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Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Publication Title

Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law

Abstract

The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment produced the Stockholm Declaration, an environmental manifesto that forcefully declared a human right to environmental health and birthed the field of modern international environmental law. The historic event powerfully “dramatized . . . the unity and fragility of the biosphere,” sparking a remarkable period of international legal innovation and cooperation on environmental protection in the decades to come.

The Stockholm Declaration can be rightly celebrated for putting environmental issues on the international legal agenda and driving the development of environmental law at the domestic level around the world. At the same time, the Declaration’s distinctive framing of environmental problems and solutions deeply influenced these abundant subsequent laws, and here its legacy is mixed. This special issue, in celebration of the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law’s 50th anniversary volume, evaluates the legacy of the Stockholm Declaration and the legal movement it launched.

Keywords

International Environmental Law, Stockholm Declaration, Human Rights

Publication Citation

Melissa J. Durkee, International Environmental Law at its Semicentennial: The Stockholm Legacy, 50 Ga. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 748 (2022)

Comments

CONFERENCE: THE 1972 STOCKHOLM DECLARATION AT 50: REFLECTING ON A HALF-CENTURY OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Hosted by the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law and the Dean Rusk International Law Center on October 8, 2021, in Athens, Georgia and online.

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