International and Foreign Law

A Guide to EU Environmental Law (Josephine van Zeben and Arden Rowell, 2021)
This treatise distills European Union environmental law and policy into a practical guide for a nonlegal audience, as well as for lawyers trained in other jurisdictions. The first part explains the basics of the European legal system, including key actors, types of laws, and regulatory instruments. The second part describes the EU’s overarching legal strategies for environmental management and delves into how the EU addresses the specific environmental issues of pollution, ecosystem management, and climate change.

The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law (Dan Bodansky & Harro van Asselt, 2024)
Introduces the concepts and history behind international environmental law, and goes into detail on how it arises. International rules can arise as customary norms develop and become accepted by enough of the world's countries, or directly through international negotiations. The book discusses the key players in the processes and the obstacles to cooperation and states' adherence to commitments. It also asks whether these systems have been effective.

Birnie, Boyle & Redgwell’s International Law and the Environment (Alan Boyle & Catherine Redgwell, 2021)
Introduces sources of international law and how law is made, then delves into details of international environmental governance, including rights and obligations of states as well as the role of nonstate actors, along with specific issues including climate change, nuclear energy, toxic substances, marine pollution, international watercourses, biodiversity, and global trade.

Differential Treatment in International Environmental Law (Philippe Cullet, 2016)
Discusses the phenomenon of differential treatment, or variations of benefits and enforcement responsibilities, in environmental law, and applies it to a case study of plant protection regimes. It examines how differential treatment can further the goal of sovereign equality in an equitable manner to promote international environmental justice.

Green Crimes and International Criminal Law (Regina Menachery Paulose ed., 2022)
This collection explores green crimes--violations of law that harm wildlife, ecosystems, and humans directly--in the international context. Green crimes are not only a present but future human rights concern. The book explores novel legal systems to help protect the environment.

Indigenous Legal Judgments: Bringing Indigenous Voices into Judicial Decision Making (Watson & Douglas, eds, 2021)
Spanning from 1889 to 2017, the judgments reflect the trajectory of Indigenous people’s engagements with Australian law. The collection includes decisions that laid the foundation for the wrongful application of terra nullius and the long disavowal of native title.

International Climate Change Law (Daniel Bodansky et al., 2017)
Introduces the general concepts of international environmental law and how it operates. Then delves into an explanation of the international efforts to combat climate change, including the Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol, detailing the operation of specific provisions of the legal instruments. Provides broad perspective on international law, including subnational governance and the effects of non-climate treaties.

International Environmental Law and Policy for the 21^st Century (Ved Nanda & George Pring, 2013)
Introduces the origins and fundamental concepts of international and national environmental laws throughout the world, and introduces the stakeholders and institutions responsible for overseeing international regulation. Specific issues include sustainable development, energy production, nature preservation, freshwater, human rights and biotechnology.

International Environmental Law in a Nutshell (Lakshman D. Guruswamy & Elizabeth Leigh Neville, 2022)
This study aid involves an overview of the sources of law, including treaties, custom (or the informal development of law through the conduct of countries believing they were bound by law), and judicial decisions, and how the law becomes effective. Specific environmental topics include biodiversity, climate change, pollution, population, desertification, and nuclear damage. The guide to the many acronyms of international environmental law is particularly helpful. Also available on West Academic (login required).

Research Handbook on International Environmental Law (Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Marcel Brus, & Panos Merkouris, 2021)
This wide-ranging and comprehensive Handbook examines recent developments in international environmental law (IEL) and the crossover effects of this expansion on other areas of international law, such as trade law and the law of the sea. 

Transboundary Governance of Biodiversity (Louis J. Kotze & Thilo Marauhn eds., 2014)
This anthology delves into concepts surrounding the human responsibility to safeguard the natural world, including animals and plants. Authors discuss various approaches to determining responsibilities to safeguard the environment and examines the effectiveness of different approaches implemented in different parts of the world. They address specific topics such as the effect of conservation activities on rural residents and the conflicting pressure to increase bio-energy production to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Center for International Environmental Law
CIEL focuses on climate change, energy sustainability, regulation of toxic chemicals, and human rights issues around the world. It provides reports on its impact as an organization, as well as on environmental topics such as plastics, resource extraction, and resource trade, complete with statistical information.

Earth System Governance
This organization is dedicated to researching global environmental issues and providing information to the public while exploring systems of governance. It provides research materials on environmental and related topics such as the social impact of environmental stewardship, and it provides a news service. 

Global Environment Facility
It provides data on the results that environmental spending achieves, with a list of specific projects and the impact that environmental efforts have on countries around the globe. Researchers can also track information on a variety of topics, such as restoration of particular environmental media and related social and economic issues.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific body established by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization to assess climate change.

International Renewable Energy Agency
IRENA promotes adoption of renewable energy systems such as wind, solar, and ocean power in countries throughout the world. It provides a wealth of resources on the development of renewable systems, including production capacity progress, cost studies, locations of potential resources, studies of the benefits of sustainable energy. It provides statistics and focused data on particular countries or regions of the world.

International Union for the Conservation of Nature
The IUCN unites governmental and non-governmental organizations in more than one hundred sixty countries to protect the natural world. It includes commissions dedicated to public education; ecosystem management; the intersections of environmental, economic, and social policy; species survival; adjusting environmental laws; and studying protected areas. The IUCN also provides annual reports on environmental issues such as climate change, forest management, water resource management, and World Heritage sites.

OECD – Climate Change
OECD has research and analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development relating to climate change.

Sustainable Governance Indicators
Examines countries around the world for not only performance in safeguarding the environment, but also promoting economic health and social equity.

United Nations Division for Sustainable Development
This U.N. website has information, documents, and publications relating to issues contained in Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, the Barbados Programme of Action for Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, and the Commission on Sustainable Development. National information by country includes information submitted biennially in national reports by member states to the Commission on Sustainable Development.

United Nations Environment Programme
The U.N. Environment Programme website provides a wide range of resources, including technical guidelines, clearing-houses, trainer manuals, databases, publications and other useful tools produced by UNEP for governments, policy makers, civil society, private sector and the public at large.

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization website has statistical databases and agriculture and food security databases organized by country and thematic area, a virtual library, including FAO publications and meeting documents, and the text of conventions, agreements, and treaties deposited with FAO.

United Nations Climate Action
This U.N. group's website provides an online inventory of U.N. System activities on climate change and links to the websites of U.N. partners on climate change.

The World Bank Environment Page
The World Bank Environment page has information and publications on certain areas affecting World Bank operations in the environmental field.

World Health Organization – Climate Change
The WHO works to identify policy options to help prevent, prepare for and respond to the health effects of climate change, and supports Member States in selecting and implementing response strategies.

World Meteorological Organization
The World Meteorological Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations dealing with meteorology, operational hydrology, and related geophysical sciences.