I. 2005-2006 LEGAL RESEARCH PROJECTS

The CISDL’s joint academic and legal research projects with developed and developing country law professors and practitioners have continued to expand this year. Over the course of the summer and fall of 2006, the CISDL began several new projects, especially in the areas of trade, investment and competition law, climate change, biodiversity and health. A brief summary, including some background on the legal research developed over the past few years, is below:

Trade, Investment and Competition Law for Sustainable Development (Markus Gehring)

1. Sustainable Development & Regional Integration Agreements: This legal research seeks to define whether regional trading agreements really promote more trade in the aggregate on a global scale as is claimed by their defenders or whether they lead principally to diversion of trade within expanded regional groupings, and whether their political advantages outweigh their economic consequences. As the continuation of the ongoing work on regional trade agreements the CISDL has expanded this research area with two major new regional focuses. One project funded by IDRC focuses on the Americas and in combination with the Sustainable Health Law programme CISDL has committed to two legal case studies involving the application of impact assessment laws in North America and the Caribbean. The second regional project focuses on China and South East Asia to be funded by the Boell Foundation. The CISDL with Chinese partners will analyse China’s regional trade and investment agreements and identify ways to include innovative mechanisms to comply with the goal of sustainable development such as impact assessment. CISDL’s involvement in the ongoing project at McGill continues and will lead to a conference contribution in December 2006.

2. Sustainable Global Trade, Investment and Competition Law: In 2003, two legal research papers, on ‘Sustainable Developments in World Trade Law’, and on ‘Sustainable Development and Competition Law’, were peer-reviewed by international advisors. Then, with funding and partnership from the IDRC and Foreign Affairs Canada, in collaboration with the LRCIL at Cambridge, TRALAC of South Africa, and the International Development Law Organisation, the CISDL hosted an experts panel event on ‘Sustainable Competition Law’ and another one on ‘Sustainable Developments in World Trade Law’ at the WTO 5th Ministerial Conference in September, 2003. The proceedings were displayed on the web site of International Trade Canada (ITC), and the competition law paper was reviewed in an Academic Workshop in February at McGill Law Faculty. A CISDL Research Fellow participated in the WTO Symposium for Civil Society in Geneva, 2005, and two other members participated in the WTO and Cotonou Agreement Sustainability Impact Assessment meetings of the European Commission in Brussels, 2005. A new book, Sustainable Development in World Trade Law, was published by Kluwer Law International, 2005, and was launched at the WTO Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December, 2005, in a Special Guest Reception in Hong Kong’s highest skyscraper, at the law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques. The event was sponsored by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and the Canadian Consulate. In Hong Kong, a CISDL Member also spoke in the ‘Legal Dimensions of Trade and Development’ Symposium, which was organised by the Hong Kong University Faculty of Law and co-sponsored by the CISDL, which will help to edit the proceedings of this symposium. In Hong Kong, two legal experts panels were also hosted by the CISDL in the Canadian Delegation Room at the Ritz Carleton Hotel, one on Sustainability Impact Assessment of Trade Agreements, which featured speakers from Foreign Affairs Canada and the European Commission, and one on the US-Brazil Cotton Dispute, and how cases in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism can influence the positions of countries in WTO negotiations. Both resulted in excellent substantive discussions, based on legal working papers that will be prepared for further review and publication, the first with Edgar Elgar Publishing Company, and the second with the South Centre of Geneva. The CISDL is planning a second book, Sustainable Development in World Investment Law, for publication with Kluwer Law International’s global trade and investment series.

4. CISDL ‘Economic Law in Practice’ Manuals Series with Globe Business Publishing: The CISDL has entered into a publishing agreement with Global Business Publishing to prepare a series of three handbooks that will serve as short guides to three areas of world economic law, for corporate counsel of firms and new associates in law firms who do not have backgrounds in international law. The three areas are world trade law, world investment law, and world competition law. The outline for the first, ‘World Trade Law in Practice’, has been developed, and a CISDL lead counsel and legal research fellow are coordinating the project. Each will contain sustainable development law sections in order to mainstream the legal concept of sustainable development for counsel practice.

Sustainable Development Law on Biodiversity and Biosafety  (Jorge Cabrera)

1. Implementing Biosafety Protocol Regulatory Regimes: The CISDL has a partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme – Global Environment Facility Biosafety Project and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). A legal brief and research paper were drafted, reviewed in an academic workshop held with the UN Biodiversity Convention Secretariat on the entry into force of the Biosafety Protocol, then edited into a joint CBD / CISDL working paper, which was reviewed at the first UN CBD Meeting of the Parties (MOP) to the Protocol in 2004. This led to a contract with IDRC to complete a new scoping study to define upcoming research on these issues, which was done in March, 2005. The CISDL also carried out regional training in Santiago, Chile, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and Maputo, Mozambique, and developed a regulatory assessment tool kit for the UNEP-GEF Biosafety Project. The CISDL then undertook to review the new biosafety laws of over fifteen Francophone African countries, providing advice and technical assistance. A framework for review was developed by 3 research fellows, with advice from the lead counsel, and many of the NBFs and related draft laws (Madagascar, Togo, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, The Congo, Senegal, Mali, Benin, Algeria, Guinee, Comores, etc) were reviewed. In 2005 – 2006, the contract was renewed to work on Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific Islands, including Lebanon, Gabon and the Comores Islands. UNEP has provided very favourable reviews of this work, and co-hosted a Special Reception with the CISDL for all countries who have completed their NBFs at the McGill Faculty Club on June 02, 2005, during the second Meeting of the Parties (MOP) of the Cartagena Protocol to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. At the reception, the first draft of a new book, ‘When Biosafety Becomes Binding: Legal Aspects of Implementing the Cartagena Protocol’, was launched for consultation, and this manuscript continues to be developed, for submission to Oxford University Press in 2006 or 2007.

2. Access Contracts for Genetic Resources and Sharing of Benefits, in the context of negotiations for a New International Regime: This research examines the nature, scope and potential elements of an international regime on access and benefit-sharing in biodiversity. The project began when two academic workshops were held parallel to the CBD meetings, and a scoping study to define a research agenda was carried out. A CISDL – IDRC research meeting was held at the UN Biodiversity Convention COP in Kuala Lumpur in February 2004 to confirm this agenda. The scoping study led to the initiation of a new research project, supported by the IDRC and Environment Canada, on Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) Contracts in civil and common law countries. The project focuses on mentoring a new generation of ABS researchers, and developing a series of papers on how experiences with these contracts might inform the new international regime negotiations. The Programme will prepare a book with the research paper and selected invited chapters on key ABS issues. The project hosted a 3-week seminar for junior researchers from Costa Rica, India, Kenya, Peru and Canada, in the fall of 2004, where the researchers received training, developed joint research papers, and met with legal and policy experts. The research partners presented their results at the UN CBD Ad-Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on ABS, and began planning the next phase of a four-year project with the IDRC. A proposal has been submitted to IDRC for its consideration. A short summer course was held to train researcher assistants from the McGill Law Faculty in this area of law, funded by Environment Canada.

3. Scoping Domestic ABS Law and Policy: The researchers also undertook a scoping study for Environment Canada on the national and regional implementation of ABS and the resulting legal working paper was published (in its third edition) in December, 2005. The study has been presented at workshops and side events in Whitehorse, Québec, Addis Ababa, Bangkok and Grenada and CISDL is proposing to continue work on the paper, including more analysis on legal trends, specific countries and the level of implementation of the FAO IT provisions on ABS. A book chapter on “Factors Contributing to Legal Reform for the Development and Implementation of Measures on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing” was also prepared as a contribution to an IDLO Practice Manual and members of the Biodiversity Programme continue to participate in relevant international meetings and negotiations including as environmental NGO representatives on the Canadian delegation.

Sustainable Development Law, Health and Hazards(Maya Prabhu)

1.International Public Health and Trade Law: One of the most important issues at the nexus of trade and public health is the dispute that surrounds the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”) and access to essential medicines.  Preliminary legal research in this area led to a chapter that was published in the CISDL-edited book, Sustainable Development in World Trade Law (Kluwer Law International, 2005). Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, caused by the H5N1  strain, have raised concerns that the world may be moving towards another influenza pandemic.  As part of its response to this concern, the WHO is considering international responses to manage the epidemic and ways to expedite the development of pandemic vaccines.  A legal brief forthcoming in the spring outlines the implications of a potential pandemic on relevant international legal regimes including patent and biosafety laws.

2. The WHO Tobacco Convention: Legal research is seeking to scope the provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, its implementation mechanisms and intersections with world trade law. The research resulted in a new legal brief, and the publication of a chapter in the CISDL-edited book, Sustainable Justice: Reconciling Economic, Social and Environmental Law (Martinus Nijhoff, 2004).

3. Americas Health and Environment Impact Assessments of Economic Liberalisation Project:

The CISDL, in partnership with the IISD and the UNEP, has undertaken a research and capacity building initiative in collaboration with legal research centres across Latin America and the Caribbean. The project is advised by the OAS, and focuses on how to translate the results of integrated assessment of trade agreements into new regulations in Latin America and the Caribbean, and on how to strengthen law making and implementation capacity of sub-regional environment and development institutions. The preparatory work for this project has resulted in the preparation of a journal article, published in the Fordham Journal of International Law, on the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and a new book, Beyond the Barricades: The Americas Trade and Sustainability Agenda (Ashgate 2005). The project began through a meeting that was held parallel to the Americas Trade and Sustainable Development Forum in Miami, Florida in November, 2003, which also led to a commissioned report for Foreign Affairs Canada. With support from Environment Canada, the ACA Project hosted an Experts Workshop at the McGill Faculty of Law in March, 2004, on assessment methods, common hemispheric sustainable development law research priorities, and institutional capacities. The project also hosted a Roundtable Dialogue at the University of Ottawa Law Faculty in March, 2004. A ‘Synergy Report’ was completed and published on-line. Then, with support from the IDRC, two of the Latin American partners represented the project in consultations at the Health and Environment Ministers of the Americas meetings (HEMA), in June 2005 in Mar del Plata, Argentina. To follow up, the CISDL and the Fundacion Ecos of Mercosur hosted an International Expert Panel at the UNNE Faculty of Law in Corrientes, Argentina, which was very well attended and reported in the press and on national radio, and a Partners Workshop to discuss the proposed project in Mercedes, Argentina, in November, 2005. This has led to a full proposal being submitted to IDRC in 2006, which proposes to undertake, among five core partner institutions and three associates, a four-year research initiative to examine how health and environment impact assessment laws have been applied to economic liberalisation led development projects in the Americas, and make recommendations for sub-regional and hemispheric eco-health impact assessment laws.

4. Risk Analysis, Health and the Precautionary Principle in World Trade Law: In 2003, based on a legal research paper on Precaution, World Trade Law and Sustainable Development, a panel event was held at the McGill Law Faculty. This resulted in two law journal articles, one on the WTO Asbestos case, published in the Oxford Journal of Environmental Law, and one on precaution and risk analysis in the WTO, published in the Queen’s Law Journal. It also led to a chapter for a peer reviewed book on the international and domestic implications of new health and environment law, published by Yale University Press. A Senior Research Fellow is taking this research forward and contributed a chapter to the CISDL-edited book, Sustainable Development in World Trade Law (Kluwer Law International, 2005).

5. Health Security: Since the inception of the CISDL, the Health Programme has been interested in developing the concept of ‘health security,’ in particular in relation to the spread of infectious disease. In 2006, Lead Counsel Maya Prabhu and Legal Research Fellow Kathryn Garforth began work on a legal brief addressing the international legal implications of a future influenza pandemic including those for international patent law and the Biosafety Protocol. A draft will be prepared for publication as a law journal article or a chapter in a new book.

Sustainable Development Law on Climate Change and Vulnerability  (Christopher Tung)

1. ISDL Curriculum Materials for Judicial Education: CISDL has partnered with the National Judicial Institute (NJI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to prepare Cases and Curriculum Materials on Sustainable Development Law, focusing specifically on a hypothetical challenge to Canadian climate change legislation. On the international level, these materials were part of a Judges Handbook that was reviewed, translated and published by UNEP.  CISDL members served as external authors for UNEP and other partners. In Canada, this work was done with the NJI, where the materials were prepared for publication as a new computer-taught course / website, and were pilot taught as a programme for judges over 5 weeks in early 2006. The NJI expressed great satisfaction with the materials and the course, sending a complimentary copy of ‘Sustainable Development Law: Principles, Practices and Prospects’ (OUP, 2004) to the judges. The NJI sponsored a reception at the CISDL Climate Change Law Symposium in Montreal, on December 02, 2005, on the occasion of the Climate Change Convention COP 11/MOP 1, and the current joint project focuses on developing the online course materials into an Electronic Bench Book for use by the NJI and its member judges.

2. Climate Change & Kyoto Protocol Implementation Legal Research and Scholarly Dialogue: This legal research focuses on legal implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, addressing potential synergies between legal obligations under climate and investment or trade law, emission trading and registry systems, land use change financing (LUCF), and voluntary covenants. The CISDL served as a member of an international group of climate law researchers and practitioners hosted by the Prototype Carbon Fund program in the World Bank Legal Vice-Presidency. In 2003, a legal brief and panel event at McGill Law Faculty furthered discussions. In 2004, CISDL authored a comparative study for UNEP North America on regulatory and voluntary greenhouse gas registries, and an article on the legal nature of emissions reduction credits for the ELI Environmental Law Journal. After meetings at the Conference of the Parties 9 in Milan, Italy in December 2003, a CISDL working paper was contributed to a University of Toronto / Health Canada workshop on adaptation, health and climate change in Ottawa, and this led to a chapter on legal aspects of adaptation to climate change for a new book with University of Toronto Press. A chapter was also prepared on Canada’s participation in the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms for a new book, Legal Aspects of Implementing the Kyoto Protocol Mechanisms(Oxford University Press, 2004). In February, 2005, CISDL hosted a workshop on climate policy and law at Oxford University with Sir Crispin Tickell, and in June, 2005, hosted a second session with Dr. Charlotte Streck of ClimateFocus. A panel event was held at McGill University to celebrate the entry into force of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on February 16, 2005, and a presentation was given at the annual conference by the British Association of Canadian Studies (BACS) leading to a chapter on Canadian and UK innovations for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, for a new book with Martinus Nijhoff in 2006.  

3. International Symposium on Sustainable Development Law and Policy related to Climate Change and Follow up Academic Volume: Over 9,000 delegates participated in the successful COP 11 / MOP 1 of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol in Montreal in December, 2005. On this occasion, the CISDL, in collaboration with the McGill University Faculty of Law and the Centre d’Études et de Recherche Internationale de l’Université de Montréal (CERIUM), organized “Strengthening Climate Cooperation, Compliance & Coherence”, an international law symposium on sustainable developments in law and policy on climate change. Funded by Foreign Affairs Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency, among many other sponsors, the event took place on December 2nd and 3rd, at McGill University Faculty of Law, and was highly successful. It brought together over 200 expert participants and students, amongst which were government negotiators, academics, lawyers, scientists and policy-makers, to debate the most recent trends and practices in sustainable development law related to climate change. Substantive panels and workshops were chaired by leading experts in international law, and sponsored by the European Studies Institute, the National Judicial Institute, Climate Focus, Fasken Martineau LLP, Mallesons Stephen Jaques, and others. The focus of the event, through its expert panels and workshops, was threefold; Cooperation: Recent developments in law and policy to support Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and the potential for future implementation and advancement, Compliance: Recent developments in international law and policy to strengthen compliance with the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, and future directions for facilitation and enforcement mechanisms, and Coherence: Intersections between global and domestic climate regimes, and other international regimes (trade and investment, indigenous peoples & other human rights, biodiversity, desertification, law of the sea, etc.). It provided an opportunity for participants to build their knowledge and capacity in this important emerging area, and many positive comments were received after the event. As part of the Symposium, a Special Guests Reception was held at the McGill Faculty Club, where a new book edited by a CISDL legal research fellow, which includes chapters by several members, Making Kyoto Work: Legal Aspects of Implementing the Kyoto Protocol (OUP, 2005), was launched for Canada. The Reception also featured the launching of a new course for Judges which uses a challenge to a climate bill as a hypothetical problem, and a presentation by the McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy. The Symposium proceedings are being edited into a new book on Sustainable Development Law and Policy Related to Climate Change, which will be submitted to Oxford University Press in 2007. 

4. A New Manual on Sustainable Development Law on Climate Change: The CISDL took on a project in 2004 - 2005 for the CIDA Environmental Policy Unit to scope the potential for a series of manuals on domestic implementation of sustainable development law. The scoping study report recommended the development of a new manual on climate change for regulators in developing countries. In 2005 – 2006, CIDA agreed to support this initiative, and an international experts meeting was held, directly after the Climate Law Symposium in Montreal on December 04, 2005, to review a draft outline for the manual. It was decide at the meeting, which was attended by 20 experts including 11 from developing countries, that the manual would focus on ‘sustained economic growth’ goals of the Kyoto Protocol, and seek to engaged development and finance ministries from developing countries in developing and supporting new laws related to implementation of international law on climate change. The first draft manual will be available for review in 2006.

5. ArcticNet Legal and Policy Analysis of the Impacts of Climate Change in the Canadian Arctic: This new four-year project, funded by the NSERC through the ArcticNet, is studying the implications of a changing climate in governance and interactions with Inuit Land-claims organizations; environmental protection and human rights; and international sovereignty and diplomacy. It seeks to develop, debate and disseminate legal and policy knowledge needed to formulate adaptation strategies and national  and international policies to address the impacts and opportunities of climate change and globalization in the Arctic; and build new partnerships and capacity between national and international legal researchers, and Northern researchers, organisations and communities, especially from indigenous peoples and scientific communities, working on law and policy issues related to climate change and the Arctic. As the impact of climate change will be most acute in the North, the project contributes to the development and dissemination of the knowledge needed to formulate adaptation strategies and national policies to help Canadians, and more specifically northern aboriginal communities, face the impacts and opportunities of climate change and globalization in the Arctic. In Phase I, the CISDL, McGill University and the University of Montreal, with partners, hosted a special Workshop on Law and Policy Implications of a Changing Climate for Northern Communities with ArcticNet experts and speakers, as part of the International Law Symposium from Dec 02 – 04 on Sustainable Developments in Law and Policy on Climate Change in Montreal during the COP 11/MOP 1 Meeting, and linked in with activities organised around ‘Arctic Day’ (Dec 06, 2005) in Montreal. In Phase II (2006 – 2007), the CISDL and partners are conducting consultations, then researching, writing and reviewing 6 – 10 working papers on key topics in climate law and policy, in order to develop an on-line, interactive manual on law and policy issues related to climate change in Canada’s North. In Phase III (2008), the CISDL and partners plan to organise a National Seminar on Arctic Climate Law and Policy, engaging young people and students, as well as learned law and scientific experts and aboriginal organizations, in discussions, debates and peer review of the working papers, before publishing them.    

Human Rights and Poverty Eradication in Sustainable Development Law  (Sumudu Atapattu)

1. Trans-systemic Analysis of Property Rights over Land and Water: The CISDL is a member of the United Nations Development Programme’s community of practice on land tenure and water rights in Africa. In 2003, in partnership with the African Centre for Technology and Science (ACTS), CISDL produced a legal challenge paper based on a series of case studies of Land Tenure, Land Reform & Desertification for UNDP, which led to an UNDP - CISDL – ACTS experts panel event at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification COP 6 in Havana, Cuba. The second phase of this work takes a trans-systemic legal pluralist perspective, and examines how customary land and water rights mix with new property tenure regimes established during ‘legal modernisation’ efforts in civil and common law countries. A paper on these issues was developed by a team of CISDL research group members, with advice from CISDL Research Fellows, and presented at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in 2004, it was later published in Sustainable Justice (Martinus Nijhoff, 2004). The CISDL took on a new project in 2005 for the CIDA Environmental Policy Unit to scope the potential for a series of manuals on domestic implementation of sustainable development law. The scoping study report recommended the development of a new manual on desertification, and a second manual on access to water, for regulators in developing countries, and CISDL is seeking to confirm funds for this with CIDA. In addition, the paper on the water tenure regimes and access to water is being included in a manual on water rights to be published by the IDLO, based in Rome which is one of the partner organizations of CISDL.  This manual is being developed with the objective of training personnel working on the ground.

2. International Debt Legitimacy Project: The project's currently posted working paper on the Doctrine of Odious (Illegitimate) Debts has been circulated internationally, and has been relied on as the primary articulation of the legal status of the doctrine by several scholars and civil society groups. An edited volume on odious debt in international law is in preparation, comprising chapters by legal experts and economists, with a view to publication in 2007.  Legal assistance and advice was provided to Iraqi and international civil society organizations in connection with the Paris Club write-down of Iraq's sovereign debt, including on policy and legal issues relating to any potential post-default liability. In 2005, CISDL Research Fellow Jeff King attended an International Expert Meeting on Creditor Responsibility in the Hague (organized by Jubilee Netherlands), and advanced proposals that were incorporated into the final conference report. 

3. Integrating Human Rights Law into Sustainable Development Programmes: A new project is being launched to develop a manual for publication on how international human rights law can be applied to address key social, economic and environmental challenges within a framework of sustainable development. The Manual will build upon the burgeoning literature on human rights based approaches to development by focusing on the complementarities and conflicts between human rights, in particular social and economic rights, economic development and the protection of the environment. It will focus on the following rights as case studies: the right to food, the right to development, and the right to water and land resources. How are such rights affected by environmental degradation? How should they be implemented in a manner that protects the environment? The Manual aims to be useful to policy makers, human rights and environmental activists and academics. Several of the papers will be published as journal articles or legal working papers, prior to being incorporated into the Manual. For instance, research for the new Manual will address the right to development, which was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly as an inalienable right in 1986.  Since then much work has been done by the UN, including the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development as well as a working group. Unfortunately, however, the discourse on the right to development has very few links to the discourse on sustainable development.  The research will trace the evolution of these two discourses in order to ascertain to what extent they are compatible and should be reconciled.

4. Sustainable Development and Conflict:  Environmental Refugees and a Case Study of Climate Change: There is an increasing tendency for international lawyers, environmentalists and political scientists to examine the link between environmental degradation and the escalation of conflict.  It has been noted that sustainable development can be undermined as a result of conflict, and that unsustainable development can lead to conflict.  The issue of environmental refugees is posing a direct threat to international stability and security which will be exacerbated by climate change.  This concept paper will be co-written with CISDL Fellows in the Climate Change Research Programme, and will be later developed into a book chapter or article.  Climate change has the potential to undermine many human rights protected by international law.  This paper will address these issues, with a main focus on the emerging phenomenon of environmental refugees.  It will also address the issue of current international law governing “refugees” and whether the present legal framework will have to be broadened to encompass the new category of environmental refugees. While no funding will be necessary for the initial concept papers/legal briefs, funding would be sought for developing these into book chapters or articles.

Sustainable Development Law on Natural Resources (Kent Nnadozie)

1. 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.

2. 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.

3.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 in the International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy (2006). A third article, on ‘the interdependence of countries and regions in the world on food crops’, in collaboration with the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), is in project. These articles 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. This work has led to a project proposal, currently being considered by the Canadian Ministry of Agriculture, the Foreign Ministry of the Netherlands, 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). A close collaboration with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and with the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) is planned within the research framework of the project. The case studies are likely to take place in Uganda and Kenya. 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.

Cross-Cutting Legal Research (Salim Nakjhavani, Micheal Kerr & Maria Leichner Reynal)

1. Sustainable Corporate Law: A new Lead Counsel, Michael Kerr, has been appointed to lead the CISDL’s research work on cross-cutting issues that relate to corporate responsibility and accountability. Michael has given a number of guest lectures over the course of the past 12 months on the topic of corporate social responsibility and sustainability in the corporate sector. In addition, CISDL provided important feedback on the development of new international standards in this area, most notably the latest Accountability Stakeholder Engagement Standard.  A corporate responsibility legal working group has also been established to carry out research and prepare legal briefs on issues relating to this area. The latest legal brief coming from this group related to the recent introduction of mandatory environmental and social disclosure requirements by Canadian Security Regulators. The working group has been working in close cooperation with McGill Professor Richard Janda. Much of this joint work has focused on researching a new book for Lexis-Nexis on corporate social responsibility from a legal perspective. Synergies are also being sought with McCarthy Tetrault LLP, and the McGill Senior Wainwright Research Fellow and assistant. A proposal has been discussed for a CSR legal workshop to coincide with the launch of the book.

2. Women, the Environment and the Law: The CISDL, along with many global and grassroots civil society organisations and experts, participated in the WAVE (Women’s Global Assembly) conference in Nairobi, and the following UNEP Experts Group on Gender and Environment, to discuss and debate issues relating to gender equality and women's empowerment. The 2004 WAVE endorsed a new legal research and awareness-raising project on Gender, International Law, Environment and Health, proposed by the CISDL, which will result in a new collaborative book and set of educational resource materials over the next few years.  The Experts Group advised UNEP on contents, including analysis of international treaties, for the 2004 GEO Feature Focus on Gender and Environment.  The project has led to a CISDL Director being selected as one of the Women and Environment global leaders on the UNEP Who’s Who in Women and the Environment, and being asked to join the UNEP mainstreaming gender experts group.

3.Gender, International Justice and Sustainable Development: Further, a team composed of a Legal Research Fellow, an Associate Fellow, international partner researchers and a number of student research assistants received a research support grant from the IDRC to allow partners to jointly discuss, debate and prepare a project proposal on Gender, International Law and Justice: Access to Gender Equality. The project comprises an investigation of NGOs as agents for implementation of international norms and users of international law.  It is a first step in understanding how and why actors and processes subject to the same norms result in different domestic and local outcomes. What are the prevailing conditions in domestic and local contexts which lead to varying degrees of implementation of these international norms?  Laws, programmes and policies must target country-specific realities in order to render international norms relevant and effective, and the NGO role of localizing universal standards is integral to this process. The project lays the foundations for a careful examination of the links between ECOSOC General Comment 16, CEDAW, and other international treaties in the field of sustainable development, with a view to how these treaties can be accessed and used to defend women’s equality on the ground, in a number of developing countries on different continents.

3. Subsidiarity in Sustainable Development Law and Governance: Drawing on published CISDL research and insights from a roundtable of South African experts and practitioners from national, sub-national and local levels planned for June 2006, a new legal research initiative is being launched to examine the trend towards resource- and region-specific governance for sustainable development within the South African framework of multi-level, co-operative government. This study seeks to illustrate the application of the SDL principle of subsidiarity in a developing-country context, serving as a source of best practice for SADC and AU member States.

4. The International Law for Sustainable Development Partnership: The CISDL is chair, with the International Law Association and the International Development Law Organisation, the UNEP, the UNDP and the World Bank, of a new partnership on sustainable development law under the auspices of the UN CSD. In 2004 – 2005, among many other activities, the ILSD hosted side events at the UN CSD, authored working papers and legal briefs on emerging issues in SD Law, gave a well attended course on sustainable development law related to water at the UN CSD, conducted guest lecture tours and book launches, and hosted international panel events and other symposia to advance international dialogue.

5. Local Laws for the Global Commons: The Legal Implementation of Sustainable Development at the National Level: This research project focuses on the legal implementation of sustainable development at the national level, flowing from commitments made by States in Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. The project will develop a series of working papers and workshops which examine general laws which are focused upon the implementation of sustainable development in Québec, Manitoba, Bolivia, Luxembourg and Belgium. This project will also build upon existing research on legal implementation in certain sustainable development issue areas and identify general trends and best practices. A partnership presentation was held at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development on Quebec’s Sustainable Development Act in international and comparative perspective.

Throughout 2005, the CISDL was involved in its capacity as a centre of legal expertise in the policy process which led to the passing of the Québec Sustainable Development Act, writing and presenting briefs on international sustainable development law at public consultation and parliamentary commission sessions. In February 2006, the CISDL was commissioned by the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks to write a report on the right to a healthy environment in a sustainable development perspective. Finally, the CISDL has submitted a project proposal to the Fonds d’action québécois en développement durable in April 2006 for a major empirical research and capacity-building project entitled “Renforcement du droit du développement durable au Québec.” This project would seek to develop capacity-building manuals and workshops on sustainable development law in Quebec.