Welcome to the first edition of MEPIELAN E-Bulletin in 2012.

We are gratified to see that the previous editions of 2010 and 2011 of the Bulletin have been so well received by many readers. According to the latest figures, there have been over 7.200 visits to the Bulletin’s website from 139 countries worldwide. My gratitude and thanks go to all those who have been instrumental in the continuing success of this Bulletin.

I am pleased to report that there is a flourishing progress of the Bulletin at all levels. Its vision to be a dynamic forum for inter-disciplinary knowledge and discussion and an advocate, through insightful articles of current importance, of promoting and developing international common interest and its multifarious governance, is zestfully met with the increasing engagement of distinguished academic experts and scholars as well as promising young researchers. This edition features several new articles shedding light on hotly debated issues of international law and policy, environment and development. While continuing the unending flow of thematic news, this edition also presents a new international case of interest and it serves as a showcase for new books which are knowledge-advancing and theoretically-informed.

A Guest Article written by Tullio Scovazzi, Professor of International Law, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy, offers an authoritative and timely overview of  the nature and extent of Maritime Zones in the Mediterranean, illustrating the contextual peculiarities reflected in the patchwork of the present legal regimes of sui generis zones (fisheries zones, ecological zones) and of the established, or officially declared, exclusive economic zones. As he underlines, this situation is directly related to the more general present picture of the Mediterranean Sea: a semi-enclosed “sea in transition towards a generalized exclusive economic zone regime” where, however, “some high seas areas still exist”.

Welcome to the new edition of MEPIELAN E-Bulletin.

We are gratified that the previous editions have been so well received by many readers. Nearly a year after the MEPIELAN E-Bulletin’s launch, there have been over 5.500 visits to the Bulletin’s website from 133 countries worldwide. Once more, I wish to express my gratitude and thanks to all those who have been instrumental in the success of this Bulletin.

Each time we are striving to offer contributions from a variety of perspectives and approaches. Commited to serve the vision of this Bulletin, we provide a dynamic forum for inter-disciplinary knowledge and discussion, engaging international scholars, enlightened policy makers and promising young researchers in addressing critical environmental issues from the standpoint of promoting and developing international common interest. This edition is featured by several new articles, along with the steady stream of thematic news and the presentation of selected new, knowledge-advancing books. A Guest Article written by Peter M. Haas, Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, offers an insightful and critical  view of the effort of the next global environmental conference “Rio Plus 20” to accelerate the shift to a “green economy” and institutional reform arrangements, “a seriously disjoined agenda” as he calls it, underlining their deficiencies in view of the indispensable need for building the social capacity for sustainable development and for broadening the discussion for institutional reform extending it beyond the monotonous UN restructuring.

Welcome to the latest edition of MEPIELAN E-Bulletin.

We are gratified that the previous edition has been so well received by many readers. Nearly six months after the MEPIELAN E-Bulletin’s launch, there have been over 3.700 visits to the Bulletin’s website from 118 countries worldwide. Once again, I wish to express my gratitude to all those who provide us with continuous and valuable feedback and comments, an aspect that may emerge as a promising component of this Bulletin.

Each time we are striving to offer contributions from many perspectives, thus offering a dynamic forum for inter-disciplinary knowledge and discussion, and adequately serving the vision of this Bulletin and its critical as well as its theoretical undertaking. This edition is featured by several new articles, along with the steady stream of thematic news and the presentation of selected new, knowledge-advancing books. A Guest Article written by Professor Moira McConnell who perceptively explores the importance and special features of the ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, in advancing an integrated approach to international environmental governance, as it covers the regime gap of the LOSC regime and complements the major IMO conventional maritime regimes, effectively injecting into them the human condition as distinct from human activities. Two new Insight Articles also feature this edition: Dr. Elli Louka, sheds light on the multifaceted aspects of management and disposal of nuclear materials that come out of weapons programs focusing on the regime of the Plutonium Disposition Agreement between the United States and Russia (2000) and its recent, more adapting, 2010 Protocol, addressing the context and the problems of the application of this regime in light of its unique technical characteristics and overtones and its distinct safety and environmental dimensions. Professor Dimitris Chryssochoou usefully theorizes on the new sovereignty discourse, bringing forward the individual-collective quality of sovereignty in a governance perspective thus providing more creative space for the challenging approach to consider global system as “an ordered plurality” – a critical point, in my view, to understand the nature and functioning of international (environmental) order as a process of governance of international common interest. Last, Ms. Theano Maneta  provides an interesting presentation of the Final Report of the U.S. National Commission, appointed by President Obama, on the causes of the Gulf of Mexico disaster and the future of offshore drilling.

Welcome to MEPIELAN E-Bulletin.

It gives me immense pleasure in putting before you the latest edition of MEPIELAN E-Bulletin. We are gratified by the response the Bulletin is being received. Nearly three months after the MEPIELAN E-Bulletin’s launch, there have been over 2.000 visits to the Bulletin’s website from 93 countries worldwide. In this context, I would especially like to thank all those who provide us with continuous and valuable feedback and comments, an aspect that may emerge as a promising component of this Bulletin.

Welcome to MEPIELAN E-Bulletin.

It gives me immense pleasure in putting before you this first edition of MEPIELAN E-Bulletin.

MEPIELAN E-Bulletin is a dynamic electronic newsletter of MEPIELAN Centre, Panteion University of Athens, Greece.  It features guest articles, insights articles, critical forum textual contributions and reflections, specially selected documents and cases as well as news on thematic topics of direct interest of MEPIELAN Centre, presented in a clear, insightful and attractive way whilst shedding light on topical issues of environmental law, governance and policy significance. Content bridges theory and practice perspectives of international law, international environmental law, sustainable development, and international negotiating process, and includes notifications of MEPIELAN cooperation updates and news. The Bulletin is an addition to our communication instruments which include an edited Series, the MEPIELAN Studies in International Environmental Law and Negotiation.