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RESEARch HandBook On - LAW, Environment and the global south

This comprehensive Research Handbook offers an innovative analysis of environmental law in the global South. It contributes to an important reassessment of some of the major concepts underlying environmental law, from a perspective that emphasises how their application affects poor and marginalised people as well as the wider ecosystems in which they live.  

Through legal analysis of environmental issues themselves, rather than the often limited discussion of existing legal instruments, this Research Handbook discusses areas rarely prioritised in environmental law, such as land rights, and underlines how these intersect with issues including poverty, livelihoods and the use of natural resources. Featuring contributors largely from, or working in, the global South with a variety of approaches and backgrounds, the Research Handbook challenges familiar narratives around development and sustainability in this context and provides new insights into environmental rights and justice.

Researchers and postgraduate students will find this Research Handbook’s unique perspective invaluable, particularly in the context of a growing interest in ‘people-centric’ environmental law. Policymakers and activists in the global South will also be interested in its analysis of key issues and suggestions for alternative models and future policy.

Editors: P. Cullet & S. Koonan
Publication Date: 2019
Binding: hardback
ISBN: 978 1 78471 745 2

Ordering information: This book may be ordered worldwide by visiting the website of Edward Elgar [read more]. Readers ordering from the Global South can use the information on this document  [read more].

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Research Handbook on Law, Environment and the Global South xvi
Philippe Cullet and Sujith Koonan

PART I QUESTIONING THE CONCEPTS OF DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY

1 Intergenerational justice, water rights, and climate change 2
Upendra Baxi

2 Justice, development and sustainability in the Anthropocene 14
Sam Adelman

3 Neoliberalism, law and nature 32
Larry Lohmann

4 Radical well-being alternatives to development 64
Ashish Kothari

PART II ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND ACCESS TO REMEDIES

5 Environmental rights in the Global South 86
Louis J. Kotzé and Evadne Grant

6 North-South transboundary movement of hazardous wastes – the Basel Ban
and environmental justice 109
Julia Dehm and Adil Hasan Khan

7 The Bhopal case: retrospect and prospect 138
Usha Ramanathan

PART III LAND USE, ACQUISITION AND DISPOSSESSION

8 Land rights, poverty, and livelihoods: the case of Ethiopia 147
Brightman Gebremichael

9 Wildlife conservation and land rights in Kenya: competing or complementary agendas? 169
Patricia Kameri-Mbote

10 Land-grabs and dispossession in India: laws of value 190
Preeti Sampat

PART IV FORESTS: A CONTESTED RESOURCE OR COMMODITY

11 Environmental impact assessment in the context of mangrove forest ecosystem
management in Bangladesh: a case study of Rampal coal power plant project 207
Jona Razzaque

12 Forests, people and poverty: failing to reform the global development paradigm 231
Feja Lesniewska

13 Access to and control over forest resources – the case of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 in India 249
Shankar Gopalakrishnan

PART V INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: RESOURCE USE, CONSERVATION, LIVELIHOODS AND RIGHTS

14 Forest rights and tribals in mineral rich areas of India: the Vedanta case and beyond 272
Geetanjoy Sahu

15 Conservation and livelihoods: conflicts or convergence? 286
CR Bijoy

PART VI ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

16 International energy policy for development: human rights and sustainable development law imperatives 305
Thoko Kaime

17 Nuclear energy and liability: an environmental perspective 322
Saurabh Bhattacharjee

PART VII WATER: PRIVATISATION, DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS

18 Realisation of the right to water: lessons from South Africa 348
Michael Kidd

19 Dams and displacement: the case of the Sardar Sarovar Project, India 371
Varsha Bhagat-Ganguly

20 Wastewater reuse in irrigated agriculture in urban and peri-urban India: a farmers’ rights perspective 396
Lovleen Bhullar

PART VIII COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL USE OF RESOURCES AND EQUITY

21 Mining, development and environment in India 413
Felix Padel and Malvika Gupta

22 Environment impact assessment in India: contestations over regulating development 435
Manju Menon and Kanchi Kohli

23 The informal waste sector: ‘surplus’ labour, detritus, and the right to the post-colonial city 452
Kaveri Gill

Index 477