Sébastien Jodoin

J’ai assisté à la 3ième conférence du Earth System Governance Project, qui s’est déroulée à l’Université des Nations Unies à Tokyo du 28 au 31 janvier 2013. J’ai partagé mes impressions et commentaires dans une série de dépêches sur la gouvernance et la politique publique de l’environnement sur le blogue de Génération d’idées. J’ai notamment discuté de l’importance stratégique de bâtir des coalitions d’acteurs ayant des raisons différentes de s’intéresser aux questions environnementales, de la nécessité d’adopter une approche holistique pour comprendre et gérer les interactions complexes entre les systèmes écologiques, sociaux et économiques, du rôle de l’apprentissage dans l’élaboration des politiques publiques et des grandes lignes de la gouvernance collaborative en environnement.

I have just published a new article with Yolanda Saito on the concept of crimes against future generations in the McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law & Policy. An electronic version of the article is attached here. The full abstract is reproduced below.

The existing approach of states to the global objective of sustainable development evinces a clear failure to address acts and conduct that are unsustainable in fundamental ways. Populations around the world are experiencing the contamination of their freshwater sources and critical ecosystems, the embezzlement of state resources, the forced labour of children and women, and the dis- criminatory denial of access to food, shelter, medical care, education, and cultural freedoms without adequate legal recourse. This article argues that serious violations of the International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and severe environmental damage can strike at the very foundations of the economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainable development. It out-lines the legal foundations and possible legal pathways of a new crime under international law aimed at acts and conduct that have severe consequences on the long-term health, safety and means of survival of any identifiable group or collectivity of humans. Crimes against future generations recognizes the power of individual criminal liability to fill the current governance gap that provides the permissive environment for transnational corporations and states to deny populations the basic living and environmental conditions to take first steps towards their own sustainable development.