Balancing Human Rights, Environmental Protection and International Trade: Lessons from the EU Experience

(Paperback)

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This book explores the means by which economic liberalisation can be reconciled with human rights and environmental protection in the regulation of international trade. It is primarily concerned with identifying the lessons the international community can learn, specifically in the context of the WTO, from decades of European Community and Union experience in facing this question. The book demonstrates first that it is possible to reconcile the pursuit of economic and non-economic interests, that the EU has found a mechanism by which to do so, and that the application of the principle of proportionality is fundamental to the realisation of this. It is argued that the EU approach can be characterised as a practical application of the principle of sustainable development. Secondly, from the analysis of the EU experience, this book identifies fundamental conditions crucial to achieving this reconciliation. Thirdly, the book explores the implications of lessons from the EU experience for the international community. In so doing it assesses both the potential and limits of the existing international regulatory framework for such reconciliation. The book develops a deeper understanding of the inter-relationship between the legal regulation of economic and non-economic development, adding clarity to the debate in a controversial area. It argues that a more holistic approach to the consideration of development, encompassing economic and non-economic concerns - sustainable development - is not only desirable in principle but realisable in practice.

Reviews

[This] book provides an insightful analysis on the interaction and complex reconciliation of economic and non-economic interests. -- Ioanna Hadjiyianni * Journal of Environmental Law *
...this book offers something to all four readerships which it should attract: EU lawyers, environmental lawyers, human rights lawyers, and trade laywers. -- Chris Hilson * Yearbook of European Law *
...the book combines environmental concerns with human rights concerns and therefore does justice to the concept of sustainable development. For students, practitioners, and academics alike this book is therefore a good starting point... -- Rike Kramer * Journal of International Economic Law *

Author Bio

Emily Reid is Associate Professor in EU Law at the University of Southampton.