In the concluding chapter, we take stock of the legal developments that are likely to shape the implementation and further development of liability rules and process in areas beyond national jurisdiction. We argue that the developments in relation to state obligations of due diligence, the widening scope of compensable damages and the potential for more inclusive rights of standing, as well as rights for states to take response measures in areas beyond national jurisdiction, provides a strengthened foundation for a more robust system of state responsibility for environmental harm in areas beyond national jurisdiction. In recognizing that the approaches to civil liability in areas beyond national jurisdiction remain underdeveloped, we examine the central challenges that remain, as well as some modest pathways towards stronger legal accountability for environmental harm in the global commons.

Chapter 7 assesses the overall findings of the book and provides outlooks and perspectives. The responses of international institutions to transformative novel technologies are mostly deficient in that they do not meaningfully contribute either to the realization of associated technological promises or to the avoidance of perils. Exceptions do exist, however, particularly where transformative novel technologies have a strong normative fit with pre-existing regulatory frameworks and can thus be assimilated by them with relative ease. The chapter also offers broader reflections on how to improve institutional responses to transformative novel technologies and then goes on to elaborate on some conceptual issues that have emerged in the previous discussion: from technology and path dependence to the role of the precautionary principle to the potential problem of ‘slippery slope’ effects in research and development. The chapter then tentatively discusses how the theoretical framework of this book would apply beyond the environmental domain. I conclude with some final considerations on the notion of ‘techno-fixes’ in the global politics of environmental sustainability.

Chapter 5 addresses the potential use of climate engineering technologies as a way of counteracting anthropogenic global warming. These technologies encompass methods for the permanent removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide, for instance via its direct capture from ambient air and subsequent geological storage. They also include more controversial technologies that would modify the planetary albedo in order to reflect a small fraction of incoming sunlight back into space in order to induce an artificial cooling effect. These two sets of technologies play out against the background of the increasingly dim prospects of achieving international temperature targets in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement. The chapter traces institutional responses to both negative emissions technologies and solar geoengineering across a multitude of international forums, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the London Convention on the Dumping of Waste at Sea, and the Paris Agreement itself.

This chapter discusses the protection of civilians against direct attack and the effects of military operations, and the protections should they fall into the hands of the enemy in IACs and NIACs under IHL and IHRL . The scope of the protection afforded is reviewed. The chapter goes on to consider its application in specific cases; the prohibition of arbitrary punishment, detention, internal displacement and deportation, sexual violence in armed conflict and SEA on the part of UN peacekeepers. The protection afforded to specific groups to wit children, journalists, UN peacekeepers and PMSC personnel is then examined.

This chapter explores the potential role of national and international courts and tribunals in relation to claims for environmental damage to areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Access to remedies includes facilitating access to international and national courts to initiate claims for environmental harm, but also requires consideration of the associated rules that may constrain the ability of the court or tribunal in question to provide relief, such as jurisdiction, rules on the choice of law and the recognition and enforcement of judgments rendered in such cases. The chapter begins with a discussion of the general rules and principles concerning access to remedies under the rules of state responsibility and domestic civil liability, respectively, before turning to the specific rules in ABNJ. It also addresses the substantial additional challenges that each of these sets of rules pose to realizing the goals of liability regimes, including the need to prevent environmental harm and restore the environment, to provide for effective deterrence of risky behaviour, to ensure a level playing field and to ensure adequate and prompt compensation.

Chapter 1 introduces the concept of transformative novel technologies in the context of the contemporary global environmental crisis. It discusses how technology is central to the crisis as well as its potential resolution, although its status is frequently ambiguous and contested. The chapter makes the case that governance solutions, including at the international level, are indispensable in order to capitalize on the potential benefits of transformative novel technologies, to avoid their various potential downsides, or both. The empirical case studies of the book are then previewed: biotechnology, specifically novel methods for large-scale biological control as well as the utilization of digital sequence information in research, development and innovation; climate engineering, a series of proposed methods for large-scale intervention into the climate system; and mining beyond national jurisdictions, where various technological developments increasingly enable the extraction of metals critical to a global sustainability transition from areas that were previously inaccessible.

The allocation of liability for environmental harm in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) is complicated by several factors relating to the nature of the activities undertaken and the nature of environmental harm itself. These include the range of actors involved in activities that may give rise to environmental harm, and features of cumulative environmental damage, arising over a course of time either out of a connected or unconnected set of activities involving multiple actors or from external natural causes. To address these issues, this chapter outlines legal approaches to causation and the challenges that complex causal pathways may present in ABNJ. It then discusses the general approach to allocating responsibility to states and international organizations under international law and national law, and the channeling of liability to operational entities which is the principal approach in sector-specific civil liability regimes. Finally, it explores the rules that structure the allocation of liability in relation to specific ABNJ regimes and activities.

In order to realize the fundamental goals of liability rules, it is necessary to secure potential future liabilities through financial assurances. Financial assurances are key to ensuring ’prompt and adequate compensation’ and for the availability of funds to protect and preserve the environmental resources that have been harmed. This chapter examines the various types of assurances, such as insurance and compensation funds, that are currently used within civil liability regimes generally, before exploring the existing and emerging practices within the Antarctic, deep seabed and high seas regimes.

The chapter discusses entitlement to POW status in IACs on the part of combatants, those special categories also entitled to the status, unlawful combatants, the relationship between IHL and IHRL and the determination of POW status .The chapter then goes on to discuss the enemy states responsibility for POW, their treatment, internment in POW camps and the punishment of POW. It then considers termination of captivitity and repatriation and, finally, internment in NIAC.

Environmental harm in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) raises distinct issues of standing because of the collective nature of environmental interests in these areas, including who has the right (or obligation) to take the necessary response action to address environmental harm. Both international law and national law recognize that certain actors have sufficient legal interest to bring claims for environmental damage despite not directly suffering injury or loss. These developments reflect an increasing recognition of the intrinsic value of the environment and shifting conceptions of the environment as a collective good subjective to community interests. However, the parameters of the concepts that affirm collective interests in the protection of the environment are nebulous and the scenarios in which they would apply are likely to be contested. In considering the application of the rules of standing in ABNJ, this chapter explores trends in standing in relation to the environment under international law, civil liability regimes and national law before turning to how the specific regimes governing areas beyond national jurisdiction address the issue of standing.

This chapter provides an overview of the different approaches taken by the international community to address liability from environmental harm and how these approaches respond to the unique legal and practical issues associated with areas beyond national jurisdiction. Since liability rules that affect the commons environment exist in both international and national legal systems, the discussion begins with an examination of state responsibility and unharmonized domestic liability, before discussing various approaches to harmonizing civil liability rules through treaties. The discussion of approaches to liability is framed by consideration of the various purposes that liability rules and processes serve in international environmental law.