LAW

MODERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

MODERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

INTRODUCTION

Environmental law defines the practices that ensure protection of air, water, soil, oceans and laws that ensure safety of the environment as a whole. These laws can protect masses of land, oceans and endangered species. Environmental laws have a number of sources from they can be developed by using;

statutes,

common law,

administrative guidelines,

subsidiary legislation and

International law

Common law of the country defines what practices are acceptable in terms of protecting the environment. Statutes also play a significant role in the development of environmental laws by keeping in mind the legislations that states or provinces have adopted. With the implementation of various international laws, governments are now forced to take into account a global perspective before creating regulations for environmental protection.

INTERNATIONAL PRINCIPLES AND INFLUENCE ON AUSTRALIAN LAW

Rio Declaration

One crucial challenge of policy making is to make sure such compensation really is paid in an equitable and efficient manner. At the same time, the fast and large-scale adoption of environmental instruments throughout the world that is so critically needed will require more than the international rhetoric around compensation. It will also require a more nuanced understanding of political context. As Joshua Graff Zivin and Maria Damon emphasize in “Environmental Policy and Political Realities: Fisheries Management & Job Creation in the Australia,” policy making does not happen “in a vacuum,” and the study of environmental policy choices must start to holistically incorporate the ways that instruments interact with other political goals—if there is hope of these instruments being adopted widely and designed effectively. Researchers analyze job-growth development strategies in the Australia and find that investments in sustainable fisheries management presents long-term employment advantages over other strategies such as direct investments in fish-processing capacity (which is widely viewed as a pro-employment strategy).

Kyoto Protocol

A growing number of countries are implementing emissions trading schemes as a means of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The government of Australia has announced its intention to introduce a comprehensive emissions trading scheme, known as the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).The CPRS is scheduled to start in full in 2011, and the relevant legislation is currently before Parliament. The CPRS is the centre-piece of Australia's climate change policy and requires that all major emitters4 GHGs hold a permit for every tonne of GHG that they emit each year. Although designed to have a broad economy-wide coverage, a particular class of emitter is given treatment under the CPRS. Companies that qualify as being 'emissions-intensive (EITE) entities are eligible to receive free emissions permits under a component of the CPRS known as the EITE Assistance Program (EAP).

As distinct from the economic and social equity debates, the EAP is controversial another reason. Questions are being raised whether the EAP is contrary to Australia's obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on and Countervailing Measures (hereinafter 'SCM Agreement'). The answer this question turns on the definition of what constitutes a 'subsidy' under international trade laws. To date, there has been no thorough analysis as to whether the ...