Global Regulatory Standards in Environmental and Health Disputes

Abstract

In a time of rising environmental and health disputes, Global Regulatory Standards in Environmental and Health Disputes (OUP 2021), authored by Caroline E Foster, is one of the first books to attempt to comprehensively condense the legal principles and standards that have been applied by courts and tribunals thus far. It does so by focusing on jurisprudence from the International Court of Justice, law of the sea dispute settlement, Permanent Court of Arbitration, World Trade Organisation (WTO), and investment treaty arbitration. Regulatory coherence, due regard and due diligence are identified by the author as the three main principles relevant to environmental and health disputes. Within this structure, the book provides a useful analysis of the principles of reasonableness, due regard, due diligence, necessity testing and proportionality. The author suggests that considerable similarity between emerging regulatory standards and these standards could be predicted in many other fields, including for example, human rights law. European Union (EU) law is also a potentially rich source of environmental and health regulatory standards.