Between Crisis and Complacency: Seeking Commitment in International Environmental Law

Crisis has played a significant role in international environmental law since its inception. To some extent the field as a whole might be characterized as a ‘discipline of crisis’, since it functions as a counterbalance to unbridled pollution and resource depletion. On the other hand, there have been ongoing attempts to move away from a reactive focus on crisis and to conceptualize international environmental law as part of a broader societal shift toward sustainability. The dilemma that faces the discipline is that in the absence of a sense of crisis, we are unsure of how to generate the commitment that will be required to undertake fundamental changes to the status quo.