2. Historical Background: What Are the Lessons Learnt from the Past and What Remains To Be Answered

Plato (Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn) (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC, Athens, Greece). Classical Greek philosopher who, together with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy.

PLATO, GORGIAS (Robin Waterfield trans., Oxford World Classic ed. 1994).

For analyses on Plato’s political thought: ALLAN BLOOM, THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO (New York and London: Basic Books Inc. 1968); Ernest Barker, The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle. New York: Russell & Russell Inc. 1959; M. T. W. Arnheim, 1977. Aristocracy in Greek Society. Edited by H. H. Scullard, Aspects of Greek and Roman Life: Thames and Hudson, Castoriadis, Cornelius. 1999. Sur le Politique de Platon. Paris: Editions du Seuil, Despotopoulos, Constantin. 1997. La Philosophie Politique de Platon, Cahiers de Philosophie Ancienne N. 14. Athens: Ousia, Edmond, Michel - Pierre. 1991. Le Philosophe - Roi, Platon et la Politique. Paris: Edition Payot, Barker, Ernest. 1959. The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle. New York: Russell & Russell Inc. The most interesting analysis of Plato’s Politeia for the purposes of the present book has been presented by Reeve in his book entitled the “Philosopher-Kings”. C. REEVE, PHILOSOPHER – KINGS (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1988). Reeve presents an analysis of Politeia concentrating on what the author perceives as the main argument of the book; the ruling of the state by the Philosopher-Kings, which unite the political power with the knowledge of both social and natural sciences.

The definition of philosophy is: “1. orig., love of, or the search for, wisdom or knowledge; 2. theory or logical analysis of the principles underlying conduct, thought, knowledge, and the nature of the universe”. WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY (Second College ed); Henry George Liddell, Robert Scot, Philosophia, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus.

There are, however, many readings to Plato’s Republic that directly oppose the afore-mentioned analysis. Those readings understand Plato to be a totalitarianist and the Republic to express nothing more than a totalitarian and eugenistic regime. See, e.g., 1 KARL R. POPPER, THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES: THE SPELL OF PLATO (Rutledge 1954). Other philosophers just question on whether Plato’s even intended or attempted to describe the best regime in The Republic. For instance, Leo Strauss in his article “Plato”, in History of the Political Philosophy, p. 33–89, provides a reference to Cicero’s words: “The Republic does not bring to light the best possible regime, but rather the nature of political things – the nature of the city”. See Leo Strauss, Plato, in HISTORY OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 33, 68 (Leo Strauss & Joseph Cropsey ed., 3d ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1987).

See, e.g., Peter M. Haas, Knowledge, Power and International Policy Coordination, 46 INTL. ORG. 1 (Special Issue, 1992); PAUL A. SABATIER & HANK C. JENKINS-SMITH, POLICY CHANGE AND LEARNING: AN ADVOCACY COALITION APPROACH (Boulder, CO: Westview Press 1993); Paul A. Sabatier & Hank C. Jenkins-Smith, The Advocacy Coalition Framework: An Assessment, in THEORIES OF THE POLICY PROCESS (Paul A. Sabatier ed., Boulder, CO: Westview 1999); Hugh Heclo, Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment, in THE NEW AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM 84 (Anthony King ed., Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research 1978); Margaret E. Keck & Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks, in INTERNATIONAL POLITICS (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 1998).

PETER M. HAAS, SAVING THE MEDITERRANEAN: THE POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION 75 (New York: Columbia University Press 1990).

LOUIS HACKETT, THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT - The European Dream Of Progress And Enlightenment (1992), available at: http://​history-world.​org/​age_​of_​enlightenment.​htm (last accessed December 2018).

The DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD is a philosophical and mathematical treatise published by René Descartes in 1637. Its full name is DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD OF RIGHTLY CONDUCTING ONE’S REASON AND OF SEEKING TRUTH IN THE SCIENCES (French title: DISCOURS DE LA MÉTHODE POUR BIEN CONDUIRE SA RAISON, ET CHERCHER LA VÉRITÉ DANS LES SCIENCES).

During that time, scientific literature was proliferated. Natural history in particular became increasingly popular among the upper classes. Works of natural history include RENÉ-ANTOINE FERCHAULT DE RÉAUMUR’S HISTOIRE NATURELLE DES INSECTES and JACQUES GAUTIER D’AGOTY’S LA MYOLOGIE COMPLÈTE, OU DESCRIPTION DE TOUS LES MUSCLES DU CORPS HUMAIN, published in 1746.

See, e.g., T. D. Barton, Law and Science in the Enlightenment and Beyond, 13 (2) SOCIAL EPISTIMOLOGY 100, 105 (1999).

Emma Spary, The ‘Nature’ of Enlightenment, in THE SCIENCES IN ENLIGHTENED EUROPE 281–282 (William Clark, Jan Golinski & Steven Schaffer eds., Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1999).

See, e.g., HENRI SAINT-SIMON (1760–1825), SELECTED WRITINGS ON SCIENCE, INDUSTRY AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (Taylor K. ed., Croom Helm 1975); AUGUSTE COMTE: CHOIX DE TEXTES ET ETUDE DU SYSTEME PHILOSOPHIQUE, BY COMTE (compiled by Hubert R, Louis-Michaud, Paris 1913); AUGUSTE COMTE, THE FOUNDATION OF SOCIOLOGY (Thompson K. ed., Nelson 1976).

D. PEPPER, THE ROOTS OF MODERN ENVIRONMENTALISM (London: Routledge 1990).

A. J. AYER, LOGICAL POSITIVISM, The Free Press, Glencoel IL, 1966; DAVID HUME, AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING (Tom Beauchamp ed., Oxford Philosophical Texts Oxford 1999).

Positivism prevailed not only in science, but in law as well, differentiating the law from morals, economics and politics, while at the same time recognizing to it attributes like objectivity and accuracy. See M. Miaille, Désordre, Droit et Science, in THEORIE DU DROIT ET SCIENCE 88 (P. Amselek ed., Paris: P.U.F. 1994); Z. BAUMAN, INTIMATIONS OF POSTMODERNITY 119 (London: Routledge 1992); HANS KELSEN, THEORIE PURE DU DROIT 91, 431 (Paris: Dalloz 1962).

Jon Hastie, The Role of Science and Scientists in Environmental Policy, in THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY (Jules Pretty et al eds. 2007), p. 90.

Science and the Social Order, in SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE 591 (R. K. Merton ed., The Free Press, New York 1949).

See ANTHONY GIBBENS, CAPITALISM AND MODERN SOCIAL THEORY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE WRITINGS OF MARX, DURKHEIM AND MAX WEBER 101 (Cambridge University Press, 1971). About the development of the bureaucratic model in France, see also AUGUSTE COMPT, Choix de Textes et Etude du Systeme Philosophique, compiled by Hubert R., Paris: Louis Michaund, 1913.

M. WEBER, ESSAYS IN SOCIOLOGY (H. H. Gerth & C. Wright Mills trans. & eds., Oxford University Press 1946).

The term “technocracy” originates from the Greek work “techni” which stands for “skill” and “kratos” for “power.” William Henry Smyth used the term Technocracy in his 1919 article “Technocracy” - Ways and Means to Gain Industrial Democracy, in the journal INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT. However, Smyth’s usage referred to Industrial democracy: a movement to integrate workers into decision making through existing firms or revolution. The term came to mean “government by technical decision making” in 1932. See OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (3d ed.) (word from 2d ed., 1989).

SHEILA JASANOFF, THE FIFTH BRANCH: SCIENCE ADVISERS AS POLICYMAKERS (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990).

Merle Jacob, Boundary Work in Contemporary Science Policy: A Review, 23 (2) PROMETHEUS 195–207 (2005); J. Layzer, Fish Stories: Science, Advocacy, and Policy Change in New England Fishery Management, 34 THE POLICY STUDIES JOURNAL 59–80.

Report on the United Nations Conference on the Application of Science and Technology for the Benefit of the Less Developed Areas, UN 1963, p. 223.

Report on the United Nations Conference on the Application of Science and Technology for the Benefit of the Less Developed Areas, UN 1963, p. 243. See, also: VASOS ARGYRIOU, THE LOGIC OF ENVIRONMENTALISM – ANTHROPOLOGY, ECOLOGY AND POSTCOLONIALITY 40 (Berghahn Books, New York, Oxford 2005).

Gunnar K. A. Njalsson, From Autonomous to Socially Conceived Technology: Toward a Causal, Intentional and Systematic Analysis of Interests and Elites in Public Technology Policy, in THEORIA: A JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THEORY, 56–81 (Berghahn Books ed., 2005).

See Craig S. Volland, The Ascendency of the Econocrats, SYNTHESIS/REGENERATION 6 (Spring 1993), available at http://​www.​greens.​org/​s-r/​06/​06-09.​html (last accessed December 2018).

See Howard Scott, History and Purpose of Technocracy 1965, archived at https://​archive.​org/​stream/​HistoryAndPurpos​eOfTechnocracy.​howardScott/​HistoryAndPurpos​eOfTechnocracy.​howardScott.​pd-2_​djvu.​txt (last accessed January 2019).

See THORTEIN VEBLEN, THE TECHNOCRACY MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, a member of the Technical Alliance. See also THORSTEIN VEBLEN, THE ENGINEERS AND THE PRICE SYSTEM (1921) available at https://​socialsciences.​mcmaster.​ca/​~econ/​ugcm/​3ll3/​veblen/​Engineers.​pdf (last accessed December 2018). It was later used as reference material by the Technocracy movement. The various schools of thought amongst engineers and other interested parties eventually produced social institutions arguing for purely technical government of society in the 1930s. Technocracy Incorporated formulated a plan for the land mass of North America, to employ a non-monetary system “Energy Accounting.” See, e.g., http://​environ.​andrew.​cmu.​edu/​m3/​s3/​05account.​shtml (last accessed December 2018) Environmental Decision making, Science and Technology, which uses a post scarcity type of economy as its basis. The system proposed, based on energy accounting instead of money, uses thermodynamics as its basis. See article on Economy and Thermodynamics, available at http://​ecen.​com/​eee9/​ecoterme.​htm (last accessed December 2018). Technate scientific social design as projected in the Technocracy Study Course, would include such post scarcity aspects as free housing (Urbanates), transportation, recreation, and education. In other words, free everything, including all consumer products, as a right of citizenship. See Wilton Ivie, A Place to Live, TECHNOCRACY DIGEST (1955). Everyone would receive an equal amount of consuming power via this Non-market economics, post scarcity method, in theory. In Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt, Frederick Soddy turned his attention to the role of energy in economic systems. He criticized the focus on monetary flows in economics, arguing that “real” wealth was derived from the use of energy to transform materials into physical goods and services. Soddy’s economic writings were largely ignored in his time, but would later be applied to the development of biophysical economics and ecological economics and also bioeconomics in the late 20th century. See Frederick Soddy in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EARTH, available at https://​editors.​eol.​org/​eoearth/​wiki/​Soddy,_​Frederick_​(Energy) (last accessed January 2019). Other movements advocating technocratic government included, in France, the Group X-Crise, formed by French former students of the Ecole Polytechnique engineer school in the 1930s, as well as Redressement Français, a French technocratic movement founded by Ernest Mercier in 1925. Along with the Belgian Henri de Man, X-Crise advocated “planisme” (planism), which advocated, instead of economic liberalism, the use of economic plans and planification. Influenced by de Man’s planism, the Neo-socialists Marcel Déat, Pierre Renaudel, René Belin of the Radical-Social Party (Pierre Mendès-France etc.) promoted a “constructive revolution” headed by the state and technocrat, through economic planification. Such ideas also influenced the Non-Conformist Movement in the French right-wing. In Great Britain, Political and Economic, a think-tank founded in 1931, also advocated such economic intervention.

The word itself is derived from the Greek word “νους” (nous) meaning “mind” or “intellect” and the Greek word “κράτος” (kratos) meaning “authority” or “power”. Namely, under the meaning of noocracy, the intellect governs.

The same idea can be applied on much larger scales, with automated public surveillance by semi-intelligent systems that automatically control or limit the actions of individuals to prevent illegal activity. This is called the carceral state, in which the whole state is effectively a Panopticon - a place with strict rules, where all individuals are supervised to ensure compliance. Charles Stross called this a Panopticon Singularity. See CHARLES STROSS, THE PANOPTICON SINGULARITY (2002). In this way, the bureaucratic form of technocracy may be an authoritarian system of governance. See, e.g., JEREMY BENTHAM, THE PANOPTICON WRITINGS 29–95 (Miran Bozovic ed., London: Verso 1995); and Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975).

JAN TINBERGEN, SELECTED PAPERS (North-Holland, Amsterdam 1959).

Russell Hanson, Democracy, in POLITICAL INNOVATION AND CONCEPTUAL CHANGE 68 (Terrence Ball et al. eds., Cambridge University Press, New York 1989). Read also JOEL D. ABERBACH ET AL., BUREAUCRATS AND POLITICIANS IN WESTERN DEMOCRACIES (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass 1981); WILLIAM BERNHARD, BANKING ON REFORM: POLITICAL PARTIES AND CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE IN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACIES (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 2002); William Bernhand & David Leblang, Democratic Processes and Political Risk: Evidence from Foreign Exchange Markets, 46 (2) AM. J. OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 316; David Held, Democracy and Globalization – Alternatives: Social Transformation and Human Governance, in Re-imagining Political Community, ed. Daniele Archibugi, David Held, and Martin Köhler (Stanford UP, 1998); SAMUEL KRISLOV & DAVID ROSENBLOOM, REPRESENTATIVE BUREAUCRACY AND THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM (Praeger, New York 1981); and Susanne Lohnmann, Institutional Checks and Balances and the Political Control of the Money Supply, 50 (3) OXFORD ECONOMIC PAPERS 360 (1998).

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Augustine Brannigan & Sheldon Goldenberg, Technology, Society and Change: Problems and Responses, in SOCIAL RESPONSES TO TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE 3 (Augustine Brannigan & Sheldon Goldenberg eds., Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, London, England 1985).

Augustine Brannigan & Sheldon Goldenberg, Technology, Society and Change: Problems and Responses, in SOCIAL RESPONSES TO TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE 3 (Augustine Brannigan & Sheldon Goldenberg eds., Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, London, England 1985).

ARTHUR P.J. MOL, GLOBALIZATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL REFORM: THE ECOLOGICAL MODERNIZATION OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY (Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: The MIT Press 2001). For further discussion on Eco-technocracy, see Murray Bookchin, Energy, Ecotechnocracy, and Ecology, LIBERATION (Feb. 1975); Wilton Ivie, The Ecology of Man, THE TECHNOCRAT (December 1948); M. King Hubbert, Determining the Most Probable, 12 TECHNOCRACY (1938); and Stephen L. Doll, Accounting for Nature: Moving Toward Resource-Based Economics, 337 THE NORTHWEST TECHNOCRAT (4th quarter 1994).

Stockholm Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, principle 18, 1972, 11 I.L.M. 1416, available at http://​www.​un-documents.​net/​unchedec.​htm [hereinafter Stockholm Conference] (last accessed January 2019). Noteworthy, in Article 25 States also agreed to “ensure that international organizations play a coordinated, efficient and dynamic role for the protection and improvement of the environment”.

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Philippe Sands et al., Principles of international environmental law (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2018), pp. 43–45.

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JOSEPH F. DIMENTO, THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT AND INTERNATIONAL LAW (University of Texas, Austin 2003).

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Convention between France and Great Britain Relative to Fisheries, Nov. 11, 1867, in 21 INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT: TREATIES AND RELATED DOCUMENTS 1.

E.g., the 1886 treaty on the Rhine among Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland; the 1891 Agreement between the United States and the Government of Her Britannic Majesty for a modus vivendi in relation to fur fisheries in the Bering Sea. For a complete series of conventions signed at that time, also see the International Environmental Agreements (IEA) Database Project, available at http://​iea.​uoregon.​edu/​page.​php?​query=​base_​agreement_​list&​where=​start&​InclusionEQ=​BEA&​SubjectIN=​Species/​Fauna/​Fish (last accessed January 2019).

JOSEPH F. DIMENTO, THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT AND INTERNATIONAL LAW (University of Texas, Austin 2003), p. 14.

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OTTO HERMAN, THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS CONCLUDED IN 1902, IN HUNGARY (Royal Hungarian Minister of Agriculture publ., Budapest, Victor Hornýanszky, court printer, 1907), at 45 available at: http://​books.​google.​com/​books?​id=​bscZAAAAIAAJ&​pg=​PA33&​lpg=​PA33&​dq=​first+internatio​nal+convention+o​n+birds&​source=​bl&​ots=​C4EcnqQOvG&​sig=​aD5hg9ci2DZJDqRq​yDi8e5_​1ETc&​hl=​el&​sa=​X&​oi=​book_​result&​resnum=​1&​ct=​result#PPR1,M1 (last accessed January 2019).

OTTO HERMAN, THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS CONCLUDED IN 1902, IN HUNGARY (Royal Hungarian Minister of Agriculture publ., Budapest, Victor Hornýanszky, court printer, 1907), at 131 available at: http://​books.​google.​com/​books?​id=​bscZAAAAIAAJ&​pg=​PA33&​lpg=​PA33&​dq=​first+internatio​nal+convention+o​n+birds&​source=​bl&​ots=​C4EcnqQOvG&​sig=​aD5hg9ci2DZJDqRq​yDi8e5_​1ETc&​hl=​el&​sa=​X&​oi=​book_​result&​resnum=​1&​ct=​result#PPR1,M1 (last accessed January 2019).

Treaty Between the United States and Great Britain Relating to Boundary Waters Between the United States and Canada, U.S. - Can., January 11, 1909, 36 Stat. 2452.

Convention Concerning the Use of White Lead in Painting entered into force on Aug. 31, 1923, available at https://​www.​ilo.​org/​dyn/​normlex/​en/​f?​p=​NORMLEXPUB:​12100:​0:​:​NO:​:​P12100_​ILO_​CODE:​C013 (last accessed January 2019).

Convention Concerning the Use of White Lead in Painting entered into force on Aug. 31, 1923, available at https://​www.​ilo.​org/​dyn/​normlex/​en/​f?​p=​NORMLEXPUB:​12100:​0:​:​NO:​:​P12100_​ILO_​CODE:​C013 (last accessed January 2019) at art. 1.

Convention Concerning the Use of White Lead in Painting entered into force on Aug. 31, 1923, available at https://​www.​ilo.​org/​dyn/​normlex/​en/​f?​p=​NORMLEXPUB:​12100:​0:​:​NO:​:​P12100_​ILO_​CODE:​C013 (last accessed January 2019) at art. 3 paras. 1 and 3, respectively.

Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State, November 8, 1933, London, U.K., 17 L.N.T.S. 241. See also the Register of International Treaties and Other Agreements in the Field of the Environment, United Nations Environmental Program publ., 2005, available at https://​wedocs.​unep.​org/​bitstream/​handle/​20.​500.​11822/​8314/​-Register%20​of%20​International%20​Treaties%20​and%20​Other%20​Agreements%20​in%20​the%20​Field%20​of%20​the%20​Environment-20052905.​pdf?​sequence=​2&​isAllowed=​y (last accessed January 2019).

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International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, Dec. 2, 1946, 62 Stat. 1716, 161 U.N.T.S. 72 at articles 8(4), 5(2) respectively.

Visit the official website, https://​www.​worldwildlife.​org/​ (last accessed January 2019).

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ILG, CHRISTOPH, DIE RECHTSSETZUNGSTÄTIGKEIT DER INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANISATION – ZUR BEDEUTUNG DER IMO BEI DER WEITERENTWICKLUNG DES MEERESUMWELTRECHTS (Campus Druck, Tübingen 2001).

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THE WORLD ENVIRONMENT 1972–1992: TWO DECADES OF CHALLENGE 630, 663, 742 (Mostafa K. Tobla et al. ed., UNEP, London: Chapman and Hall 1992).

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Lee A. Kimball holds that the UN and its specialized agencies did not play the role that they could have played in research and analysis, because they developed other priorities after the emergence of different pressing needs for international emergency and technical assistance due to the creation of new independent States during the 1960s and 1970s. See Kimball, Institutional Linkages Between the Convention on Biological Diversity and Other International Conventions, 6 REV. EUR. CMTY. & INT’L ENVTL. L. 239, 242 (1997).

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The text is available at: http://​www.​un-documents.​net/​aconf48-14r1.​pdf (last accessed January 2019).

The text is available at: http://​www.​un-documents.​net/​aconf48-14r1.​pdf (last accessed January 2019), para. 6.

1972 Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Declaration), UNCHE, 1972, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.48/14/Rev.1/Chapt.1; 11 I.L.M. 1416, 1420 (1972), available at http://​www.​un-documents.​net/​aphe.​pdf (last accessed January 2019). For literature on the Stockholm Declaration, see, among others, Areti Krishna Kumari, Evolution of Environmental Legislation, Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) - ICFAI University, Hyderabad, available at http://​papers.​ssrn.​com/​sol3/​papers.​cfm?​abstract_​id=​956228 (last accessed December 2018).

See Kimball, Institutional Linkages Between the Convention on Biological Diversity and Other International Conventions, 6 REV. EUR. CMTY. & INT’L ENVTL. L. 239, 242 (1997), at 45. As indicated at footnote 6, the above listing is an abstract from the Stockholm Conference documentation made available by Peter S. Thacher, Feb. 1996.

UNEP was established under Resolution 2997 of the U.N. General Assembly on Institutional and Financial Arrangements for International Environmental Co-operation. G.A. Res. 2997, 27 U.N. GAOR (Supp. No. 30) 43 (Dec. 15, 1972).

For reasons on the failure of UNEP to fully respond to its mandate, see Maria Ivanova, at http://​environment.​yale.​edu/​publication-series/​documents/​downloads/​o-u/​report_​7_​unep_​evaluation.​pdf (last accessed January 2019).

Part I para, 2(a) and Part II para. 2(e) of G.A. Res. 2997, 27 U.N. GAOR (Supp. No. 30) 43 (Dec. 15, 1972).

See, e.g., Maria Ivanova, Dissertation: Understanding UNEP: Myths and Realities in Global Environmental Governance (Yale University 2006).

Visit the official website of UNEP-DTIE, http://​web.​unep.​org/​dtie (last accessed December 2018).

For more information, visit the official website, https://​www.​thegef.​org/​project/​global-international-waters-assessment-giwa (last accessed December 2018).

For more information, visit the official website, http://​www.​millenniumassess​ment.​org/​en/​About.​aspx (last accessed December 2018).

Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat, February 2, 1971, 996 UNTS 245 (entered into force December 21, 1975).

UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, November 16, 1972, 11 I.L.M. 1358 (entered into force December 17, 1975).

Annex IV, No. 7.

Annex IV, Nos. 1 and 2.

JAMES GUSTAVE SPETH, Two Perspectives on Globalization and the Environment, in WORLDS APART – GLOBALIZATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT 4 (James Gustave Speth ed., Island Press, Washington, Covelo, London, 2003).

See, e.g., MAN’S IMPACT ON THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT, Report of the Study of Critical Environmental Problems authored by a scientific group assembled at MIT in 1970; RICHARD FALK, THIS ENDANGERED PLANET (1971); GARRETT HARDIN, EXPLORING NEW ETHICS FOR SURVIVAL (1972); DENNIS MEADOWS ET AL., THE LIMITS TO GROWTH (1972); BARBARA WARD & RENE DUBOS, ONLY ON EARTH (1972), HARRISON BROWN, THE HUMAN FUTURE REVISITED (1978); and LESTER BROWN, THE TWENTY-NINTH DAY (1978).

CARBON DIOXIDE AND CLIMATE: A SCIENTIFIC ASSESSMENT, Report of an Ad Hoc Study Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate, CLIMATE RESEARCH BOARD, ASSEMBLY OF MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES, NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (July 23–17, 1979, Woods Hole, Massachusetts).

Issued in 1980, available at http://​data.​iucn.​org/​dbtw-wpd/​edocs/​WCS-004.​pdf (last accessed January 2019).

Issued in 1982.

Issued in 1980.

Issued in 1981.

JAMES GUSTAVE SPETH, Two Perspectives on Globalization and the Environment, in WORLDS APART – GLOBALIZATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT 4 (James Gustave Speth ed., Island Press, Washington, Covelo, London, 2003), at 6.

Agenda 21, June 13, 1992, ch. 35, U.N. Doc. A/Conf.151/26 (Vol. D III).

Agenda 21, June 13, 1992, ch. 35, U.N. Doc. A/Conf.151/26 (Vol. D III), at 8.14.

Other authors, such as Barnett and Finnemore, taking notice of the increased influence of the IOs in shaping the agenda-setting, refer, to a “social construction power” of IOs, because they use their knowledge to help create social reality. M.N. BARNETT & M. FINNEMORE, RULES FOR THE WORLD - INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN GLOBAL POLITICS 20–30 (2004).

Convention on Biological Diversity, Rio de Janeiro, 1992, 31 I.L.M. 818 (1992) [hereinafter CBD].

See, e.g., inter alia, the general measures for conservation and sustainable use (art. 6), identification and monitoring (art. 7), conservation measures (art. 8 and 9), impact assessments (art. 14), access to and transfer of technology (art. 16), exchange of information (art. 17), and technical and scientific cooperation (art. 18).

DAVID J. BEDERMAN, INTERNATIONAL LAW FRAMEWORKS 114 (2d ed., Foundation Press 2006).

UN Doc. UNEP/CBD/COP/2/CW/L.9 (Nov. 1995).

RICHARD ELLIOT BENEDICK, OZONE DIPLOMACY: NEW DIRECTIONS IN SAFEGUARDING THE PLANET 129 (Enlarged Edition) (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England 1998).

See, e.g., the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Overview and Update on the Sound Management of Chemicals Initiative Under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, Council Resolution #95-5 (1998), at http://​www.​cec.​org/​about-us/​council/​council-resolutions/​council-resolution-95-05 (last accessed January 2019) (discussing progress of initial, October 1995 call for regional action plans); the Binational Strategy for the Virtual Elimination of Persistent Toxic Substances in the Great Lakes, U.S. – Can., April 7, 1997; Washington Declaration on Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities, 1995 available at http://​wedocs.​unep.​org/​bitstream/​handle/​20.​500.​11822/​13421/​WashingtonDeclar​ation.​pdf?​sequence=​1 (last accessed January 2019); Global Programme of Action for Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities, para. 88, UN Doc. UNEP (OCA)/LBA/IG.2/7 (1995), available at http://​www.​cep.​unep.​org/​meetings-events/​5th-lbs-istac/​5th_​lbs_​istac_​documents/​reference-documents/​unep-oca-lba-ig.​2-7.​pdf/​view (last accessed January 2019); Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, June 24, 1998, at https://​www.​unece.​org/​fileadmin/​DAM/​env/​lrtap/​full%20​text/​1998.​POPs.​e.​pdf (last accessed January 2019).

For more information, visit the official website of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety, http://​www.​who.​int/​ifcs/​ (last accessed January 2019).

For more information, read Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (publication in 2009), available at https://​www.​preventionweb.​net/​english/​hyogo/​gar/​report/​index.​php?​id=​9413 (last accessed January 2019).

See, e.g. Global Risks Report by the Global Risk Forum – GRF Davos, available at https://​www.​weforum.​org/​reports/​the-global-risks-report-201 (last accessed December 2018).

Melissa Lewis, Tuula Honkonen & Seita Romppanen, International environmental law-making and diplomacy review 2016 (University of Eastern Finland –UNEP Course Series 2016).

Interim Convention on Conservation of North Pacific Fur Seals, Feb. 9, 1957, 8 U.S.T. 2283, 314 U.N.T.S. 105.

Interim Convention on Conservation of North Pacific Fur Seals, Feb. 9, 1957, 8 U.S.T. 2283, 314 U.N.T.S. 105 at preamble and arts. IV.4 and V.2.d.

Antarctic Treaty, Dec. 1, 1959, 12 U.S.T. 794, 402 U.N.T.S. 71.

See, e.g., General rules of conduct for preservation and conservation of living resources in Antarctica, Recommendation I-VIII, indent (ii) (1961), available at https://​www.​ats.​aq/​devAS/​info_​measures_​listitem.​aspx?​lang=​e&​id=​9 (last accessed December 2018).

Annex IV of the 1972 London Convention, No. 4.

Annexes III and V of the 1974 Paris Convention, Regulation 3.

Art. 4.4, Annex IV of the 1974 Paris Convention, No. 9.

Annex II, Appendices I, II, III of MARPOL 73/78.

Article III of the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears: “Each Contracting Party shall take appropriate action to protect the ecosystems of which polar bears are a part, with special attention to habitat components such as denning and feeding sites and migration patterns and shall manage polar bear populations in accordance with sound conservation practices based on the best available scientific data.” Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, Nov. 15, 1973, 27 U.S.T 3918, T.I.A.S. 8409 (entered into force May 26, 1976).

Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Seals, art. 3 para. 2, June 1, 1972, T.I.A.S. 8826, 11 I.L.M. 251 (entered into force 11 March 1978): “The measures adopted under paragraph (1) of this Article shall be based upon the best scientific and technical evidence available”.

Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, art. III, para. 2, June 23, 1979, 19 I.L.M. 15 (1980) (entered into force 1 November 1983): “A migratory species may be listed in Appendix I provided that reliable evidence, including the best scientific evidence available, indicates that the species is endangered” etc.

Art. 119 para. 1(a) of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Dec. 10, 1982, U.N. Doc. A/CONF. 62/122 (1982), 21 I.L.M. 1261, available at http://​www.​un.​org/​Depts/​los/​convention_​agreements/​texts/​unclos/​unclos_​e.​pdf (last accessed December 2018).

Article 119 of the LOS Convention.

Article 61 of the LOS Convention.

Article 119 of the LOS Convention.

See, e.g., article 119.

See, e.g., articles 118, 242, 244, 270 and 278 of the LOS Convention.

Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, Dec. 4, 1995, U.N. GA Doc. A/CONF.164/37, 34 I.L.M. 1542.

Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, Dec. 4, 1995, U.N. GA Doc. A/CONF.164/37, 34 I.L.M. 1542, at art. 5(b), 6 para. 3 (a), (b), 10 (f) and 16.

For more information on risk management see Oliver A. Houck & G. Tracy Mehan, Best of the books: reflections on recent literature in natural resources and the environment (Environmental Law Institute, Washington, D.C. 2015).

Quantitative risk assessment requires calculations of two components of risk (R): the magnitude of the potential loss (L) and the probability (p) that the loss will occur.

Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity art. 10, Jan. 29, 2000, 2226 U.N.T.S. 257, available at http://​bch.​cbd.​int/​protocol/​text/​ (last accessed January 2019).

The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, available at http://​www.​wto.​org/​english/​tratop_​E/​sps_​e/​spsagr_​e.​htm (last accessed December 2018) [hereinafter SPS Agreement].

Article 5 of the SPS Agreement, available at http://​www.​wto.​org/​english/​tratop_​e/​sps_​e/​spsagr_​e.​htm (last accessed December 2018).

WTO Appellate Body Report, Japan - Measures Affecting Agricultural Products, WT/DS76/AB/R (Feb. 22, 1999), 9 Bernan’s Annotated Rep. 351, available at https://​www.​wto.​org/​english/​tratop_​e/​dispu_​e/​cases_​e/​ds76_​e.​htm Panel Report, para. 8.42 (last accessed January 2019). See also Joost Pauwelyn, The WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures as Applied in the First Three SPS Disputes: EC-Hormones, Australia-Salmon and Japan-Varietals 2 JIEL 641 (1999); THE WTO AGREEMENT ON SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES: A COMMENTARY BY JOANNE SCOTT (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007).

See, Part III, Sect. 9.​3 discussing the Biotech Products case.

Ved P. Nanda & George W. Pring, International environmental law and policy for the 21st century (Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden 2012).

Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (OJ L. 175, 05.07.85, p. 40) as amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC (OJ L. 073, 14.03.97, p. 5).

MOHAN MUNASHINGHE & ROB SWART, PRIMER ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, FACTS, POLICY ANALYSIS AND APPLICATIONS 21 (Cambridge University Press 2005).

Read about the connection between overpopulation and consumption and the need to address both issues: Bill McKidden, A Special Moment in History – The Future of Population, in ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY – FROM ANALYSIS TO ACTION 411 (Leslie King & Deborah McCarthy eds., Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., New York, London 2005).

JANE LUBCHENCO, Waves of the Future: Sea Changes for a Sustainable World, in WORLDS APART: GLOBALIZATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT 24 (James Gustav Speth ed., Washington, Covelo, London, Island Press 2003); see also information about the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, available at https://​healthygulf.​org/​our-work/​protecting-water/​dead-zone-and-mississippi-river (last accessed December 2018).

The term “thermohaline circulation” (THC), or otherwise called: the ocean conveyor belt, refers to the part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes. The adjective thermohaline derives from the Greek word “thermos” meaning “warm” and the word “haline” referring to salt content, both of the factors that determine the density of the sea water. Wind-driven surface currents, such as the Gulf Stream, head polewards from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, cooling all the while and eventually sinking at high latitudes (forming North Atlantic Deep Water). This dense water then flows into the ocean basins. While the bulk of it upwells in the Southern Ocean, the oldest waters, with a transit time of around 1,600 years, upwell in the North Pacific. Extensive mixing, therefore, takes place between the ocean basins, reducing differences between them and making Earth’s ocean a global system. On their journey, the water masses transport both energy, in the form of heat, and matter, in the form of solids, dissolved substances and gases, around the Earth. In this way, the state of the circulation has a large impact on the climate of the Earth. See, e.g., S. Rahmstorf, Thermohaline Ocean Circulation, in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF QUATERNARY SCIENCES (S. A. Elias ed., Elsevier, Amsterdam 2006); S. Rahmstorf, The Concept of the Thermohaline Circulation, 421 NATURE 699 (United Nations Environment Programme 2003); GRID-Arendal, Potential Impact of Climate Change, 2006.

Ian Lowe & Jouni Paavola, Introduction, in ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD – NATURE, JUSTICE AND GOVERNANCE 7 (Jouni Paavola and Ian Lowe eds., Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York, 2005); W. STEFFEN et al., GLOBAL CHANGE AND THE EARTH SYSTEM: A PLANET UNDER PRESSURE (Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Verlag 2004).

Paul Cairney, The politics of evidence-based policy making (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2016).

NoMiracle was supported by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme, under the theme “Global Change and Ecosystems”, see http://​nomiracle.​jrc.​ec.​europa.​eu/​ (last accessed January 2019). T. Jager, T. Vandenbrouck, J. Baas et al., A Biology-Based Approach for Mixture Toxicity of Multiple Endpoints over the Life Cycle, 19 ECOTOXICOLOGY 351 (2010). For the application of this new approach in the EU legislation, see also: K. Syberg, T. S. Jensen, N. Cedergreen & J. Rank, On the Use of Mixture Toxicity Assessment in REACH and the Water Framework Directive: A Review, 15 (6) HUMAN AND ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL 1257 (2009).

Cf. V. G. Zartarian & B. D. Schultz, The EPA’s Human Exposure Research Program for Assessing Cumulative Risk in Communities, J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol., 20(4), 2010, at 351.

See, e.g., J. Lahr, B. Munier, H. J. De Lange, et al., Wildlife vulnerability and Risk Maps for Combined Pollutants, in SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT (2010).

See, e.g., Kortenkamp, Backhaus and Faust, State of the Art Report on Mixture Toxicity, European Commission report, available at http://​ec.​europa.​eu/​environment/​chemicals/​effects/​pdf/​report_​mixture_​toxicity.​pdf (last accessed January 2019); MIXTURE TOXICITY: LINKING APPROACHES FROM ECOTOXICOLOGY AND HUMAN TOXICOLOGY (Cornelis A. M. van Gestel, Martijs Jonker, Jan E. Kammenga and Ryszard Laskowski eds., 2010) CRC Press; see, also a journal called Science of the Total Environment, available at: www.​elsevier.​com/​wps/​find/​journaldescripti​on.​cws_​home/​503360/​description#description (last accessed January 2019).