ABSTRACT

This book looks at how legal frameworks can and do reduce risks arising out of disasters. The volume:

  • analyses existing disaster laws and the challenges on the ground;
  • brings together case studies from some of the most vulnerable regions; and
  • proposes solutions to avert existing and possible future crises.

The book offers appropriate legal frameworks for disaster management which could not only offer sustainable institutional reforms towards community resilience and preparedness but also reduce risk within the frameworks of justice, equity and accountability. It examines the intricacies of governance within which governments function and discusses how recent trends in infrastructure development and engineering technology could be balanced within the legal principles of ethics, transparency and integrity. The chapters in the volume suggest that legal frameworks ought to resonate with new challenges of resource management and climate change. Further, these frameworks could help secure citizens’ trust, institutional accountability and effective implementation through an unceasing partnership which keeps the community better prepared and more resilient.

This volume will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of disaster management, law, public policy, environment and development studies as well as policymakers and those in administrative, governmental, judicial and development sectors.

chapter |17 pages

Introduction

part I|44 pages

Disaster law

chapter 2|8 pages

Disaster laws

Saving lives, reducing risk in the Asia Pacific

chapter 3|14 pages

Disasters

A ubiquitous legal framework in ancient BC literature

part II|69 pages

Country-specific disaster laws

chapter 4|15 pages

The landscape of disaster management in Pakistan

Gaps in the legal framework

chapter 6|17 pages

International disaster response law in China

A study on strengthening national disaster response legislation

chapter 7|10 pages

Interrogating disaster law in India

part IV|110 pages

The wide-eyed slippages of disaster law

chapter 13|21 pages

Corruption in humanitarian assistance

Challenges and opportunities

chapter 15|10 pages

Disability, disaster and the law

Developing a mandate for disability inclusive law making process for disaster risk reduction

chapter 17|15 pages

Gender and trafficking

chapter 19|18 pages

Post-disaster medical services

Can law ensure services?

part VI|10 pages

Epilogue

chapter 24|8 pages

Disaster laws in India

The way forward