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International Climate Change Law. By Daniel Bodansky , Jutta Brunnée and Lavanya Rajamani . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. xxxix, 400. Index. $105, £80.00.

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International Climate Change Law. By Daniel Bodansky , Jutta Brunnée and Lavanya Rajamani . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. xxxix, 400. Index. $105, £80.00.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2018

Peter H. Sand
Peter H. Sand*
Affiliation:
Institute of International Law, University of Munich
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American Journal of International Law , Volume 111 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 1074 - 1079
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Copyright © 2018 by The American Society of International Law 

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References

1 Keeling, Charles D., The Concentration and Isotopic Abundances of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere , 12 Tellus 200 (1960)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Keeling, Charles D., Is Carbon Dioxide from Fossil Fuel Changing Man's Environment? , 114 Proc. Am. Philosophical Soc'y 10 (1970)Google Scholar; Harris, Daniel C., Charles David Keeling and the Story of Atmospheric CO2 Measurements , 82 Analytical Chemistry 7865 (2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Siegenthaler, Ulrich & Oeschger, Hans, Biospheric CO2 Emissions During the Past 200 Years Reconstructed by Deconvolution of Ice Core Data , 39B Tellus 140 (1987)Google Scholar; Sand, Peter H., Lessons Learned in Global Environmental Governance 3 (1990)Google Scholar.

3 Weart, Spencer R., The Discovery of Global Warming 35 (rev. ed. 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See, e.g., Peel, Jacqueline, Climate Change Law: The Emergence of a New Discipline , 32 Melbourne U. L. Rev. 922 (2008)Google Scholar; Ogolla, Dan Bondi, Foreword, in The Oxford Handbook of International Climate Change Law, at vii (Carlarne, Cinnamon P., Gray, Kevin R. & Tarasofsky, Richard G. eds., 2016)Google Scholar; Farber, Daniel A. & Peeters, Marjan, The Emergence of Global Climate Law , in Climate Change Law 687 (Farber, Daniel A. & Peeters, Marjan eds., 2016)Google Scholar.

5 Ruhl, John B. & Salzman, James E., Climate Change Meets the Law of the Horse , 62 Duke L.J. 975 (2013)Google Scholar. The term (ironically describing an unsystematic compilation of rules) is by Gerhard Casper, as quoted by Easterbrook, Frank H., Cyberspace and the Law of the Horse , [1996] U. Chi. Legal F. 207Google Scholar, and originally inspired by Llewellyn, Karl N., Across Sales on Horseback , 52 Harv. L. Rev. 725, 737 (1939)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 See Schachter, Oscar, The Emergence of International Environmental Law , 44 J. Int'l Aff. 457 (1991)Google Scholar; Editors of the Harvard Law Review, Developments in the Law: International Environmental Law , 104 Harv. L. Rev. 1484 (1991)Google Scholar (editor-in-chief of the review at the time happened to be one Barack Obama).

7 Carlarne, Cinnamon P., Delinking International Environmental Law and Climate Change , 4 Mich. J. Envtl & Admin. L. 1, 4 (2014)Google Scholar; cited by Fisher, Elizabeth, Scotford, Eloise & Barritt, Emily, The Legally Disruptive Nature of Climate Change , 80 Modern L. Rev. 173, 200 (2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Convention on Biological Diversity, opened for signature June 5, 1992, 1760 UNTS 79; UN Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa, Oct. 14, 1994, 1954 UNTS 3; UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), May 9, 1992, 1771 UNTS 107.

9 Kyoto Protocol to the FCCC, Dec. 11, 1997, 2303 UNTS 162.

10 Paris Agreement (Dec. 13, 2015), in UN FCCC, Report of the Conference of the Parties on its Twenty-First Session, Addendum, at 21, UN Doc. FCCC/CP/2015/10/Add.1 (Jan. 29, 2016).

11 Term coined by Schmalensee, Richard, Greenhouse Policy Architectures and Institutions , in Economics and Policy Issues in Climate Change 137 (Nordhaus, William D. ed., 1998)Google Scholar.

12 Refuting early academic criticism which characterized the Agreement as “essentially a statement of good intentions” (Anne-Marie Slaughter, The Paris Approach to Global Governance, Project Syndicate (Dec. 28, 2015), at https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/paris-agreement-model-for-global-governance-by-anne-marie-slaughter-2015-12), and not “even an obligation to comply” (Richard Falk, “Voluntary” International Law and the Paris Agreement (Jan. 16, 2016), available at https://richardfalk.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/voluntary-international-law-and-the-paris-agreement).

13 Bodansky, Daniel, The Paris Climate Change Agreement: A New Hope? , 110 AJIL 288, 289 (2016)Google Scholar.

14 By contrast, the current Canadian government ratified and firmly supports the 2015 Paris Agreement.

15 Pp. 210–12. On the notorious different meaning of “treaties” in U.S. constitutional law as compared to the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1513 UNTS 293), see also Rajamani, Lavanya, The Devilish Details: Key Legal Issues in the 2015 Climate Negotiations , 78 Modern L. Rev. 826 (2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Bodansky, Daniel, The Legal Character of the Paris Agreement , 25 Rev. Eur. Comp. & Int'l Envtl L. 142 (2016)Google Scholar.

16 For an account of the internal White House dispute preceding the withdrawal, see Schwartz, John, Debate Over Paris Climate Deal Could Turn on a Single Phrase , N.Y. Times (May 2, 2017)Google Scholar; see also Rajamani, Lavanya & Brunnée, Jutta, The Legality of Downgrading Nationally Determined Contributions Under the Paris Agreement: Lessons from the US Disengagement , 29 J. Envtl L. 537 (2017)Google Scholar. On the non-regression principle, see generally La non-régression en droit de l'environnement (Prieur, Michel & Sozzo, Gonzalo eds., 2012)Google Scholar, and Mestre, Ramon Ojeda, Del eterno retorno a la no regresión , 44 Envtl Pol'y & L. 125 (2014)Google Scholar; but see also the caveat by Edith Brown Weiss, id. at 138, regarding the potential impact of new scientific evidence.

17 Rajamani, Lavanya, Reflections on the U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Agreement , EJIL Talk! (June 5, 2017)Google Scholar.

18 London Amendment of June 29, 1990, 1598 UNTS 469; accepted by the Russian Federation on Jan. 12, 1992.

19 See Werksman, Jacob, Compliance and Transition: Russia's Non-compliance Tests the Ozone Regime , 56 Heidelberg J. Int'l L. 750 (1996)Google Scholar; Victor, David G., The Operation and Effectiveness of the Montreal Protocol's Non-compliance Procedure , in The Implementation and Effectiveness of International Environmental Commitments: Theory and Practice 137, 155–64 (Victor, David G., Raustiala, Kal & Skolnikoff, Eugene B. eds., 1998)Google Scholar.

20 Viñuales, Jorge, The Paris Climate Agreement: An Initial Examination, Part III , EJIL Talk! (Feb. 8, 2016)Google Scholar.

21 Bodansky, The Paris Climate Change Agreement, supra note 13, at 317.

22 See also Voigt, Christina & Ferreira, Felipe, “Dynamic Differentiation”: The Principles of CBDR-RC, Progression and Highest Possible Ambition in the Paris Agreement , 5 Transnational Envtl L. 285 (2016)Google Scholar.

23 See, e.g., India's declaration on ratification of the Paris Agreement (Oct. 2, 2016, following the “Second US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue” in New Delhi, Aug. 30–31, 2016):

The Government of India declares its understanding that, as per its national laws; keeping in view its development agenda, particularly the eradication of poverty and provision of basic needs for all its citizens, coupled with its commitment to following the low carbon path to progress, and on the assumption of unencumbered availability of cleaner sources of energy and technologies and financial resources from around the world; and based on a fair and ambitious assessment of global commitment to combating climate change, it is ratifying the Paris Agreement.

United Nations Multilateral Treaty Database, Status of Treaties, ch. XXVII (Environment), 7.d (Paris Agreement), at https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XXVII-7-d&chapter=27&clang=_en#EndDec.

24 Robert O. Keohane & David G. Victor, The Regime Complex for Climate Change, 9 Perspectives on Politics 7 (2011). See also Harro van Asselt, The Fragmentation of Global Climate Governance: Consequences and Management of Regime Interactions 3 (2014).

25 P. 266. On recent decisions regarding greenhouse gas regulations for aircraft and ships, by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Assembly and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee, see Ahmad, Tanveer, Environmental Law: Emissions , in The Routledge Handbook of Public Aviation Law 197, 243 (Dempsey, Paul S. & Jakhu, Ram S. eds., 2017)Google Scholar; and Bicudo, Nathalie Clarenc, L'OMI et l'air impur du large: la vie juridique des règles relatives à la pollution atmosphérique des navires , 121 Revue Générale de Droit International Public 361 (2017)Google Scholar.

26 P. 276: Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-Level Ozone, Dec. 1, 1999, 2319 UNTS 81, amendments of May 4, 2012 (not yet in force); see Reis, Stefan, et al. , From Acid Rain to Climate Change , 338 Science 1153 (2012)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

27 Agreement Concerning the Establishing of Global Technical Regulations for Wheeled Vehicles, Equipment and Parts Which Can Be Fitted and/or Be Used on Wheeled Vehicles, June 25, 1998, 2119 UNTS 129; e.g., uniform emission test procedures, UN Doc. ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2017/95 (April 10, 2017). The Geneva standards (also accepted by Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Tunisia, South Africa, and the United States) were preceded by a series of UN/ECE regional technical regulations under the Agreement Concerning the Adoption of Uniform Conditions for Approval and Reciprocal Recognition of Approval for Motor Vehicles Equipment and Parts, Mar. 20, 1958, rev. 1995, 335 UNTS 211.

28 Third Report of the ILA Committee on Legal Principles Relating to Climate Change (Shinya Murase ed., 2014).

29 See pp. 39, 41–43, 52, 54. All three authors of this book were members of the ILA Committee between 2008 and 2014, with Lavanya Rajamani as Rapporteur.

30 Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations (Jaap Spiel ed., 2015).

31 Text of the nine draft guidelines provisionally adopted, with commentaries, in Int'l Law Comm'n, Rep. to the General Assembly on the Work of Its 69th Session, ch. VI, UN Doc. A/72/10 (2017).

32 Int'l Law Comm'n, Rep. to the General Assembly on the Work of Its 65th Session, 115, para. 168, UN Doc. A/68/10 (2013) (“understanding” on the scope of the project); reprinted in the session report by Murphy, Sean D., 108 AJIL 41, 56 (2014)Google Scholar. See Sand, Peter H., The Discourse on “Protection of the Atmosphere” in the International Law Commission , 26 Rev. Eur. Comp. & Int'l Envtl L. 201 (2017)Google Scholar.

33 Burger, Michael & Gundlach, Justin, The Status of Climate Change Litigation: A Global Review (2017)Google Scholar.

34 United Nations Environment Programme, The Adaptation Finance Gap Report 3, 44 (2016)Google Scholar.

35 United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, para. 47(d), UN Doc. A/CONF.224/CRP.1 (2015), available at http://www.unisdr.org/files/43291_sendaiframeworkfordrren.pdf (calling for the incorporation of disaster risk reduction measures into development assistance programs, including those for “adaptation to climate change”); see also The Routledge Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction Including Climate Change Adaptation (Ilan Kelman, Jessica Mercer & Jean-Christophe Gaillard eds., 2017).

36 Article 24 of the Paris Agreement incorporates by reference the traditional procedural options of FCCC Article 14 (which have never been used in practice).

37 See pp. 343–47, on the cases concerning Canada's and India's renewable energy “feed-in tariffs”; Reports of the WTO Appellate Body: WT/DS412/AB/R (2013), WT/DS426/AB/R (2013), and WT/DS456/AB/R (2016).