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Between Crisis and Complacency: Seeking Commitment in International Environmental Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2014

Karin Mickelson*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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Abstract

Crisis has played a significant role in international environmental law since its inception. To some extent the field as a whole might be characterized as a ‘discipline of crisis’, since it functions as a counterbalance to unbridled pollution and resource depletion. On the other hand, there have been ongoing attempts to move away from a reactive focus on crisis and to conceptualize international environmental law as part of a broader societal shift toward sustainability. The dilemma that faces the discipline is that in the absence of a sense of crisis, we are unsure of how to generate the commitment that will be required to undertake fundamental changes to the status quo.

Type
Part I Crisis and International Law: Decoy or Catalyst?
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Instituut and the Authors 2013 

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