Cooperative Sovereignty: From Independence to Interdependence in the Structure of International Environmental Law.

• Author: Ellis, Jaye
• Position: Book Review

Franz Xaver Perrez, Cooperative Sovereignty: From Independence to Interdependence in the Structure of International Environmental Law. The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2000. Pp. 395.

Cooperative Sovereignty is an ambitious work that seeks to articulate a conception of sovereignty suitable for an increasingly interdependent international society. The author uses the issue-area of global environmental protection to illustrate the shortcomings of conceptions of sovereignty based on independence and autonomy, and presents an argument that a superior conception of sovereignty, one based on cooperation, has emerged. His argument takes a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, he seeks to demonstrate that sovereignty as independence is a flawed concept. In making this argument, Perrez refers in particular to international relations literature on the concept of interdependence and on the decreased capacity of states to pursue domestic policy goals without reference to the broader international society. On the other hand, he argues that international law is increasingly receptive to cooperative sovereignty and is therefore in the process of adapting to conditions of interdependence.

Cooperative Sovereignty is organized into three main sections. The first section addresses traditional approaches to state sovereignty and permanent sovereignty over natural resources. The author provides a thorough and well-documented historical account of sovereignty in international law, noting the continued influence of Bodin's conception of state sovereignty as absolute, defining a condition of total independence. He also notes the attenuating effect of what he describes as a neighbourly approach, through which an absolutist conception of sovereignty is tempered by the twin obligations to respect the sovereignty of other states and to respect rules of international law. The author then presents a similar historical account of the concept of permanent sovereignty over natural resources, concluding that this concept, as well, is tempered by duties to respect international law, the sovereignty of other states, and the rights and interests of domestic populations.

In the second section, dealing with challenges to traditional approaches, Perrez delves into the international relations literature on interdependence and seeks to demonstrate that, from the point of view of state interests, cooperation is the optimal approach to issues of environmental protection and...