Some thoughts on legal writing Vernon Rive, AUT School of Law - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

International Environmental Law 417523

Some thoughts on legal writing

Vernon Rive, AUT School of Law

Photo: Mary Grace Ardiente de Castro

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No title No road map Non-standard grammar Introduction which doesn’t include thesis Inadequate citations Citing secondary material instead of primary material Using wrong form of word (principles vs principals; affect vs effect) No stating full details of an international instrument (including significant non-parties) Incorrect grammar Using fragments as whole sentences Failure to cite subsequent appeal decisions No subheadings

Low hanging fruit

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Stop reading the same meaningless, repetitive writing everyone else reads. Quality of output directly correlates to quality of input. I’ve noticed the technical quality of my writing and the originality of my ideas sharply decline when I fall into the habit of reading nothing but blogs. Absorb fresh ideas and sublime style by reading

• ld books, written by masters of language. Then

take these ideas and pretend you invented them. You’ll be hailed as a prophet. …The value comes from unconsciously absorbing the style of the author. This is how we learn to write rhythmic sentences and clearly convey

• meaning. You will also find unexpected

inspiration.

You write what you read.

Erin Falconer, 2007


http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/how-to-write-something-worth-reading/

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UN Security Council: playing a role in the international climate change regime?

Stephanie Cousins* Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia In the context of a weakly enforced Kyoto Protocol, sluggish UN climate change negotiations and a closing window of opportunity to prevent the more cataclysmic scenarios of climate change, calls for the UN Security Council to play a role in international climate governance are becoming

• louder. The Security Council’s political clout and wide enforcement powers make it a seemingly

ideal antidote to the current negotiation inertia. But how realistic is it for the Security Council to play a role in curbing climate change? This paper examines the ambition and enforcement limitations of the current UN legal regime for climate change and analyses whether the Security Council could help fill the gaps. It argues that climate change can legitimately be seen as a security issue, and that it is legally feasible for the Security Council to act on it, even using its full range of powers. However, politically there are just a few options worth exploring at this stage. These include: monitoring and early warning of climate-related security threats; and helping to resolve disputes peacefully between blocks of states with regards to mitigation and adaptation ambition. Keywords: environment; human security; international law; international relations; security; sovereignty

Clear, informative (if a little unimaginative)title I didn’t ask for an abstract but check if one is needed

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• 1. Introduction

Efforts to prevent the worst impacts of climate change on the Earth’s ecosystem have been central to the International Environmental Law (IEL) endeavour for decades. While progress has been made in the IEL arena on many global environmental problems – from winding back

• zone depletion to preventing oil spills – climate change has remained

the wicked environmental dilemma of our times. Twenty years after the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) opened for signature, quantifiable progress towards mitigating climate change is difficult to discern. This track record begs us to ask the question – are the relevant instruments and principles of IEL capable of addressing this issue? Or put another way, is the environmental lens the only way to view the problem of climate change and its solutions? This paper does not attempt to answer this question in full, but rather I attempt to provide

• ne piece of the puzzle. That is, a consideration of whether the UN

Security Council could play a meaningful role in addressing climate change, and how applying a security lens might help to address this environmental challenge.

introduction is very important interesting, engaging phrase 1st para sets the background & context 2nd para introduces the

• verall focus of

the paper, in form

• f a question.

Gives the reader a reason to keep going scope of the paper is confined

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First I explore the limitations and challenges of the international climate change regime. In particular I focus on challenges of enforcement and lack of political momentum behind an ambi- tious agenda for cutting global emissions following the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period. Calls for a greater role for the UN Security Council in addressing climate change are largely a result of these failings, coupled with a growing sense of urgency that the window for preventing dangerous climate change is rapidly closing. For the Security Council to tackle climate change, it needs to be understood not just as an environmental issue, but also as a threat to international peace and security. As such, in

• rder to determine the applicability of a role for the Security

Council I consider the various interpretations of climate change as a security issue and reflect on the Security Council’s practice with regard to other ‘non-traditional’ security threats such as HIV/ AIDS.

3rd para begins the ‘roadmap’ of the paper. Note that not only are the issues introduced (in the

• rder addressed)

but also the key conclusions are summarised.

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Concluding that it would be reasonable for the Security Council to interpret climate change as a threat to international peace and security, I then turn to consider the feasibility of such a prop-

• sition. To do this I examine the perspectives of the wider UN

membership – as apparent from the 2007 and 2011 Security Council debates on climate change – to ascertain areas of potential legal and political momentum that could help address some of the aforementioned limitations to the current climate change regime. I then outline two potential areas emerging from this analysis that warrant further exploration. The first is the role of the Security Council in the monitoring and early warning of climate change threats. In addition to supporting adaptation efforts, such a role could provide an ‘urgency factor’ necessary to push wider multilateral action forward. The second area is the role the Security Council could play in resolving disputes peacefully between blocks of states with regard to their mitigation efforts. Such a role would not require the Council to use its full range of enforcement powers, and as such it would be more politically tenable than proposals relating to potential sanctions and use of force. I conclude by suggesting that while the Security Council is no silver bullet, these proposals are worth further exploration.

By the end of the introduction, you have a good idea

• f how the paper

is structured, and what the key findings are. Hopefully you are still interested enough to continue reading to find

• ut the details.

But at least you know where the paper is heading. Note that this author has not used any footnotes in her introduction. Some people do, some don’t. I think it’s OK as long as the body of the paper contains sufficient references.

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Note the format of the citation - gives the UN Treaty Series ref and importantly when it was

• pened for signature & when

it came into force. Then defined as UNFCCC, so don’t need to keep repeating those details. There are different ways of handling ‘ibids’, but whatever approach you take, include the specific provision reference. Cousins has structured her paper with main (numbered) section headings and italicised sub-

• headings. I think this works well.

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Challenges enforcing the existing regime

Enforcement is generally understood as the Achilles heel of the international legal system,22 and the challenges facing the UNFCCC/Kyoto regime in maintaining compliance are not unique in this respect. The only compliance and enforcement-type measures in the UNFCCC are a commit- ment to establishing a ‘multilateral consultative process’ to support governments to resolve difficulties in implementing their commitments,23 and a dispute resolution process consisting of arbitration and conciliation measures.24 The lack of specificity in the Convention’s binding com- mitments and the lack of penalties for non-compliance have meant these measures have had little practical effect.25

22 Jacob Werksman, ‘Introduction’, in Greening International Institutions, ed. Jacob Werksman (London: Earthscan, 1996), xvi. 23 UNFCCC, art. 13. 24 Ibid., art. 14. 25 Jon Hovi, Camilla Bretteville Froyn and Guri Bang, ‘Introduction and Main Findings’, in Implementing the Climate Regime: International Compliance, ed. Olav Schram Stokke, Jon Hovi and Geir Ulfstein (London: Earthscan, 2005), 1.

italicised sub-heading: assists with navigating way through document Where you are citing from a book with chapters by different authors, make sure you cite the relevant author’s name, as well as the

• verall book

editor.

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• 7. Conclusion

As we have seen, the current limitations of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol regime is resulting in growing calls for other multilateral bodies and processes to contribute to tackling this problem. As the security implications

• f climate change become a topic of increasing scrutiny and interest, the

Security Council has become involved in the climate change debate. I have argued here that it is within the powers of the Security Council to address the security implications of climate change, and indeed that the Council’s enforcement powers give it great potential to address some of the com- pliance limitations of the Kyoto Protocol and even push for more ambitious global cuts to GHGs.
 … While options do exist for the Security Council to play a meaningful role in addressing climate change, the UNFCCC/Kyoto Protocol process remains the main game within the UN system for addressing this issue. This is rightly

• so. Climate change is a global problem requiring a global solution, and the

Security Council’s outmoded World War II composition is not particularly con- ducive to building a broad global consensus. Nevertheless, the longer the UNFCCC/Kyoto regime fails to deliver on the goal of avoiding dangerous climate change, the greater the impetus for the Security Council (and an array of other bodies and regimes) to take action.

Brief recap

• f the main

argument Good to finish with some firm

• pinions, as
• pposed to a

wishy-washy ‘we’ll see what happens’.