Law Test Unit 3

Environmental Law

Treaty

Treaty

• Contract signed by nations

Starting of the environmental movement

1880s: individuals and groups lobby for the conservation and preservation for unspoiled wilderness areas Example: the Sierra Club

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Documents damage of DDT to birds and wildlife DDT goes up the food chain

CASE: Extractive Industries and the Lubicon Cree

2011: Rainbow pipeline spill

• school closure, community sickness

• Lubicon never signed a treaty or gave permission to the government to use their land

• violation UNDRIP's prior and informed consent

DOCUMENT: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)

• guidelines to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples' Examples: practice and revitalize their traditions and culture not be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of culture not forcibly removed or relocated

• not legally binding

DOCUMENT: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

• Commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals Example: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial

Indigenous communities in poorer countries

• Easily forced off of their lands because leaders can be payed off

Extractive Industries

• Taking off of/out of the land

Binding

• Enforced, must be followed, can be held accountable

Trespass

Interference with land owned by another

Injunction

Court order to stop/prevent someone from doing something

Private Nuisance

Interference with use/enjoyment of land due to another's actions Example noise

Public Nuisance

Interference with a public right Example fishing, navigation polluting waterways, creating health hazards

Negligence

Act committed without intention for harm, but that can be anticipated to cause harm.

Riparian Rights

Right of a land owner who borders a lake/river to sue another who interferes with water quality

Standing

Legal right to sue

When government has control over both resources and environmental protection

• Conflict of interest

• How can it protect both interests

Carbon Tax

Free placed in each ton of carbon industries emit

Municipal Action to help Climate Change

• City planning

• Favouring the pedestrian and public transit

CASE: Gauthier v Naneff

• Reparian rights

• Naneff's speedboat racing would affect water quality

DOCUMENT: Environmental Protection Act 1971

• Awareness in the 60s, action in the 70s

• Provincial

• About preventing and controlling pollution, focuses on activities where risk of spills or polluting is high

• ISSUE: focuses on remedies rather than sustainability

DOCUMENT: Environmental Assessment Act

Sets out the responsibilities and procedures for carrying out the environmental assessments of projects which involve federal government decision making

DOCUMENT: Environmental Bill of Rights

Rights of citizens in regards to their environment Example: to participate in governmental decisions, receive notification

DOCUMENT: Montreal Protocol

• Regarding Ozone depletion

• Phasing out the use of substances responsible for ozone depletion

• Successful

Ratify

To sign

Subsidiaries

Company controlled by a parent company

CASE: COP 27

• "United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change"

• Countries come together to solve climate crisis

• Oil and Gas lobbyists present

CASE: COP 27 Outcomes

• Oil and gas not present in the final discussion (oil and gas lobbies successful

• Coal not discussed (phased down COP 26)

• Loss and damages fund

Loss and damages

• Rich countries responsible for climate change paying poorer countries who are more affected by climate change for damage caused by extreme weather events and slow onset disasters (like glaciers melting)

• livelihoods, homes, food systems and territory irreversibly lost

• loss of culture, identity, sovereignty, human dignity, biodiversity

Climate Adaptation

Rich sending money to help others adapt/reduce impact of climate change Ex limiting development where sea levels might rise

Climate Mitigation

Prevention Example Green energy, water/smokestack treatment

DOCUMENT: Paris Agreement

• COP21

• Climate adaptation/mitigation

• Setting goals where COP 27 is about reaching them

Two Aspects to International Law

• Legal Standards: govern the behaviour of states

• International Regulation: organization, rules, limits

DOCUMENT: Principle 21

States can use their resources however they want, as long as they don't negatively impact other states or global commons

Global Commons

• Areas beyond state borders Example: international waters, atmosphere, outer space

Intenational Watercourses

• Transboundary waters

• Bodies of water shared by two or more countries

• Governed by treaties or customary International law

• States must provide timely and prior notifications Example The Nile flows from Uganda and Ethiopia into Egypt, Aswan Dam

Customary International Law

Tradition

Intergovernmental Organizations

Created by treaty, involving two or more nations to work towards a common goal Example UNICEF

Non Governmental Organizations

• NGOS Example Greenpeace, Oil Lobbies

CASE: Rio Conventions

• Convention on Biological Diversity

• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change = COP series

• Represent a commitment to co-operation and partnership

DOCUMENT: Kyoto Protocol

• Japan 1997

• International treaty for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

• First to set quantifiable and binding targets

• Places a heavier burden on developed nations

• Requires reductions to be made through national measures (law)

• Canada ratifies in 2002 but doesn't sign onto 2011 extension

Why do treaties have a lag after signing?

Gives states time to adjust/implement

Emissions trading

Countries that haven't used their allotted emissions units can trade them to other countries

Government of Alberta v Kyoto Protocol

ARTICLE: COP Negatives

• lacks tangible, specific goals

• rich countries consistently fail to meet goals

• consensus model: never easy

ARTICLE: COP Positives

• gets countries together and talking

• holding rich countries accountable

V20

Counties most vulnerable to climate change impacts

ARTICLE: Stakeholders

V20: developing countries most affected US: Biggest oil and gas producer, big investor G7: richest countries

State

• Legal name for a country

• Sovereign

DOCUMENT: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

• First ever codified international list of human rights

• Reaction to World War 2 and civilian death

• First time "human rights" was used legally

Rights Timeline

• The Enlightenment: Hobbes and Locke

• 1763: Royal Proclamation: treaty rights

• American Revolution: Declaration and Bill of Rights

• French Revolution: Equality, liberty and community

• Emancipation and Suffragist movements

• Post World War 2 movements

States' opposition to UDHR

• International norms shouldn't dictate individual state policy: state sovereignty

• Cultural and religious diversity means that there is diversity in codes of right and wrong , which are not also consistent with the UN, which is rooted in Western beliefs

• Differences in cultural norms: example African Charter of Human Rights gives strong voice to community rights.

CASE: Mi'Kmaq self-determination rights

• Donald Marshall files complaint with UN

• Right to self determination violated at the Constitutional Conferences

• UN doesn't find Canada at fault because a group can't claim a violation of this right which is given to peoples, they aren't a country.

• However, a treaty is between 2 nations, Canada therefore recognizes their distinctness, but still doesn't give them sovereignty.

CASE: Women's rights under the Taliban

• No travelling long distances alone

• Covering full faces

• Stopped from government jobs

• University and primary school, no secondary

• 1990s rule: no school over 8, covering completely \n US INVASION

• Opens new pathways, "straying from islamic values" \n US WITHDRAWAL -- August 2021

• Girls school's shut between grade 7 and 12 \n Canada withholding funding: conditional aid

CASE: Iran

• Masa Amini detained for wearing hijab wrong, died in custody

• Violence at protests, schools raided

• **Iran accepted HR treaties that give them an obligation to protect children's rights