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International Trade and Environmental Protection: Revisiting Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”
Peter Nyeronvwo Komiti
Barrister and Solicitor, Supreme Court of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria. Email: peterkomiti@gmail.com, peterkomiti@nigerinabar.ng
(2023) 03 (03) Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 87-105 https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp030303
Accepted: 30 November 2023
No. of Abstract Views:
Published: 31 December 2023
No. of Paper Downloads:
Twenty-eight years after the emergence of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime, the trade-environmental protection relationship seems to have achieved some harmonisation from an initial chequered one, though not without some forms of lopsided balancing of the variables. This work explores the relationship between international trade and the environment, revealing whether the competing values are balanced. The methodology adopted is doctrinal, with a comparative and analytical approach involving desk and library research. The work is bifurcated into six parts, commencing with an introduction in the first: the second flesh out international environmental agreements relevant to the trade-environment interaction. The third part examines principles of international environmental law. The paper reflects unilateral trade measures in the fourth part. The fifth part takes stock of WTO jurisprudence. While considerable efforts have been made to mainstream environmental protection into trade objectives through the WTO jurisprudence, there remain some forms of market failures, making the trade-environment relationship lopsided, with inadequate attention given to the environment, which brings to fore the need to revisit David Hunter’s metaphoric invisible elbow destroying the common goods created by an invisible hand.
Keywords: Biodiversity; Environmental protection; International trade; Climate change; International environmental law; World Trade Organisation Laws; International environmental agreements
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Peter N. Komiti, ‘International Trade and Environmental Protection: Revisiting Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”’ (2023) 03 (03) Journal of Environmental Law & Policy 87-105, https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp030303
Komiti, P.N. (2023). International Trade and Environmental Protection: Revisiting Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”. Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 03(03): 87-105. Doi: https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp030303
Komiti, P.N. (2023). International Trade and Environmental Protection: Revisiting Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”. Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 03(03), 87-105. https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp030303
Komiti P.N. International Trade and Environmental Protection: Revisiting Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”. Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 2023, 03 (03), 87-105. https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp030303
Komiti, Peter Nyeronvwo. 2023. “International Trade and Environmental Protection: Revisiting Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons””. Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 03 no. 03: 87-105. https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp030303
Komiti, Peter Nyeronvwo. 2023. “International Trade and Environmental Protection: Revisiting Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons””. Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 03 (03): 87-105. https://doi.org/10.33002/jelp030303
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