Review Essay: Divestment,Nonstate Governance,and Climate Change

This review essay examines the divestment movement's evolution, aims, and strategies as well as why it is both distinctive and important. It then locates the movement within the broader literature on nonstate climate change governance, suggesting how studying the movement may contribute to this literature. Finally, seeking to take stock some five years on from its inception, it assesses the movement's impact and effectiveness over that period.     

Expressive Law,Social Norms,and Social Groups

To understand how law works outside of sanctions or direct coercion, we must first appreciate that law does not generally influence individual behavior in a vacuum, devoid of social context. Instead, the way in which people interact with law is usually mediated by group life. In contrast to the instrumental view that assumes law operates on autonomous individuals by providing a set of incentives, the social groups view holds that a person's attitude and behavior regarding any given demand of law are generally products of the interaction of law, social influence, and motivational goals that are shaped by that person's commitments to specific in‐groups. Law can work expressively, not so much by shaping independent individual attitudes as by shaping group values and norms, which in turn influence individual attitudes. In short, the way in which people interact with law is mediated by group life.     

Greenhouse Gas Politics and Climate Change Public Nuisance Litigation

In late 2009 three long-awaited decisions were handed down in the main climate change public nuisance cases. In one case, the Northern District of California became the latest trial court to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims, while in the others the Second and Fifth Circuits reversed, allowing the plaintiffs' claims to proceed. The decisions all have been appealed. The ultimate outcome of the appeals could be affected by several legislative and administrative initiatives that are expected to see further development in 2010. This article reviews some of those initiatives and discusses their relevance to the nuisance litigation.     

Transit Industry Gears Up and Responds to Climate Change Challenges

The transit industry in the United States is preparing for growth as the world deals with climate change and it is applying various methods to measure and monitor its impact on the environment. Working with local, state, and federal governments, transit agencies have adapted many commonsense solutions. Now the American Public Transportation Association is putting together standards and best practices to encourage the industry and inform the public about the benefits of public transportation to the environment, helping our nation join the rest of the world. It is also developing and applying new transit strategies that will attract more riders and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Portland, Oregon's Tri-Met, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Utah Transit Authority are leading the industry. Portland, Oregon's Tri-Met General Manager, who chairs the industry's Sustainability Committee for the American Public Transit Association has been leading by example with an Environmental Management System that addresses greenhouse gas, pollution, waste, inefficiency, and congestion. New York and Utah are recording greenhouse gases with the Climate Registry. Many agencies are developing new strategies that are attracting more riders and experiencing an intermodal shift to buses and trains. Meanwhile, developing countries are able to increase service and pay for it by selling carbon credits.     

气候变化生态补偿的路径选择及制度构建

气候变化作为典型的全球环境问题,生态补偿能够而且应该在应对气候变化方面发挥重要作用。尽管气候变化生态补偿在理论基础和制度机理等方面与一般生态补偿都完全相同,但在目的、时空尺度以及主体范围等方面也存在特殊性,并丰富和发展了传统生态补偿的理论与实践。气候变化生态补偿是个复杂的系统工程,需要从补偿的范围、主体、内容、强制程度以及依据等多元路径构建全面的补偿体系并开展相关的制度建设。     

Climate Change,Wildlife Movement and the Law: A Case Study from New Zealand

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change mandates parties to prepare for adaptation to climate change. This is of direct relevance to the management of wildlife. Climate change is likely to alter and/or expand the habitats of wildlife and may make the conditions within existing habitat ranges unsuitable for the continued existence of a species. Of necessity, efficacious adaptation must attempt to address this likelihood. Using New Zealand as a case study, this paper considers the range of present legal instruments that might be utilized within that nation to manage the movement of wildlife and identifies any lacunas that should be addressed. The conclusions will be of interest to any nation wishing to protect wildlife from the adverse effects of climate change.     

Divesting from Climate Change: The Road to Influence

Is fossil fuels divestment likely to achieve its aims? This article evaluates the rationales for divestment in terms of their capacity to give the campaign influence. It focuses on the direct effects of divestment on financial actors because divestment is a specific means of exerting influence outside of conventional political channels. In seeking to end fossil fuel industries in order to halt climate change, the campaign deploys a variety of arguments to win support and wield influence, namely, the legality of divestment and, indeed, the emerging duty to divest; investors’ moral responsibility to avoid complicity in the fossil fuel economy; investors’ moral responsibility to use their leverage against climate polluters; and the power of financial sanctions to create a business case for abandoning fossil fuels. Although in combination they may be effective, each of these asserted rationales has some limitations that may diminish the influence of the divestment movement. Moreover, the movement does not engage sufficiently with the systemic qualities of finance capitalism that must also be reckoned with in order to address broader patterns of environmental unsustainability. Although the divestment movement aspires to ultimately change government policies on climate change, it may achieve greater influence by also seeking better government regulation of the financial economy.     

Above the Boundaries: Ozone Depletion,Equity, and Climate Change*

This introduction examines the global legislative process as it applies to environmental agreements. It argues that this process should be seen as consisting of at least two phases. Phase one seeks to create a broad legislative framework designed to facilitate debate emanating from three different perspectives: science, equity, and economics. Phase one also seeks to attract as many countries as possible to the negotiating process. Phase two then tries to reconcile at least some of the conflicts inherent in these three different starting points.     

Insurance Market for Global Warming Heats Up: Old Products and New Policies Respond to Climate Change Risks

Climate change, characterized by higher surface and water temperatures, will likely lead to more frequent and severe storms, floods, rising sea levels, wildfires, and loss of a variety of species. The monetary loss attributable to these events could be enormous, resulting in a variety of first-party insurance claims and third-party lawsuits. The availability of insurance coverage to pay these claims will depend on the nature of weather-related losses and the particular policies in force. Insurers have also begun to develop products that pay to rebuild to “greener” standards after fortuitous losses, encourage lower carbon emissions, and provide incentives for the implementation of sustainable business and personal practices.     

Climate Change Meets the Commerce Clause: Obstacles and Alternatives for State and Local Responses to Climate Change

Abstract

Climate change is a global problem resulting from our aggregate emissions. The United States has failed to take significant action on a federal level to address our country’s contributions. There are options available at the state and local levels to reduce emissions and to prepare for the effects of climate change. However, the commerce clause and the doctrine of federal supremacy may bar states and municipalities from adopting those strategies. This article discusses tactics to circumvent those restrictions, and potential changes to commerce clause jurisprudence that would give states and municipalities greater flexibility to act where Congress has not.     

Coproducing the Endangered Polar Bear: Science,Climate Change,and Legal Mobilization

Applying insights from science and technology studies about the “coproduction” of science and sociopolitical order to research on legal mobilization yields important theoretical insights. Using the polar bear petition campaign by the Center for Biological Diversity as an illustrative case, this article shows how this protracted legal campaign around protection of the polar bear and its habitat opened up new legal opportunities for those advocating for the regulation of carbon emissions, mandated state-sponsored generation of climate science, legally constructed the polar bear as “endangered,” and helped to shape the priorities of the nongovernmental organization itself.     

论我国农村基层民主法制建设

建设社会主义新农村,民主法制建设不可少,从民主法制的理论基础出发,总结农村基层民主法制建设的现状与成就,分析农村基层民主建设中存在的主要问题,初步提出加强农村民主法制建设的对策。     

Up,Close and Personal: The Discursive Transformation of Judicial Politics in Post-Dutroux Belgium

Ending the influence which politicalparties exercised over judicial appointmentswas a prominent aim of the project of reformingthe Belgian criminal justice system in the1990s. However, focusing on various highprofile scandals affecting public confidence inthe judiciary, this paper questions whether thepolitical nature of the judiciary is capable ofbeing eradicated. Drawing on the work ofChantal Mouffe, this analysis starts with aconsideration of the discursive element inpolitical identity, which is furthercorroborated by the semiotics of Saussure andGreimas. Applying this perspective to theBelgian situation in the 1990s, it is arguedthat a redefinition of politics in terms of an``us/them' divide between citizens andinstitutions took place. In this process,judges were targeted as part of theestablishment and cast as the constitutiveoutside buttressing the collectiveidentification between the media, victims ofcrime and the general public. In explaining theinstitutional gap, individual traits of judgesconstituted a significant focus, as can beshown through the extraordinary visibility ofone judge who courted media attention when hewas tried for sadomasochistic activities in1997.     

气候变化、技术转移与国际知识产权保护

应对气候变化挑战必须依赖先进适用的环保技术。国际知识产权制度与环保技术创新、转移、利用之间具有紧密且复杂的关系。从发达国家促进技术转移的国际责任、知识产权保护对技术研发与转移的作用以及发展中国家对知识产权的诉求等方面看,我国学术界应加强研究,提出适合我国国情的能够促进环保技术创新、转移与利用的知识产权战略与对策,为我国应对气候变化挑战、转变经济发展方式提供支撑。