The Role of Treaty Bodies in Monitoring Compliance with International Environmental Obligations

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. A large number of international treaties regulating various spheres of international relations have already entered into force. As current practice shows, the emphasis has shifted from the need to regulate an increasing number of relationships to the importance of improving the efficiency of existing international treaties. The article analyzes the implementation of this process in international environmental law. The authors show that a number of global and regional environmental agreements have established quasi-judicial procedures (so-called "non-compliance procedures") in the form of implementation and compliance committees serving as international control mechanisms. The purpose of such mechanisms is to identify and resolve both local and systemic theoretical and practical issues of non-compliance arising from the provisions of international treaties.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article is based on a large amount of material, including international binding legal acts, acts of advisory nature, and modern doctrinal research of Russian and foreign authors. The methodological basis of the research consists of general scientific (methods of logical and system analysis, dialectical method, methods of deduction and induction) and private scientific (historical and legal, comparative legal, formal-legal methods, the method of legal modeling and forecasting) methods of cognition.RESEARCH RESULTS. In their research, the authors analyzed various international binding and non-binding instruments, summarized doctrinal positions made by Russian and Western legal scholars, presented in domestic and foreign scientific literature, and identified the main issues of compliance committees of international environmental agreements.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The authors have tried to give answers to the following questions: is it necessary to fix in the text of international environmental agreements the provisions establishing the compliance committee, or can this be done later: at the annual meetings of the conferences of the parties; what should be the composition and mandate of the compliance committee; and how efficiently do these committees function? As a result of the conducted research, the authors have drawn conclusions about the need fo detailed monitoring of changes in the various international environmental agreements in order to improve the effectiveness of compliance committees in exercising their mandates and to identify violations of the mandates of these committees.