International sustainable development law is now made in negotiations between states, in the work of international organizations, through international and domestic cases, and in the development of national laws. Participants in these processes include governments, international secretariats, lawyers and judges, Indigenous Peoples and civil society groups, and even individuals. Howard Mann provides expert services designed to assist participants in the development of ISDLaw by helping them set clear objectives supported by sound negotiating strategies.

The effective implementation of ISDLaw must follow its development. This includes the application and enforcement of international agreements and national laws, public education, and other steps aimed at ensuring that the law is made effective. Capacity building is often a fundamental requirement of this process, especially where local action is equally as important as global action.

Samples of Howard Mann's recent work on the development and implementation of ISDLaw include:

New approach to international invertment law
In a cutting edge program to develop a new approach to international investment law, Howard Mann is currently leading a multi-partner international project to develop and articulate a Southern Agenda on Investment. Seven research institutes from Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa form the core group of researchers, whose work will be reviewed and supplemented by four regional workshops. The results of this extensive research and policy development process will be collated, under Dr. Mann’s stewardship, into a comprehensive agenda, from a developing country perspective, for a new international investment agenda focused on promoting sustainable development. The policy tools will then be supplemented with a negotiator’s handbook as well.

Investment-sustainable development linkages
Since 2002, UNCTAD has asked Howard Mann to participate in several conferences and meetings that address the investment-sustainable development linkages. His contributions in these conferences have blended the legal and policy elements of international trade and investment regimes with the demands of development and sustainable development in less developed countries. The application of the international legal regimes to domestic policy space concerns has been a primary feature of Howard’s contributions.

International Investment Law
As part of his work on the development of international investment law, Howard Mann and a partner developed a framework for understanding the emerging cases on the relationship between expropriation provisions in international investment agreements and government regulation-making. The Ad Hoc Expert Advisory Group that advises Canada’s Minister for International Trade on investment law used this framework as a basis for pursuing its work on a possible interpretive statement for application under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Biosafety capacity-building framework
Howard Mann and a partner were engaged to develop an initial biosafety capacity-building framework for the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Cartagena Protocol. The resulting document has become a foundation piece for the ongoing development of capacity-building work under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and can be found here.

Operationalizing the roster of experts to assist developing countries in implementing the Biosafety Protocol
In a follow-up project to help implement the biosafety capacity-building framework, Dr. Mann and his project partner prepared additional documents on operationalizing the roster of experts to assist developing countries in implementing the Biosafety Protocol. This included a conceptual outline of how the roster might function, based on practice under other international agreements, and a set of draft Interim Guidelines for the operation of the roster. This draft Interim Guidelines was adopted with very few changes by the Intergovernmental Committee on the Cartagena Protocol in November 2001. That document can be found here.

Implementing the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes
Implementing the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes requires important regulatory measures. On behalf of Environment Canada, Howard Mann led a multidisciplinary team commissioned to undertake a preliminary analysis of possible amendments to the existing legislation in Canada. The team collected and analyzed over 100 possible amendments suggested from inside and outside government, identifying their potential environmental, legal, administrative, trade and competitiveness impacts in a structured analytical framework. Dr. Mann subsequently facilitated a major cross-Canada stakeholder consultation process on possible amendments.

An Aboriginal community guide to protecting traditional knowledge
As part of the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Howard Mann worked with a Canadian First Nation's consultant to develop an Aboriginal community guide to protecting traditional knowledge. The Guide was deliberately designed to be a working document to assist First Nations' communities in protecting their traditional knowledge and the genetic resources this knowledge relates to. The guide has been published by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in Canada. See A Community Guide to Protecting Indigenous Knowledge.