Global principles for sustainable biofuel production and trade

This article examines international attempts to regulate the production of and trade in biofuels by establishing criteria and indicators and certification schemes. It focuses on the norms underlying the criteria and the community constructed on the basis of them. The theoretical approach here rests on a discussion of these norms and on their constitutive role. This role creates a community and gives an institutional basis for the global public domain. Accordingly, different norms create the network on which environmental governance is based. It is assumed that commonly accepted criteria form a common norm. The article analyses eleven criteria and indicator systems and compares the criteria adopted. Eight were created for biofuels and bioenergy and three are used in forest certification. Comparison reveals that the criterion aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is used in Northern systems, whereas commonly accepted environmental criteria are biodiversity and minimization of pollution. The web of norms on which biofuel production and trade is based comprises environmental norms together with the general norm of sovereignty and the norms of the market economy.

环境治理和可持续发展：中国环境法的成就、问题和展望

本文阐明了中国环境法60年的发展概况、所取得的成就、所存在的主要问题以及今後的发展方向。主张在环境立法内容方面,加强有关环境治理、环境善治、公民环境权、环境民主、公秉参与、环境知情权、环境公益诉讼、政府环境责任及政府环境责任问责制方面的立法：在环境法学研究方面提出：促进研究范式从“主、客二分”到“主、客一体”的转变;促进环境法上的人的模式从经济人模式、主体人模式向生态人模式转变。认为环境法治理建设应该以可持续发展为目标,以生态文明为方向,以环境法治为灵魂,以维护环境正义公平为宗旨,以环境安全为前提,以人与自然和谐相处为核心,以环境民主为手段,以追求环境效益和环境效率为激励机制,以健全综合生态系统管理和环境“善治”机制为导向,充分发挥环境法律调整人与自然关系的作用,使其成为建设环境友好社会、资源节约型社会和生态文明社会的法律保障。环境法学应该研究生态化方法和综合生态系统管理理论,促进环境法向生态法转变,促进环境法律制度的生态化．     

The role of principles for allocating governance levels in the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development

The global deliberations on sustainable development took another step in their more than 20-year history at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. A recurrent dimension of these negotiations is the allocation of governance to one or more specific levels in the outcome document. This allocation reflects the international consensus on who at what level should do what in sustainable development, and it has implications for both the effectiveness and legitimacy of sustainable development governance. This paper investigates the negotiation process and outcome of the conference preceding Rio + 20, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, analysing the extent to which normative principles played a role in the allocation of governance to specific levels. This was done through qualitative and quantitative analyses of the different drafts of the outcome document. The results show that, although there were clearly limited explicit discussions on principles, it was possible to infer elements of several normative principles for allocating governance in the arguments and outcome of the negotiations. Most prominent among these principles were national sovereignty, but both the principles of substantive and procedural subsidiarity could be detected as well as the principles of fit, culpability and capacity.     

Subnational governments in transnational networks for sustainable development

Since the 1970s, subnational entities such as provinces, states or regions have joined together in transnational associations based upon common interests, especially in Europe. Such transnational networks of subnational governments have also been created in the sphere of sustainable development, a policy domain that is largely shaped in multilateral decision-making settings and that is characterized by complexity and uncertainty, urging policy-makers to learn from other governments. Those networks have both external and internal objectives. On the one hand, they want to represent their members at international organizations and influence multilateral decision-making. On the other hand, they are aimed at fostering cooperation between subnational governments and at stimulating policy learning. After presenting a typology of existing networks in the sphere of sustainable development, the article presents a comparative analysis of the participation of the Belgian entities Flanders and Wallonia in ENCORE (Environmental Conference of the European Regions) and nrg4SD (Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development). The research shows that Flanders and Wallonia use networks mostly for formal and informal cooperation but not for influencing multilateral decision-making for sustainable development. The external dimension of the networks, however, is applied for identity politics. The analysis also demonstrates that little political capital is invested in the networks.     

Global financial governance and the informal: limits to the regulation of money

The list of predicate crimes for the Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has evolved and grown over its twenty-five year existence. The evolution of this list reflects shifting concerns among the central actors in the organisation, as well as representing a response to any ‘displacement’ activity undertaken by those seeking to avoid these forms of governance. When the scope for cooperation and compliance with the FATF Forty Recommendations was extended beyond the organisation’s membership this governance regime encountered business sectors and financial practices not readily amenable to its objectives. This paper considers the causes and consequences for the situation, as developing economy states attempt to comply with the global governance expectations of the FATF when a significant portion of the domestic economy operates ‘informally’. A frame of reference is provided, with a definition for the informal economy and the concept of displacement as used in research on criminal activity. The focus here is with the nature of the cash economy operating beyond the scope of financial surveillance with implications for the comprehensive effectiveness of the global financial governance regime. The context of informal financial practice and its separation from the regulatory structures of the state leads to a conclusion that global financial governance is limited in practice to the domain of the formal economy.     

国家管辖范围外区域海洋遗传资源管理机制探究

国家管辖范围外区域蕴藏着丰富的海洋遗传资源,但现有的国际法尚未对其管理机制作出明确规定。近年来,国际社会在多个论坛对此问题展开讨论,并提出了一系列可供参考的解决进路。其中,扩大管理局的职能范围,使其能对海洋遗传资源进行有效管理具有诸多优势,但与发达国家的利益相左,实施难度较大;采用区域性管理机制能使特定区域纳入法律的运行轨道,却容易导致情势的碎片化;实施短效管理机制虽能防止形势恶化,可并不具有拘束力;制定一部《海洋法公约》的执行协定无疑是解决问题的最佳方式,也是未来的发展方向。     

我国可持续发展法律制度之构建

可持续发展是人类未来的共同发展战略 ,它将人类社会发展与资源开发和环境保护结合起来 ,是当前最新的一种发展理念 ,并正在成为我国立法的一项指导原则。然而 ,能否在这一原则之下制定我国专门的可持续发展法律制度 ,以及可持续发展法律制度在现有法律体系和法律部门中如何定位和构建等 ,是法学界颇有争议的问题。本文认为 ,我国应当建立符合可持续发展内在要求的可持续发展法律制度 ,并应将其纳入我国社会主义市场经济法律体系之中予以规范。     

论经济可持续发展中政府的生态责任

随着经济的发展,人们越来越清醒地认识到以污染环境和破坏生态来换取一时经济繁荣的矛盾日益突出,如果不尽快解决好这个矛盾,经济的可持续发展就会受到严重制约。面临环境污染、资源浪费、水土流失、土地沙漠化等生态环境恶化问题以及由此产生的“生态贫困——经济落后——环境退化”的PPE恶性循环怪圈,政府应当担当起经济可持续发展中的生态责任来。本文先分析了制约我国经济可持续发展的生态问题,然后在此基础上论述了政府在经济可持续发展中的生态责任。     

Research universities as actors in the governance of local and regional development

In the increasingly competitive, knowledge-based economy, universities have a variety of potential roles for stimulating economic development beyond teaching, research and technology development. In this article we focus on universities’ role as actors in the governance of local and regional development. Using recently developed theories about the emergence of heterarchical governance, we discuss the motivations, interests, structural arrangements, and contingent conditions for universities becoming actors and partners in steering regional economic development policy and contributing to regional problem-solving, and explore the how university involvement may increase the effectiveness of governance processes. We test several hypotheses and draw lessons for the design and participation of governance arrangements. Our results suggest that individual leadership initiatives and the quality or interpersonal working relationships among leaders may be more important than the particular structural arrangements for producing effective governance outcomes.     

Corporate governance and financial development: a study of the French case

This paper belongs to the growing body of the “Law and finance” literature based on time-series study. It carries out an empirical investigation of the role of corporate governance in financial development. We focus on French corporate governance reforms in order to examine whether these reforms are consistent with the reorganization of the French financial system, which took place during the period 1977–2004. This research aims at evaluating one proposition of the legal origin claims based on the idea that there is a strong and stable relationship between legal origin, investor protection and financial system. A key question the study addresses is how corporate governance rules and the French financial development have changed over time. Our study suggests that indicators related to investors’ rights (shareholders, employees, and bondholders) have been increasing over time, despite the specific legal origin of the French system. On the contrary the creditors’ rights have followed a less clear trend. Our econometric investigation is fairly new as the Law and finance literature has not until now provided corporate governance indicators suitable for French legislation. From that perspective, our work undergoes a multiple criteria analysis of corporate governance reforms. Following this approach, we suggest that the causality links between changes in the French legal environment and financial growth in France are more bidirectional than unidirectional.     

Making the investment provisions of the Energy Charter Treaty sustainable development friendly

The International Energy Agency estimates that $16 trillion of investment will be needed to meet world energy requirements from 2003 to 2030. The world's poorest countries, where some of the fastest rates of increase in energy production are expected, will require a significant portion of this investment. Energy investment, both as a source of foreign exchange and to expand local access to electricity and other forms of energy, is integral to socioeconomic development. It is reasonable to expect that this anticipated investment will witness a significant number of disputes between investors and host governments. A fair and just dispute settlement system can help promote the needed investment and sustainable development. The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) takes a comprehensive approach to the international energy sector, including coverage of trade, transit, competition and the environment, but its investment provisions have proven most significant with three international arbitral tribunals having issued decisions under the treaty and more disputes pending. While much of the ECT's effort has been to bridge the former East–West economic divide, the Treaty's scope of application is potentially worldwide, and given the inextricable link between energy, development and the environment it makes sense that the Treaty process forge a developing-country regime, one that promotes the development of energy resources and sustainable development. Drawing upon the work of Konrad von Moltke and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and in light of tribunal decisions to date, this essay maintains, inter alia, that the ECT should impose basic transparency and good faith requirements on investors and create a special developing-country regime, promoting sustainable development.

Breaking the mold: a new type of multilateral sustainable development negotiation

Participants in the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were reminded time and again that there is no model for the process to develop the SDGs. They resolved to not repeat the closed process used to develop the Millennium Development Goals, but the OWG began work when failures to reach consensus and fatigue with multilateral environmental negotiations dominated delegates’ minds, rather than examples of successfully negotiated outcomes. The OWG Co-Chairs were faced with the daunting task of guiding delegates’ efforts to develop a proposed set of crisp SDGs and targets that all could agree to, and thus, had to accomplish the following goals: (1) reduce delegation rigidity, both of individual Member States and within coalitions; (2) maximize the sense of participation, transparency, and ownership to get the most buy-in at the end; and (3) develop a sense of trust that would change the relationship between Member States. To do this, the OWG Co-Chairs broke the mold of UN multilateral negotiations that Member States and observers had become familiar with and created a different approach. This article examines how the OWG accomplished these goals and overcame the shortcomings of other multilateral negotiating processes on sustainable development to produce a widely supported consensus outcome at a time when governments have struggled to achieve agreement in many multilateral negotiation tracks.     

Land-based negative emissions: risks for climate mitigation and impacts on sustainable development

This paper focuses on the risks associated with “negative emissions” technologies (NETs) for drawing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and storing it in land-based sinks or underground. Modelled mitigation pathways for 1.5 °C assume NETs that range as high as 1000 Gt CO₂. We argue that this is two to three times greater than the amount of land-based NETs that can be realistically assumed, given critical social objectives and ecological constraints. Embarking on a pathway that assumes unrealistically large amounts of future NETs could lead society to set near-term targets that are too lenient and thus greatly overshoot the carbon budget, without a way to undo the damage. Pathways consistent with 1.5 °C that rely on smaller amounts of NETs, however, could prove viable. This paper presents a framework for assessing the risks associated with negative emissions in the context of equity and sustainable development. To do this, we identify three types of risks in counting on NETs: (1) that NETs will not ultimately prove feasible; (2) that their large-scale deployment involves unacceptable ecological and social impacts; and (3) that NETs prove less effective than hoped, due to irreversible climate impacts, or reversal of stored carbon. We highlight the technical issues that need to be resolved and—more importantly—the value judgements that need to be made, to identify the realistic potential for land-based NETs consistent with social and environmental goals. Given the critical normative issues at stake, these are decisions that should be made within an open, transparent, democratic process. As input, we offer here an indicative assessment of the realistic potential for land-based NETs, based on a precautionary assessment of the risks to their future effectiveness and a provisional assessment of the extent to which they are in conflict with sustainable development goals related to land, food and climate.     

吉林省西部生态环境可持续发展问题探究

受观念、利益、体制与法律等因素影响,吉林省西部生态环境面临着气候稳定性差,自然灾害频繁发生;人为破坏严重,生态环境脆弱敏感;财政供给不足,生态设施建设滞后;发展模式尚待优化,生态环境面临威胁等问题.为此,应该转变观念,提高认识;完善法律法规,实现依法治理;加大财政投入力度,保障设施建设;健全制度架构,保障动力机制;加强研发合作,保障技术支持.以期解决吉林省西部生态环境面临的突出问题.