Environmental Law Flashcards
The development of environmental law can be broadly divided into three distinct periods
the pre-colonial, the colonial period and the post-colonial period
The development of environmental law was largely influenced by the discovery of shiploads of toxic waste
Small port town of Koko
Following Koko Toxic waste incident, the government’s reaction was to promulgate
the Harmful Toxic Waste (Special Criminal Provision) Decree No.42 of 1988 and the establishment of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency to implement these laws.
Now an Act under Cap 165,Laws of the Federation if Nigeria 199o. As a result of this, state governments established their own environmental protection agencies.
Colonial laws on environmental law
Public Health Ordinance 1909
Town Improvement Act 1863
Swamp Improvement Act 1877
Leprosy Act 1916
Water Works Ordinance 1915
Forestry Ordinance 1938
Mineral Ordinance 1958
Environment Racism/Toxic colonialism
a phrase Greenpeace coined in 1992 to describe the “dumping of industrial wastes of the West on territories of the Third World.” More broadly, it was a cut-and-dry case of environmental racism, in which a wealthier, more powerful nation preyed on the vulnerabilities of a less-developed region.
African Concord concurred. “That Italy did not contemplate Australia or South Africa or some other place for industrial waste re-echoes what Europe has always thought of Africa: A wasteland. And the people who live there, waste beings.”
Basel Convention
1989, the U.N. designed an international treaty known as the Basel Convention, intended to prevent shipment and disposal of hazardous waste from industrial to developing countries, via a procedure of strict requirements and consents. Italy is a party; America never ratified the agreement.
