Comprises 19 papers which are revised versions of papers presented to the Congress on the environment after Rio, held at Courmayeur, Italy in 1993. The papers are grouped under four themes: the Rio Conference between policy and law; declarations and conventions adopted at Rio; prospects for the future in light of Agenda 21 and evolving international environmental; and environment, development and interdependence.

The international community has long grappled with the issue of protecting the environment while encouraging social and economic development, often with limited results. The 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development was an emphatic attempt to address this issue, setting down 27 key principles for the international community to follow. This work provides a comprehensive examination of these principles and their subsequent implementation.

Implementing the goal of sustainable development has long been heralded as the means by which the needs of both present and future generations can be met. However, finding a long-term balance between economic, social and environmental interests, the basic tenet of sustainable development, has proved largely illusive in practice. This book shows that while a number of legal frameworks to help promote the goal of sustainable development have been proposed at the international level they fail to fully capture the essence of sustainable development and international law's capacity to support its implementation. The book offers a critical analysis of past attempts to develop legal frameworks for promoting sustainable development at the international level, and advocates for a fresh approach based on lessons learnt from the law of international watercourses. The book is divided into four sections. The first section includes an overview of the topic area and an understanding of international law. In section two the book explores the meaning of sustainable development and considers the term's relationship with international law. A detailed analysis of how the law of international watercourses seeks to reconcile competing economic, social and environmental interests is carried out in section three. The book concludes with a section advocating the need for a fresh approach to international law and sustainable development and offering the foundations for this approach based on lessons learnt from the law of international watercourses.

It demonstrates that a great deal has been achieved in the field of environmental law since the 1990s. However, the extraordinary environmental crises facing humanity in the 21st century indicate a continuing urgent need for the generation of robus

An accessible, up-to-date and legally rigorous introduction to contemporary international environmental law. Detailed references combined with numerous figures and tables provide a conceptually clear understanding of the law in this area.

The first comprehensive examination of the Rio Earth Summit's accomplishments and failures, exploring in detail the political and economic conflicts that arose between developed and developing nations.