Critical Approaches

Abstract

This article explores some of the critical approaches relevant to international environmental law, and considers how they have been deployed to analyse and critique the underlying assumptions of international environmental law and policy. It looks at feminist approaches, post-colonial approaches, critiques of development, the antiglobalisation/ global justice movement, and the environmental justice movement. The article provides a brief overview of the relevant scholarly literature and describes the ways in which activism has built on (or developed) these insights. In particular, it discusses feminist theory, feminist engagement with development and environment, feminist engagement with international law, post-colonial theory and international law, approaches from civil society, the concept of ecological debt, development and post-development, a post-development perspective on sustainable development, and globalisation and anti-globalisation.