall, the state-society relations in China cannot – and should
not – be approached and explained on the basis of the western
theoretical world-view and historical experience by applying such
concepts as “civil society” and “corporatism”. Plunging into the
historical experience of social organization in China and vividly
presenting a contemporary case of success in Chinese civil organization,
he demonstrates that the quest for autonomy for Chinese civil
organizations will have to be sought in its fundamental understanding as
a context-dependent notion, originating from a complex symbiotic state
and society relation and the continuous negotiation process between
them.
In the Critical Forum section,
Theano Maneta, LL.M. (Cantab.) and
Researcher at MEPIELAN Centre, Panteion University of Athens, writes a
stimulating thought-provoking article on the 1992 Convention on
Biodiversity, arguing that CBD has not managed to provide a
comprehensive framework for the protection of biodiversity because of
the poor and elusive drafting of identified substantive areas of the
Convention, thus making its provisions “non-compliable”. Comparing it
with the earlier sectorial sites or species specific treaties (1973
CITES, 1979 CMS, 1971 Ramsar Convention, 1972 WHC), she highlights
pragmatic approaches of the latter and their more effective management
system, and she concludes that these treaties are better suited to
achieve effective biodiversity protection in the context of their
specified objectives and in pursuance of their distinctive purposes.
In its Document section, this edition presents the
Minamata Convention on Mercury,
a celebrated new treaty regime of major importance, signed on 11
October 2013 by 91 countries and the EU at a Diplomatic Conference,
after four years of intense but fruitful negotiations initiated by UNEP.
Theano Maneta, in her introductory note, highlights the legal
significance of the Convention while perceptively underlines the
contingency of its effectiveness upon a fundamental international
governance perspective: its integration into, and coordination with, the
existing conventional regimes on hazardous waste and toxic substances.
Finally, together with the continuing flow of selected and elaborated
topical thematic news, this edition also presents a new authoritative
and interdisciplinary book “
The Handbook of Global Climate and Environment Policy”
edited by Robert Faulkner. The book perceptively combines the latest
theoretical thinking and the currently debated issues on the subject,
providing a comprehensive overview and fruitful insights for its
readers. It discusses the current global climate and environment policy
challenges, explores the concepts, approaches, frameworks and processes
to govern them, and sheds light on the interconnections between global
climate and environment policy, and that of the global economy.
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.
Outside my office, the chaotic Greek darkness leads me to conclude poetically:
“I feel that when people have gone utterly sunless they shouldn’t exist”
(D.H. Lawrence, Democracy, Pansies 1928)
The Editor