Rudiger Wolfrum Livres

Das Buch analysiert rechtsvergleichend die Anwendung des Gleichheitssatzes und des Diskriminierungsverbots in ausgewählten nationalen Rechtsordnungen (USA, Frankreich, Deutschland, Israel, Südafrika) und im internationalen Menschenrechtsschutz (EG/EU, EMRK, Interamerikanischer Menschenrechtsschutz, Afrikanischer Menschenrechtsschutz, Menschenrechtsschutz im Rahmen der Vereinten Nationen, Rassendiskriminierungsverbot, Minderheitenschutz). Es enthält zudem Beiträge zu Querschnittsthemen (Verhältnis von Gleichheit und Nichtdiskriminierung, Bedeutung des Gleichheitssatzes für die verfassungsgerichtliche Kontrolle von Gesetzen, Universalität der Menschenrechte). Damit werden - überwiegend aus der Feder von mit den Fragen befassten Praktikern - besondere Probleme bei der Rechtsanwendung dargestellt und aktuelle Entwicklungslinien bei ihrer Lösung aufgezeigt. 

This volume is an important contribution to both theoretical and practical approaches to solving contradictions and conflicts between the approaches, principles, objectives and regulations of international environmental agreements. The issue of the coordination and streamlining of environmental agreements is of growing importance regarding the increasing number of international regulations on the one hand and the urgency for effective instruments in the light of continuing environmental degradation on the other. This study will become an essential reference for scholars as well as practitioners working in the field of international environmental law.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), concluded on 5 June 1992 stipulates a sovereign right of States to determine access to their genetic resources. Such right to determine access to genetic resources plays a key role in the further development and implementation of the Convention. It is the objective of this research project to discuss a possible design for a legal regime regulating the access to genetic resources within the Federal Republic of Germany. In doing so, the concept of the Convention had to be summarized briefly. Then, the provisions of the Convention on access to genetic resources are analyzed in some detail. In that basis, the design of a German legal regime on access is discussed, taking into account the provisions of the Convention and existing German law. Implementation and enforcement of legislation on access is given special attention. The last chapter of the study deals with the provisions of the CBD on participation and benefit-sharing as connected to the provision of genetic resources.

This volume contains the papers submitted to the interdisciplinary symposium Enforcing Environmental Standards: Economic Mechanisms as Viable Means? organized by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. The symposium centered around the necessity to introduce into international law, characterized by a lack of central enforcement mechanisms, new mechanisms to enforce international standards for the protection of the environment. Modern international environmental law has established several economic mechanisms to inforce international standards for the protection of the environment, ranging from trade restrictions through economic incentives to an economically induced interstate cooperation. These mechanisms have been assessed by lawyers and economists with regard to their productivity.

This publication succeeds previously published seminars of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg, Germany) dealing with evolving principles and new developments in international law. Due to the limits of traditional dispute settlement in international law and the ongoing scholarly debate on those limits, it focuses on possible innovations and functional approaches to improve international dispute settlement mechanisms. In doing so, it covers a wide variety of topics such as procedures of the WTO, advisory opinions of international courts and tribunals, the privatization of international dispute settlement, the interaction between counsels and international courts and tribunals, and the law-making function of international courts. The aim of this publication is to contribute to the cross-fertilization between these mechanisms and to offer creative impulses for the promotion of international dispute settlement.

The European Court of Human Rights is faced with a huge and ev- growing workload. Up until 1998, the Court pronounced only 837 judgments, while it rendered 4. 000 judgments in the last three years alone. On 18 September 2008, the European Court of Human Rights th delivered its 10. 000 judgment; currently, there are some 100. 000 cases pending before the Court. This enormous caseload is both a testimony to the Court’s success and of the considerable threat posed to the eff- tiveness of the protection of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols. Moreover, Protocol No. 14, which was intended to alleviate the problem by - creasing the efficiency of the Court, is still not in force. This publication is intended to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the reforms that are necessary to prevent a failure of the Eu- pean system of human rights protection. It compiles the contributions of a workshop which took place on 17-18 December 2007 at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and the discussions following the presentations. The c- vening of this workshop was recommended by Christian Tomuschat. The conference brought together academics and practitioners and thus offered an excellent opportunity for the discussion of possible - proaches to the dilemma.

In recent years the question of the legitimacy of international law has been discussed quite intensively. Such questions are, for example, whether international law lacks legitimacy in general; whether international law or a part of it has yielded to the facts of power; whether adherence to international legal commitments should be subordinated to self-defined national interests; whether international law or particular rules of it – such as the prohibition of the use of armed force – have lost their ability to induce compliance (compliance pull); and what is the relevance of non-enforcement or failure to obey for the legitimacy of that particular international norm? This book contains fresh perspectives on these questions, offered at an international and interdisciplinary conference hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Law and International Law.

Transboundary environmental damage is on the increase internationally. Sectoral environmental liability regulations exist for many areas, such as the protection of the marine environment, water protection or oil spills. However, their conditions for liability often vary, which in some fields may lead to regulatory disparities or regulatory gaps. The authors have compiled and analysed a large part of existing international environmental liability regulations, which in the majority of cases are based on multilateral environmental conventions and jurisdiction. The study also compiles key components of existing international, European and national liability systems and identifies the main elements of consistent international environmental liability. According to the authors, the subsidiary and supplementary responsibility of states which is embodied in European law can be used to improve liability systems. This envisages a liability of states where they fail to transpose international environmental protection regulations into national law and do not reduce the risk of environmental damage. The principle that the polluter is liable for environmental damage he or she has caused would thus apply not only to private persons, but also to the public sector and states.