Study of international desertification problems, international forestry practices certification, the export of domestic mining health and safety laws, jurisdictional issues of land tenure and the rights of indigenous peoples, freshwater treaties and transboundary watercourses, and unsustainable international agricultural, fisheries, or energy regimes.

International legal processes of interest might include the Desertification Convention, the Convention on Non-Navigational Uses of Transboundary Watercourses, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, conventions on the International Organisation for Standardisation environmental management systems standards and others.

Sustainable Development, Phosphate Mines and the Law, in Sri Lanka:

A legal research project on how phosphate mining impacts on ancient irrigation systems, and on how sustainable development law principles can be applied at different levels in Sri Lanka, has been proposed to develop in collaboration with H.E. Judge Christopher G. Weeramantry’s International Centre for Peace Education and Research (WICPER) and a Sri Lankan University. The research project contemplates an exchange, joint publications and the elaboration of a clear alternative plan for development in the region. It has awaited approval and processing by the Office of International Research, with Prof. Myron Frankman is leading the initiative on the McGill side, for approximately three years.

Legal Aspects of Sustainable Water Management

Two CISDL Research Group members, based at Oxford University, collaborated to draft a new working paper on implementation of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and the Millennium Development Goals in the area of access to water, and integrated water resource management. The resulting paper formed the basis for a very well subscribed course that was taught by CISDL members for delegates to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in 2005, New York, and a panel event that was held at the UN CSD to review the work. This research has led to an invitation by UN Water for the CISDL to develop a ‘Guidance Note’ for countries seeking to draft and implement new laws on water management, and potential for a collaborative seminar and special issue on these questions with the Revue quebecoise de droit international, potentially to be funded by the Fonds d’action quebecois pour le developpement durable.

Implementing the FAO ‘Seed Treaty’ and its Multilateral System for Access and Benefit-sharing

A Legal Research Fellow prepared two new papers on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (IT- PGRFA), one of them for presentation in the new Oxford Globalization & Sustainable Development Law seminar. One article will be published in the Revue Belge de Droit International, 2006-II and the other one has been submitted to the International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy. They both will later become chapters in an upcoming book on new issues related to access to genetic resources for food and agriculture and the benefit-sharing derived from their utilisation. The work has led to a project proposal, currently being considered by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), to develop case studies, legal analysis and instruments to assist countries with the implementation of the FAO Seed Treaty (the IT-PGRFA). Two seminars on ‘IT-PGRFA and agro-biodiversity issues’ are planned for Spring 2007: one at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK, and one at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.

Selected Journal Article

C. Frison, « Le Traité International sur les Ressources Phytogénétiques pour l’Alimentation et l’Agriculture: un système multilatéral communautaire ? » in Revue Belge de Droit International (Spring 2006, forthcoming).

Selected Legal Briefs & Working Papers

“The Duty of States to Ensure Sustainable Use of Natural Resources: Recent Developments in International Law Related to Sustainable Development” K. Bottriel, reviewed by D. French, Working Paper for Foreign Affairs Canada (Montreal: CISDL, 2005).

“The Duty of States to Ensure Sustainable Use of Natural Resources: Recent Developments in International Law Related to Sustainable Development” K. Bottriel, reviewed by D. French, Working Paper for Foreign Affairs Canada (Montreal: CISDL, 2005).