Chapter 17: Vigilance and Prevention

Abstract

The chapter provides a detailed analysis of the reference to 'vigilance and prevention' found in paragraph 140 of the 1997 Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Judgement, the first time the International Court of Justice mentioned the principle of prevention in a contentious case. The piece highlights that the statement was not groundbreaking given the state of international environmental law at the time and the limited role it played in the Court’s reasoning. Yet, it argues that the acknowledgment of prevention as a fundamental environmental principle was symbolically seminal and significantly influenced later jurisprudential developments.