This volume is part of the constant and demanding work of ICEF (International Court of the Environment Foundation) for the establishment of a Global Environmental Governance.

ICEF has for more than twenty years promoted steps for a better international holistic and balanced Governance of the environment at both the political-administrative and jurisdictional levels.

By “governance”, ICEF means institutions and mechanisms for protecting the environment and resolving disputes, to achieve a new and more integrated vision between environmental protection, the growth of the real economy and social development, with the large-scale participation of civil society.

In response to today’s pressing global environmental threats such as global warming and climate change, achieving better global governance requires an integrated legal and institutional response as well as a careful design of sustainable environmental policies at the national, regional and international levels.

This volume is divided into 4 parts: Part I presents the need for global environmental governance, Part II refers to a new approach to the environmental question founded on the relationship between human rights and the environment; Part III is dedicated to environmental governance at national, European and international levels; and Part IV contains some suggestions about Projects on the executive role in relation to the environment and on the international regulation of the environment, and it highlights the last proposal of Pope Benedict XVI for a World Political Authority for governing the economy and protecting the environment at the global level.

Amedeo Postiglione

He is Founder and Director of ICEF – International Court of the Environment Foundation since 1992. He is Honorary Deputy President of the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation and Vice- President of the EU Forum of Judges for the Environment. IUCN member, he has been Director of the Legal Office of the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Professor of environmental law at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.

He has written several publications on environmental subjects. Among the most recent ones are: The role of the Judiciary in the implementation and enforcement of the environmental Law (Bruylant, Bruxelles 2008); The protection and sustainable development of the Mediterranean-Black sea ecosystem (Bruylant, Bruxelles, 2007); Prevention and remedying of environmental damage (Bruylant, Bruxelles, 2005).