Search

As China’s largest river basin, the Yangtze River Basin has the most mega reservoir groups worldwide. To protect the entire basin, the Central Government developed a system of joint operations of key reservoir groups in the Yangtze River Basin. This paper examines this joint operation system from a legal perspective and discusses its implementation as well as the challenges in practice. The following issues impede the effective implementation of the joint operation system: a lacking legal basis for the system, limitations related to the organizations that participate in the joint operations, limitations on the scope and objects of the joint operation system, and a lacking systematic structure for operation. This paper offers suggestions to improve the system.

The European Union (EU) and China have committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and 2060, respectively. To explore the legal nature of these objectives and how the legal frameworks support their delivery, this article assesses the stringency of objectives and the adaptiveness of relevant legal frameworks. The former compares the objectives' bindingness, scope, prescriptiveness and precision of such obligations and compliance mechanisms. The latter compares the dynamism of mitigation policies and the legal institutions and processes that promote decarbonization. The article concludes that the climate neutrality objective is enshrined in the EU's climate law framework with a high degree of stringency overall. By contrast, China mainly incorporates the targets into administrative measures, the cadre responsibility and evaluation system, lacking formal rules and robust enforcement. By accelerating legal reform to integrate carbon neutrality into relevant regulatory instruments and addressing implementation problems, China explores its distinctive pathway to delivering on the objective.

Sinds jaar en dag tracht de omgevingswetgever een balans te vinden tussen flexibiliteit en bundeling bij de aanvraag van de omgevingsvergunning. Met de komst van de Omgevingswet komt de nadruk meer te liggen op flexibiliteit bij het aanvraagproces van de omgevingsvergunning. De aanvrager krijgt – mede door het loslaten van het concept van onlosmakelijke samenhang – meer vrijheid om het aanvraagproces van de vergunningen zelf vorm te geven. Er dient kritisch naar deze ontwikkeling te worden gekeken. Wordt de positie van de aanvrager van de omgevingsvergunning beter door het bieden van meer vrijheid bij de aanvraag van de vereiste omgevingsvergunning(en)? Deze vraag staat centraal in deze bijdrage.

Climate adaptation and water management, in particular flood risk management (FRM), in the Netherlands are strongly integrated policy domains. The observed and expected effects of climate change in the Netherlands will create a variety of pressures, particularly in relation to sea-level rise, increasing river discharges and changing precipitation patterns. Effective FRM is therefore stressed as a critical precondition for any future development and living in the Netherlands, both on the short and longer term. Partly influenced by the adoption of the European Floods Directive in 2007, the urgent need for climate adaptation is driving major developments in Dutch FRM, the most striking of which is the diversification and a partial shift in flood risk management strategies (FRMSs). This is best reflected in the adoption of the Dutch Delta Program as a basis for the development of long-term strategies for both flood and drought risk management, which inter alia initiated the development of the policy concept of ‘multi-layered safety’ and the adoption of a risk-based approach under the development of Dutch FRM. Whereas the focus in the Netherlands until recently was mainly and successfully on minimizing the probability of flooding (‘the fight against water’) and preparedness in case of a flood threat, in the course of time other strategies aimed at mitigating the effects of potential floods have gained a more prominent position (‘living with water’). As a result, FRM measures increasingly demand more space and more diverse actors became involved in Dutch FRM. This has increased complexity and fragmentation in the responsibilities for Dutch FRM, which resulted in an increasing need for communication, coordination and collaboration between different public and private actors in order to secure the effectiveness of FRM. These developments form the backdrop to this article, in which we analyse this broadened Dutch system of FRM and flood risk regulation. After having presented relevant facts and figures about flood risks in the Netherlands in Section 2, we describe the flood risk management strategies (FRMSs) stemming from the Floods Directive and the way in which these have been implemented in the Dutch FRM system in section 3. In Section 4, we discuss current observed developments and shifts in strategies, as well as relevant challenges these have brought about. In a synthesizing Section 5, the paper ends with a discussion of its findings. One of our key conclusions is that the development of innovative approaches in Dutch FRM is promising, but requires increased attention for challenges regarding coordination and cooperation, public participation and the availability of legal instruments to make spatial claims on privately owned land.

Mirrormeetings are focusgroups used by courts in the Netherland to gather feedback on the functioning of court services and judges in different fields of law. Different categories of court users are consulted on their experiences with court proceedings in different legal fields. In the set-up of those meetings judges and court staff are the listening audience of the conversation between court users about issues brought up by moderators of the session. That conversation is intended to mirror the court work. In this article we share the results of an inquiry into the functioning of mirrormeetings as a feedback instrument. Our study shows how courts and judges value the feedback they receive. However, because courts control the organisation and content of mirrormeetings to a considerable extent, there may be a risk of missing out on relevant, but unforeseen feedback. Furthermore, the follow up of mirrormeetings in terms of change in routines or in judicial behaviour is traceable to a limited extent. Therefore, it is difficult to assess if and how intended adaptations are implemented.

This Special Issue on Localising the Sustainable Human Right to Water begins with contributions focused on a global and more general perspective. These contributions provide a general introduction to the topic of the sustainable human right to water. It then shifts perspective to provide regional contributions, and finally zooms in to contributions focused on the implementation of this right at the national level.

The profitability of the French agricultural sector has fallen over the last two decades, leading to the suggestion of a &ldquo, rupture in technical progress&rdquo, Additionally, the intellectual property regime in force has contributed to the erosion of the cultivated biodiversity, limiting plant resiliency to climate change and other hazards. In the face of these challenges, agroecological farming practices are a viable alternative. This paper investigates the positive and negative aspects associated with the development of alternative seed procurement networks in France. The findings indicate that peasant seed networks can effectively contribute to overcoming many of the structural blockages with which French agriculture is confronted, but that yield concerns, higher information and supervisory costs, as well as the unfavourable legislative context, constitute key challenges to their development. However, these could be partially or totally eliminated if adequate policies are implemented. In this regard, the recommendations are to: (i) strengthen the dialogue with farmers in the shaping of policies related to the use of plant genetic resources, (ii) abrogate the &ldquo, obligatory voluntary contribution&rdquo, on farm-saved seeds, (iii) diversify the collection of Centres for Biological Resources, increase their number, and democratize their access, (iv) harmonize the French and European regime on intellectual property, and (v) encourage participatory research.

The precautionary and prevention principles require that environmental risks should timely and adequately be regulated before potentially harmful activities are undertaken. The system of administrative environmental law provides ample instruments for such regulation. However, scientific uncertainties about environmental risks could complicate the formulation and implementation of effective environmental risk management strategies. This could lead to systemic imperfections and regulatory gaps which, in turn, undermine the system’s effectiveness and increase the need for regulatory ‘back-ups’. The system of private law is often seen as a potential back-up. In analyzing the complementary effects between both systems and using environmental risks of chemical mining activities in the (deep) subsoil as an example, this article concludes that the actual regulatory effect of tort law should not be overestimated. The complementary role of tort law in regulating environmental risks is mostly limited to the specification and on some occasions enforcement of environmental responsibilities.

The Yangtze River Basin is the largest river basin in China and has the most complex trans-boundary problems. The water quality monitoring system of the provincial boundary sections in the basin is the typical go-to system to show the interaction between administrative regions and basins. In this article, we discuss the water quality monitoring system in the basin from a legal perspective, explore the achievements and deficiencies of the system, and identify the main elements that constrain the effective operation of the system in the basin, including the fragmented competencies of monitoring institutions, the different monitoring techniques, the overlapping monitoring contents and scopes, the different data releasing channels, and the different applications of the data. We provide legislative suggestions to implement the newly enacted Yangtze River Protection Law and valuable lessons for the design of monitoring systems in other countries or (trans-boundary) basins that face a similar situation.

The precautionary and prevention principles require that environmental risks should timely and adequately be regulated before potentially harmful activities are undertaken. The system of administrative environmental law provides ample instruments for such regulation. However, scientific uncertainties about environmental risks could complicate the formulation and implementation of effective environmental risk management strategies. This could lead to systemic imperfections and regulatory gaps which, in turn, undermine the system’s effectiveness and increase the need for regulatory ‘back-ups’. The system of private law is often seen as a potential back-up. In analyzing the complementary effects between both systems and using environmental risks of chemical mining activities in the (deep) subsoil as an example, this article concludes that the actual regulatory effect of tort law should not be overestimated. The complementary role of tort law in regulating environmental risks is mostly limited to the specification and on some occasions enforcement of environmental responsibilities.