Crabb, John H.

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Reviews & Notices 317Treshow's contribution on interactions with plant diseasesis a concise review which identifies the potential hazards tovegetation from such interactions.The book concludes with Rich's overview of interactionswith agricultural practices. The author has seized theopportunity to include reference to less commonly recog-nized forms of air pollution, e.g. from burning and the useof pesticides, and from fertilizers and feedlots.Many of the chapters end with a section of conclusions—an admirable feature. On the other hand, certain topics arenotable by their absence. For example, there are fewreferences to genetic effects, to effects on plant-insectinteractions, to ecological effects other than those relatedto forest ecosystems, and to the differentiation betweenchronic and acute responses. Remedy of such oversightswould have added considerably to the value of the book.V. C. RUNECKLES{Vancouver, Canada)The Protection of the Environment and International Law,Edited by ALEXANDRE-CHARLES KISS. (Hague Academyof International Law Colloquium, 1973.) A. W. SijthoffInternational Publishing Company, Leiden, Holland:650 pp., 23.5 x 15.5 x 5.2 cm, Dfl. 70, 1975.'There ought to be a law !' This is the anguished cry ofthe layman who thus expresses his frustration at finding anabsence of law where he instinctively feels that law thereshould be. Yet that cry, if insistent, is of prime importanceto the law itself: for it represents human experience whichis the foundation of law, and which ultimately sets in motionthe legal institutions whereby law is produced.This is notably true in the field of environment, which isrelatively new in the sense that it has developed rapidly asa basic social issue with its own imprint on public con-sciousness as is manifested by its having become a householdword. The science of ecology, dealing with the relationshipof organisms with their surroundings and with one another,is by no means a newcomer. But it seems at most a decadesince this field emerged from a largely academic settingand took on new dimensions, popularized under the nameof the environment, and rapidly became a matter of primarypublic concern, with widespread organizational and politicalactivity devoted to it. The ill wind of pollution, abetted byburgeoning human population, has served further to openpeoples' eyes and other senses.With unusual dispatch and urgent insistence the propo-sitions and problems asserted by environmental scientists,sociologists, and others, thus entered the political arenaand evoked responses from the law, which undertookinitiatives to provide the necessary legal framework forthis hitherto widely neglected area of social concern.Baptized with its present nomenclature, this developinglegal field has also had a vigorous international component.To present the essence of this environmental law in itsinternational aspects is the task undertaken by the abovebook, which was issued by the distinguished HagueAcademy of International Law.This volume, in the regular series of publications by theHague Academy, is the product of a colloquium held byit in 1973. The quality of the presentation is in keeping withthe unquestioned reputation of the Academy for profes-sional excellence. Environmental law, like some othernascent fields of law, has engendered enthusiasms whichhave given rise to rhetoric of a political and even Messianicnature. However satisfying that may be to some notunworthy emotions, the law cannot flourish in such anatmosphere.This colloquium accordingly was prepared and conductedin a meticulous way, so as to provide the necessary detach-ment and deliberation whereby objective legal analysiscould operate. The four principal rapporteurs, selectedafter much deliberation, were required to submit theirwritten reports or observations a year in advance of thecolloquium, and then met among themselves for the threeweeks immediately prior to it in order to exchange viewsand organize the proceedings themselves. The otherparticipants were invited on the basis of careful selectionfrom a worldwide consideration of experts, in numberslimited to a total of 35, whereby there was ample oppor-tunity for interventions by all at the sessions. The Academyis bilingual, and the texts are presented in their originallanguages, whether English or French, without translation.The substance of the text may be described as juxtaposingenvironmental law with traditional concepts of internationallaw, and exploring the development of international envi-ronmental law into certain broad particular subjects,notably the sea, the air, and rivers. The analysis of conceptsof environmental law and their relationship to establishedinternational legal concepts are perhaps the most significantcontributions. This approach provides a safeguard againstthe danger that legal issues, newly presented to publicconsciousness and surrounded by popular clamour, willbe treated in a superficial manner and that such pressureswill subordinate the indispensable regard for the underlyingconceptual fundamentals. Thus, for example, there isdiscussion of the concept of sovereignty in terms of pro-blems of how it relates to commonly-shared values con-cerned with the environment and also to the creation ofenvironmental law that is imposable internationally.Analogies are made with the experiences of other suchvalues and their legal components—for example, thoseassociated with human rights. Also discussed are theantecedents of contemporary environmental law and itsdevelopment from them, such as the traditional law ofnuisance.The United Nations Conference on the Human Environ-ment, held in 1972 at Stockholm, is extensively treated.Its 26 principles are analyzed as to their nature as beingpartly of actual existing law and partly of lex ferenda orexhortation to the establishment of law. They are suggestedin any event as a synthesis of international legal matterson environment as evolved to that date and as indicatorsof probable future developments. The text also helps thereader to sort out the welter of international organizationsand activities of legal interest that have been precociouslycreated by the vigorous growth of concern for the ecologyof Man.The volume has more sophistication than is usuallyimplied by the designation 'introduction'. Nevertheless,for those with an internationally-oriented legal background,it is an effective first comprehensive acquaintance with thecontemporary notion of international environmental law.JOHN H. CRABB{Geneva, Switzerland)https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900019275Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 13:02:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at

Book Review: The Protection of the Environment and International Law: The Protection of the Environment and International Law, Edited by KissAlexandre-Charles. (Hague Academy of International Law Colloquium, 1973.) A. W. Sijthoff International Publishing Company, Leiden, Holland: 650 pp., 23.5 × 15.5 × 5.2 cm, Dfl. 70, 1975. --- Either ISSN or Journal title must be supplied

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