Malgosia Fitzmaurice speaks to us about her new textbook, International Environmental Law: Text, Cases and Materials published by Edward Elgar, 2023. The textbook was written with Meagan S. Wong and Joseph Crampin.
The aim of the book is to provide a comprehensive source publication to international environmental law, comprising text, legal regulation (treaties, soft law instruments) and the relevant case-law. The structure of the book is very comprehensive but not exhaustive . International Environmental Law is a very dynamic area of public international law and including everything is impossible. The selection and the overall focus of the book has identified the most important structural and legal feature, which have certain permanence in selected materials to present the most constructive and instructive analytical overview of international environmental law. Each chapter of the book sets out relevant legal instruments (binding and non-binding) and the case -law. Excerpts of important provisions of relevant instruments and passages from case -law are provided. These excerpts are, however, highly selected. Due to the wealth of the material and the often lengthy and highly technical nature of many legal provisions, it is not possible to reproduce treaties nd case-law in their entirety. While passages are selected to bring out the most salient points, this is not meant to, nor could it, replace need to examine primary materials in their entirety. Each chapter also provides a bibliography that is not intended to be comprehensive but focuses on a selection of important and recent scholarship. The book is intended to provide students, policy -makers, government advisors, non-legal experts, scientists and civil society, with broad understanding of the existing legal framework of International Environmental Law, which is accessible and easy to use.
It was a collaborative initiative of myself and my co-authors. There are several excellent textbooks on International Environmental Law, however, there were no books which would combine text; legal instruments and the case-law all in one volume and exclusively on this subject. We thought that this approach would give a holistic analytical overview of International Environmental Law and constitute a solid basis for further multitude of binding and non-binding legal instruments and cases in International Environmental Law, which are presented in a fragmented way, result in a very consuming and complex study process for students. We aimed at producing a book which brings together all relevant sources and includes a short overview of problems presented in chapters. However, it is to be emphasised that this book is not a substitute for in-depth studies of International Environmental Law as presented in current textbooks. The idea was to give a general overview of environmental problems, including all relevant materials for further, advanced studies of International Environmental Law. It was conceived as all -inclusive environmental book, which would be very good introduction to environmental protection.
International environmental law has undergone major development since the start of the 20th century.' States in the late 19th and early 20th century entered into agreements to regulate questions of conservation of natural resources or for the management of transboundary issues affecting rivers and lakes, but these covered discrete issues on an ad hoc basis. The principal change has been the development of a distinct field of law, bounded by its own principles and institutions, dedicated to the protection of the environment. Together with the development of a regime of environmental law has been a large expansion in treaties and other forms of international regulation at the global, regional and bilateral levels addressing an increasing range of environmental concerns.
Early examples of regulation of the environment under international law concerned the conservation and use of migratory species. The use of bilateral treaties to manage the exploitation and right to regulate the exploitation of fisheries is longstanding.? Specific concerns over overfishing developed in the second half of the 19th century, several treaties concluded to ensuring the better regulation and management of fisheries.' This period saw a shift in emphasis in international conventions, away from an earlier model in which agreements were concerned with the grant of rights to foreign nationals to exploit fisheries and to delimit the extent of the territorial state's power to regulate the overexploitation of its fisheries' and towards agreements designed to harmonise regulations for both nationals and foreign fishermen to protect against overexploitation.