Research Catalog

Title

Nauru : environmental damage under international trusteeship / Christopher Weeramantry.

Author

Weeramantry, C. G.

Publication

Melbourne ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

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Holdings

Details

Description

xx, 448 p., [8] p. of plates : ill., maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"Nauru is a small island in the Pacific which was endowed by nature with some of the richest phosphates in the world. Phosphate mining began on the island in 1906, when Nauru was still part of the German empire. Following Germany's defeat in 1918, Nauru was entrusted by the League of Nations to the care of the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. It was a fiduciary relationship which, after the Second World War, continued under the trusteeship system of the United Nations. During this period Nauru's idyllic landscape was disastrously transformed, reducing much of the island to a lunar waste fringed in tropical splendour." "Nauru: Environmental Damage under International Trusteeship summarizes part of the ten-volume 'Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Rehabilitation of Phosphate Lands in Nauru', which was presented to the Government of Nauru in 1988. The report covered the responsibilities of the powers which controlled Nauru for rehabilitation of the lands which had been devastated by phosphate mining. It also inquired into the feasibility and manner of rehabilitation." "Professor Christopher Weeramantry, the Chairman of the Commission, has written a fascinating and accessible summary of the portion of the report dealing with international responsibility. The issues include a number of areas of international law relating to mandate and trusteeship, environmental law, abuse of power, unjust enrichment, acquired rights, and permanent sovereignty over natural resources. Nauru is probably the most detailed practical study of an international mandate and trusteeship ever written. The issues explored in the book are of far-reaching importance. The story of Nauru has a significance reaching well beyond the tiny coral island." --Book Jacket.

Subject

• International trusteeships > Corrupt practices > Nauru
• International trusteeships > Nauru
• Liability for environmental damages > Nauru
• Offenses against the environment > Nauru
• Phosphate mines and mining > Corrupt practices > Nauru
• Phosphate mines and mining > Law and legislation > Nauru

Note

• "[S]ummarizes part of the ten-volume 'Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Rehabilitation of Phosphate Lands in Nauru', which was presented to the Government of Nauru in 1988"--Jacket.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 434-440) and index.

Contents

Appendices include: Nauru Island Agreement ; Comments by the Representative on the Permanent Mandates Commission, 1922 ; A protest by Australian citizens against violation of mandate obligations ; Excerpts from the statement of Angie Brooks, former President of the General Assembly of the UN to the Commission of Inquiry ; Conclusions on the question of responsibility for rehabilitation.

ISBN

0195532899

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library