Law and Waste
IWWG Working Group on
Waste Regulation and Policies
Chair: Prof. Luciano Butti
The L.a.W. Task Group aims to coordinate studies and research on the most recent international trends in waste regulation and policies. The need for a Task Group of this kind first emerged among the participants at the Eleventh International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium Sardinia 2007. Studies undertaken by this Task Group should contribute towards furthering our understanding of the relationship between waste regulation and the efficacy of public policies in this field. Intelligent and science based Court guidelines should also be regarded as an indispensable tool for use in improving environmental company standards without imposing unreasonable costs on the economic system.
The L.a.W. Task Group will include academics, regulators and lawyers from Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia.
Member expertise will encompass a broad range of disciplines, including environmental law, environmental economics, law drafting, public law, international and comparative law and waste management.
The main aim of L.a.W. will be to establish a dialogue between regulators, judges and lawyers in the field of waste law. A second focus will be on identification of the best legal procedures adopted internationally to implement the approval of efficient waste management plants, addressing issues posed by N.I.M.B.Y. (Not in My Back Yard) and B.A.N.A.N.A. (Build Absolutely Nothing and Never Again) syndromes.
The Task Group will provide a forum for members to discuss and exchange ideas, generate hypotheses, and jointly consider and relate results and findings from diverse projects. By fostering international and interdisciplinary communication and pooling data, research advances can be accelerated, and future research requirements identified and synthesized more effectively.
As research efforts are coordinated and new results are generated, the Group will serve as a clearinghouse and point of contact for those seeking information on waste regulation and policies. Regulators, Courts officials and lawyers are encouraged to access information through contact with L.a.W. Furthermore, collaborations from within the Group will be published in international journals, so that ready access to information is available to the research community.
The first official meeting is scheduled in the context of the Twelfth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium SARDINIA 2009, which will take place in S. Margherita di Pula, Sardinia, Italy, between October 5th-9th 2009.