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Begin New Search Publishing Institution Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto

11. Fracture Lines: Will Canada's Water Be Protected in the Rush to Develop Gas?

Author:
Ben Parfitt
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
On October 14, 2010, POWI released a discussion paper and held a conference on Fracture Lines: Will Canada’s Water Be Protected in the Rush to Develop Shale Gas? The conference and the discussion paper were the first major formal public discussion in Canada of the shale gas issue. As supplies of fossil fuel dwindle, oil and gas companies are increasingly looking to unconventional sources such as shale gas to supply energy needs. The Fracture Lines paper outlined the potential impacts of shale gas exploration and production on groundwater resources, and described the paucity of groundwater mapping and lack of effective regulatory oversight. With possible shale gas deposits in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick and a loud public outcry against shale gas drilling in Quebec, the conference attracted a wealth of attention. Because of its availability in both languages and its timeliness, the conference received extensive media coverage and over 500 logins to the webcast. In the wake of the conference, the research contained in the Fracture Lines report was determined to be a major factor in the decision to expand the terms of reference for a Parliamentary Committee studying offshore drilling issues in Canada. The Committee opted to include shale gas in its deliberations. The issue of how to protect groundwater resources from the impacts of shale gas exploration continues to be a burning issue, across Canada and around the world.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Oil, Water, and Gas
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

12. Secession: Final Frontier for International Law or Site of Realpolitik Revival?

Author:
Clifton van der Linden
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
In its opinion regarding the legality of the secession of Quebec, the Supreme Court of Canada observed that 'the process of [state] recognition, once considered to be an exercise of pure sovereign discretion, has come to be associated with legal norms.' Mindful of the principle of effectivity, the Court was cautious not to overstate the bounds of legal authority in matters of secession. Nevertheless, the acknowledgement of international law as a constitutive element of state behaviour in matters relating to secession marks a significant departure from conventional realpolitik accounts, wherein 'successful revolution begets its own legality.'
Political Geography:
Canada

13. The Quality of Norms is What Actors Make of It: Critical Constructivist Research on Norms

Author:
Antje Wiener and Uwe Puetter
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
What actors make of norms matters, in particular, in situations of crisis when the contextual conditions for norm interpretation are enhanced. That is, situations of crisis add an additional factor of pressure next to the conditions of normative contingency and moving the social practice of governance. beyond the boundaries of modern states. The addition of time requires fast decisions thus leaving little room for deliberation about a norm's meaning. Contrary to the expectation that based on an increasing constitutional quality in beyond‐the‐state contexts, actors can build on and refer to a set of formally and informally shared principles for information and guidance in designing common action and policies, we hold that norm interpretation in international relations is challenged by the absence of cultural background information. If this observation holds, it follows that the often observed constitutional quality beyond the state which includes the formalization of the role of international norms through treaties and agreements, the dense web of international negotiation forums and enhanced possibilities of iterated interaction in the global realm is not necessarily conducive to the shared interpretation of norms in an international setting. While this constitutional quality has been acknowledged and reflected by the concepts of disaggregated network governance, a global community of courts, or as sites of struggle, paradoxically, the very process of norm proliferation and the increasing acknowledgement of the power of norms in international relations and decisions that are taken bring the contested nature of norms to the fore—thus demanding a fresh look at norm applications. Research on norms, therefore, needs to better understand the inherently contested quality of norms that stems from and is closely interrelated with the very processes of norm application. A key theme throughout this special issue is that theoretical approaches to the study of norms need to generate a more encompassing and substantive definition of norms, allowing researchers to study and understand them in a context‐specific manner. We argue that only such an approach can account for the role of contestation as an integral part of the processes by which specific policy options are derived. This poses both a conceptual and empirical challenge.

14. Editors' Note: International Law, International Relations and the War on Terror

Author:
Ruben Zaiotti and Laura Zizzo
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
One of the recurrent charges levelled against International Law it that, when questions of high politics get into the picture, its relevance in world affairs inexorably wanes. This condition is even more apparent when issues of national security are at stake. As the argument goes, when states are trying to protect their very existence in an anarchical world, formal legal preoccupations should give way to the pragmatism of realpolitik.

15. Toward A Richer Institutionalism for International Law and Policy

Author:
Kenneth W. Abbott
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
In 1992, early in the renaissance of scholarship at the junction of international relations theory (IR) and international law (IL), I suggested that the coming years might see 'the emergence of a new joint discipline' like that which had already emerged in law and economics. It is probably fair to say that a true joint discipline does not yet exist and may never come into being. Yet the appearance of this Journal—a valuable and timely addition to the intellectual landscape—highlights the remarkable interdisciplinary progress made in little more than fifteen years.

16. The Relative Autonomy of International Law or The Forgotten Politics of Interdisciplinarity

Author:
Jan Klabbers
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
It goes without saying (but probably needs to be said) that the Foreign Office lawyer preparing a draft declaration on, say, the right to development, should have some understanding of development theory: she would be well-advised to know that there are various theories, not easily reconcilable with each other, on how development is best to be achieved. By the same token, it goes without saying (but might need to be said) that the practicing trade lawyer who does not have a grasp of the basic economics of international trade might not be best-placed to advise her clients. Likewise, it goes without saying (but perhaps needs to be said) that the practitioner at a Ministry of Defence contemplating whether or not to treat prisoners of war decently would enhance the quality of her decisions if she were to have an understanding of such things as game theory and reciprocity.

17. Identifying the Source and Nature of a State's Political Obligation Towards International Law

Author:
Shirley V. Scott
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
It is not 'new' to be interested in the relationship between international law and its political context. It is not even 'new' to theorize connections between the two—consider Abram Chayes's 1974 functionalist analysis of the role of international law in the Cuban Missile Crisis,1 or the work of the New Haven scholars. In seeking to respond to the query as to what I thought had been achieved through the interdisciplinary dialogue of the last ten to fifteen years, I have avoided the temptation to summarize the history of inter-disciplinary scholarship or to offer a panoramic overview of recent publications in the field. I have instead taken as my stepping-off point literature in key mainstream journals of both disciplines written on the 'core' issue of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. If interdisciplinary enquiry has really 'gotten somewhere' over the last ten to fifteen years, it is here, at the heart of each discipline, that its presence should be making an impact.
Political Geography:
Iraq

18. Duelling Agendas: International Relations and International Law (Again)

Author:
Gerry Simpson
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
On a sunlit summer's day in the Chiltern Hills, five men are seen running towards the same spot in the middle of a field. The object of their attention is a hot-air balloon containing a small boy. The boy's uncle (the balloon's pilot) is holding onto the balloon's ropes in an increasingly frantic attempt to prevent the balloon and boy from being swept into the sky. The (now) six men then engage in a collective effort to bring the balloon under control but this becomes difficult as the wind picks up and the problems of collective action emerge. With each new gust of wind the dilemma becomes more acute. The balloon is lifted higher and higher off the ground, and, yet, it does seem as if the six men might just command the weight and strength to hold down the balloon. But no one is entirely sure. Who is the first to let go? No one is sure of that either but someone releases the rope and tumbles onto the ground. The balloon rises a little higher. Another man lets the rope go and drops to the ground. In the end, there is one man, Dr John Logan, hanging on to the rope of a rising balloon. He begins climbing up the rope (now high in the sky), but this is to no avail. The first Chapter of Ian McEwan's novel, Enduring Love, ends with Logan dropping to the ground from a great height.

19. The Evolution of International Environmental Cooperation

Author:
Elizabeth R. DeSombre
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
International environmental cooperation is a relatively new endeavor, appearing in a currently recognizable form within the last century, and becoming a major part of international relations only in the last three or four decades. During its brief history, the issues on which states have cooperated pertaining to the environment have shifted, as have the characteristics of the cooperative institutions established to address them. Some of these changes have come about because over time the environmental problems being addressed internationally have become more complex, both environmentally and politically. International environmental agreements, unlike some other areas of public international law, bind states, but for compliance require behaviour change primarily by private substate actors. The incentive structure in the agreements for these substate actors can thus have implications for how they are implemented. These incentive structures in collective self-regulation have changed from early agreements in which those substate actors whose behaviours needed to change directly benefited from their actions to protect a resource, to one in which the regulated industry gains little inherent advantage from being regulated. The time lag between activities that have environmental impacts and the manifestation of harm has increased as well (and, conversely, the time between taking action to protect the environment and the beneficial effects of that action has increased). Both these issues relate to a change in types of uncertainty underlying global environmental problems. Other changes in the nature of the environmental problems being regulated have led to an increasing degree of influence on the part of developing countries in international environmental agreements. Despite this increased complexity, multilateral environmental agreements have continued to be a powerful tool for mitigating difficult environmental problems.

20. Rethinking International Environmental Regimes: What Role for Partnership Coalitions?

Author:
Christopher C. Joyner
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Law and International Relations
Institution:
Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
Abstract:
Governments create international agreements to deal with environmental, economic, technological, and legal problems that they cannot solve by themselves. In the absence of a supranational government, governments of states realize that they need new rules, multilateral institutions, and governance structures to promote cooperation, prevent and resolve conflicts, and facilitate information sharing between like-minded parties. This strategy is particularly evident in the establishment over the past four decades of several international regulatory regimes for the protection and management of certain environmental conditions of worldwide concern.