International Law and Global Environmental Change

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International accords to advance the protection of the global environment are newly prominent in international relations. Little is known about their effectiveness, however, in part because standard assumptions about implementation and compliance are not easily applicable when the national interest of the parties is not directly at stake. This study will gather basic data about how and why ten countries entered into five environmental accords, what they have done to implement them, and whether they are complying with the international obligations created by these accords. These findings will be related to a set of legal, social, political and economic factors that are likely to affect implementation and compliance. The five accords to be considered address not only the familiar topics of conservation of natural resources and pollution but also the larger emerging topics of global environmental changes, such as ozone depletion and possible climate change. Analysis of these data will provide the empirical basis for an important theoretical contribution to our understanding of the effectiveness of international agreements in the new circumstances of the contemporary world. The project will include field work and data collection in all ten countries. Interviews will be conducted with key participants in the process. The project aims to create a data base to be used by other scholars as well as the knowledge necessary to provide guidance for policy communities in the global environmental field. It is anticipated that this project will be the basis for developing a field of study that is comparable in rigor and knowledge to the study of arms control.