Gendering International Legal Responses to Environmental Chronic Emergencies

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline. This incisive book presents a gendered perspective on chronic environmental emergencies including climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and environmental degradation. Derived from the innovative concept of slow violence, the phenomenon of chronic environmental emergencies considers situational vulnerabilities and the disproportionate impact of these events on women. Providing an ecofeminist assessment of chronic emergencies, as well as their effects on actors, legal obligations, and possible remedies, the book examines the interplay between feminism, the environment, and international law. Chapters conceptualize environmental chronic emergencies, analysing their impact across time and in various contexts spanning slow-onset events, responsibility and liability, and due diligence obligations. The global contributor team uses gendered and post-colonial approaches to advance the legal debate beyond disasters to more subtle forms of oppression, particularly towards indigenous women and female health. Ultimately, the book looks ahead at new interdisciplinary avenues of research which address the gradual deterioration of ecosystems and its effect on insidious forms of oppression through deep-rooted structural inequalities. Shedding light on the social and legal elements of climate degradation, this book is a fundamental resource for scholars and students of environmental law, humanitarian law, and public international law. International lawyers and advocates for human rights will also benefit from the book's theoretical and methodological insights.

Table of Contents:
Contents Foreword ix Gendering International Legal Responses to Environmental Chronic Emergencies: Introduction xi Sara De Vido, Deborah Russo and Enzamaria Tramontana PART I CONCEPTUALIZING ENVIRONMENTAL CHRONIC EMERGENCIES 1 Feminist legal methods and environmental chronic emergencies: challenging the anthropocentric and androcentric international legal system 2 Sara De Vido 2 Moving beyond an approach based on crisis and disasters to address environmental chronic emergencies 24 Deborah Russo 3 Environmental chronic emergencies, women’s inequality, and international law 43 Enzamaria Tramontana 4 Taking the long view: what environmental chronic emergencies require of states 66 Karen Morrow PART II ENVIRONMENTAL CHRONIC EMERGENCIES ACROSS TIME 5 A fear of falling? The mineshaft as ‘environmental chronic emergency’ in modern Cornwall 89 Timothy Cooper 6 Minamata disease as an environmental chronic emergency: institutional failures and global lessons 109 Shuichi Furuya 7 Environmental chronic emergencies and the challenge of temporality 129 David M. Scott 8 Environmental chronic emergencies and future generations 148 Laura Magi PART III ENVIRONMENTAL CHRONIC EMERGENCIES IN CONTEXT 9 Environmental chronic emergencies, slow-onset events and other anthropocentric dilemmas in times of climate crisis: the need for a re-conception 167 Monica Feria-Tinta 10 States and corporations in the context of environmental chronic emergencies: responsibility and liability at the crossroad 184 Patricio Barbirotto 11 Due diligence obligations and environmental chronic emergencies 205 Björnstjern Baade 12 The duty to cooperate in addressing the adverse impact of environmental chronic emergencies: ensuring gender-sensitive responses 226 Martina Sardo 13 Transforming slow violence into social justice: the quest for reparation for environmental chronic emergencies 250 Francesca Tammone PART IV CONCLUDING REMARKS 14 Conclusion 274 Meghan Campbell

About the Author :
Edited by Sara De Vido, Professor of International Law, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Deborah Russo, Professor of International Law, University of Florence and Enzamaria Tramontana, Professor of International Law, University of Palermo, Italy

Review :
‘This unique, precious and beautiful blue-green planet is under assault by a global economy built on the exploitation of Nature and people, especially people of color, Indigenous peoples, women and girls and those who are part of more than one of these communities. We are all part of an insidious global experiment, undertaken without consent, in which our bodies are exposed to a toxic stew of chemicals and microplastics. This is but one of a host of chronic environmental emergencies described in this timely and erudite book. The contributors provocatively challenge existing paradigms of environmental law and human rights law, arguing convincingly that chronic environmental emergencies must be unmasked, analyzed through an intersectional lens, and ultimately addressed through a combination of remediation, reparation, and prevention.’