OUVRAGE : J. Ebbesson, D. Langlet (eds.), Fifty Years of International Environmental Law: Developments since the 1972 Stockholm Conference

Jonas EBBESSON, David LANGLET

This book explores the seminal importance of the first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm 1972 – the Stockholm Conference – for the development of international environmental law. By bringing together world leading experts from academia and legal practice, the book charts the development of international environmental law in the 50 years since 1972 in the areas of nature and biodiversity, chemicals and waste, oceans and water, and atmosphere and climate, and with respect to structures and institutions, consumption and production, and human rights and participatory rights in environmental matters. It analyses how the ideas and concepts of the Stockholm Conference have influenced this development and explores the novel ideas that have emerged since then. It describes the approaches of the developed and developing countries in this process and the relationship between international environmental law and other areas of law, such as the law of the sea and international economic law.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Jonas Ebbesson, David Langlet, Introduction: Fifty Years of Shaping International Environmental Law

PART I
CONCEPTS, STRUCTURES, AND INSTITUTIONS

1. Nico Schrijver, Stockholm 1972 and the Birth of International Sustainable Development Law

2. Ellen Hey, The Missed Link between International Economic Law and Social and Environmental Issues

3. Bharat H. Desai, On the International Environmental Governance Architecture: Looking Back to Look Ahead for Our Common Future

PART II

HUMAN RIGHTS, PARTICIPATORY RIGHTS, AND THE RULE OF LAW

4. Dinah Shelton, Litigating Human Rights and the Environment in International Tribunals 1972–2022: How Far Have We Progressed?

5. Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Alvin Gachie, Leonie Geene, Macharia Kaguru, Jan Maina, Environmental Rule of Law: From Stockholm 1972 to 2022 and Beyond

6. Ben Boer, Rowena Cantley-Smith, The Development of Environmental Access Rights and Protection of Environmental Defenders

PART III

CONSUMPTION, PRODUCTION, CHEMICALS, AND WASTE

7. Eva R. van der Marel, Catherine Redgwell, Unrealized Ambition or Unattainable Goal? Sustainable Consumption and Production in International Law

8. Timo Koivurova, International Regulation and the Management of Mining since the 1972 Stockholm Conference: From Local to Global Concerns

9. Katharina Kummer Peiry, Chemicals and Wastes in International Environmental Policy and Law: From Trail Smelter to a Circular Economy

10. Marcos A. Orellana, The Unfinished Agenda of Stockholm 1972: A Rights-Based Approach to Chemicals and Wastes

11. Carl Dalhammar, The Dynamics of International and European Union Law on Waste and Chemicals: Past, Present, and Future

PART IV

THE ATMOSPHERE

12. Phoebe Okowa, Sean O’Reilly, Implementing Principle 21 of the Stockholm Declaration: Regional Efforts to Regulate Transboundary Air Pollution

13. Jutta Brunnée, Climate Protection 50 Years after Stockholm: International Law at the Precipice

14. Jacqueline Peel, A Southern State of Mind: From Being ‘Mindful of … Effects on Climate’ to Climate Litigation in the Global South

15. Harro van Asselt, Trade and Atmospheric Protection at Stockholm+50: Plus ça change?

PART V

WATERS

16. Richard Barnes, The Stockholm Declaration at Sea: Influences on the Content and Context of the Law of the Sea

17. Yoshifumi Tanaka, Linking International Regimes on Oceans and Fresh Water since the 1972 Stockholm Conference: The Case of Preventing Land-Based Marine Plastic Pollution via International Watercourses

PART VI

NATURE AND BIODIVERSITY

18. Elisa Morgera, The Progressive Development of International Biodiversity Law from the 1972 Stockholm Conference to the Synergistic Protection of Biodiversity and Human Rights, Including at the Ocean-Climate Nexus

19. Dire D. Tladi, Aspirations of Developing Countries in Biodiversity Treaty-Making Processes: Dreams Deferred?

20. Nicolas de Sadeleer, The Influence of the Stockholm Conference on the Development of Nature Protection Law at an International Level and in Europe

21. Claudia Ituarte-Lima, Fifty Years of International Law-Making on the Environment: Women Shaping Legal Principles and Solidarity

Annex A. Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment

Annex B. Stockholm+50: A Healthy Planet for the Prosperity of All – Our Responsibility, Our Opportunity, Summary Points of Leadership Dialogues and Outcome

Jonas EBBESSON, David LANGLET (eds.), Fifty Years of International Environmental Law: Developments since the 1972 Stockholm Conference, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2026 (578 pp.)