No abstract

Stemming from the common law, international law and statute, Zimbabwean law has always recognised the prominent role that environmental rights should play in the environmental regulatory framework. In theory, this was based on recognition of the fact that the provision of such rights, and their full enjoyment by citizens, would allow Zimbabweans the opportunity to live in a clean and healthy environment. In addition, through exercising these rights, citizens could directly enforce environmental laws. In practice, however, it appears that deficiencies in the environmental regulatory framework at the institutional level precluded Zimbabweans from fully exercising or enjoying their environmental rights. It was against this backdrop that Zimbabwe in 2013 enacted a new Constitution which entrenched environmental rights in the Declaration of Rights. This was a welcome development which aligned Zimbabwean law with developments across various other jurisdictions which have accorded environmental rights constitutional importance. Importantly, and in light of the seeming deficiencies in the environmental law regulatory framework at the institutional level, which manifested in Zimbabweans not fully exercising, or enjoying, their environmental rights prior to the inception of the Constitution, this article explores whether the inclusion of environmental rights in Zimbabwe's Constitution has been accompanied by sufficient efforts to put in place institutional measures to ensure that citizens exercise and enjoy their rights.

Issues of global concern typically arise where there is a limited commitment to accountable governance. This paper argues that there has been an evolution in the state function. This evolution has made it possible to envisage a progression to accountable governance across all states. If attained, this would establish accountable governance as the threshold for state participation in international relations. Failure to meet the threshold would justify intrusion in the governance affairs of states by the international community of states to ensure accountability. Thus, the paper argues that the key to addressing issues of global concern lies in getting states to embrace accountable governance. This would be the first step towards empowering the international community of states to hold accountable those states that adopt governance decisions that perpetuate issues of global concern.

AbstractThis article explores why Botswana's environmental protection regulatory framework is failing to stem environmental deterioration. Based on the observation that such deterioration persists despite the fact that there is a framework in place, the discussion draws from experience with successful environmental protection regulatory frameworks around the world. The discussion establishes that successful environmental protection regulatory frameworks incorporate numerical quality and ecological standards, a command and control approach (with context-sensitive alternatives to account for the approach's limitations), and credible enforcement mechanisms. This article measures the extent to which Botswana's environmental protection regulatory framework incorporates these elements; it identifies that the reason why the framework has failed to stem environmental deterioration is that it does not adequately incorporate these qualities and proposes how this could be addressed going forward.

The most compelling arguments which have explored how effective environmental protection could be secured through regulatory means have arguably been those that have proposed the turn to international environmental organisation-style institutions to direct regulatory efforts. Sadly, these proposals have been unable to compel real-world change because countries have been unwilling to cede their sovereignty over aspects of the environment falling within their territories to such institutions. I argue that, over time, countries have begun to change their attitudes with respect to their sovereignty over aspects of the environment falling within their territories. While this has been occurring, constructivists have presented compelling theories with respect to how effective international regulation can be achieved. These theories have lent greater validity to fundamental assumptions which informed arguments for the turn to international environmental organisation-style institutions to direct regulatory efforts. As such, based on what I consider to be countries’ changing attitudes and drawing from the compelling body of constructivist literature which has focused on what it takes to establish effective international regulatory frameworks, in this article I reconsider whether the turn to an international environmental organisation-style institution may now be feasible in the modern era.