Introduction

This volume surveys contemporary Disaster Risk Management (DRM) through an institutional-legal lens. Drawing on EM-DAT trends, it notes the marked rise in disasters since the twentieth century, the escalating economic losses, and the increased vulnerability driven by climatic, demographic and geopolitical change. The surge in fatalities due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for an all-hazard preparedness approach. Internationally, the UN has shifted from reactive relief to integrated risk governance, anchored in the Sendai Framework (2015–2030) and aligned with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement. At a regional level, the EU has strengthened the Union Civil Protection Mechanism and is working to improve the speed and effectiveness of its interventions. Normatively, the IFRC’s IDRL Guidelines steer domestic facilitation of cross-border aid, and the ILC’s Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters furnish a blueprint for a comprehensive treaty on international DRM expected by 2027. This book maps actors and coordination mechanisms and analyses rules on disaster response/recovery and on disaster prevention/preparedness. Conceptually, it adopts UN terminology on hazard, exposure, vulnerability and coping capacity, and explicitly engages the disaster-risk equation linking these variables to explain why hazards become disasters. Finally, it grounds disaster relief in humanitarian principles and links it with the ‘do no harm’ imperative.