Making International Environmental Treaties Work (Book Review)

Abstract

Edith Brown Weiss and Harold K. Jacobson's book, Engaging Countries: Strengthening Compliance with International EnvironmentalAccords, represents an ambitious effort to identify the factors that result in successful environmental treaties. The Brown Weiss and Jacobson study examines five international environmental treaties: the World Heritage Convention, the Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species (CITES), the London Convention of 1972 (formerly called the London Ocean Dumping Convention), the 1983 International Tropical Timber Agreement (TA), and the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer. The study examines compliance with these treaties by eight countries (Brazil, Cameroon, China, Hungary, India, Japan, Russia, and the United States) as well as the European Union. It reviews four major hypotheses and dozens of sub-hypotheses about what produces effective agreements.