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For several historical and political reasons, the decision-making processes and institutional structures of environmental governance has been greatly impacted by the North-South dimension, which creates enormous challenges for Southern states when they try to present their concerns to global forums. These challenges have many dimensions, such as political, economic, social, and legal. This thesis recognises the “poverty of influence” that has become endemic as a result of the lack of resources, expertise, research facilities, technology and other practical deficiencies that exist in the negotiating procedures and which have hampered the South’s participation in global environmental governance. Such participatory inequalities between North and South have seriously hampered the application of equity, fairness and justice – principles that are considered to be vital ingredients in any balanced governing system. This thesis proposes the utilisation of the diverse capacity of transnational NGO networks to enable the Southern voice to be effectively heard in global decision-making processes, and it questions the traditional legal structures that currently allow for NGO involvement by determining the need for wider opportunities to be considered, thereby enabling them to express their concerns. The thesis includes a Case Study that examines from a North-South perspective the different capacities of NGOs to influence global forests negotiations. Consequently, it is hoped that the thesis will contribute towards a greater understanding of the benefits that might accrue from the utilisation of transnational networks to voice hitherto unheard global forest issues. This thesis, which is timely, in that 2011 was the International Year of Forests, argues that transnational NGO networks could help mitigate the inequalities suffered by the South caused by the historic North-South divide. However, it also stresses the importance attached to transnational NGO networks incorporating measurable values of legitimacy and accountability when they represent the South at global governance forums.

In the area of international environmental law this thesis proposes the formulation of one-step planning and permitting regulation for the integrated utilisation of new surface mines as depositories for municipal solid waste. Additionally, the utilisation of abandoned and currently operated surface mines is proposed as solid waste landfills as an integral step in their reclamation. Existing laws, litigation and issues in the United Kingdom, the U.S. and Canada are discussed because of their common legal system, language and heritage. The critical shortage of approved space for disposal of solid waste has caused an urgent and growing problem for both the waste disposal industry and society. Surface mining can serve three important environmental and societal functions inuring to the health and welfare of the public: (1) providing basic minerals for goods and construction; (20 sequentially, to provide critically needed, safe burial sites for society's wastes, and (3) to conserve land by dual purpose use and to restore derelict land to beneficial surface use. Currently, the first two functions are treated environmentally, and in regulation, as two different siting problems, yet they both are earth-disturbing and excavating industries requiring surface restoration. The processes are largely duplicative and should be combined for better efficiency, less earth disturbance, conservation of land, and for fuller and better reclamation of completed surface mines returning the surfaces to greater utility than present mined land reclamation procedures. While both industries are viewed by a developed society and its communities as "bad neighbours", they remain essential and critical for mankind's existence and welfare. The study offers successful examples of the integrated process in each country. The study argues that most non-fuel surface mine openings, if not already safe, can economically, through present containment technology, be made environmentally safe for use as solid waste landfills. Simultaneously, the procedure safeguards and monitors protection of ground and surface waters from landfill contamination.

Following a series of conflicts between conservationists and local stakeholders around protected areas during the 1980s, conservation policies have widened to incorporate a greater reliance on communication and education, partnership approaches and the use of sustainability terminology. The debates surrounding conservation have begun to extend beyond a previously narrow, scientific focus to encompass issues such as competing environmental values, land tenure, public access and local participation. In order to examine how changes in conservation ideology have affected operational practice, this study involves an exploration of current procedures and sources of conflict, with a focus on the use of protected areas to conserve peatlands. This is undertaken through a qualitative analysis of attitudes towards conservation procedures, environmental values, restoration and sustainability projects around case-study sites in northern and north-eastern Scotland, based on interviews with local stakeholders and conservation representatives. The findings suggest that changes in procedure have contributed to a more positive relationship between conservation agencies and local stakeholders. However, significant sources of conflict still remain between stakeholders and conservationists, including differences in the values placed on peatland environments, different interpretations of stewardship and management, and stakeholder resentment over the use of institutional power to control land management. In addition, despite a growth in sustainable development initiatives, conservation is often still seen as a land-use which prevents economic development. Similarly conservationists, despite being seen as sympathetic on an individual level, are believed to attribute a low priority to economic concerns. Overall, while changes in conservation procedure are acknowledged by stakeholders, the process is a gradual one, and many issues relating to past conflict remain. The role of environmental restoration and sustainability, two 'ways forward' for conservation, are evaluated in this context.

Changes in moral benefits and socio-economic conditions point to the extension of standing to permit the judicial representation of the public interest in the environment. The suggestion that the enforcement of environmental law benefits from wide public participation in judicial proceedings sets the framework of research into standing for concerned citizens and environmental associations. English law gives an example of how private law procedures cannot incorporate the public interest in the environment. In public law, however, well-acclaimed environmental associations have standing to litigate environmental issues. United States law shifts from the 'environmentalism' of Congress legislation that gives any citizen standing to sue to the restrictive 'constitutionalism' of the Supreme Court, expressed mainly by the separation of powers doctrine. Under the judicial protection afforded by German law to individual rights, environmental associations are only exceptionally permitted as plantiffs, in ten out of sixteen Lander. In Greek law, the circle of potential plantiffs is wide due to the interpretation of the Constitution by the Courts to derive a right to the environment and accept environmental protection as a public interest. The European Court of Justice, because of the relevant Treaty of Rome provisions and the mainly economic nature of the European Community, defines standing by the individuality criterion, thus limiting it considerably. The common minimum features of these five legal systems result to observations as to the definition of standing, the variables of standing extent, the objections for its expansion and the role of judicial activism in the formulation of standing requirements.

Contaminated land can pose risks to human health, buildings and the environment. In principle, the regulatory mechanisms already exist in the UK to minimize the risks that can arise from the redevelopment and use of contaminated sites. However there is known to be wide variation in way the redevelopment of contaminated land has been controlled by various regulatory authorities. This thesis examines the control system for the redevelopment of contaminated land in the UK and assessesh ow and why variation in regulatory standards occurred. The empirical investigation is based on a comparative case study methodology. Four regulatory regimes, representing contrasting standards of regulation have served as case studies. The focus of the study is the redevelopment of former gasworks sites as it is common for such sites to be contaminated with harmful substances such as coal tar, phenols, spent oxide, cyanide, sulphur and asbestos. The recommended procedures and activities presented in official policy and guidance notes provide a benchmark for the assessment of regulatory practice. For an analysis of variation this thesis uses a theoretical framework developed from a critical review of the main approaches within the policy implementation literature and insights from organizational studies. The regulatory regime is complex and effective regulation requires input, and action, by various technical experts. For this reason the research, empirically and theoretically, focuses primarily on the linkage, and/or relationship between expert knowledge, communication and action for explanations of variation. The thesis argues that the level of commitment by individual regulatory experts and officers to the policy aims was a critical factor in explaining the variation in the standards of regulation. Moreover, for those redevelopments where contaminated land had been raised as an issue by certain institutional actors then regulatory performance was good

There could hardly be any doubt that the pursuit of development objectives, especially in a developing country such as Nigeria, is a legitimate and in fact necessary path for economic, social and political advancement. Within the decades of the 1970s and 1980s however, increased concern about the adverse environmental and socio-economic effects of certain specific development activities have necessitated a search for appropriate development paradigms that would enable the attainment of development objectives with as little environmental and socio-economic adversity as possible. A concept that has so far become very popular in this quest for a development paradigm is that of "sustainable development" which, in simple terms, could be described as a paradigm which seeks to integrate the objective of protection of the environment with the traditional objectives of development. Furthermore, law is being increasingly considered an important tool in the provision of the framework for the pursuit of development and environmental management as whole; and recent international events, such as the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development for example, have placed a big emphasis on the possible contribution which could be made by law in the move towards the attainment of sustainable development. The development of water resources has for a long time occupied a priority position in the development programmes of Nigerian Government and various water resources projects have in the past resulted in serious environmental, social and economic problems. This thesis examines how the principles of sustainable development could actually be translated into specific legislative provisions with special emphasis on the development and management of water resources in Nigeria.

This thesis examines the contention that effective regulation has as much to do with the capacity for co-operation between inter-dependent actors as it has to do with the state's capacity for control. This contention, and the alternative conception of regulation that it implies, is significant because it is associated with a tension that runs through many areas of public policy: does cooperation between the public and the private, or between the regulators and the regulated, lead to effective collective action or to regulatory capture? Following a conceptual examination of the nature of regulation and implementation, the thesis considers the explanatory value of two different perspectives on cooperation and collective action: the rational choice perspective, which suggests that the behaviour of economically responsive actors is shaped by the incentives for cooperation that stem from their interdependence, and the institutional perspective, which contends that as particular forms of behaviour emerge, evolve and become institutionalised, so the implementation process becomes embedded in particular institutional structures that enable the continuation of existing approaches whilst restricting the potential for change. In seeking to examine the explanatory value of these perspectives, the thesis considers the factors shaping the implementation of two frameworks of environmental regulation, namely the frameworks of Integrated Pollution Control and Local Air Pollution Control as applied in England and Wales. Based on a comparative analysis of the factors that shape the nature and influence of each implementation process, the thesis concludes that the explanatory value of the rational choice perspective is fundamentally limited and that the value of the institutional perspective is much more complete. On this basis, the thesis proposes an institutional perspective on regulation and implementation that recognises the significance of resource inter-dependencies and the ways in which cooperative approaches can increase the prospects for collective action whilst reducing the accountability and the manageability of the implementation process. As is discussed, this conclusion has significant implications for broader debates on regulation and governance.