Environmental Protection and Transitions from Conflict to Peace

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Environmental protection is fundamental for the establishment of sustainable peace. Applying traditional legal approaches to protection raises particular challenges during the transition from conflict to peace. In the jus post bellum context, protection of the environment and natural resources needs to be considered in tandem with a broad range of simultaneously applicable normative frameworks, such as human rights, transitional justice, arms control/disarmament, UN law and practice, development, and domestic law. While certain multilateral environment agreements, such as the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage protect the environment; international humanitarian law and international criminal law continue to treat environmental protection largely from an anthropocentric perspective.

This book is the first targeted work in the legal literature that investigates environmental challenges in the aftermath of conflict. Addressing these challenges, it brings together academics, policy-makers, and practitioners from different disciplines to clarify policies and practices of environmental protection and key normative frameworks. It draws on experiences and practices in post-conflict settings to specify substantive principles and techniques to remedy and prevent harm.

Carsten Stahn, Professor of International Criminal Law and Global Justice at Leiden University and Program Director of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies (The Hague)., ,Jens Iverson, Professor of Law at Leiden University, ,Jennifer S. Easterday, Executive Director of JustPeace Labs.,
Carsten Stahn is Professor of International Criminal Law and Global Justice at Leiden University and Program Director of the Grotius Centre. He is the author of The Law and Practice of International Territorial Administration: Versailles to Iraq and Beyond. He has published articles on international criminal law and transitional justice in leading international journals (American Journal of International Law, European Journal of International Law, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Harvard International Law Journal), and edited several collections of essays in the field.


Jens Iverson is a Researcher for the Jus Post Bellum project and an attorney specializing in public international law. A member of the California Bar, the Thurston Society, and the Order of the Coif, he received his Juris Doctor cum laude from the University of California, Hastings, and his Bachelor of Arts from Yale University. He has worked with the Cambodian Genocide Program, the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, and the Coalition for the International Criminal Court. As the co-founder of a human rights clinic, he helped represent the former Prime Minister of Haiti in a successful petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that ultimately resulted in a landmark ruling requiring Haitian prison reform. He has practiced at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on both the Popovic et al and Prlic et al cases.


Jennifer Easterday is a Researcher for the Jus Post Bellum project. She is also an international justice consultant and a Trial Monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative. She previously worked for International Criminal Law Services, an NGO based in The Hague, on a variety of international criminal law capacity-building projects in domestic jurisdictions in the former Yugoslavia and Africa. She has also worked as a Senior Researcher and Trial Monitor for the UC Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center, researching and monitoring the Special Court for Sierra Leone trial of Charles Taylor. She has experience at the ICTY and with other international criminal law and human rights NGOs in the United States and Latin America. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and is a member of the California State Bar.

Introduction, Carsten Stahn, Jens Iverson, and Jennifer Easterday
Part I: Foundations
1. Peacebuilding and the Environment, Carl Bruch
2. Defining the 'Environment' and the Principle of Environmental Integrity, Cymie R. Payne
3. Considering the 'Harm Principle', Environmental Damage, and Armed Conflict, Simon O'Connor
Part II: Legal Norms and Frameworks
4. The Environment and Armed Conflict: Employing General Principles to Protect the Environment, Kirsten Stefanik
5. Protecting the Environment During and After Armed Conflict through Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Britta Sjostedt
6. Using Human Rights and Transitional Justice for Post-Conflict Environmental Protection and Remediation, Karen L. Hulme
7. Standard-Setting Practices for the Management of Natural Resources in Conflict-Torn States, Daniella Dam
8. Protection of Natural Resources Through the Law of Pillage, Carl Bruch and Olivia Radics
9. Environmental Implications of Disarmament: The Chemical Weapons Convention Case, Thilo Marauhn
Part III: Tensions and Dilemmas
10. Legal Protections of the Environment: The Double Challenge of Non-International Armed Conflict and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, Dieter Fleck
11. Greening Warfare: Protecting the Environment during Non-International Armed Conflict, Matthew Gillet
12. Conflict, Cash and Controversy: Protecting Environmental Rights in Post-Conflict Settings, Jennifer Easterday and Hana Ivanhoe
13. Private Security Companies and other Private Security Service Providers (PSCs) and Environmental Protection in Post-Conflict Settings: Policy and Regulatory Challenges, Onita Das and Aneaka Kellay
14. Post-Conflict Mine Action: Environment and Law, Ursin Hofmann
Part IV: Remedying and Preventing Damage and Harm
15. The UNCC and the Environment, Cymie R. Payne
16. Reparations for Environmental Damage in Jus Post Bellum: The Problem of Shared Responsibility, Ilias Plakokefalos
17. Victims of Environmental Harm during Conflict: the Potential for 'Justice', Merryl Lawry-White
18. 'After the War is Before the War': The Environment, Preventive IHL Measures and Their Post-Conflict Impact, Anne Dienelt
Conclusion: Taking Stock of Emerging Norms, Principles and Practices, Carsten Stahn, Jennifer Easterday, and Jens Iverson