Nauru

"Nauru is a small island in the Pacific which was endowed by nature with some of the richest phosphates in the world. Phosphate mining began on the island in 1906, when Nauru was still part of the German empire. Following Germany's defeat in 1918, Nauru was entrusted by the League of Nations to the care of the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. It was a fiduciary relationship which, after the Second World War, continued under the trusteeship system of the United Nations. During this period Nauru's idyllic landscape was disastrously transformed, reducing much of the island to a lunar waste fringed in tropical splendour." "Nauru: Environmental Damage under International Trusteeship summarizes part of the ten-volume 'Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Rehabilitation of Phosphate Lands in Nauru', which was presented to the Government of Nauru in 1988. The report covered the responsibilities of the powers which controlled Nauru for rehabilitation of the lands which had been devastated by phosphate mining. It also inquired into the feasibility and manner of rehabilitation." "Professor Christopher Weeramantry, the Chairman of the Commission, has written a fascinating and accessible summary of the portion of the report dealing with international responsibility. The issues include a number of areas of international law relating to mandate and trusteeship, environmental law, abuse of power, unjust enrichment, acquired rights, and permanent sovereignty over natural resources. Nauru is probably the most detailed practical study of an international mandate and trusteeship ever written. The issues explored in the book are of far-reaching importance. The story of Nauru has a significance reaching well beyond the tiny coral island." --Book Jacket.