Green Governance : Ecological Survival, Human Rights, and the Law of the Commons

"The vast majority of the world's scientists agree: we have reached a point in history where we are in grave danger of destroying Earth's life-sustaining capacity. But our attempts to protect natural ecosystems are increasingly ineffective because our very conception of the problem is limited; we treat 'the environment' as its own separate realm, taking for granted prevailing but outmoded conceptions of economics, national sovereignty, and international law. Green Governance is a direct response to the mounting calls for a paradigm shift in the way humans relate to the natural environment. It opens the door to a new set of solutions by proposing a compelling new synthesis of environmental protection based on broader notions of economics and human rights and on commons-based governance. Going beyond speculative abstractions, the book proposes a new architecture of environmental law and public policy that is as practical as it is theoretically sound"--Page [i] Contents......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 11 Prologue......Page 15 Part I......Page 29 1 Trends That Point Toward a New Synthesis......Page 31 A. The Tragedy of the Market......Page 34 B. New Governance Models on the Internet......Page 43 C. Imagining New Types of Governance That Go Beyond Market and State......Page 48 2 The Human Right to a Clean and Healthy Environment......Page 55 3 The Quest for a New Rights-Based Pathway......Page 78 A. Intergenerational Environmental Rights......Page 79 B. Natures Rights......Page 85 1. Legal Surrogacy......Page 96 2. Legal Standing......Page 97 3. Uncertainty of Future Damage......Page 100 4. Anthropocentrism......Page 102 4 Making the Conceptual Transition to the New Paradigm......Page 105 A. The Power of Human Rights......Page 115 1. Human Rights as “Trumps”......Page 116 2. Human Rights as Interdependent Agents of Human Dignity......Page 117 3. Human Rights as a Crucible for Human Security and Democracy......Page 118 4. Human Rights as a Mobilizing Challenge to Statist and Elitist Agendas......Page 119 5. Human Rights as Legal and Political Empowerments......Page 121 Rebutting the Claimed Indeterminacy of Human Rights......Page 125 Rebutting the Claimed Absence of Human Rights Theory......Page 127 B. The Potential of Vernacular Law......Page 132 C. The Necessity of Self-Organized Governance and Collaboration in Complex Adaptive Systems......Page 140 Part II......Page 149 5 The Commons as a Model for Ecological Governance......Page 151 A. The Characteristics of Commons......Page 152 B. A Brief History of Commons Law and the Right to the Environment......Page 159 C. Social Scientists Rediscover the Commons......Page 174 6 The Rise of the Commons Movement Globally......Page 183 1. Subsistence Commons......Page 186 2. Indigenous Peoples’ Commons......Page 188 3. Internet Commons......Page 190 4. Social and Civic Commons......Page 195 5. Businesses Embedded in Commons......Page 196 6. State Trustee Commons......Page 198 B. Tensions between Modern State Law and the Commons......Page 201 7 Imagining a New Architecture of Law and Policy to Support the Ecological Commons......Page 207 A. Internal Governance Principles of Commons......Page 209 1. Principles of Social Cooperation, Trust, and Problem Solving......Page 211 2. Human Rights and Natures Rights Principles......Page 213 3. Control and Subsidiarity Principles......Page 214 4. Money and Principles of Shared Assets......Page 215 5. Principles Concerning the Just Allocation of Property Rights......Page 216 6. Property Rights Use Principles......Page 217 B. Macro-Principles and Policies to Guide the State/Market in Supporting the Commons Sector......Page 219 C. The Special Challenge of Large-Scale Ecological Commons......Page 232 8 Catalytic Strategies for Achieving Green Governance......Page 254 A. Vernacular Law Commons......Page 257 B. “Private Law Work-Arounds”......Page 258 C. Localism and Municipal Law as a Vehicle for Protecting Commons......Page 261 D. Federal and Provincial Governments as Supporters of Commons Formation and Expansion......Page 264 E. Expanding and Strengthening the Public Trust Doctrine......Page 266 F. State Trustee Commons......Page 270 G. Eco-Digital Innovations: Crowdsourcing, Participatory Sensing, Wikis, and More......Page 271 H. Establishing Commons Trusts to Manage Common Assets and Distribute Revenues......Page 273 I. State Chartering of New Types of Commons Trusts......Page 276 J. New Types of Multilateral Frameworks That Can Manage Large-Scale Common-Pool Resources......Page 280 Developing a Scheme of Nested and/or Networked Commons That Can Work Dynamically Together......Page 284 Human Rights as an Integral Aspect of Multilateral Ecological Governance......Page 287 Epilogue......Page 289 Preamble......Page 297 Article I. Commons- and Rights-based Ecological Governance......Page 302 Article II. Principles of Internal Governance......Page 303 Article III. Principles and Policies to Guide State Support of Commons- and Rights-based Ecological Governance......Page 306 Article IV. Duties of Market Actors towards Commons- and Rights-based Ecological Governance......Page 308 Article V. (Duties of United Nations and Other Intergovernmental Organizations)......Page 310 A. As Derived from Other Recognized Rights......Page 313 1. The Environment and the Substantive Rights to Life, Health, and Respect for Private and Family Life......Page 314 The European Human Rights System......Page 320 The Inter-American Human Rights System......Page 323 The African Human Rights System......Page 325 National Decision Making......Page 327 Latin America......Page 328 Sub-Saharan Africa......Page 329 South Asia......Page 331 2. The Environment and Other Recognized Substantive Human Rights......Page 335 1. Recognition on the Global Plane......Page 336 2. Recognition on the Regional Plane......Page 343 3. Recognition on the National Plane......Page 348 C. The Human Right to Procedural Environmental Rights......Page 356 D. Summary......Page 364 Bibliography of Pertinent Books......Page 365 Index......Page 383