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Boer, Ben --- "International law-making" [2016] ELECD 1353; in Morgera, Elisa; Kulovesi, Kati (eds), "Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 449

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources

Editor(s): Morgera, Elisa; Kulovesi, Kati

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783478323

Section: Chapter 22

Section Title: International law-making

Author(s): Boer, Ben

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

This chapter provides a broad overview of the various ways that national, regional and international actors contribute to the formulation of international law in the realm of natural resources. Traditionally the most important actors are States, as sovereign entities in international law. However, with environmental disasters, armed conflict, and post-colonial democratization processes, among others, in recent decades, there has been a leavening of power structures globally, regionally and nationally. We have moved from the dominance of States in the making of international law to an expanding range of actors. This trend has been reflected in increasing globalization of concerns over human rights, environmental protection and the exploitation of natural resources, especially since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and the associated Stockholm Declaration. A wider range and number of global inter-governmental bodies are now included, led by the United Nations and the institutions and programmes that constitute it. The other main bodies are: secretariats and conferences of the parties of relevant conventions relating to natural resources; hybrid inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations and global private-sector organizations. Regional counterparts of these global bodies can also be included, to the extent that they contribute to the development of regionally applicable conventions and agreements relating to natural resources. In particular cases, less formal groups and certain individual actors also feed into the making of international law in this field.