Laina Smith
Third year Windsor Law student Laina Smith is the winner of this year’s Sword and Scale Essay Competition held by the Military Law Section of the CBA. Read the winning essay titled, “The High Threshold for Environmental Damage in Armed Conflict.”
The prize is presented annually for the best scholarly essay in military law or justice, public policy or public affairs related to Canadian military law. Authors must be university students currently enrolled at a Canadian law school at either an undergraduate or graduate level and only papers written by one author in either English or French are accepted.
Congratulations Laina.
Here's the abstract:
"The thresholds for environmental damage during armed conflict are far too high. This has partially resulted in a lack of criminal prosecutions and holding states civilly responsible. This paper reviews current treaty law and customary law directly related to environmental protection and examines the high thresholds for environmental damage. It proceeds to assess recommendations to change the thresholds in order to make them more responsive to environmental damage."