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Book Reviews - Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights, and the Law of the Commons. By Burns H. Weston and David Bollier. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. xxvi, 363. Index. $99.

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Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights, and the Law of the Commons. By Burns H. Weston and David Bollier. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. xxvi, 363. Index. $99.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John H. Knox
John H. Knox*
Affiliation:
Wake Forest University School of Law
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Type
Recent Books on International Law
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 108 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 131 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2014 

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References

1 Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).

2 See, e.g., Lester R. Brown, Plan B: Rescuing A Planet Under Stress and A Civilization in Trouble (2003); Paul R. Ehrlich, The Population Bomb (1968); Garrett Hardin, The Ostrich Factor: Our Population Myopia (1999); Donella H. Meadowsetal., The Limits to Growth (1972).

3 Recent films depicting a future environmental dystopia include A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001); The Day After Tomorrow (2004); Wall-E (2008); Metropia (2009); and Elysium (2013).

4 see Jeff Goodell, How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth’s Climate 89–90 (2010).

5 Common-pool resources are exhaustible resources that are difficult to protect from (over)use. Most natural resources, including the atmosphere, bodies of water, fisheries, and forests, can be described as CPRs.

6 Not coincidentally, one imagines, these two aspects of the proposal fnond to the authors’ own back grounds and expertise. Burns Weston has written extensively on human rights law; David Bollier is the co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group, which seeks to promote the Commons approach to governance internationally.

7 Shelton, Dinah, Human Rights, Environmental Rights, and the Right to Environment, 28 Stan. J. Int’l L. 103 (1991)Google Scholar.

8 On the latter development, see David Boyd’s The Environmental Rights Revolution: A Global Study of Constitutions, Human Rights, and the Environment (2012).

9 see Dworkin, Ronald, Rights as Trumps, in Theories of Rights 153 (Waldron, Jeremy ed., 1984)Google Scholar.

10 see Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (1990).

11 Hardin, Garrett, The Tragedy of the Commons, 162 Science 1243 (1968)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

12 see Ostrom, supra note 10, at 90–91.

13 An appendix sets out the principles in the form of a Universal Covenant Affirming a Human Right to Commons- and Rights-Based Governance of Earth’s Natural Wealth and Resources (p. 269).

14 Ostrom, supra note 10, at 88.

15 Saramaka People v. Suriname, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations, Costs, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 172, para. 88 (Nov. 28, 2007).

16 Id., para. 134.see Orellana, Marcos, Saramaka People v. Suriname, 102 AJIL 841 (2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Many of the international claims have been to regional human rights tribunals. See, e.g., Decision Regarding Communication 155/96, Social and Economic Rights Action Center/Center for Economic and Social Rights v. Nigeria, Case No. ACHPR/COMM/ A 044 (Afr. Comm’n Hum. & Peoples’ Rts. 2002); ö neryildiz v. Turkey, 2001-XII Eur. Ct. H.R. 79, Ta¸skin and others v. Turkey, 2004-X Eur. Ct. H.R. 179; Marangopoulos Foundation for Human Rights v. Greece, Complaint No. 30/2005 (Eur. Comm. Soc. Rts.2006);Mayagna(Sumo)Awas TingniCommunity v. Nicaragua, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 79 (2001).

18 Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Climate Change, UN Doc. A/HRC/RES/7/23 (Mar. 28, 2008), A/HRC/RES/10/4 (Mar. 25, 2009), A/HRC/ RES/18/22 (Sept. 30, 2011).

19 E.g., Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, UNDoc. A/HRC/19/55 (Dec. 21, 2011); Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, James Anaya, UNDoc.A/HRC/15/37(July19,2010); Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Raquel Rolnik–Mission to Maldives, UN Doc. A/HRC/13/20/Add.3 (Jan. 11, 2010).

20 Human Rights Council, Human Rights and the Environment, UNDoc. A/HRC/RES/19/10 (Mar. 22, 2012). The present reviewer was appointed to the position in July 2012 and submitted his first report the following December. Report of the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, John H. Knox, UN Doc. A/HRC/22/43 (Dec. 24, 2012).