International Environmental Negotiation as a Governance Technique
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conventional instrument is a reflection of regime governance of environ-
mental risk and it requires, as such, the attainment of consensus indicat-
ing:
– the importance of replacing the original conventional instrument
instead of amending it, focusing on the illumination of the exten-
sive innovative and modified aspects resulting from its renegotiation
coupled with the need (environmental, social, economic) for speed-
ing up its entry into force, since, for the new replacing conventional
instrument, a prescribed low minimum of ratifications is required
(
effectiveness)
;
– the benefits to be achieved by the replacement, since its speedier en-
try into force, compared to the amendment, will enhance the cred-
ibility of the overall operation of the conventional environmental re-
gime (
efficiency
);
– the fact that the decision on conventional instrument replacement is
made within the institutional framework of the particular conven-
tional environmental regime mirroring an accepted exercise of re-
gime governance (
legitimacy
);
– the contribution of the instrument replacement to the regime asso-
ciational cohesion: its speedier entry into force will properly meet
public approval and it will considerably accelerate the process of
abandoning the old conventional instrument by the rest of the Con-
tracting Parties, thus confirming the capacity of the conventional re-
gime to reinforce the associative identity of the latter in context
(as-
sociation).
At the same time, it should be stressed that the answer to the ques-
tion whether the entire or a particular performative aspect of a conven-
tional regime (a protocol) should be amended or replaced by a new one
cannot be answered in advance. In fact, it is left to the dynamics of the
renegotiation process. As the international practice shows, the question
of replacement usually arises in the framework of a renegotiation on
amendment, initiated by an institutional mandate to amend or revise the
existing conventional regime, and it is actually a matter of negotiation to
