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Steinberg, Richard H. --- "Power and cooperation in international environmental law" [2007] ELECD 103; in Guzman, T. Andrew; Sykes, O. Alan (eds), "Research Handbook in International Economic Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Research Handbook in International Economic Law

Editor(s): Guzman, T. Andrew; Sykes, O. Alan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843766742

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Power and cooperation in international environmental law

Author(s): Steinberg, Richard H.

Number of pages: 48

Extract:

12. Power and cooperation in international
environmental law
Richard H. Steinberg*



This chapter examines international environmental regulation from economic,
political, and legal perspectives. Section 1 introduces the economics and poli-
tics of international environmental regulation. International agreements on
environmental issues are often seen as symmetric contracts among states, solv-
ing cooperation problems among states with similar interests, or facilitating
side-payments from states that favor environmental regulation to states that
would not otherwise support regulation. In contrast, some realist political
scientists suggest that when international environmental interests vary across
states, international environmental agreements often result from coercion of
weaker states by more powerful ones.
With this framework in mind, the bulk of this chapter examines the negoti-
ation and substance of the world's most important international environmen-
tal agreements.1 Section 2 examines the main agreements related to
international environmental protection of the oceans, including those
concluded to protect fisheries and those intended to reduce land-based marine
pollution. Section 3 examines the main agreements relating to global air pollu-
tion and climate change ­ the Montreal Protocol to the Vienna Convention for
the Protection of the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol)2 and the Kyoto
Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(Kyoto Protocol).3 Section 4 explores the main trade and the environment
issues and agreements, including the Basel Convention on the Transboundary
Movement of Hazardous Wastes (Basel Convention)4 and the Convention on


* I thank Andrew Guzman, Kal Raustiala, and Alan Sykes for their suggestions,
...