Conference plenary panels focussed on new cross cutting legal issues of particular relevance to sustainable development.

In discussions of new legal instruments for promoting effective compliance with international sustainable development law, the panel considered diverse instruments such as recent treaties for nuclear accident liability, compared compliance mechanisms in the UN Biodiversity Convention’s Cartagena Protocol on Biosfaety and the UN Climate Change Convention’s Kyoto Protocol, and discussed the use of trade measures under the Montreal Protocol to the Ozone Convention in relation to the rules of the World Trade Organisation. It was recognized that there is a need for a broad suite of measures not only to target specific instances of non-compliance, but also incentives to promote a general attitude of compliance among all stakeholders.

In discussions on innovative measures for financing environmentally and socially sustainable development, the panel surveyed issues raised at the 2002 Monterrey Summit on Financing for Development which remain outstanding on the WSSD agenda, such as the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and human rights obligations in development financing. The conference considered local to global level initiatives, such as the debt exchange provisions in Amazonian treaties, and the multilateral fund for the Montreal Protocol to the UNEP Ozone Convention.

In the panel on transparency, participation and access to justice, the conference considered sustainable development opportunities presented by legal instruments such as the Aarhus Convention on Transparency, Public Participation and Access to Justice, governance mechanisms to provide access for civil society to international negotiations, and the utility of international arbitration and conciliation procedures in disputes related to sustainable development.

Finally, in a special panel on corporate social and environmental responsibility, sponsored by Ontario Power Generation and the WBCSD, the conference discussed recent domestic judgements which have led to head offices of corporations being held directly liable for health or environment disasters perpetrated by subsidiaries. The conference considered voluntary initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact and the Business Action for Sustainable Development initiative of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, which were seen as complementing but not replacing binding legal commitments.