论危险废弃物越境转移的法律控制——浅谈《巴塞尔公约》

20世纪以来,工业发展给人们带来物质和生活上的享受和便捷的同时,必然伴随着副产物,那就是污染.而作为“废物”中危害最大的危险废物,已经成为国际上关注的焦点.发达国家因各种“原因”,把产生的危险废物越境转移至发展中国家,使其成为它倾倒“洋垃圾”的地方,我国作为发展中国家深受其害.1989年《巴塞尔公约》的诞生,是对于控制危险废物越境转移一次里程碑的发展,意义深远.     

论风险评估和风险预防的一致性——以《卡塔赫纳生物安全议定书》的相关规定为视角

作为国际社会第一个有约束力的专门规范转基因生物越境转移的多边环境协定———《卡塔赫纳生物安全议定书》,既要求转基因生物进口国的有关决定要以风险评估为基础,又包含了有关风险预防的若干规定。风险评估不会先天地阻碍或抵消风险预防在决策过程中的作用。同时,风险预防是以风险评估为基础的风险预防,当然也不会与基于科学证据的风险评估相冲突。《卡塔赫纳生物安全议定书》中规定的风险评估和风险预防是完全协调一致的。     

国际环境法上风险预防原则基本问题研究

风险预防原则是国际环境法领域最重要的原则之一,我们应该从风险预防原则产生与发展的历史进程把握风险预防原则的本质和目标。同时,对风险预防原则的概念与地位、内在逻辑性和构成要件、其所引发的冲突,以及引入原则的必要性都值得我们斟酌和研究。     

国际货物买卖中的风险转移制度

国际货物买卖风险转移制度的主要目的是要确定非由当事人过错所致的货物毁损、灭失的风险由谁来承担的问题。以货物交付时间作为风险转移时间的理论,得到《联合国国际货物销售合同公约》的采纳,我国《合同法》借鉴了该公约的相关规定,但存在不足之处。我国《合同法》应在有关“风险”的概念、风险转移原则的调整范围和适用的前提条件、违约对风险转移的影响、风险转移的交付时间等方面加以完善。     

转基因农作物越境损害责任的省察与重构

转基因农作物越境转移可能对输入和输出的国家和地区造成损害。在其法律责任问题上，既有学说从污染者负担原则出发，认为转基因农作物越境造成的损害应排他性适用民事责任。从规范分析角度看，此种观点具有局限性，污染者负担难以作为一项法律原则而被证成；相关国际条约并未明确转基因农作物越境损害的责任形式，而是允许缔约方适用现有国内法或者制定新的法律去解决。依据《卡塔赫纳生物安全议定书关于赔偿责任和补救的名古屋—吉隆坡补充议定书》，及时充分赔偿原则应为统帅转基因农作物越境损害责任的法律原则。依照该原则，面向转基因农作物越境损害排他性适用民事责任不具有正当性，应当以民事责任和国家责任为核心构建类型化的责任体系。应依照因果关系的确证性对相关事实进行类型化区分，对因果关系可在经营者层面确证的损害适用民事责任，对不能确证的则适用国家责任，同时还应通过立法补正和法律解释的方式推动类型化责任体系在规范层面得以实现。     

论预防原则在食品安全法中的适用

预防原则是食品安全法基本原则之一,在不同国家的食品安全立法中表现为基本原则、风险预防措施或风险预防方法。科学不确定性是风险预防的前提;根据风险预防原则采取措施要符合比例原则并进行成本效益分析;通过后续的定期审查考核风险预防原则的适当性、有效性和必要性。食品安全准入制度和食品安全风险评估制度将预防原则落实为具体的规制制度。     

风险预防原则理论与实践反思——兼论风险预防原则的核心问题

尽管风险预防原则已经获得了广泛的认可,但其在理论和实践两个层面都具有较大的争议性。欲破解风险预防原则的内在困境,应在明晰存在的真正问题的基础上作出解释并提出可能的解决之道,避免仅仅依据法律文本进行＂空对空＂的分析。风险预防原则存在的真正问题是其法律效力问题,这就要求我们放宽研究的视野,从法律实效和社会实证入手,探究风险预防原则如何在社会中发挥效果。     

避免危机发生 重在风险预警

随着现代工业和科技的高速发展以及生态系统的演变,人类面临的新型风险越来越多,而风险管理是国家治理体系中最为重要的内容之一。如何确保风险预防先行风险预防是要求决策者对不确定的风险保持关注的一项原则。在没有充分的科学证据证明确实会发生损害的情况下,风险预防原则依然要求国家和社会采取预防措施.     

国际货物销售风险转移问题探讨

国际货物销售法中的“风险”是指由于自然灾害、意外事故或销售合同当事人以外的原因造成的卖方交付的货物遭受损坏、灭失的风险。关于风险转移的法律制度表明了特定交易条件下风险自卖方转移至买方的准确的时间和地点 ,使我们能通过确定货物损失原因、性质 ,决定由哪一方承担风险损失责任。《联合国国际货物销售合同公约》关于风险转移的基本原则是当事人可以通过引用诸如Incoterms中的贸易术语在销售合同中规定风险转移界限 ,公约还提出 5种补充性的风险转移模式。公约还规定了卖方违约时仍应承担风险事故造成的货物损失责任     

转基因生物越境转移事先知情同意制度解读——以《卡塔赫纳生物安全议定书》为视角

事先知情同意制度是转基因生物越境转移法律规制的核心原则与程序，具有对主权国家及人民自主性的尊重及不伤害人与环境的基本价值取向。该制度由通知、风险评估、进口决定以及决定的复审和变更等几个方面构成。事先知情同意制度的适用对象是有意引入环境中的转基因活生物体。适用的主观要件为“有意”，客观要件为“转基因活生物体的第一次越境转移”。     

Judges as legislators

Among the regulatory measures intended to control the transboundary movement of hazardous waste is the European Community Regulation concerning the Supervision and Control of Shipments of Waste within, into and out of the European Community, 1993, and it is this Regulation, in particular, that this work intends to treat. In this context, the European Parliament's attempts to counteract the weight of economic argument in favour of the conflicting interests of human health and the environment will be examined. Despite international and European Community regulation, it is submitted that double standards in law and practice are continually applied to the transboundary movement of hazardous waste. Emphasis will be placed on both the international and European dilemma of defining hazardous waste.     

The role of valuation and bargaining in optimising transboundary watercourse treaty regimes

In the face of water scarcity, growing water demands, population increase, ecosystem degradation, or climate change, transboundary watercourse states inevitably have to make difficult decisions on how finite quantities of water are distributed. Such waters, and their associated ecosystem services, offer multiple benefits. Valuation and bargaining can play a key role in the sharing of these ecosystems services and their associated benefits across sovereign borders. Ecosystem services in transboundary watercourses essentially constitute a portfolio of assets. While challenging, their commodification, which creates property rights, supports trading. Such trading offers a means by which to resolve conflicts over competing uses and allows states to optimise their ‘portfolios’. However, despite this potential, adoption of appropriate treaty frameworks that might facilitate a market-based approach to the discovery and allocation of water-related ecosystem services at the transboundary level remains both a challenge and a topic worthy of further study. Drawing upon concepts in law and economics, this paper therefore seeks to advance the study of how treaty frameworks might be developed in a way that supports such a market-based approach to ecosystem services and transboundary waters.     

Guilty by Association? The Case of The Karin B Scare

The waste disposal industry is susceptible to bad publicity owing to the nature of the products it is sometimes required to process. At particular risk are companies which treat and dispose of hazardous substances. In this paper we test whether media concerns about public safety arising from the international transfer of hazardous wastes can have a negative impact on the stockmarket valuation of firms and of the waste disposal industry as a whole, even when the affected companies have not themselves broken the law.     

生态补偿的法律关系及其发展现状和问题

生态补偿是指国家或社会主体之间约定对损害资源环境的行为向资源环境开发利用主体进行收费或向保护资源环境的主体提供利益补偿性措施,并将所征收的费用或补偿性措施的惠益通过约定的某种形式,转移到因资源环境开发利用或保护资源环境而自身利益受到损害的主体的过程。     

Water resources data and information exchange in transboundary water treaties

Despite international calls for data and information sharing in transboundary waters and basin-specific evidence of its importance to cooperative management, no systematic research has been undertaken to answer questions of where, how frequently, and which water resources data and information are exchanged. This paper examines all available transboundary water agreements signed between 1900 and 2007 to determine the degree to which water resources data and information is exchanged in the world??s regions, how the level of exchange has developed over time, and the different ways in which data and information sharing has been codified in practice. In doing so, we reveal important trends regarding the mechanisms, types, and frequencies of water resources data and information sharing??as well as differences across temporal and spatial scales, by treaty type and function, and regime type. The results indicate that data and information exchange as already practiced is more nuanced and, in some senses, widespread than may commonly be recognized. Further, the results reveal key linkages between democracy and data and information exchange and provide a basis to test analogous linkages related to data sharing and other variables in transboundary water settings.     

Canada–USA Bilateral Fisheries Management in the Gulf of Maine: Under the Radar Screen

Canada and the USA have developed a series of cooperative initiatives that address transboundary fisheries issues in the Gulf of Maine. The Canada–USA Steering Committee serves as an umbrella forum for discussing and coordinating transboundary management measures. Through the work of the Transboundary Resource Assessment Committee and the Transboundary Management Guidance Committee, the Steering Committee has overseen the development of joint scientific stock assessments and a sharing agreement for groundfish resources in the vicinity of the eastern Georges Bank. The bilateral Fisheries Enforcement Agreement helps ensure the success of such cooperative management initiatives by combating illegal fishing in the vicinity of the international boundary. However, the largely informal 'under the radar screen' arrangements, while positive on many fronts, to date fall short of fully implementing key principles of sustainable development, such as public participation, the ecosystem approach, integration and precaution.     

Innovative economic development: The Georgia Environmental Technology Consortium

Case studies demonstrate how the Georgia Environmental Technology Consortium (GETC), a partnership between the research universities, the business community, and the state government, fosters economic development in Georgia. The technology managers, scientists, and engineers in the GETC provide environmentally sound, innovative solutions to complex industry problems improving economic development in the state. Gifts that people took for granted for centuries are clean air, water, and soil. These are now threatened. There are also dangers in the workplace. Employees are faced with workplaces which can be hazardous. In this paper we see the GETC dedicating substantial resources to natural and workplace environmental health issues. The cases cited demonstrate the technology transfer of university research into industry applications. The resulting environmentally responsible products and processes improve the general public health and the competitive position of Georgia firms, insuring more jobs and a better quality of life.     

The weakness of the strong: re-examining power in transboundary water dynamics

This article proposes a re-examination of how power is conceptualized within transboundary hydropolitics by arguing that power has been misrepresented in the water resources literature. Overemphasis on the factors of a country’s relative power, riparian position, and technological potential to exploit the resource has led to assumptions that the non-hegemon(s) is often unable to achieve their own positive outcomes and that the outcomes of interactions between hegemons and non-hegemons are predictable and detrimental. However, it appears that there are many examples that run counter to the power narrative that employs these factors. This study argues that this overemphasis neglects hegemonic vulnerabilities, which, when included with hegemonic capacities, are much more instructive in explaining transboundary water dynamics. The sources of the weakness of the strong of the alleged hegemon originates from several sources, including interlinkages between water and non-water issues, internal and external expectations, and consideration of whether the water-related issue at hand is crucial to each party’s survival or whether the party has the luxury to survive the outcome of the resolution. These factors allow for non-hegemons to achieve more favorable outcomes and, when incorporated in analysis, provide a fuller picture of the true power balance in each transboundary water interaction. We therefore call for a reconceptualization of power dynamics in transboundary waters that accounts for structural weaknesses present within all parties.     

Hazardous waste management system: identification and listing of hazardous waste--Environmental Protection Agency. Interim final rule and request for comments

The Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] is today revising the regulations for hazardous waste management under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to exempt certain categories of mixtures of solid wastes and hazardous wastes from the presumption of hazardousness presently contained in the regulations. EPA is taking this action because the Agency believes that the risk posed to human health and the environment from the management of these waste mixtures is not substantial, so that automatically defining these waste mixtures as hazardous is inappropriate. This amendment will substantially reduce the regulatory burden to those persons who would otherwise have applied the regulations for hazardous waste management to these mixtures.