The Role of the Judiciary in Preserving Federalism
In order to evaluate whether the Biosafety Protocol advances environmental protection, it is important to understand the nature of the environmental problems it is supposed to address. With this in mind, Part II of this article briefly surveys current threats to biological diversity. Part III summarizes the key provisions of the Biosafety Protocol, and how they seek to address the loss of biodiversity. Building on these two sections, Part IV assesses the congruence, or lack thereof, between the biodiversity problem and the Biosafety Protocol. This section further explains why the Biosafety Protocol may do more to hinder, rather than help, the conservation of biodiversity, especially in those regions of the world in which the threats to biodiversity are the most severe. The article concludes with lessons that can be drawn from the Protocol's embrace of precautionary regulation and an assessment of the utility of such approaches in international environmental law.
Cartagena Protocal, Biological Diversity
Place of Original Publication
Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy
1 Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy 49 (2002)
Adler, Jonathan H., "The Role of the Judiciary in Preserving Federalism" (2002). Faculty Publications. 1088.