Territorial cooperation in Europe: challenges and opportunities for the EU energy governance

ooperation between European territorial authorities is a developing phenomenon which has reached a certain degree of harmonization through the instruments provided by the Council of Europe and the European Union. The Third Additional Protocol to the European Outline Convention concerning Euroregional Cooperation Groupings (ECGs), together with Regulation (EU) n. 1302/2013 amending Regulation (EC) n. 1082/2006 on European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTCs), provided new means to improve and institutionalize the governance of key sectors, such as the environment and energy, which require a combination of different and contrasting concerns as well as the involvement of all levels of government. The paper will explore the trends that characterize territorial cooperation in Europe, with particular regard to the means provided by the EU, and will point out their potential contribution in dealing with the main issues affecting current EU energy policy, especially as regards the European Commission’s attempt to shape a resilient European Energy Unio

International Environmental Law: Contemporary Issues and the Emergence of a New World Order

In 1972 international environmental law was a fledgling field with less than three dozen multilateral agreements. Today international environmental law is arguably setting the pace for cooperation in the international community in the development of international law. There are nearly nine hundred international legal instruments that are either primarily directed to international environmental issues or contain important provisions on them. This proliferation of legal instruments is likely to continue. Therefore, it is important to assess what we have done and explore where we are headed

Holistic and leadership approaches to international regulation: confronting nature conservation and developmental challenges. A response to Farnese

International nature protection law has developed without a coherent plan, with disparate governance instruments each largely evolving within their own separate sphere. Yet, many other issues are closely linked to the challenges of nature degradation, such as developmental challenges, climate change, food security and food safety, disease prevention and rural poverty . These interconnections have partly been recognized in Agenda 21 and more recently in the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. This response draws on and extrapolates further the conclusions of Farnese in ‘The Prevention Imperative’, published in this issue, of Transnational Environmental Law and argues for a more coherent approach and effective leadership in this area of global regulation along with a more flexible and holistic approach to governance responses

The Evolution of International Environmental Law

In the last forty years, international environmental law has evolved rapidly, as environmental risks have become more apparent and their assessment and management more complex. In 1972, there were only a few dozen multilateral agreements, and most countries lacked environmental legislation. In 2011, there are hundreds of multilateral and bilateral environmental agreements and all countries have one or more environmental statutes and/or regulations. Many actors in addition to States shape the development, implementation of, and compliance with international environmental law. Moreover, environment is increasingly integrated with economic development, human rights, trade, and national security. Analyzing the evolution of international environmental law helps us understand the possibilities and the limitations of law in addressing environmental problems, whether globally, regionally, or locally

Human Rights and Disability: The International Context

The human rights approach to disability is part of the human rights movement that has developed over the latter half of the 20th century. The increasing international attention to human rights issues has lead to a number of significant international human rights commitments in the areas of disability. Examples of these achievements are reviewed, and some recently proposed strategies for enforcing the human rights of people with disabilities, to ensure international commitments are respected and meaningful at the local level, are described

The Rise or the Fall of International Law?

This Article argues that traditional international law is healthy in the sense that there are more international agreements than ever, and States continue to serve important roles in the international system. It is falling, however, as the sole focus of international legal efforts. It is necessary to redefine international law to include actors other than States among those who make international norms and who implement and comply with them, and to include legal instruments that may not be formally binding. These developments raise three important issues: the need for the new actors to be accountable and for the new norms to be legitimate; the need for consensus about the level or location of authority, be it international, national, subnational, or non-State, at which norms should be negotiated; and the rising need for international law to reflect commonly held values to keep the increasingly fragmented international community together

The Clean Development Mechanism: Institutionalizing New Power Relations

The differences in the way climate change mitigation projects are facilitated under the Kyoto Protocol as compared to the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) demonstrate institutional change processes that evolved from global climate change negotiations. Institutional change happens when new practices become accepted and interactions between organizations carry new meanings. Models of the two policy options are presented in this paper depicting organizational interactions to demonstrate the evolution of rule-setting in this arena. A discussion of power implications is provided with the conclusion that countries of the North as well as business corporations have increased their influence in the institutional framework of international climate change mitigation. Institutional theory needs to be further developed to be able to explain the dynamic changes that led to this shift in power potential.Institutional change;Climate change;Institutional theory;Environmental policy;Power relations