Stephens, Tim --- "Disasters, international environmental law and the Anthropocene" [2016] ELECD 1260; in Breau, C. Susan; Samuel, L.H. Katja (eds), "Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 153

Book Title: Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law

Editor(s): Breau, C. Susan; Samuel, L.H. Katja

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784717391

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Disasters, international environmental law and the Anthropocene

Author(s): Stephens, Tim

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

International environmental law has been profoundly shaped by disasters. While international environmental law has been developed in order to avert or ameliorate catastrophes attributable to human activities, it also has relevance to the emerging field of disaster law that is primarily concerned with natural disaster preparedness, mitigation and response. This is not least because of the increasing difficulty in distinguishing natural from human-induced disasters in the Anthropocene. However, an international environmental law fashioned in the aftermath and shadow of a disaster suffers from several failings, fixating on discrete incidents and the risks of recurrence, rather than on the larger structural shortcomings in the international order that is enabling global environmental decline.