Environmental law
Wahid Kowthari; Mostafa Fazaeli
Abstract
IntroductionDespite the abundance of international environmental norms, for various reasons, such as their implementation conflict with the developmental concerns of countries or the lack of consensus at the global level regarding environmental hazards, these norms have not been effective. The GEO-6 ...
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IntroductionDespite the abundance of international environmental norms, for various reasons, such as their implementation conflict with the developmental concerns of countries or the lack of consensus at the global level regarding environmental hazards, these norms have not been effective. The GEO-6 report in 2019 states that without additional policies, the trends in environmental degradation are projected to continue at a rapid rate and neither the Sustainable Development Goal targets nor other internationally agreed environmental goals are expected to be achieved, including the set goals regarding climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, excess nutrient run-off, land degradation and ocean acidification, and so on. The usual procedure in legal research in such cases is to turn the audience's attention to the lack of a sufficient guarantee of these norms, the separation of domestic legal systems from the international, or the absence of necessary criminalization. Without intending to question these conventional legal researches, this essay has tried to take a different path to deal with the challenges related to the "efficacy” or “effectiveness” of such laws with a sociological approach. Generally, having in mind the link between society and law, which is expressed in some famous and proverbial sentences such as "where there is society, there is law (Ubi Societas ibi jus) ", reference to the society and providing a sociological analysis of individuals’ behavior and their reaction to the legal rules in domestic societies or the international community seems useful and even necessary. A sociological look at the factors of the underlying ineffectiveness of environmental norms brings forward theories about environmental sociology and social or economic justice, whose possible role and effects in international environmental law the current research aims to evaluate, with a descriptive-analytical approach and using library research.Research Question(s)An important question that we should seek to answer is why the mass of environmental norms are not as efficient as they should be, and governments, as the main members of the international community, have not shown much interest in employing and implementing them. The fact is that to increase the efficiency of legal norms, it is useful and even necessary to pay attention to the coordination between the rules and regulations and weigh them according to the standards of justice, rationality, social values, freedom, equality, etc. This is what we are trying to demonstrate through the concept of socialization of laws. In examining the effectiveness of laws, the formal legal binding of a rule is not taken into account alone, rather, some cases should be studied through a meta-analysis to analyze the individuals’ behavior towards these norms. the result of such analysis is the effective implementation of legal rules as much as possible. Literature ReviewThe current article deals with the efficacy of environmental norms in an interdisciplinary manner and it has not been yet researched and investigated to the extent of the authors' knowledge. MethodologyAlthough, the efficacy of legal norms is raised after the formation or the identification of them, by observing the executive effects of legal norms and their pathology after their creation or recognition, we pave the way for their possible revision and proposing a reform in the legal system. Therefore, the purpose of this article is not only to look at the establishment of the norms and to examine the effectiveness of environmental sociological theories, but it also examines the behavior of international actors, especially governments, concerning pre-established norms. In this way, the methodology of this research in some parts is “Intrasystem” although it is mostly “Intersystem”; because, beyond the international environmental law system, it considers the role of other regimes. As an Intersystem study, in the framework of the present topic, the researcher is allowed, after observing the degree of realization of the rules in social practice, to review the entire process before and after the formation of the rules until their implementation. ConclusionCurrently, despite the adoption of numerous environmental norms, for various reasons, countries, in general, have not shown much approval towards the implementation of environmental obligations. Two important factors of the inefficacy of these norms are: 1) their conflict with governments’ developmental concerns and, 2)Lack of consensus and sufficient scientific knowledge at the global level.through referring to some sociological theories, the following article seeks to find ways to strengthen environmental norms (at the stage of establishing these environmental norms) and to influence the behavior of governments towards environmental obligations (at the stage of implementing the mentioned norms).This research hypothesizes that by opening the door of international environmental law to some sociological theories and distancing it from others, it would be possible to achieve more efficient and effective environmental norms.
Rahim Nobahar; Ali Velaei
Abstract
The right to be elected is one of the important examples of right to self-determination. Although this right is not absolute, its restriction must be justified. Unjustified insistence upon meritocracy and trusteeship of candidates, has resulted in violation of the right to be elected and the right to ...
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The right to be elected is one of the important examples of right to self-determination. Although this right is not absolute, its restriction must be justified. Unjustified insistence upon meritocracy and trusteeship of candidates, has resulted in violation of the right to be elected and the right to vote. From a socio-political point of view, such restrictions harm democratic aspect of any political system. In I.R. Iran, necessitation of qualification of being just, supposing official positions as religious trust and argument to the principle of incompetency and non-existence of legal qualifications have resulted in many challenges for free, fair and competitive election. Subjective and non-institutional assessment of the nominees by the Guardian Council has worsened the situation. The aim of this article is to evaluate the method of assessment of qualifications of nominees. The article suggests to rely upon those fiqhi theories that present a more tolerant view on the qualification of being just. Also due to the fact that people are the owners of public sphere, it is possible to presume official authorities as contractual trust rather than religious and legal trust. Similarly, there is way to rely upon the presumption of non-sinfulness instead of being just to reduce some restrictions on qualifications of nominees.
ata allah salehi
Abstract
Sometimes the experience of women is an unpleasant combination of marginalization, violence and cultural domination. To ethically encounter with this situation, one approach is equality; however, its content is controversial due to its open source text. Equality is a descriptive concept, and normative; ...
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Sometimes the experience of women is an unpleasant combination of marginalization, violence and cultural domination. To ethically encounter with this situation, one approach is equality; however, its content is controversial due to its open source text. Equality is a descriptive concept, and normative; within the form of a descriptive concept, it refers to a descriptive relationship between two individuals who are similar in some respects. In the normative sense, that belongs to the world of credit and prescribes a particular behavior to all, it is related to our understanding of what should be and is based on desired value which is often "justice". In international law, among the three discourses of equality (capabilities, rights and human capital), the rights is recognized in the framework of the primary rules and through treaties, custom and judicial procedures, which are the formal sources of this legal system, but fails in the actual sources of international law and its secondary rules .This research, by descriptive-analytic approach, shows equality as a legal general principle; its forms, and its relation to the concepts such as discrimination, difference, agency, empowerment and investigates its position among the primary and secondary rules of international law.
Abstract
Nowadays, environmental protection is a major preoccupation in the international community. One of the essential trends of international environmental law is the presence of non-governmental actors in the formation, application, and control of environmental regulations. Recognition of the legal personality ...
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Nowadays, environmental protection is a major preoccupation in the international community. One of the essential trends of international environmental law is the presence of non-governmental actors in the formation, application, and control of environmental regulations. Recognition of the legal personality as a player in the international sphere is a general evolution in the protection of the environment. The present article tries to explain the role of non-governmental actors in environmental questions in the light of international conventions such as the Aarhus Convention as well as judicial decisions of the International Court of Justice. The results imply that the decision makers in the European Union should modify some regulations either in regional or national level to fulfill the ambitious goals of the founders of this unique international organization.
Mohammad Javad Javid; Esmat Shahmoradi
Volume 17, Issue 47 , October 2015, , Pages 9-33
Abstract
The principle of tangible justice requires legal proceedings to enjoy sufficient level of transparency. The principle is viewed as underlying a key human right as a general presumption that there is to be judicial openness as a firm rule, with secret or obscured proceedings to be considered exceptional, ...
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The principle of tangible justice requires legal proceedings to enjoy sufficient level of transparency. The principle is viewed as underlying a key human right as a general presumption that there is to be judicial openness as a firm rule, with secret or obscured proceedings to be considered exceptional, requiring justifiable grounds. The present paper investigates the human rights role of media in the judicial system and examines both the challenges and the benefits of such mechanism in Iranian courts of law. The paper begins with an overview of the concept of judicial corruption and explores the Iranian laws as to discuss the applicability of media in the judicial system of Iran. Making reference to the role of media in Iran’s recent lawmaking developments including penal procedural law 2013 and the penal code of 2013, It concludes with proposing a number of recommendations on the subject
Mahnaz Bayat Komitaki; Mahdi Balavi
Volume 17, Issue 47 , October 2015, , Pages 123-155
Abstract
"Rights" and "Public Interest" are among the key elements of political , legal , ethical and social discourse in almost any society around the world including the contemporary legal and political discourse of Iran. Meanwhile, societies inevitably have certain reciprocal tensions resulting from diversities ...
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"Rights" and "Public Interest" are among the key elements of political , legal , ethical and social discourse in almost any society around the world including the contemporary legal and political discourse of Iran. Meanwhile, societies inevitably have certain reciprocal tensions resulting from diversities in their ethical believes and contradictory claims. That is why theorists in political philosophy and modern law have strived towards advancing solutions to such controversial strains. To name a few, Hobbes and Hegel have theorized the notion of State Interest, recognizing the interest of a limited number of governors as public interest, based on which they privileged it over individual rights and freedom of citizens. Granting, devesting , dispensing or restriction of any sort of individual rights they maintained could only be realized under the auspices of the same . This theory has its own advocates and critics in Shiiat world .Shaikh Mofid and Shaikh Toosi are among the proponents whereas Shaikh Ansari and Imam Khomeini fall under the category of opponents. In this paper, after introducing State Interest doctrine, we shall later review the misconceptions and practical challenges around the concept in light of Balance theory as a convergent theory in the relation between individual rights and public interest.
Aِli Asghar Pourezzat; Ghazaleh Taheri Attar
Volume 8, Issue 21 , December 2006, , Pages 79-119
Abstract
Today’s world situation is the result of various historical incidents.
During these accidents and changes, some civilizations manifest, grow
and collapse. The study and analysis of the effecting factors on
stability or disintegration of a civilization could be serving as an
example for the ...
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Today’s world situation is the result of various historical incidents.
During these accidents and changes, some civilizations manifest, grow
and collapse. The study and analysis of the effecting factors on
stability or disintegration of a civilization could be serving as an
example for the existing civilization and developing societies very
much. The Iranian civilization is one of the oldest and most effective
civilizations in the history of mankind, and Iran land as the cradle of
this civilization, has experienced many governments and dynasties.
Some of them have declined and finally collapsed for unknown
reasons while they had pride, glory, and a high level of political and
economical power; like Achaemenian, Sasani, Ashkabni, Safavi, and
etc.
Achaemenian Empire with a background of 230 years governing on
the world was declined by a young, low experienced, ambitious army
general. Establishing this Empire which involved different and
various races, languages and cultures, was a big revolution in the
world history of governance. The world for the first time enjoyed a
united and centralized government. It was only Roman Empire that
could compete with it years later. The main question of this study is
that how an empire and civilization with this level of power, glory and
domination gradually collapsed from inside. It seems that many
reasons involve in the decline and collapse of a civilization, or its
survival and stability. In this study it was assumed that some factors
such as justice, responsibility, freedom and national identity lead to
stability. On the other hand, factors like despotism, narcissism, and
discrimination cause acceleration in civilizations' collapse. The study
of historical evidences confirms the hypothesis that injustice is one of
the most important factors which cause internal collapse, and
intelligence level decline in these governments.
