The International Law of Disaster Relief

Disasters can strike often and with unexpected fury, resulting in devastating consequences for local populations that are insufficiently prepared and largely dependent upon foreign aid in the wake of such catastrophes. International law can play a significant role in the recovery after inevitable natural disasters; however, without clear legal frameworks, aid may be stopped, delayed, or even hijacked – placing the intended suffering recipients in critical condition. This edited volume brings together experts, emerging scholars, and practitioners in the field of international disaster law from North America, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia to analyze the evolution of international disaster law as a field that encompasses new ideas about human rights, sovereignty, and technology. Chapters focus on specific natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, Cyclone Nargis, and Typhoon Hainan in addition to volcanic and earthquake activity, wildfires, and desertification. This book begins a dialogue on the profound implications of the evolution of international law as a tool for disaster response.

David D. Caron is the Dean of the Dickson Poon School of Law at King's College London and the C. William Maxeiner Emeritus Distinguished Professor of International Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He currently serves as a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Rule of Law, the US Department of State Advisory Committee on Public International Law, and the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law.

Michael J. Kelly is Associate Dean and a Professor of Law in the School of Law at Creighton University, Omaha. He is president of the US national chapter of L'Association Internationale du Droit Pénal, co-chair of the American Bar Association's Task Force on Internet Governance, and a member of the President's Advisory Committee on Global Engagement for the American Association of Law Schools. He is the author or co-author of four books and more than thirty articles and book chapters, and continues to serve as a contributing editor to the online legal newspaper Jurist.

Anastasia Telesetsky is an Associate Professor of Law in the College of Law at the University of Idaho, where she teaches public international law and international environmental law for the natural resources and environmental law program. She has expertise on climate-change-index insurance and food security and development. Her scholarship has been published in numerous American, European and Asian law reviews. She is a member of the international environmental law section of the American Society for International Law.