Table of contents of the first issue

1. The Role of Law and the Rule of Law in China’s Quest to Build an Ecological Civilization

Author: Paul A.Barresi

Abstract: Decades of rapid industrialization have caused a dramatic decline in environmental quality in the People’s Republic of China, which has prompted Chinese officials to call for redirecting China’s modernization efforts toward the construction of an ‘ecological civilization’ (shengtaiwenming 生态文明). The many environmental laws that China has enacted since 1979, which borrow heavily from Western precedents, are a vital part of this effort. Unfortunately, these laws have been plagued by both compliance and enforcement problems. Cultural factors are largely to blame. The many Western-style features of China’s environmental laws depend for their effectiveness on the cultural dimensions of a strong rule of law, which are in tension with essential elements of China’s ancient legal tradition. China’s environmental laws would be more effective allies in its quest to build an ecological civilization if they were aligned more closely with that tradition in at least four ways.

2. Vertical Environmental Management: A Panacea to the Environmental Enforcement Gap in China?

Author: Yun Ma

Abstract: After being proposed in 2015, environmental vertical management (VM) reform was hailed as being able to bridge the environmental law enforcement gap, because it helps in insulating environmental protection agencies from intervention by local governments, thus functioning to end local protectionism brought about by the traditional ‘dual leadership’ model. This article identifies how the ongoing reform process changes the institutional structure of environmental management, explains the reasons for initiating such a reform and analyses whether VM can be as effectiveas intended. It is concluded that promotion of an environmental VM reform reflects the vicissitudes of central government-local government relations inthe environmental era. As a method to strengthen central oversight on local environmental performance, VM is far from the sole or the most cost-effective method to realize this goal. The environmental VM reform plan combines both centralization and decentralization approaches. The design of ‘soft’ (extension of reform below provincial level) and fragmented (selectedmonitoring and inspection) centralization may decrease the anticipated effectiveness of VM reform by moving local malfeasance from municipal and county levels to the provincial level (‘provincial protectionism’) and thus continuing to harm the integrity of environmental management. As a partial solution, VM reform needs to be supplemented with incentive and accountability mechanisms, and by more effective and professional enforcement activities at local levels.

3. A Bottom-Up Compliance Mechanism for the Paris Agreement

Author: Alexander Zahar

Abstract: The article discusses the development of the Paris Agreement’s provision on a compliance mechanism contained in Article 15 of the agreement. There is a risk that a compliance mechanism set up as a separate body within the new regime will be duplicative and dysfunctional. Keeping state parties to their Paris Agreement obligations can be achieved, instead, through the elaboration of pre-existing and already well-developed reporting-and-review processes under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In the past, these have generated sufficient pressure on states to maintain compliance with their UNFCCC obligations, and are likely to have the same effect for the new treaty. The fact that the Paris Agreement does not impose any onerous new obligations on states is a reason tocontinue to rely on existing processes. I show that the separate compliance body envisaged by the Paris Agreement has no obvious way to improve on the diffuse ‘compliance mechanism’ currently operating under the UNFCCC. The most efficient approach to ‘Paris Agreement compliance’, therefore, would be to delay implementation of the Article 15 mechanism and allow current practices, suitably modified, to continue for as long as their performance is satisfactory.

4. Developing an Environmental Code for Cambodia

Authors: Matthew Baird and Brendon Thomas

Introduction: In 2012, the Government of Cambodia decided to initiate environmental governance reform in order to promote environmental sustainability and maintain the country’s economic development. As part of this reform process, Cambodia embarked on a significant revision of many of its environmental and natural resources laws. Most of these laws had been drafted in the 1990s and reflected the need for the government to promote economic development during the rebuilding of the country following its destruction and the collapse of the rule of law under the Khmer Rouge regime during the late 1970s.

The Environment and Natural Resources Code (‘the Code’) aims to create an enabling legal and policy environment that will make it possible to achieve environmental protection while supporting sustainable economic development. The final draft of the Code includes provisions to strengthen the conservation of natural resources and wildlife, build climate resilience, promote the use of renewable energy, and build sustainable urban environments with the capacity to effectively deal with waste management and pollution.

5. A New Global Approach to Mitigating Emissions from International Aviation: the International Civil Aviation Organization’s 39th Assembly (2016)

Author: Jae Woon Lee

Introduction: Although the impact of aviation on climate change is uncontested, the extent of the impact is certainly not clear. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) estimates that aircraft emissions of carbon dioxide represent 2.4 percent of total fossil fuel emissions of carbon dioxide or 2 percent of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. However, some argue that aviation is apportioned 6 percent of the blame when other greenhouse gases are also taken into account. They cite the fact that commercial aircraft fly at altitudes of 8 to 13 kilometres, with the effect that emissions in the upper atmosphere could have greater impact than the emissions at ground level. The undeniable fact is that aviation’s carbon emissions are expected to grow because of the exponential growth of commercial aviation. Nevertheless, there has been a structural problem. Although the Kyoto Protocol expressly assigned the task to the International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO ) , little has been done by ICAO on the issue of climate change until recently. However, significant progress was made at the ICAO’s 39th Assembly, which took place in Montreal from 27 September to 7 October, 2016. This note briefly analyses what the ICAO achieved at the 39th Assembly and cautiously predicts its implications. In order to explain the developments succinctly, the‘5W1H’ (who, what, where, when, why, and how) method is used.

6. Between Green Courts and Environmental Justice (Book Review)

Authors: Wang Shuyi and Zhou Di

7. International Environmental Law and the Global , written by Shawkat Alam, Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez and Jona Razzaque (Book Review)

Author: Tracy Humby

Main contents of the first issue of the Chinese Journal of Environmental Law