Changing Role of The State

Abstract

Since the early days of modern public international law, the state has been the most important subject thereof. However, today, it is neither the sole, nor necessarily the primary, actor in international (environmental) relations. In recent years, the role of the state and, notably, the ability of the state to address environmental risks and threats, have increasingly come to be scrutinised. While states' standard setting remains important, commentators have argued that the ability and willingness of states to implement and enforce such standards have major weaknesses. Nevertheless, the state remains a truly important actor in international relations. It forms part of international governance, which has become multilevel governance. This article discusses the changing role of the state in international environmental governance. It examines states as authors, addressees, and guardians of international environmental law. The article also considers the over-estimation of Westphalian concepts of sovereignty, international environmental agreements, international environmental obligations, statehood as an element of a global system of environmental governance, and the role of the state in the transformation of the international legal system.

The potential of international ‘State‐as‐polluter’ litigation

“…77 The State attribution requirement poses a puzzle for international environmental law insofar as many environmental problems result from the behaviour of non-State actors. 78 Historically, the due diligence standard served as a bridging vehicle to hold States indirectly responsible for conduct other than their own, provided such conduct was preventable and known to the State. 79 59 Petitioners' Legal Representatives, 'Petitioners' Reply to the Admissibility Objections of transboundary air pollution produced by a private company.…”

Arguing Global Environmental Constitutionalism

“…In this sense global environmental constitutionalism should also imply some form of non state-centred constitutional law, processes, elements, concepts and features, which are to a greater or lesser extent supranational, but which are not entirely detached from the domestic context, especially insofar as the state remains the primary international actor in a globalized context. 96 Additionally, global environmental constitutionalism must propagate appropriate constitutional constructs that would address those pertinent issues usually associated with the involvement of non-state actors in global environ-mental law and governance. Global environmental constitutionalism must thus be sufficiently 'global' to apply to state and non-state actors.…”

How Climate Change Became a Business Risk: Analyzing Nonstate Agency in Global Climate Politics

“…The concept of agency in earth system governance rests on the assumption " that the credibility, stability, adaptiveness, and inclusiveness of earth system governance is affected by a wide range of actors, including national governments and their bureaucracies as well as the growing population of non-state actors such as environmental organizations, expert networks, and corporations" (Dellas et al, 2011, pages 86-87). Nonstate actors are particularly important as global environmental change challenges the capacity of traditional state structures to effectively govern, particularly when many of the activities which give rise to global change fall outside the sovereign authority of the state (Biermann and Dingwerth, 2004;Bulkeley and Newell, 2010;Marauhn, 2007). Agency in climate governance is thus embedded within a complex organizational space that blends public and private roles and responsibilities (Pattberg and Stripple, 2008).…”