The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory first developed by the German-born Italian sociologistRobert Michels in his 1911 book Political Parties. It asserts that rule by an elite, or oligarchy, is inevitable as an "iron law" within any democratic organization as part of the "tactical and technical necessities" of the organization.
Michels' theory states that all complex organizations, regardless
of how democratic they are when started, eventually develop into
oligarchies. Michels observed that since no sufficiently large and
complex organization can function purely as a direct democracy, power within an organization will always get delegated to individuals within that group, elected or otherwise. As he put it in Political Parties, "It is organization which gives dominion of the elected over the electors. [...] Who says organization, says oligarchy."
In 1911 using anecdotes from the histories of political parties and trade unions struggling to operate democratically, Michels considered his argument applicable to representative democracy at large.
He believed that "[h]istorical evolution mocks all the prophylactic
measures that have been adopted for the prevention of oligarchy."
According to Michels, all organizations eventually come to be run by a leadership class who often function as paid administrators, executives, spokespersons or political strategists
for the organization. Far from being servants of the masses, Michels
argues this leadership class, rather than the organization's membership,
will inevitably grow to dominate the organization's power structures. By controlling who has access to information, those in power can centralize their power successfully, often with little accountability, due to the apathy, indifference and non-participation most rank-and-file members have in relation to their organization's decision-making processes.
Michels argues that democratic attempts to hold leadership positions accountable are prone to fail, since with power comes the ability to reward loyalty,
the ability to control information about the organization, and the
ability to control what procedures the organization follows when making
decisions. All of these mechanisms can be used to strongly influence the
outcome of any decisions made 'democratically' by members.
Michels stated that the official goal of representative
democracy, of eliminating elite rule, was impossible; that
representative democracy is a façade legitimizing the rule of a particular elite; and that elite rule, which he referred to as oligarchy, is inevitable.
Michels later migrated to Italy and joined Benito Mussolini'sFascist Party, as he believed that this was the next legitimate step of modern societies.
In 1911, Robert Michels argued that, paradoxically,
the socialist parties of Europe, despite their democratic ideology and
provisions for mass participation, seemed to be dominated by their
leaders just like traditional conservative parties. Michels' conclusion was that the problem lay in the very nature of organizations. The more liberal
and democratic modern era allowed the formation of organizations with
innovative and revolutionary goals, but as such organizations become
more complex, they became less and less democratic and revolutionary.
Michels formulated the "iron law of oligarchy": "Who says organization,
says oligarchy."
Michels
stressed several factors that underlie the iron law of oligarchy. Darcy
K. Leach summarized them briefly as: "Bureaucracy happens. If
bureaucracy happens, power rises. Power corrupts." Any large organization, Michels pointed out, has to create a bureaucracy
in order to maintain its efficiency as it becomes larger—many decisions
have to be made daily that cannot be made by large numbers of
disorganized people. For the organization to function effectively,
centralization has to occur and power will end up in the hands of a few.
Those few—the oligarchy—will use all means necessary to preserve and
further increase their power.
According to Michels, this process is further compounded as
delegation is necessary in any large organization, as
thousands—sometimes hundreds of thousands—of members cannot make
decisions via participatory democracy. This has to date been dictated by the lack of technological means for large numbers of people to meet and debate, and also by matters related to crowd psychology,
as Michels argued that people feel a need to be led. Delegation,
however, leads to specialization—to the development of knowledge bases,
skills and resources among a leadership—which further alienates the
leadership from the rank and file and entrenches the leadership in
office. Michels also argued that for leaders in organizations, "The
desire to dominate [...] is universal. These are elementary
psychological facts." Thus, they were prone to seek power and dominance.
Bureaucracy by design leads to centralization of power by the
leaders. Leaders also have control over sanctions and rewards. They tend
to promote those who share their opinions, which inevitably leads to
self-perpetuating oligarchy. People achieve leadership positions because
they have above-average political skill (see Charismatic authority).
As they advance in their careers, their power and prestige increases.
Leaders control the information that flows down the channels of
communication, censoring what they do not want the rank-and-file to
know. Leaders will also dedicate significant resources to persuade the
rank-and-file of the rightness of their views. This is compatible with
most societies: people are taught to obey those in positions of
authority. Therefore, the rank and file show little initiative, and wait
for the leaders to exercise their judgment and issue directives to
follow.
Implications
The
"iron law of oligarchy" states that all forms of organization,
regardless of how democratic they may be at the start, will eventually
and inevitably develop oligarchic
tendencies, thus making true democracy practically and theoretically
impossible, especially in large groups and complex organizations. The
relative structural fluidity in a small-scale democracy succumbs to
"social viscosity" in a large-scale organization. According to the "iron
law", democracy and large-scale organization are incompatible.
One of the best known exceptions to the iron law of oligarchy is the now defunct International Typographical Union, described by Seymour Martin Lipset in his 1956 book, Union Democracy.
Lipset suggests a number of factors that existed in the ITU that are
supposedly responsible for countering this tendency toward bureaucratic
oligarchy. The first and perhaps most important has to do with the way
the union was founded. Unlike many other unions (e.g., the CIO's United Steel Workers of America
(USWA), and numerous other craft unions) which were organized from the
top down, the ITU had a number of large, strong, local unions who valued
their autonomy,
which existed long before the international was formed. This local
autonomy was strengthened by the economy of the printing industry which
operated in largely local and regional markets, with little competition
from other geographical areas. Large locals continued to jealously guard
this autonomy against encroachments by international officers. Second,
the existence of factions helped place a check on the oligarchic
tendencies that existed at the national headquarters. Leaders that are
unchecked tend to develop larger salaries and more sumptuous lifestyles,
making them unwilling to go back to their previous jobs. But with a
powerful out faction ready to expose profligacy, no leaders dared take
overly generous personal remuneration. These two factors were compelling
in the ITU case.
Lipset and his collaborators also cite a number of other factors
which are specific to craft unions in general and the printing crafts in
particular, including the homogeneity of the membership, with respect
to their work and lifestyles, their identification with their craft,
their more middle class lifestyle and pay. For this latter point he
draws upon Aristotle
who argued that a democratic polity was most likely where there was a
large, stable middle class, and the extremes of wealth and poverty were
not great. Finally, the authors note the irregular work hours which led
shopmates to spend more of their leisure time together. These latter
factors are less persuasive, since they do not apply to many industrial
forms of organization, where the greatest amount of trade union
democracy has developed in recent times.
Titus Gregory argues that university students' unions
today "exhibit both oligarchical and democratic tendencies". Unlike
trade unions they have an ideologically diverse membership, and
frequently have competitive democratic elections covered by independent
campus media who guard their independence. These factors are strongly
democratizing influences, creating conditions similar to those described
by Lipset about the ITU. However, Gregory argues student unions can
also be highly undemocratic and oligarchical as a result of the
transient membership of the students involved. Every year between one
quarter and one half of the membership turns over, and Gregory argues
this creates a situation where elected student leaders become dependent
on student union staff for institutional memory and guidance. Since many
students' unions extract compulsory fees from their transient
membership, and many smaller colleges and/or commuter campus can extract
this money with little accountability, oligarchical behaviour becomes
encouraged. For example, Gregory points out how often student union
election rules "operate under tyrannical rules and regulations" that are
used frequently by those in power to disqualify or exclude would-be
election challengers. Gregory concludes that students' unions can
"resist the iron law of oligarchy" if they have "an engaged student
community", an "independent student media", a "strong tradition of
freedom of information", and an "unbiased elections authority" capable
of administrating elections fairly.
Participatory subgroups and countervailing power
Jonathan
Fox's 1992 study focuses on how participatory subgroups within a
membership organization can generate a degree of countervailing power
that can at least temporarily mitigate the "iron law of oligarchy."
Wikipedia
Cumulative
growth in Wikipedia policy (red/solid line) and non-policy
(green/dashed line) pages, overlaid on active population (blue/dotted
line). Policy creation precedes the arrival of the majority of users,
while the creation of non-policy pages, usually in the form of essay and
commentary, lags the growth in population.
Research by Bradi Heaberlin and Simon DeDeo has found that the evolution of Wikipedia's network of norms over time is consistent with the iron law of oligarchy. Their quantitative analysis is based on data-mining over a decade of article and user information.
It shows the emergence of an oligarchy derived from competencies
in five significant "clusters": administration, article quality,
collaboration, formatting, and content policy. Heaberlin and DeDeo note:
"The encyclopedia's core norms address universal principles, such as
neutrality, verifiability, civility, and consensus. The ambiguity and
interpretability of these abstract concepts may drive them to decouple
from each other over time."
Adolf Gasser's proposed solution
In his book Gemeindefreiheit als Rettung Europas, published in 1943 (first edition in German) with a second edition in 1947 (in German), Adolf Gasser
stated the following requirements for a representative democracy in
order to remain stable, unaffected by Michels' iron law of oligarchy:
Society has to be built up from bottom to top. As a consequence,
society is built up by people, who are free and have the power to
defend themselves with weapons.
These free people join or form local communities. These local
communities are independent, which includes financial independence, and
they are free to determine their own rules.
Local communities join together into a higher unit e.g. a canton.
There is no hierarchical bureaucracy.
There is competition between these local communities e.g. on services delivered or on taxes.
Reception
In 1954, Maurice Duverger expressed general agreement with Michels's thesis.
In a 1953 study, C. W. Cassinelli argued that Michels's main thesis has
"a high degree of general credibility", but argued that the statement
of the theory was "inadequate" and that Michels's evidence for the
theory was "inconclusive". In a 1966 article, political scientist Dankwart Rustow described Michels's thesis as "a brilliantly fallacious argument a fortiori".
Rustow stated that the experience of the social democratic parties of
Europe could not be generalized for other political parties. Josiah Ober argues in Democracy and Knowledge
that the experience of ancient Athens shows Michels's argument does not
hold true; Athens was a large participatory democracy, yet it
outperformed its hierarchical rivals.
According to a 2000 article, "To the extent that contemporary
scholars ask at all about social movement organizations, they tend to
reinforce Michels’s claim that bureaucratized, established organizations
are more conservative in goals and tactics, though usually without
explicitly engaging the iron law debate."
The study however found that the iron law was malleable, and that
established labor unions could under certain circumstances revitalize
and experience radical change in line with its members' desires.
According to a 2005 study, "Despite almost a century of scholarly
debate on this question ... there is still no consensus about whether
and under what conditions Michels’s claim holds true."
One criticism is that power does not necessarily corrupt the leadership
of organizations, and that the structure of organizations can check
leaders.
Another criticism is that Michels does not outline the conditions under
which his thesis could be falsified nor a clear definition of what
constitutes oligarchy.
The method that Michels uses has sometimes been characterized as a
"crucial" or "least likely" case study, because he chose a case (the
German Social Democratic Party) that is least likely to support his
theory (because the German Social Democratic Party was an institution
that had a democratic process and ideology).
Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age,
there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the
Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have
borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as
their attitude towards one another, have varied from age to age: but the
essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous
upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always
reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to
equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other.
Some authors consider a special mechanism, wherein the high and the
low stratum of society are taken to conspire as to dominate the middle
one, to be a comparable notion by political theorist Bertrand de Jouvenel.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_law Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment. Environmental law is the collection of laws, regulations, agreements and common law that governs how humans interact with their environment. This includes environmental regulations; laws governing management of natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries; and related topics such as environmental impact assessments.
Environmental law is seen as the body of laws concerned with the
protection of living things (human beings inclusive) from the harm that
human activity may immediately or eventually cause to them or their
species, either directly or to the media and the habits on which they
depend.
Examples of laws designed to preserve the environment for its own
sake or for human enjoyment are found throughout history. In the common law, the primary protection was found in the law of nuisance, but this only allowed for private actions for damages or injunctions if there was harm to land. Thus, smells emanating from pigsties, strict liability against dumping rubbish,[5] or damage from exploding dams. Private enforcement, however, was limited and found to be woefully inadequate to deal with major environmental threats, particularly threats to common resources. During the "Great Stink" of 1858, the dumping of sewerage into the River Thames began to smell so ghastly in the summer heat that Parliament had to be evacuated. Ironically, the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers Act 1848 had allowed the Metropolitan Commission for Sewers to close cesspits around the city in an attempt to "clean up" but this simply led people to pollute the river. In 19 days, Parliament passed a further Act to build the London sewerage system. London also suffered from terrible air pollution, and this culminated in the "Great Smog" of 1952, which in turn triggered its own legislative response: the Clean Air Act 1956. The basic regulatory structure was to set limits on emissions for households and businesses (particularly burning of coal) while an inspectorate would enforce compliance.
Air quality laws govern the emission of air pollutants into the atmosphere. A specialized subset of air quality laws regulate the quality of air inside buildings.
Air quality laws are often designed specifically to protect human
health by limiting or eliminating airborne pollutant concentrations.
Other initiatives are designed to address broader ecological problems,
such as limitations on chemicals that affect the ozone layer, and emissions trading programs to address acid rain or climate change.
Regulatory efforts include identifying and categorising air pollutants,
setting limits on acceptable emissions levels, and dictating necessary
or appropriate mitigation technologies.
Water quality laws
govern the protection of water resources for human health and the
environment. Water quality laws are legal standards or requirements
governing water quality, that is, the concentrations of water pollutants
in some regulated volume of water. Such standards are generally
expressed as levels of a specific water pollutants (whether chemical,
physical, biological, or radiological) that are deemed acceptable in the
water volume, and are generally designed relative to the water's
intended use - whether for human consumption, industrial or domestic
use, recreation, or as aquatic habitat. Additionally, these laws provide
regulations on the alteration of the chemical, physical, radiological, and biological characteristics of water resources. Regulatory efforts may include identifying and categorizing water pollutants, dictating acceptable pollutant concentrations in water resources, and limiting pollutant discharges from effluent sources. Regulatory areas include sewage treatment and disposal, industrial and agricultural waste water management, and control of surface runoff
from construction sites and urban environments. Water quality laws
provides the foundation for regulations in water standards, monitoring,
required inspections and permits, and enforcement. These laws may be
modified to meet current needs and priorities.
Waste management laws govern the transport, treatment, storage, and disposal of all manner of waste, including municipal solid waste, hazardous waste, and nuclear waste, among many other types.
Waste laws are generally designed to minimize or eliminate the
uncontrolled dispersal of waste materials into the environment in a
manner that may cause ecological or biological harm, and include laws
designed to reduce the generation of waste and promote or mandate waste
recycling. Regulatory efforts include identifying and categorizing waste
types and mandating transport, treatment, storage, and disposal
practices.
Environmental cleanup laws govern the removal of pollution or contaminants from environmental media such as soil, sediment, surface water, or ground water.
Unlike pollution control laws, cleanup laws are designed to respond
after-the-fact to environmental contamination, and consequently must
often define not only the necessary response actions, but also the
parties who may be responsible for undertaking (or paying for) such
actions. Regulatory requirements may include rules for emergency
response, liability allocation, site assessment, remedial investigation,
feasibility studies, remedial action, post-remedial monitoring, and
site reuse.
Chemical safety
Chemical safety laws govern the use of chemicals
in human activities, particularly human-made chemicals in modern
industrial applications. As contrasted with media-oriented environmental
laws (e.g., air or water quality laws), chemical control laws seek to
manage the (potential) pollutants themselves. Regulatory efforts include
banning specific chemical constituents in consumer products (e.g., Bisphenol A in plastic bottles), and regulating pesticides.
Resource sustainability
Impact assessment
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences
of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to
move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term
"environmental impact assessment" is usually used when applied to actual
projects by individuals or companies and the term "strategic environmental assessment" (SEA) applies to policies, plans and programmes most often proposed by organs of state.It is a tool of environmental management forming a part of project approval and decision-making. Environmental assessments may be governed by rules of administrative procedure regarding public participation and documentation of decision making, and may be subject to judicial review.
Mining law is the branch of law relating to the legal requirements affecting minerals and mining.
Mining law covers several basic topics, including the ownership of the
mineral resource and who can work them. Mining is also affected by
various regulations regarding the health and safety of miners, as well
as the environmental impact of mining.
Forestry laws govern activities in designated forest lands, most commonly with respect to forest management and timber harvesting. Forestry laws generally adopt management policies for public forest resources, such as multiple use and sustained yield.
Forest management is split between private and public management, with
public forests being sovereign property of the State. Forestry laws are
now considered an international affair.
Governmental agencies are generally responsible for planning and
implementing forestry laws on public forest lands, and may be involved
in forest inventory, planning, and conservation, and oversight of timber sales. Forestry laws are also dependent on social and economic contexts of the region in which they are implemented.
The development of scientific forestry management is based on the
precise measurement of the distribution and volume of wood in a given
parcel, the systematic felling of trees, and their replacement by
standard, carefully aligned rows of mono-cultural plantations that could
be harvested at set times.
Wildlife and plants
Wildlife
laws govern the potential impact of human activity on wild animals,
whether directly on individuals or populations, or indirectly via
habitat degradation. Similar laws may operate to protect plant species.
Such laws may be enacted entirely to protect biodiversity,
or as a means for protecting species deemed important for other
reasons. Regulatory efforts may include the creation of special conservation statuses,
prohibitions on killing, harming, or disturbing protected species,
efforts to induce and support species recovery, establishment of
wildlife refuges to support conservation, and prohibitions on
trafficking in species or animal parts to combat poaching.
Fish and game laws regulate the right to pursue and take or kill certain kinds of fish and wild animal (game).
Such laws may restrict the days to harvest fish or game, the number of
animals caught per person, the species harvested, or the weapons or
fishing gear used. Such laws may seek to balance dueling needs for
preservation and harvest and to manage both environment and populations of fish and game. Game laws can provide a legal structure to collect license fees and other money which is used to fund conservation efforts as well as to obtain harvest information used in wildlife management practice.
Principles
Environmental
law has developed in response to emerging awareness of—and concern
over—issues impacting the world. While laws have developed piecemeal and
for a variety of reasons, some effort has gone into identifying key
concepts and guiding principles common to environmental law as a whole. Some laws are seen as temporary or transitional where political realities prevent adoption of more ideal rules. Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical letterLaudato si'
acknowledged that "political realism may call for transitional
measures and technologies, so long as these are accompanied by the
gradual framing and acceptance of binding commitments".
The principles discussed below are not an exhaustive list and are
not universally recognized or accepted. Nonetheless, they represent
important principles for the understanding of environmental law around
the world.
Defined by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) as "development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,"
sustainable development
may be considered together with the concepts of "integration"
(development cannot be considered in isolation from sustainability) and
"interdependence" (social and economic development, and environmental
protection, are interdependent). Laws mandating environmental impact assessment and requiring or encouraging development to minimize environmental impacts may be assessed against this principle.
Defined by UNEP to include intergenerational equity – "the right of
future generations to enjoy a fair level of the common patrimony" – and
intragenerational equity – "the right of all people within the current
generation to fair access to the current generation's entitlement to the
Earth's natural resources" – environmental equity considers the present
generation under an obligation to account for long-term impacts of
activities, and to act to sustain the global environment and resource
base for future generations. Pollution control and resource management laws may be assessed against this principle.
Transboundary responsibility
Defined
in the international law context as an obligation to protect one's own
environment, and to prevent damage to neighboring environments, UNEP
considers transboundary responsibility at the international level as a
potential limitation on the rights of the sovereign state. Laws that act to limit externalities imposed upon human health and the environment may be assessed against this principle.
Public participation and transparency
Identified
as essential conditions for "accountable governments,... industrial
concerns", and organizations generally, public participation and
transparency are presented by UNEP as requiring "effective protection of
the human right to hold and express opinions and to seek, receive and
impart ideas,... a right of access to appropriate, comprehensible and
timely information held by governments and industrial concerns on
economic and social policies regarding the sustainable use of natural
resources and the protection of the environment, without imposing undue
financial burdens upon the applicants and with adequate protection of
privacy and business confidentiality," and "effective judicial and
administrative proceedings". These principles are present in environmental impact assessment, laws requiring publication and access to relevant environmental data, and administrative procedure.
One of the most commonly encountered and controversial principles of environmental law, the Rio Declaration formulated the precautionary principle as follows:
In
order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be
widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there
are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific
certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective
measures to prevent environmental degradation.
The principle may play a role in any debate over the need for environmental regulation.
Prevention
The
concept of prevention can perhaps better be considered an overarching
aim that gives rise to a multitude of legal mechanisms, including prior
assessment of environmental harm, licensing or authorization that set
out the conditions for operation and the consequences for violation of
the conditions, as well as the adoption of strategies and policies.
Emission limits and other product or process standards, the use of best
available techniques and similar techniques can all be seen as
applications of the concept of prevention.
The polluter pays principle is the idea that "the environmental costs
of economic activities, including the cost of preventing potential
harm, should be internalized rather than imposed upon society at large." All issues related to responsibility for cost for environmental remediation and compliance with pollution control regulations involve this principle.
Theory
Environmental
law is a continuing source of controversy. Debates over the necessity,
fairness, and cost of environmental regulation are ongoing, as well as
regarding the appropriateness of regulations versus market solutions to
achieve even agreed-upon ends.
Allegations of scientific uncertainty fuel the ongoing debate over greenhouse gas regulation, and are a major factor in debates over whether to ban particular pesticides.
In cases where the science is well-settled, it is not unusual to find
that corporations intentionally hide or distort the facts, or sow
confusion.
It is very common for regulated industry to argue against environmental regulation on the basis of cost. Difficulties arise in performing cost–benefit analysis of environmental issues. It is difficult to quantify
the value of an environmental value such as a healthy ecosystem, clean
air, or species diversity. Many environmentalists' response to pitting
economy vs. ecology is summed up by former Senator and founder of Earth DayGaylord Nelson, "The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around." Furthermore, environmental issues are seen by many as having an ethical or moral
dimension, which would transcend financial cost. Even so, there are
some efforts underway to systemically recognize environmental costs and
assets, and account for them properly in economic terms.
While affected industries spark controversy in fighting
regulation, there are also many environmentalists and public interest
groups who believe that current regulations are inadequate, and advocate
for stronger protection. Environmental law conferences – such as the annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, Oregon – typically have this focus, also connecting environmental law with class, race, and other issues.
An additional debate is to what extent environmental laws are
fair to all regulated parties. For instance, researchers Preston Teeter
and Jorgen Sandberg highlight how smaller organizations can often incur
disproportionately larger costs as a result of environmental
regulations, which can ultimately create an additional barrier to entry
for new firms, thus stifling competition and innovation.
Global and regional environmental issues are increasingly the subject of international law.
Debates over environmental concerns implicate core principles of
international law and have been the subject of numerous international
agreements and declarations.
Customary international law
is an important source of international environmental law. These are
the norms and rules that countries follow as a matter of custom and they
are so prevalent that they bind all states in the world. When a
principle becomes customary law is not clear cut and many arguments are
put forward by states not wishing to be bound. Examples of customary
international law relevant to the environment include the duty to warn
other states promptly about icons of an environmental nature and
environmental damages to which another state or states may be exposed,
and Principle 21 of the Stockholm Declaration ('good neighborliness' or
sic utere).
Given that customary international law is not static but ever
evolving and the continued increase of air pollution (carbon dioxide)
causing climate changes, has led to discussions on whether basic
customary principles of international law, such as the jus cogens
(peremptory norms) and erga omnes principles could be applicable for
enforcing international environmental law.
Numerous legally binding international agreements
encompass a wide variety of issue-areas, from terrestrial, marine and
atmospheric pollution through to wildlife and biodiversity protection.
International environmental agreements are generally multilateral (or sometimes bilateral) treaties (a.k.a. convention, agreement, protocol, etc.). Protocols
are subsidiary agreements built from a primary treaty. They exist in
many areas of international law but are especially useful in the
environmental field, where they may be used to regularly incorporate
recent scientific knowledge. They also permit countries to reach an
agreement on a framework that would be contentious if every detail were
to be agreed upon in advance. The most widely known protocol in
international environmental law is the Kyoto Protocol, which followed from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
International environmental law also includes the opinions of
international courts and tribunals. While there are few and they have
limited authority, the decisions carry much weight with legal
commentators and are quite influential on the development of
international environmental law. One of the biggest challenges in
international decisions is to determine an adequate compensation for
environmental damages. The courts include the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the European Court of Justice, European Court of Human Rights and other regional treaty tribunals.
Previous research found that economic development level and the
nations' moral value affected environmental regulation compliance.
Developed countries like the US, EU, and Australia are urging for better
laws targeting the reduction of harmful environmental impacts. It is
worth noting that there is a direct correlation between economic
development and the distance between law and ethics. Developed countries
have a closer relationship between environmental laws and moral values.
If a country's legal system is completely divorced from its moral
values, people may not abide by the laws and they will lose their
significance and effectiveness. Despite environmental regulations, the
water in India's River Ganges remains poor as an example.
According to the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE), the major environmental issues in Africa are "drought and flooding, air pollution, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, freshwater availability, degradation of soil and vegetation, and widespread poverty." The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is focused on the "growing urban and industrial pollution, water quality, electronic waste and indoor air from cookstoves."
They hope to provide enough aid on concerns regarding pollution before
their impacts contaminate the African environment as well as the global
environment. By doing so, they intend to "protect human health,
particularly vulnerable populations such as children and the poor."
In order to accomplish these goals in Africa, EPA programs are focused
on strengthening the ability to enforce environmental laws as well as
public compliance to them. Other programs work on developing stronger
environmental laws, regulations, and standards.
Asia
The
Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN) is an
agreement between 16 Asian countries dedicated to improving cooperation
with environmental laws in Asia. These countries include Cambodia,
China, Indonesia, India, Maldives, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal,
Philippines, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and Lao
PDR.
European Union
The European Union
issues secondary legislation on environmental issues that are valid
throughout the EU (so called regulations) and many directives that must
be implemented into national legislation from the 27 member states
(national states). Examples are the Regulation (EC) No. 338/97 on the
implementation of CITES; or the Natura 2000 network the centerpiece for
nature & biodiversity policy, encompassing the bird Directive
(79/409/EEC/ changed to 2009/147/EC)and the habitats directive
(92/43/EEC). Which are made up of multiple SACs (Special Areas of
Conservation, linked to the habitats directive) & SPAs (Special
Protected Areas, linked to the bird directive), throughout Europe.
EU legislation is ruled in Article 249 Treaty for the Functioning
of the European Union (TFEU). Topics for common EU legislation are:
In February 2024, the European Parliament adopted a law making a big, intentionally caused, environmental damage “comparable to ecocide”
a crime that can be punished by up to 10 years in prison. The members
of the Union should enter it to their national law, during 2 years.
The Parliament also approved a nature restoration law which obligate
members to restore 20% of degraded ecosystems (including 30% of drained
peatland) by 2030 and 100% by 2050.
Middle East
Environmental law is rapidly growing in the Middle East. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working with countries in the Middle East
to improve "environmental governance, water pollution and water
security, clean fuels and vehicles, public participation, and pollution
prevention."
Oceania
The main concerns about environmental issues in Oceania are "illegal releases of air and water pollutants, illegal logging/timber trade, illegal shipment of hazardous wastes, including e-waste and ships slated for destruction, and insufficient institutional structure/lack of enforcement capacity". The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP)
is an international organization between Australia, the Cook Islands,
FMS, Fiji, France, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue,
Palau, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Island, Tonga, Tuvalu, US, and Vanuatu. The
SPREP was established in order to provide assistance in improving and
protecting the environment as well as assure sustainable development for
future generations.
Australia
Commonwealth v Tasmania (1983), also known as the "Tasmanian Dam Case", was a highly significant case in Australian environmental law.
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
is the centerpiece of environmental legislation in Australia. It sets
up the "legal framework to protect and manage nationally and
internationally important flora, fauna, ecological communities and
heritage places" and focuses on protecting world heritage properties,
national heritage properties, wetlands
of international importance, nationally threatened species and
ecological communities, migratory species, Commonwealth marine areas, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and the environment surrounding nuclear activities. However, it has been subject to numerous reviews examining its shortcomings, the latest taking place in mid-2020. The interim report of this review concluded that the laws created to protect unique species and habitats are ineffective.
Brazil
The Brazilian government created the Ministry of Environment
in 1992 in order to develop better strategies for protecting the
environment, using natural resources sustainably, and enforcing public
environmental policies. The Ministry of Environment has authority over
policies involving environment, water resources, preservation, and
environmental programs involving the Amazon.
Canada
The Department of the Environment Act establishes the Department of the Environment in the Canadian government as well as the position Minister of the Environment. Their duties include "the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the natural environment, including water, air and soil quality; renewable resources, including migratory birds and other non-domestic flora and fauna; water; meteorology;" The Environmental Protection Act
is the main piece of Canadian environmental legislation that was put
into place March 31, 2000. The Act focuses on "respecting pollution
prevention and the protection of the environment and human health in
order to contribute to sustainable development." Other principle federal statutes include the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, and the Species at Risk Act.
When provincial and federal legislation are in conflict federal
legislation takes precedence, that being said individual provinces can
have their own legislation such as Ontario's Environmental Bill of Rights, and Clean Water Act.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
"China has been working with great determination in recent years to
develop, implement, and enforce a solid environmental law framework.
Chinese officials face critical challenges in effectively implementing
the laws, clarifying the roles of their national and provincial
governments, and strengthening the operation of their legal system." Explosive economic and industrial growth in China has led to significant environmental degradation, and China is currently in the process of developing more stringent legal controls. The harmonization of Chinese society and the natural environment is billed as a rising policy priority.
Environmental lawsuits have been available in China since the early 2000s. Public protest, however, plays a greater role in shaping China's environmental policy than litigation does.
Congo (RC)
In the Republic of Congo,
inspired by the African models of the 1990s, the phenomenon of
constitutionalization of environmental law appeared in 1992, which
completed an historical development of environmental law and policy
dating back to the years of independence and even long before the
colonization. It gives a constitutional basis to environmental protection, which traditionally was part of the legal framework. The two Constitutions of 15 March 1992 and 20 January 2002 concretize this paradigm, by stating a legal obligation of a clean environment, by establishing a principle of compensation and a foundation of criminal nature. By this phenomenon, Congolese environmental law is situated between non-regression and the search for efficiency."
Ecuador
With the enactment of the 2008 Constitution, Ecuador became the first country in the world to codify the Rights of Nature. The Constitution, specifically Articles 10 and 71–74, recognizes the inalienable rights of ecosystems
to exist and flourish, gives people the authority to petition on the
behalf of ecosystems, and requires the government to remedy violations
of these rights. The rights approach is a break away from traditional
environmental regulatory systems, which regard nature as property and
legalize and manage degradation of the environment rather than prevent
it.
The Rights of Nature articles in Ecuador's constitution are part
of a reaction to a combination of political, economic, and social
phenomena. Ecuador's abusive past with the oil industry, most famously the class-action litigation against Chevron, and the failure of an extraction-based economy and neoliberal reforms to bring economic prosperity to the region has resulted in the election of a New Leftist regime, led by President Rafael Correa,
and sparked a demand for new approaches to development. In conjunction
with this need, the principle of "Buen Vivir," or good living – focused
on social, environmental and spiritual wealth versus material wealth –
gained popularity among citizens and was incorporated into the new
constitution.
The influence of indigenous groups, from whom the concept of
"Buen Vivir" originates, in the forming of the constitutional ideals
also facilitated the incorporation of the Rights of Nature as a basic
tenet of their culture and conceptualization of "Buen Vivir."
Egypt
The Environmental Protection Law
outlines the responsibilities of the Egyptian government to
"preparation of draft legislation and decrees pertinent to environmental
management, collection of data both nationally and internationally on
the state of the environment, preparation of periodical reports and
studies on the state of the environment, formulation of the national
plan and its projects, preparation of environmental profiles for new and
urban areas, and setting of standards to be used in planning for their
development, and preparation of an annual report on the state of the
environment to be prepared to the President."
In India, Environmental law is governed by the Environment Protection Act, 1986.
This act is enforced by the Central Pollution Control Board and the
numerous State Pollution Control Boards. Apart from this, there are also
individual legislation specifically enacted for the protection of
Water, Air, Wildlife, etc. Such legislations include :
The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974
The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977
The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980
The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981
Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) (Union Territories) Rules, 1983
The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972
Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules, 2001
Recycled Plastics, Plastics Manufacture and Usage Rules, 1999
The National Green Tribunal established under the National Green Tribunal Act of 2010
has jurisdiction over all environmental cases dealing with a
substantial environmental question and acts covered under the Water
(Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Rules, 1978
Ganga Action Plan, 1986
The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980
Wildlife protection Act, 1972
The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991 and the Biological
Diversity Act, 2002. The acts covered under Indian Wild Life Protection
Act 1972 do not fall within the jurisdiction of the National Green
Tribunal. Appeals can be filed in the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India.
Basel Convention on Control of Transboundary Movements on Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, 1989 and Its Protocols
Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Amendment Rules, 2003
Japan
The Basic Environmental Law is the basic structure of Japan's environmental policies replacing the Basic Law for Environmental Pollution Control and the Nature Conservation Law.
The updated law aims to address "global environmental problems, urban
pollution by everyday life, loss of accessible natural environment in
urban areas and degrading environmental protection capacity in forests
and farmlands."
The three basic environmental principles that the Basic
Environmental Law follows are "the blessings of the environment should
be enjoyed by the present generation and succeeded to the future
generations, a sustainable society should be created where environmental
loads by human activities are minimized, and Japan should contribute
actively to global environmental conservation through international
cooperation."
From these principles, the Japanese government have established policies
such as "environmental consideration in policy formulation,
establishment of the Basic Environment Plan which describes the
directions of long-term environmental policy, environmental impact
assessment for development projects, economic measures to encourage
activities for reducing environmental load, improvement of social
infrastructure such as sewerage system, transport facilities etc.,
promotion of environmental activities by corporations, citizens and
NGOs, environmental education, and provision of information, promotion
of science and technology."
The Ministry for the Environment and Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment were established by the Environment Act 1986. These positions are responsible for advising the Minister on all areas of environmental legislation. A common theme of New Zealand's environmental legislation is sustainably managing natural and physical resources, fisheries, and forests. The Resource Management Act 1991
is the main piece of environmental legislation that outlines the
government's strategy to managing the "environment, including air, water
soil, biodiversity, the coastal environment, noise, subdivision, and land use planning in general."
Russia
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation makes regulation regarding "conservation of natural resources, including the subsoil, water bodies, forests located in designated conservation areas, fauna and their habitat, in the field of hunting, hydrometeorology and related areas, environmental monitoring and pollution control, including radiation monitoring and control, and functions of public environmental policy making and implementation and statutory regulation."
Singapore
Singapore is a signatory of the Convention on Biological Diversity;
with most of its CBD obligations being overseen by the National
Biodiversity Reference Centre, a division of its National Parks Board (NParks). Singapore is also a signatory of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Animals, with its obligations under that treaty also being overseen by NParks. The Parliament of Singapore has enacted numerous pieces of legislation to fulfil its obligations under these treaties, such as the Parks and Trees Act, Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act, and Wildlife Act. The new Wildlife (Protected Wildlife Species) Rules 2020 marks the first instance in Singapore's
history that direct legal protection has been offered for specific
named species, as listed in Parts 1-5 of the Rules' schedule.
Vietnam is currently working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on dioxin remediation and technical assistance in order to lower methane emissions.
In March 2002, the U.S and Vietnam signed the U.S.-Vietnam Memorandum
of Understanding on Research on Human Health and the Environmental
Effects of Agent Orange/Dioxin.
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