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9 Rev. Eur. Comp. & Int'l Envtl. L. iii (2000)

handle is hein.journals/reel9 and id is 1 raw text is: RECIEL 9 (1) 2000. ISSN 0962 8797 Editorial This year's first RECIEL starts with a new look. Apart from a new cover page and a changed layout, the reader will also notice that RECIEL now uses footnotes rather than endnotes. Although the structure of the contents of this RECIEL has remained the same, a number of further changes will be introduced over the next few issues. From issue 9:3, RECIEL will introduce more comprehensive coverage of the environmental case law of the European Court of Justice, which will be the responsibility of two new case law editors. In the near future RECIEL will also become a peer-reviewed jour- nal. In the meantime I would like to encourage once again the 'spontaneous' submission of articles in order to expand the non-thematic section of each RECIEL. The theme of this issue of RECIEL is 'Armed Conflict, Security and the Environment'. Armed conflict, security and environmental problems are closely linked. The contributions to this issue of RECIEL discuss this link from two angles. The first, and most obvious, connection is that armed conflicts often have a significant impact on the environ- ment. The recently released final report of the joint UNEP/UNCHS (Habitat) Task Force on the Balkans (BTF) showed that even the 'high-tech' Kosovo conflict caused significant pollution at specific industrial sites targeted by the NATO air strikes. The report also sig- naled the potential impact of the use of depleted uran- ium ammunition during the NATO air strikes. Not only acts of violence cause pressure on natural resources. The stream of refugees caused by the conflict put sig- nificant pressure on the drinking water resources in the overcrowded refugee camps. The second, less obvious, connection is that increasing pressure on natural resources or environmental degra- dation may actually cause insecurity, potentially lead- ing to armed conflicts. This approach, involving a reconsideration of the 'security' concept, has become increasingly prominent in the aftermath of the Cold War. It has recently been the focus of a number of research projects, some of which are discussed in the contribution by Edward Page in this volume. In the most narrow interpretation of 'security', conflicts over natural resources such as fresh water have in the past been an important cause of armed conflicts between states and will continue to be so. In a wider interpret- ation of 'security', environmental problems such as the effects of climate change and ozone depletion are increasingly threatening the lives and means of exist- ence of communities and individuals. The first three contributions in the thematic section of this RECIEL focus on the impact of armed conflicts on the environment. In his contribution on 'The Protection of Cultural Property During Wartime', Mark Driver examines the international legal regime for the protec- tion of cultural heritage during wartime. He discusses a number of international conventions and finds that these generally focus on cultural property in a narrow sense, excluding the natural and indigenous cultural heritage, and do not apply during civil conflicts. He also examines a number of recent armed conflicts and the impact of those conflicts on cultural property, and dis- cusses recent initiatives to improve awareness of the need to protect cultural property in the Iranian and Australian armed forces. In his conclusions he stresses the lack of monitoring and enforcement of existing rules and calls for a wider and more pro-active approach to the protection of cultural property. Jean-Marie Henckaerts, in his contribution entitled 'Towards Better Protection for the Environment in Armed Conflict: Recent Developments in International Humanitarian Law', examines the usefulness of inter- national humanitarian law for the protection of the environment during armed conflicts. His contribution focuses on the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He briefly discusses the ICRC 'Guidelines for Military Manuals and Instructions on the Protection of the Environment in Times of Armed Conflict', which are included in the documents section of this RECIEL. He also examines whether the destruc- tion of the natural environment could fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. His contribution briefly addresses the preliminary con- clusions of the ICRC study on customary rules of inter- national humanitarian law, and the impact of inter- national environmental treaty law on the protection of the environment during armed conflicts. In her contribution 'A New Shield for the Environment: Peacetime Treaties as Legal Restraints on Wartime Damage', Silja Vbneky examines to what extent peace- time environmental treaties also bind belligerent states. She finds that there is no clear customary rule on the application of peacetime environmental law during environmental conflict. She then goes on to examine the effects of war on the validity of treaties and con- cludes that there are four categories of treaties that continue to apply in times of war. Her article focuses on an analysis of the last of these categories, which con- tains treaties that oblige states to protect the environ- ment in the interest of the state community as a whole. © Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2000, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Ill

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