Reforming International Environmental Governance: An Institutionalist Critique of the Proposal for a World Environment Organisation

This article argues that a World Environment Organisation (WEO) does not promise to enhance international environmental governance. First, we claim that the establishment of an international organisation alone in a policy field currently populated by regimes cannot be expected to significantly improve environmental governance because there is no qualitative difference between these two forms of governance institutions. Second, we submit that significant improvement of international environmental governance through institutional re-arrangement must rely on a modification of decision-making procedures and/or a change of institutional boundaries. Third, we develop three principal models of a possible WEO. A WEO formally providing an umbrella for existing regimes without modifying issue-areas and decision-making procedures would be largely irrelevant. A WEO integrating decision-making processes of existing regimes so as to form comprehensive world environment rounds of intergovernmental bargaining would be largely dysfunctional and prone to a host of negative side-effects. A supranational WEO including large-scale use of majority decision-making and far-reaching enforcement mechanisms across a range of environmental issues might considerably enhance international environmental governance, but it appears to be grossly utopian. In conclusion, a WEO cannot be at the same time realistic, significant and beneficial for international environmental governance. Available political resources should be invested in advancing existing and emerging sectoral environmental regimes rather than in establishing a WEO.     

论环境政策与环境法律的环境保护合力作用

我国的环境保护工作起步于环境政策,在建设法治国家进程中环境政策与环境法律的并存是客观实际的需要。环境政策和环境法律是我国保护环境的两种有效手段,二者有着共同的利益基础,二者并不矛盾,应当协调配合,共同发挥环境保护的合力作用。本文分析了环境政策与环境法律协调发展的理论基础,提出在现阶段环境政策和环境法律应当并存,进而提出正确处理环境政策与环境法律的协调配合关系。     

Distributional Conflicts and the Timing of Environmental Policy

This paper examines the timing of adopting a policy for tackling an environmental issue such as climate change from a viewpoint of distributional conflicts. A dynamic game of providing public goods (Alesina and Drazen, American Economic Review 81(5), 1170–1118 (1991)) is applied to the argument, modified by including abatement costs as well as the loss in the environment. In this framework, even if the immediate adoption of environmental policy is socially optimal, a disproportionate burden of pollution reduction leads to a delay in policy adoption. This is because the disproportionate burden increases the gain from waiting for each individual hoping that the other will agree to bear the heavier burden. The impact of income distribution on the timing is also examined. The level of averting behavior is assumed to depend on the level of income. If the distribution of income is more dispersed, the regional disparities in environmental degradation become larger because the poor tend to avert less and get more loss than the rich due to their tighter budget constraints. Under asymmetric information on damages, as the disparities in income become more dispersed, each individual expects that his/her opponent’s damage becomes severe; then, he/she gives in first. Thus, each individual holds out longer so that the timing of policy implementation is delayed further. Finally, the theoretical result is empirically tested by both probit and discriminant analyses to examine whether income distribution has an impact on the timing of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in practice.     

社会治理语境中的维稳政策分析

社会治理语境中的维稳政策意味着一种观念的更新，即不过分强调国家对社会的控制，而代之以社会治理，其本质是国家、政府和民众的共同治理。维稳应以社会宽容为前提，遵循法治原则，采取民众参与、协商的解决方式，实现以维护民众权利为最终目标的社会治理政策。     

Developing Countries and Global Environmental Governance: From Contestation to Participation to Engagement

Developing countries did not start off as demandeurs of global environmental governance. Although they are still rather skeptical about the global environmental enterprise, they have come a long way from being the vigorous contestants that they were three decades ago. This fascinating evolution has not only changed the views of developing countries but has also transformed the shape of the global environmental discourse, most significantly by turning what used to be global environmental politics into what is now the global politics of sustainable development. This paper charts this evolution by using the twin conceptual lenses of effectiveness and legitimacy and the heuristic markers of the three key global conferences on the global environment (Stockholm 1972; Rio de Janeiro 1992; Johannesburg 2002). The paper argues that the pre-Stockholm era was exemplified by a politics of contestation by the South; the Stockholm-to-Rio period was a period of reluctant participation as a new global compact emerged around the notion of sustainable development; and the post-Rio years have seen the emergence of more meaningful, but still hesitant, engagement by the developing countries in the global environmental project but very much around the promise and potential of actualizing sustainable development. The author is grateful to an anonymous review, and to Steinar Andresen, Ellen Hey, and Jessica Green for valuable comments.     

Global Governance,Criminalisation and Environmental Change

This article examines the environmental impact of criminalisation. It argues that developing societies are increasingly drawn into globalised networks that inextricably link the global and local, the legal and illegal. This means that in order to understand the causes of environmental degradation it is no longer useful to focus on the formal institutions and practices of government and business. Instead, this article uses the concept of the shadow state to examine and understand the causes of environmental change in two illustrative cases of Madagascar and Belize.     

环境法律政策内部整合理论探讨

环境法律政策的整合是环境法体系得以发挥其效力的基础,是环境整体性所要求。环境法律政策内部整合是将各部门绿化后的法律政策,通过某种机制使之系统化,追求环境治理规则的最优,避免碎片化和相互冲突的不协调性。可持续发展概念和巨系统理论以及环境问题亟待解决的需求,增强了环境法律政策内部整合的理论与现实驱动力。基于整合的理念,环境法律政策的未来改革应该是从整合的认知框架和立法模式的路径上,提出具体制度设计。     

从危害防止到风险预防:环境治理的风险转身与制度调适

"危害"和"风险"分别是传统秩序行政与当下风险行政的核心概念,语词之分的背后蕴含着制度应对的实质差异。危害防止强调对确定性损害和可预测危险的预防和阻止,是现代环境法应对的重心;但随着风险社会勃兴,对不确定风险的预防也逐渐成为国家应当承担的基本任务。我国环境立法已经对风险预防有所回应,但仍然存在风险预防法律地位不明、风险治理制度体系不够健全等问题,为此需要以预防原则为接口重塑风险预防在环境立法中的表达方式,以公私合作为基础建立环境风险治理的治理框架,并以程序理性为内核建立环境风险治理的裁量控制机制。     

Strengthening Green Global Governance in a Disparate World SocietyWould a World Environment Organisation Benefit the South?

The debate on the advantages and disadvantages of upgrading the United Nations Environment Programme to a 'world environment organisation' (WEO) has gained momentum in both academe and politics. This article contends that a WEO would further the interests especially of developing countries, because it would provide them, first, a high-level forum to unite their individual bargaining power against the major industrialised countries. Second, a WEO would assist Southern efforts to garner international support for environmental programmes in regions and sectors that are increasingly bypassed by economic globalisation. Third, a WEO would create a locus to politically institutionalise the influence of non-governmental lobbyists in a way that increases the balance of opinions and perspectives. The article then addresses special challenges and caveats for developing countries in the upcoming negotiation process, in particular whether an upgraded UNEP would address only 'global' issues, thus absolving the international community from assisting developing countries in mitigating the more pressing local environmental issues in the South; whether the new body would have powerful sanctioning mechanisms, which might disproportionally affect developing countries; and what decision-making procedures the new body would have.     

环境法律与环境政策的抵牾与交融——以环境侵权救济为视角

环境法律实质上仅是社会悲剧性地分配资源的一种手段,市场、习俗、惯例和政策等手段都综合参与决定了资源的分配,在环境侵权救济中,环境政策是影响环境法律的重要因素。环境政策实施对于环境法律在环境侵权救济中的影响可以分为三个层面:公共政策的演进促进环境侵权法律责任机制内在机理的更新;专门的环境政策催生新的环境法律、更新环境法律机制;地方政府对于中央环境政策再界定过程,形成了多种类型的地方环境政策,对于环境侵权救济的影响也呈现出多种形态。     

Clustering of Multilateral Environmental Agreements: Potentials and Limitations

The concept of clustering of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), i.e. the integration of groups of MEAs or parts thereof, has acquired prominence in recent discussions about reforming international environmental governance. Understood as a continuing process, clustering of MEAs aims at advancing the ongoing process of integrating the elements of this system more systematically and dynamically. This paper proceeds in three steps. First, it demonstrates that a distinction needs to be made between clustering of organisational elements of MEAs and their functions, since the conditions and the effects of their integration differ significantly. Second, it argues that – in contrast to several existing approaches that seek to build clusters starting from similarities in one dimension – any attempt to integrate elements of MEAs needs to be based upon the analysis of a range of factors that influence the prospects of such integration (including overlap of membership and issues, practical feasibility, legal obstacles, and functional requirements). Third, the article contrasts the main potential benefits of a clustering of MEAs, namely efficiency gains and an increase in the coherence of international environmental governance, with the main challenges of international environmental policy, namely reaching agreement, implementing such agreement effectively and preventing/managing inter-institutional conflict. While clustering cannot be expected to make a significant direct contribution to addressing these challenges, it has a potential to economise and enhance the system of international environmental governance with positive indirect effects promoting better international environmental protection in the longer term.     

全球治理与国际竞争法的网络模式

由于新自由主义理论的勃兴和市场机制的内在张力,国际社会步入了国际化市场经济阶段。国际化市场经济要求国际社会建立国际竞争机制解决国际市场失灵。在"洛克式"的国际体系下,借助全球治理理论建立一个多层次的国际竞争治理网络模式是国际社会现实的选择。多层次的国际竞争治理网络模式可以借鉴经济学的联邦财政理论和体制竞争理论确定各个层次的管辖权划分。     

虚拟治理成本法在环境损害司法鉴定中的应用研究

虚拟治理成本法作为一种常用的环境价值评估方法,对于环境污染责任追究工作发挥着重要作用.通过系统梳理虚拟治理成本法相关定义、适用范围以及评估流程,并对2014-2020年期间(以裁判日期计)国内典型相关案例从时间分布、地域分布、污染物类别及环境受体、鉴定机构情况等方面进行研究,梳理该方法的实践应用情况,总结我国虚拟治理成...     

刑事政策体系中的民间社会与官方(国家)——一种基于治理理论的场域界分考察

治理理论是当今世界上颇具代表性的新型国家——社会关系架构和公共事务管理模式,也是认识刑事政策体系中民间社会与官方(国家)在犯罪抗制场域界分时的重要分析工具。运用这一工具可以看出,民间社会与官方(国家)在刑事政策体系中存在着专治与共治领域的治理分工。其中,专治领域是国家保有的专属犯罪抗制场域,共治领域则是官方(国家)与民间社会合作抗制犯罪的开放空间。同时,在共治领域中,官方(国家)与民间社会应形成协同支持、国家主导的伙伴关系。     

The Penalisation of Poverty and the rise of Neo-Liberalism

This article explicates and extends the analyses put forth by the author in his book, Prisons of Poverty, which argues that the generalised increase of carceral populations in advanced societies is due to the growing use of the penal system as an instrument for managing social insecurity and containing the social disorders created at the bottom of the class structure by neo-liberal policies of economic deregulation and social-welfare retrenchment. It retraces the steps whereby this neo-liberal penality was elaborated in the United States and then diffused throughout the world, but contends that European countries are not blindly following the American road to mass imprisonment: Europe's path to the penal state entails the conjoint intensification of both social and penal treatments of poverty and the activation of the policing functions of welfare services leading to a form of social panoptism. Only the building of a Europe-wide social state can check the spread of the penalisation of poverty and its deleterious social consequences.     

贸易自由化与环境政策协调发展论——兼评WTO贸易导向的协调模式

贸易自由化对社会经济福利的发展以及环境保护的重要性决定了两者协调的必要性。两者在终极目标和利益主体上存在着可协调性,协调贸易自由化与环境政策必须坚持共同的义务与责任原则、差别的义务与责任原则、适度贸易自由化的原则和环境政策的整体经济性原则。WTO贸易与环境政策的协调发展过度关注环境问题,以及协调机制的内在缺陷,阻碍了贸易体制的发展和完善,无益于以贸易方式解决环境问题,必须改革完善协调机制,实现WTO贸易与环境政策协调发展模式中"贸易导向"的自觉。     

Institutionalized Knowledge Challenges in Pesticide Governance: The End of Knowledge and Beginning of Values in Governing Globalized Environmental Issues

This paper looks at the particular challenges that cross-level interdependence has for the use of knowledge in decision-making for environmental governance. Analytical questions surrounding knowledge generation, use, and flow and the role of institutions in shaping these arise in a multi-level context. By using results from a study on pesticide use in developing countries, some of the particular challenges in relying on scientific knowledge for governance of globalized environmental issues are illustrated. The case involves a situation with significant mismatches between access to and need for knowledge by decision-makers at the different governance levels. The exploration of various strategies to address such mismatches allow discussions not only on the role of knowledge and institutional design but also their limitations and how more inclusive values would serve a system of multilayered governance.     

社会分层与治安善治

社会分层反映一个社会的权力、资源配置和结构关系、利益表达协调和实现机制、社会活力释放机制,是一个社会组织结构状况合理性与否的整体性反映。它在深层蕴含着一个社会的内在张力的蓄积情况,决定着社会治安的实际状况和演变的规律。社会治安善治,是政府和公民合作管理社会治安的过程,是政治国家与市民社会间的一种新颖关系。社会分层必然关切于治安善治的内容及其结构模式。在当代中国背景下,治安善治理应采取行政吸纳社会的模式进行,它既可以保证稳定,又能持续改善。治安善治的制度结构应该是支持性治安基础制度和控制性治安制度的有机统一。     

全球治理的法律渊源及其合法律性问题

全球治理的重要特征是多元规制,这一特点对全球化时代的法律的概念和法律渊源问题提出了挑战,针对这种挑战的三种解决途径即由约束力的区别来确定硬法和软法、按照法律制度化的程度来区分各种法律渊源、依据世界民主公法来界定各层次的法律渊源都要求对全球治理的法律渊源提出某种规范性要求。相对于这种规范性要求的实质性方面,通过合法律性这个概念来表述这种规范性要求是更适当的,并且在此意义上,合法律性也呈现了全球治理法治化这种规范性主张的必要条件和相应的局限性。