Faced with environmental challenges which are international law

has emerged as an essential instrument for state cooperation and

an influential element in the harmonization and revitalization of domestic laws. At

the same time international law has had to adapt; law-making has become more

innovative and fresh mechanisms for implementation have been created. Over

the last thirty years international environmental law has therefore experienced

significant normative and institutional change. The authors of the present book set

out to emphasize these changes, showing how environmental challenges have shaken

and sometimes transformed the core categories and concepts of international law.

Thus, in addition to being a book about environmental law, this is a work which

also charts the way in which international protection of the environment has

disrupted general international law.

This book is the fruit of a longstanding collaborative project carried out at the

Centre for International and European Studies and Research (CERIC). The

publication in May 2010 of the French version of the proceedings of an international

symposium held under the aegis of the French Society for International

Law in Aix-en-Provence in June 2009 drew the first conclusions: Le droit face aux

enjeux environnementaux, (Paris, Pedone, 2010). The present book takes them up

partly and extends the lessons learned, this time in English.