Law and Environment

Monday, October 10, 2011, 18.00–19.30, Goethe-Institut

Moderator:

Hassane Cisse, Deputy General Counsel, Knowledge and Research, World Bank Group, Senegal

 

Panel Discussion:

Maria Ivanova, Professor of Policy Studies, University of Massachusetts, USA/Bulgaria

Bedřich Moldan, Director, Environment Center, Charles University, Czech Republic

James Mancham, Founding President, Republic of Seychelles

Jan Dusík, Deputy Director and Officer-in-Charge, UNEP Regional Office for Europe, Switzerland/Czech Republic

Mikuláš Huba, Environmentalist, Deputy Director, Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

 

The panel centered around the need for a stronger supranational structure that would be capable of implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation. Jan Dusík concentrated on the need for the UN to strengthen its environmental law and improve international courts, particularly to improve the outcomes of environmental conventions – an example being the limited outcome of the Kyoto protocol.

 

From there, Maria Ivanova asked three essential questions: what do we need to change, what do we change to, and how do we cause this change? She concluded that leadership and political, academic, and public action can help us to change institutions such as UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program) change the narrative from “sustainable development” to simply “sustainability”. Bedřich Moldan advised to “be realistic” and to listen to the interests of the global community in an effort to overcome the conflicts preventing further implementation of international environmental legislation.

 

Mikuláš Huba described environmental law as a young legal sphere, in which the interpretation of laws are not necessarily deemed as important as more established areas like criminal courts. He highlighted a key element: a lack of understanding and respect for other citizens of the planet. As James Mancham later quoted from Ghandi, “There is enough in the world for everybody’s needs, but not for everybody’s greed.” Because of the widespread acceptance of consumerism and selfishness on both individual and national levels, the global body must help to overcome this, furthering the argument toward a stronger international institution functioning above UNEP’s capabilities.

 

Finally, Mancham reminded us that the effects of globalization carry through worldwide, and summed up their sentiments well saying, “[We] need a world that is focused and sincere in the desire to bring about fundamental changes.”