A Study On Legal Issues In International Disaster Response

With the growth in the incidence of disasters on the earth, international community provides their humanitarian relief more actively.However,there are many legal issues in international disaster response,which means that disaster affected persons may not receive the right aid at the right time, delivered in the right way.Under the background of disaster,a study on legal issues in international disaster response is a new topic.Firstly, this thesis defines several basic legal concepts such as disaster,relief operations,international relief actors and international disaster response law.Then,through case studies and the method of empirical analysis,the legal problems in three phases of international disaster response, that is,relief initiation and termination,entry of international relief personnel,goods and equipments,and relief operations,are revealed and analyzed.Meanwhile,the better governance mechanism and the shortcomings of current international disaster response are discussed and concluded, compared with the different specific regulations of the existing international disaster response law for the specific legal issues in the three phases.Finally,in view of the specific legal issues in international disaster response and the problems of existing international disaster response system,e.g.dispersiveness,fragmentation,complexity, thematic scope gap,the limited geographical reach,the limited types of international actors addressed,and the non-binding instruments etc.,the proposals are provided to improve the existing international disaster response legal system.The humanitarian principle and the principle of national sovereignty should be complied with in international disaster response cooperation.International community should develop a binding,comprehensive and global multilateral treaty on international disaster response cooperation,which will be joined extensively by international disaster relief actors.At the same time,the specific suggestions and ideas are given to govern international disaster response.