The Right to a Healthy Environment,Human Rights andSustainable Development

The concept of sustainable development is presented as a solution able to cope with development needs and the preservation of the environment, protecting it for present and future generations. The right to a healthy environment may be part of existing international law being implemented through human rights instruments. The procedural aspect of the right to a healthy environment embodies the right to information, the right to participate and the right to effective remedies. Participation in the decision-making process and available and effective means of redress are essential features of the right to a healthy environment. Expressed in the field of human rights law, these principles convey the notions that citizens are entitle to participate. The Aarhus Convention links environmental protection and human rights norms and is the first international legally binding instrument elaborating on Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration and recognizing the right to a healthy environment.     

NGO Standing in the European Court of Justice – Does the Aarhus Regulation Open the Door?

This article assesses whether the new European Community (EC) Regulation applying the provisions of the Aarhus Convention to EC institutions and bodies provides non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with access to justice in compliance with the EC's obligations under the Aarhus Convention. We conclude that, notwithstanding the uncertainty over the wording finally adopted in the Aarhus Regulation, the procedural rights granted to NGOs in the Regulation brings NGOs within the standing requirements of the EC Treaty, such that they can seek justice in the European courts. This is a significant development in the field of environmental democracy and procedural rights to the environment – including the ability to seek enforcement of the right to a healthy environment.     

克制和应对“碎片化”:WTO协定与多边环境和人权协定规范整合的司法路径

WTO协定在应对环境贸易争端和人权贸易争端时的贸易价值优先取向加剧了国际法的"碎片化"和"不成体系"问题。为克制和应对国际法的"碎片化",促进WTO协定与多边环境和人权协定的规范整合,《维也纳条约法公约》第31(3)(c)条可作为整体解释方法的条约依据运用于WTO协定的司法解释中,但这需要专家组和上诉机构对条约"解释"和条约"适用"做出革新的认识,将整体解释方法作为自治的条约解释方法在人权和环境贸易争端中适用,而不是陷于第31(3)(c)条所述之当事国为"条约当事国"还是"争端当事国"之争。     

INTERNATIONAL PARENTAL CHILD ABDUCTION: WHY WE NEED TO EXPAND CUSTODY RIGHTS PROTECTED UNDER THE CHILD ABDUCTION CONVENTION

The Child Abduction Convention, an international treaty, protects custody rights internationally among its member states by providing a remedy of return in cases where a child was wrongfully removed in violation of a parent's custody right. There is no such remedy for the violation of a parent's access (or visitation) rights. A ne exeat clause in a child custody agreement restrains a custodial parent from removing a child from a predetermined jurisdiction (such as a particular country) and can be issued when there is a risk that the custodial parent might flee to another country with the child(ren). Currently there is a circuit split within the United States as to whether a ne exeat right coupled with the right of access should equal a protected custody right under the Convention. Most international courts protect the ne exeat right under the Convention; however some do not. A ne exeat right should convey a protected custody right for policy reasons. The beneficial implications of a ne exeat right creating a protected custody right under the Child Abduction Convention clearly outweigh the detriments. While there is no instant solution to the inconsistencies among various courts in interpreting the Child Abduction Conventions’ scope in regard to a ne exeat right, there are ways to resolve the problem. If consistency in judicial interpretation cannot be achieved, a movement needs to be initiated to create a protocol to the Child Abduction Convention to further explain the scope of custody rights and ne exeat rights under the Convention.     

Accountability in Governance: The Challenge of Implementing the Aarhus Convention in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The signing of the 1998 UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) radically extended international law on transparency and accountability in environmental governance. For the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) that have now ratified, the Convention could prompt profound democratic changes. This article, based on the authors' experiences, analyses changing cultures of governance in EECCA countries. The first so-called pillar of access to information sets in place rights that directly contradict the fundamental secrecy of the former Soviet Union countries. Some officials' reluctance to share environmental information may also be linked to the economic duress of the current transition period, where information may be an official's only asset. The second pillar of public participation also poses difficulties for officials for whom the highest praise is to be considered a professional. In their belief that no one knows better than they do, they are reluctant to spend time and resources to make decision-making transparent and to involve the public. The third pillar of access to justice breaks new ground for post-socialist countries still developing their judicial systems. Though several highly sophisticated NGOs have been successful in using courts, it remains difficult for an ordinary EECCA citizen to bring an environment-related legal action. Changing these attitudes and practices will be a long and troublesome process. The Aarhus Convention will not be truly implemented until openness, transparency and accountability in environmental decision-making become everyday habits.     

Taking Metaregulation to the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Regime: The Case of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

This article argues that regulatory scholarship can be harnessed to promote human rights, in this case the rights of persons with disabilities. It argues that the regulatory regime of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Convention) establishes a human rights metaregulatory regime. It shows that the Convention delegates all of the regulatory functions to four different actors, to the effect that no single actor has the full range of regulatory competencies. The implication of this high degree of delegation is that the Convention establishes a three‐party framework whereby the interaction between the regulatee and the two regulators is mediated by an oversight body. While organically independent, each actor is functionally interdependent so that an equilibrium is established. At a time where the effectiveness of the UN human rights treaty system is under assault, this article argues that the metaregulatory regime of the CRPD provides an optimistic vision for the future of human rights treaties.     

得知权理念及其在我国的初步实践

基于对 2 0世纪后半期以来 ,逐步形成的信息情报公开法制化的世界潮流及中国在近年开始推行政务公开政策 ,实施政府上网工程的实证考察 ,本文将中国法学界通常讨论的知情权问题重新表述为更具有人民主权意义的得知权理念 ,并将其论述为公民在知识经济与信息网络时代的第一位基本权利与首要人权 ,论述了得知权在世界范围内的普及与曲折的法制化进程 ,并就得知权在中国的初步实践及走向法制化途径问题作了积极探讨     

Shaping the Structure of Legal Opportunities: Environmental NGOs Bringing International Environmental Procedural Rights Back Home

Research on legal opportunity structures has focused on how existing law, standing rules, and the costs of litigation shape the likelihood that social movement groups will mobilize the law. Yet there has been relatively little research on how and why legal opportunity structures change over time. This article focuses on a case study of the mobilization of procedural environmental rights contained within the Aarhus Convention. It addresses the following empirical puzzle: how did rights that were designed to help Eastern Europeans achieve environmental democracy eventually contribute to a reshaping of the structure of legal opportunities in Britain? Through a two‐step historical process‐tracing analysis that relies on a social constructivist theoretical approach, this research shows that environmental groups mobilized Aarhus rights in a number of ways and across different judicial venues, resulting in an evolution over time of the meaning of access to justice so that it included being “not prohibitively expensive.” This research builds on previous work to show that civil society agents are not passive agents situated within legal opportunity structures but instead are strategic actors who can develop and shape access to justice through policy entrepreneurialism and litigation.     

环境权与人权问题的国际视野

环境权可以视为第一代人权中的生命权、私人生活权、财产权,由此可以促使政府保护生命和财产免受环境侵害,但这会产生人类中心主义问题;作为第二代人权,能够赋予环境质量以同其他经济、社会与文化权利相当的法律地位,使其优先于其他无权利依据的客体,但是很少对这类人权进行司法;作为集体权利有环境保护的意义,例如保护少数族裔文化和土著居民。国际法上环境权作为实体权利还未建立起来,作为程序性权利体现为公众对环境事务的知情权,决策参与权,司法救济权。通过人权保护环境,其优点在于人权与环境权相比是一项确定的权利,人权法院裁判了一些有环保意义的案子,缺点在于与人无关的环境本身的损害得不到保护,无法进行公益诉讼。     

儿童免受性侵害的权利--对我国儿童性法律的审视

在国际法上 ,性越来越与人权联系在一起 ,越来越被视为一种基本人权 ,性法律逐步从主要维护性秩序转向主要保护个人的性人权。《儿童权利公约》就突出体现了性人权的视角。我国已经批准《儿童权利公约》和《〈儿童权利公约〉关于买卖儿童、儿童卖淫和儿童色情制品问题的任择议定书》。在性人权的视角下 ,我国儿童性法律存在明显的缺陷与不足。儿童性法律的修改 ,应朝着更加人权化的方向进行 ,以便从一个侧面推动我国的人权建设。     

STUDY ON THE CHALLENGES AND PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES TO REHABILITATION IN CHINA

Obtaining effective rehabilitation and gaining access to full development services are fundamental for children with disabilities to fully participate in society and achieve social inclusion. A disabled child’s right to rehabilitation is specially protected by law in China and internationally. Chinese law specifically provides that the State shall ensure the enjoyment of the right of children with disabilities to rehabilitation services. This study shows that in the last five years, the rehabilitation services for children with disabilities are generally improved. But due to the incomplete protection mechanism, the right of children with disabilities to rehabilitation still could not be fully realized. This article concludes that the rehabilitation situation of children with disabilities in China presents the general feature of lacking of opportunities and structural imbalance. The Chinese government should take more responsibility to improve the rehabilitation system for children with disabilities. Specifically, the Chinese government should undertake the obligations as stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to provide rehabilitation services for all children with disabilities. To ensure the effective implementation of the right of children with different disabilities in different areas, China shall improve the rehabilitation legal system, establish an urban-rural integral rehabilitation system, enlarge financial invest and increase professional level of rehabilitation staff.     

The Aarhus convention and process cosmopolitanism

The convention on access to information, public participation in decision making and access to justice in environmental matters (Aarhus) celebrates its twentieth birthday in 2018, yet its ethical potential remains unexamined. This paper assesses its ethical potential via the ethico-normative lens of the English School of international relations, eliciting the degree of pluralism and solidarism evident. It first presents pluralism and solidarism as ideal types against which research objects are assessed. Second, it analyses Aarhus’ trinity of procedural rights, identifying solidarist potential whilst noting pluralist realities. Third, it casts Aarhus as exemplifying a nascent process cosmopolitanism, rendering sovereignty more responsible by enriching it with humanity, which here denotes a rudimentary sense of affinity between humans, irrespective of territorial identities, based on the rights shared by, and duties towards, one another. The paper concludes that Aarhus demonstrates the presence of, and contributes to, a solidarist international society, delineated by convention membership. If weaker cosmopolitanism accords equal concern to humans and stronger cosmopolitanism requires equal treatment, Aarhus demonstrates the feasibility of a stronger cosmopolitanism emerging in international environmental politics. Chiefly, Aarhus seeks to reduce imposed harm, suffered by humans who lack the knowledge and autonomy to influence decisions that affect them. Such headway is tentative, but this is welcomed as evolutionary reform coheres with the persistence of sovereign statehood. Aarhus’ cosmopolitanism, yielding a moderating influence on sovereignty, will not emerge without a stable framework in which states institutionalise it. International politics remains, but can be enriched by procedural approaches to foregrounding human rights, which states must accommodate to be deemed legitimate.     

环境权新探

环境权是一项基本人权,无需许可,不能剥夺,不可让渡,而环境开发利用权属于一种财产性权利,通常需经许可而取得,其行使须遵循特定程序,因此环境开发利用权不属于环境权的内容。由于后代人具有范围和时间上的不确定性,不宜将后代人纳入环境权的主体范围,但视后代人环境权利为一种道德权利则是可取的。同时环境权利与环境义务在环境法律关系中的错位以及权利与义务在主体间分配的不均衡性表明环境权不能既是权利又是义务,环境权主体并非环境权利和环境义务的统一体。     

论人权原则与政府信息公开

人权原则以及政府信息公开制度的确立,体现了我国法治建设的重大成就和历史性进步。人权原则对政府信息公开制度具有理论和实践指导意义,人权原则在政府信息公开过程中具有抗衡权、正当程序实现权和保护请求权等应然权利。本文将人权原则理念与政府信息公开制度两者联系起来加以考察,以求达到人权原则对政府信息资源运用的理性指导与控制,进而构建政府权威信息源头地位。     

论环境权的性质

环境权是一项以环境要素为权利对象、以环境利益为权利客体、以享用良好环境为主要内容的,具有人格面向的非财产性权利。环境权本身既非人格权亦非财产权,而是一项需要综合运用公法和私法、实体法和程序法进行系统保护的独立、新型的环境享用权。环境权与资源权、排污权的权利对象都是自然要素,但三者的权利客体各异,分别指向环境支持功能、资源供给功能和环境纳污功能。资源权、排污权属于广义财产权的范畴,在价值取向上同环境权截然相反;自然保护地役权具有民事权利和行政权力的双重属性,属于保护自然的权利。被称为程序性环境权的环境知情权和环境参与权,亦非环境权,而属于保护和实现环境权的派生性权利。生态环境损害赔偿诉讼在本质上属于责令赔偿生态环境损害之行政命令的司法执行诉讼,尽管同自然资源损害赔偿诉讼一样,也具有环境权益保护的重要作用,但二者均不属于环境权诉讼的范畴。     

Humanising Imprisonment: A European project?

This paper focuses on the continued significance of human rights in the movement to develop a more comprehensive European framework to improve prison conditions. It identifies the immediate factors that underlie the movement as the successful implementation of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment; the growing number of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights applying the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms to prison matters; the expansion of the number of member states of the Council of Europe; and the increased political interest at European level in penological matters. Attention is also paid to the wider ideological role that a concern for human rights plays in European criminal justice politics. The paper illustrates the reform movement by focussing on recent recommendations of the Council of Europe on various aspects of imprisonment, including the new European Prison Rules. The possible emergence of an international instrument of treaty status that would deal directly with substantive conditions of imprisonment is noted and its potential impact considered. An argument is made for the systemisation of European prison law and for further reform initiatives.     

国际商事仲裁中当事人意思自治领域的新发展——以《纽约公约》第5、6、7条的修改为中心

《纽约公约》是当今承认与执行外国仲裁裁决领域最具影响力的国际公约,自1958年生效以来,已经得到约140个国家的承认。《纽约公约》对促进国际经贸的发展作出了巨大的贡献,但在近半个世纪的适用实践中,它也暴露出一些不足,在某些方面还引起了较大的争议。本文从仲裁的本质出发,论述如何通过对《纽约公约》的修改,扩大当事人意思自治的范围,营造一个更有利于国际商事仲裁的环境。     

Transparency in 21st century fisheries management: Options for public participation to enhance conservation and management of international fish stocks

Abstract

Effective implementation of international environmental and natural resource conservation agreements depends not only upon the cooperation of contracting parties, but also upon the ability of the agreement to win the continuing support and input of non‐governmental stakeholders. This view, accepted and advocated by nations in the 1992 Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and the recent Aarhus Convention on Public Participation, is now being incorporated into modern regional fisheries management organizations. These and earlier fisheries organizations can benefit from an awareness of how other multilateral agreements that adhere to the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 tenets have enhanced sustainable development through their provisions for transparency and public participation. This article surveys how these regimes have implemented the principles of access to information, access to decision‐making and access to justice, and makes corresponding recommendations to assist fisheries management organizations in achieving their goals.     

The Cybercrime Convention Committee's 2017 Guidance Note on Production Orders: Unilateralist transborder access to electronic evidence promoted via soft law

This article provides a critical analysis of the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention Committee's Guidance Note of Production Orders, published on 1 March 2017. The article looks at the legal controversies surrounding production orders with a cross-border element. It explains the Guidance Note's background and origins, the basic provisions in the Cybercrime Convention allowing the law enforcement authorities to order and obtain certain information and discusses the requirements that follow from the relevant provisions of the Convention. This analysis is complemented by four critical remarks on the way the Guidance Note pushes the boundaries of acceptable treaty interpretation on the necessity of the Guidance Note, its position in regard to extraterritorial enforcement jurisdiction and sovereignty, its reticence towards fundamental rights and its refusal to define or clarify the important notion of “subscriber information”. The article argues that unilateralism is not a solution. Instead of soft law plumbing, what is needed is an agreement between sovereign states checked by their constituencies.     

领土条约的界定标准、解释方法及其运行结构

领土主权属于一国的核心利益问题。国际法院基于《维也纳条约法公约》第31-32条之规定,在解决领土条约争端时采取了"实质优于形式"和"同意"等界定标准。同时,在适用该《公约》解释相关条款时采取了不同的解释方法,体现了一定的灵活性,但也出现过矛盾与反复。对此,应根据该《公约》第31-32条规定的内部要素及外部变量,优化领土条约的解释方法和运行结构。这种路径的设计不再拘泥于《条约法公约》本身,适当拓展、引入当事方提供的证明事实真相的关键证据,对领土条约的解释进行补充说明,并非游离于《条约法公约》之外,转而寻求保持占有法律、有效控制等法理基础及相应的事实主张和证据,而是将两者合而为一,以《条约法公约》解释规则为主,其他关键证据为辅的层级解释路径。另外,国际法院在解释相关领土条约时,除了适用"《条约法公约》+其他层级关键证据"模式外,还应借鉴学界的解释方法论,以使得两者交互影响,进一步完善条约解释方法的路径,实现对领土条约解释规则的再造。