Editors' Note

• Author: Braunson Virjee - Chelsea Tu
• Pages: 2-2

public participation, and international cooperation to achieve

national capacity building.5

Most notable for SDLP, however, was the Earth Summit’s

international acknowledgement and integration of the principle

of sustainable development.6 As the fundamental focus of this

publication, sustainable development guides our every article.

In this issue, we seek to examine both the Earth Summit’s

past successes and current opportunities for further progress

at the upcoming Rio +20 conference. The articles herein look

forward and back to identify ways in which this upcoming con-

ference can serve its twin aims of fostering a green economy

in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradica-

tion and building the institutional framework for sustainable

development.7

As nations prepare to re-convene this coming June 2012

at the Rio +20 conference, debate, discussion, and collabora-

tion among the international environmental community will

only increase. This issue of SDLP contributes to this dialogue

with the sincere hope that it will aid in the further progress of

sustainable development law and policy at the anticipated Rio

+20 conference.

2Sustainable Development Law & Policy

We are very excited to present this Spring Issue

of Sustainable Development Law & Policy

(SDLP) focusing on the Rio+20 United Nations

Conference on Sustainable Development taking place in Rio

de Janeiro, Brazil this June 13-22, 2012.1 For many veter-

ans of the f‌ield, it may seem hard to believe that twenty years

has passed since the 1992 Earth Summit.2 As burgeoning

environmental lawyers and policy-makers at SDLP, however,

it is similarly strange for us to think of a world without that

momentous conference. After all, much of the progress and

frameworks of modern environmental law rest on the shoulders

of the Earth Summit.

The 1992 conference saw the Convention on Biological

Diversity open for signature, marking an international struc-

ture to protect the planet’s ecosystems, species, and genetic

resources.3 It also saw the inception of the U.N. Framework

Convention on Climate Change and the consequential f‌irst

steps toward the modern international climate regime.4

Moreover, the Rio Declaration and its principles memorialized

international acknowledgement of what have now become core

tenants of environmental law, including the precautionary prin-

ciple, the environmental impact assessment, the importance of

EDITORS’ NOTE

FEATURES:

21 | COMPULSORY LICENSING IN TRIPS: CHINESE

AND INDIAN COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE IN

THE MANUFACTURE AND EXPORTATION OF

GREEN TECHNOLOGIES

by Rishi R. Gupta

Braunson Virjee Chelsea Tu

1 Rio+20 — United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development,

United Nations, http://www.uncsd2012.org.

2 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992),

United Nations, http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/enviro.html.

3 Convention on Biological Diversity, June 5, 1992, 31 I.L.M. 818,

http://www.cbd.int/doc/legal/cbd-en.pdf.

4 See United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,

May 9, 1992, 1771 U.N.T.S. 107, http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/

conveng.pdf. See also GRACIELA CHICHILNISKY & KRISTEN A. SHEERAN, SAVING

KYOTO 56-57 (Kate Parker ed., 2009); DAVID HUNTER ET AL., INTERNATIONAL

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY 667-74 (Robert C. Clark et al. eds., 2007).

5 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, June 13–14, 1992,

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.151/26,

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=

78&ArticleID=1163.

6 Id.

7 Objective & Themes, Rio+20 — United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development, United Nations, http://www.uncsd2012.org/objectiveandthemes.html.