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International Management of Hazardous Wastes: The Basel Convention and Related Legal Rules. By Katharina Kummer. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. Pp. lxi, 432. Bibliography and Index. $110.
This fine book has emerged rather quickly as the principal academic reference source for those concerned with the minutiae of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, which was adopted in 1989 under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme. The Convention seeks to establish a system of regulated trade in hazardous and other wastes, providing for trade subject to prior informed consent between parties and a prohibition on trade with nonparties. It has attracted broad support, with 110 states and the European Community (EC) now party. The United States has not yet joined, notwithstanding its preparatory implementing legislation (p. 262).
Dr. Kummer provides a detailed description of the Convention in its legal context, although she supplies rather less content on the underlying policy issues. The book is arranged over seven chapters, with nine appendices, covering the Convention and the principal related international instruments. The introductory chapter discusses why transboundary movements of hazardous wastes need to be regulated. It also examines the prior and general rules of international law that are applicable to hazardous waste management; these are limited, to say the least. Chapter 2 analyzes and assesses the Basel Convention-its history, structure and characteristics. The following three chapters consider the Convention's relationship to other international agreements and instruments: the 1991 Bamako Convention, the 1989 Lome Convention, North American bilateral agreements, and other treaties (chapter 3); the...