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Book
Review It Weighs
Less Than a Hippo:
Introduction Environmental Law and Policy represents an ambitious effort by the authors to create a comprehensive textbook on international environmental law and policy that will be usable in a range of classroom settings including undergraduate, graduate, and law school courses. The emphasis here must be on the term comprehensive. In fact, the first thing that is likely to strike a potential user of this book is its heft. At 1500 plus pages, the book definitely does not suffer from a lack of gravitas. The authors recognize that they are pushing the limits of textbook length. In the website that accompanies the text, they include a number of additional topics not included in the book “out of concerns that the final text weigh less than a hippo.” The authors also recognize that the length
of the book makes it unlikely that it will be “taught from cover to cover in a
one semester course.” Rather they expect faculty to select topics of
particular concern and/ or let the chapters provide the starting point for
research seminars or specialty courses within the field. According
to information on the web site, the book has been adopted at over 60 schools in
the U.S. and abroad. These adoptions do appear to include law schools, graduate
programs, and undergraduate colleges. Professors Hunter, Salzman, and Zaelke, all members of the faculty American University’s Washington College of Law, identify three reasons for writing the book: first, to go beyond theory to assess and describe what is actually happening “on the ground” of international environmental law. In this connection, the authors note that all three have actually practiced international environmental law in addition to their faculty roles. Second, they want their analysis to go beyond the duality of state actors and international institutions and to increase consideration of the role of non-state actors. Third, they want to establish international environmental law as an “independent field” rather than as a subset of environmental law or public international law. In this review, I will first provide an overview of the organization and content of the book. Then I will provide some evaluative material regarding its usefulness in the classroom, particularly from the perspective of a teacher at an undergraduate liberal arts institution. My basic conclusion is that while this book may not be right for every undergraduate course in this general area, it is worth a serious look by anyone attempting to teach in this rapidly changing field. The range and depth that the authors have captured in this text tremendously impressed me. I recommend its serious consideration as a course text or as an addition to one’s personal or institutional library. What the Book Contains The book’s roughly 1500 pages are divided into three major sections of roughly equal length. The first is “The Creation and Development of International Environmental Law.” This section, as the authors describe it, is designed to provide an understanding of the problems of environmental degradation, of the process for addressing these problems, and the players and legal principles that are at the heart of addressing international environmental problems. This is a wide-ranging section with nine chapters including The Wild Environmental Facts, Consumption, Technology and Population, Economics and Sustainable Development, Changing Behavior to Respond to Environmental Limits, International Lawmaking, A Brief History from Stockholm to Rio, Principles and Concepts in International Environmental Law, International Institutions and Non-state Actors, and Making International Environmental Law Work: Improving Compliance and Resolving Disputes. Most of these titles are self-explanatory. Chapter 4, “Changing Behavior to Respond to Environmental Limits” is perhaps the most unusual, covering such topics as deep ecology, The Natural Step, the German Greens, the role of religion, education, and ethics. The second section is “International Environmental Protection” and contains Chapters on Air and Atmosphere, Oceans and Seas, Freshwater Resources, Hazardous Wastes and Materials, Wildlife and Biodiversity, and Protection of Habitat. The authors state that the context of their consideration is the context of sustainable development. “Cross-cutting themes” that characterize this section include the role of science, relations to the global economy, the role of non-State actors, the dynamic between industrialized countries and developing countries, and the role of technology transfer and financial mechanisms in addressing international environmental problems. This section is clearly one where all sections need not be read. A selection of even one or two of these chapters would provide a grounding in how the international agreement system addresses key environmental problems. The third section is “International Environmental Law and Other Legal Regimes.” This section examines the “intersection” of international environmental law with other issues, including international trade, human rights, national security, corporate standards, the “extraterritorial application of domestic environmental law,” and international finance. The authors state that “To a large extent the success of this integration project will determine our overall success in moving toward sustainable development.” Again, this is a section that could be used in different ways depending on the interests of the course and faculty member. In addition to the basic chapters, there are a number of additional resources within the book. A “Table of Cases” is included with reference to over 60 legal cases discussed in the text, including ten that are identified as “principal cases.” In addition, there is an eleven page “Acknowledgments” section with references to the key articles and books from which the authors have reproduced materials. This section contains over 130 references. The book also contains three appendices or “annexes” including:
Finally, there is a detailed 43-page index. In addition to the text itself, there is a supporting web site, which contains a significant amount of additional useful information. The site has a Recent Developments section, which contains news articles culled from the web on many of the issues in the text. This material appears to be updated relatively frequently. When I checked the section, it had been updated less than three weeks previously. There are also sections linking to web sites for treaties and institutional players. A Teacher’s Manual is available upon receipt of a password from the authors, but publicly available are a number of course descriptions and syllabi from institutions where the text is being used. There is also a Teaching Materials section that contains, as noted above sections of the book that were not published out of concerns regarding the length of the book. Material here includes Trade in the Asia Pacific Region, expansion of the Brent Spar problem exercise, Coral Reefs, the European Union, and Sea Turtles. Finally, there is a Table of Contents for the Book with links in each chapter to additional web sites relevant to the material in each of the chapters. The structure of individual chapters is a key feature of the book. Each chapter is a combination of text written by the authors to provide context and linkages, along with brief excerpts from key books, articles, or official documents. For example, the Chapter on “Economics and Sustainable Development” contains excerpts from The Brundtland Report and from works by David Pearce, Theodore Panayatou, Paul Krugman, Roberto de Andraca and Ken McCready, Redefining Progress, Robert Costanza, Robert Goodland, and Herman Daly. In addition, “Suggested Further Reading and Web Sites” follow each Chapter. Finally, each Chapter is sprinkled with “Questions and Discussion” Sections. Evaluative Comments This book is a wonderfully comprehensive text on international environmental law and policy. It bears review by anyone teaching in this general area. I particularly appreciated its detailed consideration of a number of issues which are sometimes given short shrift: this would include sections on human rights, trade, and “changing behavior” which includes consideration of such diverse approaches as deep ecology, The Natural Step, and the German Green Party. This last chapter provides the broader context in which international law operates and provides students with alternative approaches to solving environmental problems. The book is useful in at least three ways. It could be used as a faculty resource to issues, readings, and questions that could be integrated into a course. It could also be placed on reserve or in a library’s reference section and used as a basic reference tool to be used by students in answering basic questions or in looking for and conducting research projects or class presentations. Finally, it could be used a basic classroom textbook for courses related to this topic. As a textbook, the volume contains all sorts of material designed to motivate students to ask questions and to assist teachers in communicating material. However, a key question about the text is whether it is in fact just too much material to be usable in an undergraduate classroom. In the past I have used Lamont Hempel’s Environmental Governance: The Global Challenge (Island Press 1996) and Global Environmental Politics by Gareth Porter and Janet Welsh Brown (Westview 1996) to provide the basics of international law and politics and then supplement these texts with additional readings including articles and books. The text under review covers a similar range of material but in much greater depth and detail. It also has a greater focus on the details of international law and legal precedent. Whereas Porter and Brown or Hempel can be used in their entirety to cover these topics and then supplemented with additional readings, the text under review would need to be selected from and could not reasonably be used in its entirety. Another factor that should be noted is the structure of the chapters. While the book is not an edited volume in the strict sense, it does rely a great deal on short excerpts from other authors or documents. This is an advantage in that it provides various points of view and exposes students to key “primary sources” in the field. However, it can also distract one from the flow of the argument and blur the distinctive “voice” of the book’s principal authors. There may also be a question as to whether short excerpts from larger works really capture the argument in full or whether these short excerpts will beg for a more extended look at the source. I am sure that this will vary from excerpt to excerpt and is partly a matter of instructor preference. My own experience with such an approach is limited, as I have preferred to work with full books or articles. There are a few issues where I believe that the text does not provide a full picture of the current debates over global environmental law and policy. These have principally to do with recent controversies over current patterns of globalization. This may be partly due to the publication date of 1998, which predates the heightened concern about the dominant patterns of contemporary globalization. For example, the sections on corporations do not, as I read them, provide a perspective such as that found in David Korten’s book When Corporations Rule the World or in The Case Against the Global Economy, edited by Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith. The material on corporations appears to focus on solutions, which do not radically challenge the power of corporations in today’s global economy. Similarly, in their discussion of sustainable development, the authors do not appear to consider radical critiques such as those coming from Vandana Shiva or as found in The Development Dictionary, edited by Wolfgang Sachs. Finally, the discussion of International financial institutions seems to shortchange the controversial role of the International Monetary Fund, and particularly its Structural Adjustment Programs. Unfortunately, the text does not have a comprehensive author index within which one could search for a particular author. It could well be that within the mass of material presented in the text and on the web site, I missed references to these factors. I think it is fair to say, however, that these issues related to globalization are not front and center in this text. This might be a consideration for the next edition, if one is planned. That having been said, I believe the text would be quite useful in an undergraduate course such as the one I teach in Globalization and the Environment. The Chapters in Section III on trade, human rights, national security, international corporate standards, extraterritorial application of domestic environmental law, and international finance would provide lots of good material for this course. Putting these together with the earlier chapters on economics and sustainable development and international institutions and non-state actors and some additional readings giving a more “radical” perspective would make for a good course. In summary, this books deserves a look by anyone active in the field of international law and policy. While perhaps most appropriate for law school courses, it has potential as a basic text in undergraduate courses as well. The authors are to be commended for the high quality of the material and the effort that appears to continue through the web site. For those who want to know more about the book, I encourage you to visit that web site. Brett
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