Abstract
The Global Pact for the Environment is a project for an international treaty that seeks to recognize the environmental rights and duties of citizens, states, and businesses. The text of the initial Pact project was drafted in June 2017 by a network of over 100 environmental law experts from more than 40 countries. In May 2018, the United Nations General Assembly paved the way for its negotiation by adopting the resolution “Towards a Global Pact for the Environment”. These talks resulted in a recommendation for states to adopt a “political declaration” in 2022 for the 50th anniversary of the Stockholm Conference. This article retraces the origins of the Global Pact project and makes the case for its adoption. It argues that a Global Pact is the missing piece to implement the 2030 Agenda and would help to “constitutionalize” fundamental environmental principles. The article further responds to concerns raised about the Global Pact project, such as interactions with existing instruments, the applicability of broad principles at the national level, as well as the risk of regression. It ultimately asserts that all stakeholders would reap benefits from its procedural and substantive provisions, should it be adopted.
Highlights
What Is the Global Pact Initiative?This article defines the notion of a Global Pact for the Environment as an international treaty that aims to give legal effect to fundamental principles of environmental law in a way that enshrines individual and court-enforceable environmental rights and duties
A Global Pact has an important jurisprudential value in that it provides for general principles guiding the interpretation of case law by judges presiding over a specific dispute
That is to say the general nature of the principles, rights, and obligations included in a Global Pact ensure states can retain flexibility and discretion in how they implement the respective provisions of the treaty and take into account their specific national context
Summary
This article defines the notion of a Global Pact for the Environment as an international treaty that aims to give legal effect to fundamental principles of environmental law in a way that enshrines individual and court-enforceable environmental rights and duties. This idea has given rise to several illustrations, including a 2017 draft text that is commonly referred to as the Global Pact for the Environment.
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