No description available.

No description available.

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.

The cornerstone of modern International Environmental Law is the prohibition of transfrontier pollution, according to which States have the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States, or of areas beyond national jurisdiction. In addition, there is now a substantial body of international treaties laying down detailed regimes for various environmental sectors. Recent international conflicts have raised fundamental questions about the relationship between International Environmental Law and armed conflict. The notion that the rules of general International Environmental Law continue to apply during armed conflict is now well accepted. But the principles which are usually cited, remain at a very high level of abstraction. This thesis examines the extent to which international law has developed more detailed rules to protect the environment in international armed conflict. After a discussion of the main legal issues, the thesis concentrates on the marine environment, examining the relationship between naval warfare on the one hand, and multilateral environmental treaties on marine safety and prevention of marine pollution on the other. It concludes that the majority of these treaties do not apply during armed conflict, either because war damage is expressly excluded, or because the treaties do not apply to warships. As for the treaties that are in principle applicable during armed conflict, the analysis shows that, under international law, belligerent and neutral States have the legal right to suspend those treaties, wholly or partially. Finally, the author concludes that very few of the treaties considered take the new law of armed conflict into account, and that there remains a need for more detailed rules on environmental standards for military operations.

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High-Level Waste (HLW), contains radioactive isotopes with half-lives upwards of millions of years. The long-term storage of HLW can be accomplished through vitrification of the mixture in a borosilicate melt, producing a chemically inert solid. Unfortunately, molybdates can precipitate from the glass melt as water- soluble oxides containing radionuclei. Part of this study is dedicated to the characterization and interpretation of the NMR parameters for a series of crystalline molybdate phases at ambient temperatures. 23Na, 95Mo and 133Cs MAS NMR data were correlated to the local structure and geometry, showing several key trends. From the ambient temperature studies, select crystalline phases were chosen for high-temperature experiments up to 700◦C. These experiments were used to characterize the behaviour of these phases at temperatures relevant to both the formation of solid waste forms and their long-term storage. With these spectral “fingerprints”, it is possible to monitor the phase separation behaviour at temperatures relevant to vitrification and long-term geological storage. For example, the conversion of CsNaMoO4·2H2O into Cs3Na(MoO4)2 and Na2MoO4 can be followed in situ through MAS NMR. Finally, a series of model nuclear waste glasses with varying amounts of Cs and Mo were studied, allowing direct observation of the crystallization process.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine the extent to which it is possible to develop an environmental role for the law of tort. To date, the role of tort has been limited in this context by procedural and substantive difficulties in establishing liability (known as transaction costs). Furthermore, whereas environmental protection is a public interest objective, the law of tort is primarily a means of resolving private disputes. The common law has traditionally regarded private rights as being divisible from public interest issues such as environmental protection. The current debate has been prompted by a number of European Union and Council of Europe initiatives on the subject which consider developing tort in this manner by the introduction of a specialist environmental liability regime. However, much of the current debate lacks an appreciation of a fundamental issue, namely purpose of tort in contemporary Western society. This research seeks to make a valuable contribution by assessing the extent to which it is possible to ground an environmental application of tort in a sound conceptual basis. The thesis commences with an overview of the main torts which are relevant in an environmental context and the difficulties which have been experienced by plaintiffs in establishing liability. Given that the main limitation of tort is that it focuses on private interests; it is considered whether it is possible to develop a public interest model of tort which admits wider issues such as the desirability of environmental protection. This involves consideration of a range of issues, including the `philosophy' underpinning tort, the economics of tort, property law and insurability of environmental liability. It is concluded that it is possible, both in conceptual and practical terms, to develop a public interest model of tort and that, furthermore, there are potential benefits with such an approach. The principal advantage of tort is that it allows private individuals to participate in the policing of the environment. An analysis of EC policy on this subject demonstrates that this may provide the rationale for EC intervention in this field. In the light of these theoretical and policy objectives, the EC proposals, alluded to above, are discussed in depth. These initiatives are compared with solutions adopted by individual Member States which have already implemented their own environmental liability regimes. Conclusions are drawn regarding the extent to which such developments may succeed in increasing the efficacy of tort as a means of environmental protection and the wider implications of such an approach. It is concluded that a specialist environmental liability regime may be instrumental in developing a concept of `stewardship', in which proprietary interests in natural resources entail both rights and responsibilities.

The thesis is an attempt to apply the rule of law to pollution control, the aim being to discover whether one form of environmental regulation can be regarded as more constitutionally legitimate than another. The thesis begins with a detailed discussion of the rule of law. In the first chapter, I suggest that the rule of law cannot simply be 'intuitively realised', but rather that the values associated with it must be accounted for through theoretical analysis. Immanent critique is rejected as a theoretical technique in favour of Dworkin's 'constructive interpretation'. The latter approach yields the rule of law values of equity, accountability, efficiency, certainty and effectiveness. Future chapters involve the application of these values to specific modes of pollution control. In chapter two, the 'command-and-control' regulatory systems operated by HMIP, the NRA, local authorities (air pollution control and waste regulation) and water and sewerage companies are analysed in terms of rule of law values - except for accountability which is discussed separately and in much greater depth in chapters 3 to 6. In these four chapters, I begin by examining general accountability mechanisms before exploring accountability for specific decisions such as the setting of ambient standards, the setting of emission/process standards and finally, monitoring and enforcement. Having discussed command-and-control approaches to pollution control, chapter 7 proceeds to examine market mechanisms of environmental regulation in terms of the rule of law values. The values are first applied to pollution taxes and tradeable permits at an abstract level; they are then applied to the existing cost-recovery charging schemes operated by the various regulatory bodies. Finally, in chapter eight I attempt to apply the rule of law values to 'market approaches' to pollution control such as environmental management and audit, green consumerism and investment, government industry contracts and civil liability. The conclusion of the thesis then assesses the success or otherwise of the practical application of the rule of law that has been attempted in previous chapters. It considers whether one can use the rule of law as a benchmark of legitimacy to conclude that one form of pollution control is more constitutionally legitimate than another.