CISDL

Natural Resources Program

Natural resources law is a core theme in international sustainable development law. The aim of our research group is to use the diverse expertise of our researchers to develop legal and educational tools that can be used to promote and strengthen awareness of the myriad of issues affecting natural resource protection and development. Our research seeks to provide scholars, policymakers and the public with accurate and comprehensive information relating to international natural resources law. Our priority is the health and welfare of the communities impacted by natural resources issues and we believe strongly that solutions need to come from within rather than outside the community. To this end we try as far as it is possible to consult the people impacted by such issues and to work in collaboration with local experts in order to increase the soundness of our research. Our team is multidisciplinary and we collaborate regularly with researchers and other experts from various fields of study outside the law.

CISDL Researchers in Motion: Negotiating Eco-Health Law and Policy Workshop & Speaking Truth to Power: The Art of Linking Eco-Health Research and Policy-Making Knowledge Cafe & Experts Panel at the 2008 International Eco-Health Forum
1 - 5 December / Merida, Mexico

CISDL Director Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger and CISDL Lead Counsels Dr Maya Prabhu and Dr Maria Leichner Reynal (Executive Director of the Mercosur-based Fundacion Ecos), together with partners Dr Oscar Betancourt and Dr Raul Lopez from FUNSAD (Ecuador), Ms Shermaine Glasgow from CEHI (Caribbean) and Prof Jeffrey Orozco from CINPE (Costa Rica), hosted a workshop to train eco-health researchers and decision-makers on the art of negotiating new law and policy in Merida, Mexico, at the 2008 International Eco-Health Forum. The Workshop, using materials developed by the Americas Eco-Health Assessment Law Project that is funded by Canada's IDRC, was a five-hour success, covering principles, practices and processes of negotiating international and domestic law and policy in relation to eco-health issues. The partners also hosted an Experts Panel and Knowledge Cafe at the Forum, focusing on lessons learned by researchers and policy-makers in research projects on Urban Ecosystems and Human Health in Kwazulu Natal (South Africa); Manganese Exposure in the General Population in a Mining District of Mexico (Mexico); Risk Assessment from Leather Tanneries in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia); Soapstone Handcraft in Brazil (Brazil); and our own Americas Eco-Health Impact Assessment Law project (speakers from Ecuador, St Lucia, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Canada). The researchers and policy makers shared stories about how the project researchers and policy makers started to work together, and how these initial interactions were beneficial for both parties; how the joint collaboration works in a multi stakeholder context where others are also involved, including community representation; the major challenges (such as different culture, languages) and accomplishments (a change on a particular legislation, or a new enforcement mechanism); the lessons learnt, and how, in each case, policy can be translated into project results’ sustainability. The Knowledge Cafe was extremely successful, resulting in many new ideas, connections, exchanges both in terms of what the projects are accomplishing, and also crucially, how they are doing it. Many thanks to Zsofia Oroz and Jean-Michel Labatut of IDRC for their guidance, support and encouragement. For more information on the Americas Eco-Health Assessment Law Project, see http://www.cisdl.org/ecohealth/index.htm.

Canadian Bar Association International Law Conference 2008: The Hard Edge of Soft Law - The Real Impact of Customary International Law and Soft Law in Canada
October 23, 2008 / Toronto

CISDL Director Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger gave a plenary address on "Application of Soft Law and Custom: The Resolution of Sustainable Development Disputes in International Treaty Regimes."

The intervention briefly discussed how soft law and custom are often used to buttress arguments and to resolve disputes that arise in the context of international treaty related to sustainable development, and the importance of these issues to Canada. It reviewed certain emerging customary principles and ‘soft law’ tools, and how they have been used to build consensus to address sustainable development concerns in treaty regimes related to climate change, biodiversity, heritage seeds, international trade and investment. It focused on the ‘integration principle’ in recent natural resource related disputes and treaty regimes, and also briefly other emerging soft law principles such as precaution, public participation, sustainable use of natural resources, common but differentiated responsibility and good governance. It concluded that these principles do not provide a ‘trump card’, but should form part of the arsenal of ‘smart lawyers’ and ‘smart regulators’ in resolving problems related to sustainable development, including in international negotiations and national regulatory processes.

Now in its sixth year, the CBA International Law Conference brought together leading international law experts to give practitioners insights into the most current developments in international law, and featured a keynote address by The Honourable John Manley, P.C. on Afghanistan and international law. The Conference was presented by the Canadian Bar Association's National Section on International Law and the Continuing Education Committee, and focused on topics of interest to practitioners in the areas of trade and investment, international dispute resolution, international business law and human rights and labour law.
For further details see Canadian Bar Association international law section

Roderick Haig-Brown Centenary Lecture in Environmental Law: “Globalization, International Justice and Our Planet”

CISDL Director Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger will give the Haig-Brown Centenary Lecture on 30 July 2008 at 7:00 p.m., in the Murray and Anne Fraser Building, University of Victoria Law Faculty, Victoria, Canada.

Prof Cordonier Segger, who is a visiting professor at the UVic Faculty of Law, has been invited by the Haig-Brown Centenary Committee and the University of Victoria Faculty of Law to address issues of economic globalization, environmental change and social injustice, and to also examine how the world is coping with these continuing developments. Although the risks for humanity and the Earth “have never been higher”, she proposes that these challenges also provide opportunities for improved global co-operation. “With courage, wisdom and vision, there is a chance for our many civilizations to start working together for a common future, one that understands and respects environmental limits, uses resources more sustainably and addresses longstanding global inequalities,” says Cordonier Segger. “International law has, in the past, been part of the problem. It can also be part of the solution.”

The Roderick Haig-Brown Centenary Lecture in Environmental Law is named in honour of Roderick Haig-Brown, a respected Canadian writer, naturalist and conservationist who was born in England in 1908 but lived in British Columbia for most of his life. Apart from his involvement with various environmental organizations, he served as a magistrate in Campbell River for over 30 years and was Chancellor of the University of Victoria from 1970 to 1972. The lecture is open to the public at no charge.

For further details see Law Faculty, University of Victoria [http://www.law.uvic.ca/NEW-Law-site/news_story.php?id=117]