International Legal Principles Research Articles

Sustainable Development Clauses in the International Law of the Sea

INTRODUCTION. The international legal content of the concept of sustainable development, so common in international treaties and sometimes expressed in different terms, undoubtedly requires modern clarification, as well as its place in the system of international law. Firstly, it is interesting to answer the question of how ideas of sustainable development have resulted in their crystallization as a concept of international law. Secondly, using treaty sources of the international law of the sea, where this notion is particularly common, it is meaningful to identify the intentions of States parties to such treaties to consider sustainable development clauses as legal obligations. Thirdly, it is important to determine whether these clauses now constitute a principle of the international law of the sea or whether they retain the status of separate treaty obligations that are not interrelated. MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article is based on the analysis primarily of the norms of the international law of the sea, in which the term «sustainable development» is applied, with reference to the scientific and legal literature and judicial decisions relevant to the topic. The research involves methods of legal construction, legal modeling, analysis and synthesis, systematic, struc­tural-functional, formal-logical, formal-legal, histori­cal and chronological methods. RESEARCH RESULTS. The analysis of international treaties and other international legal instruments applicable to the issue has shown that the long-standing ideas of «sustainable development» are now normatively well-established; that the provisions of international treaties on sustainable development have already developed as an inter-branch (cross-cutting) principle of international law at the intersection, primarily, of the international law of the sea and international environmental law; that States undertake in practice explicit obligations and exercise relevant rights in the framework of upholding this cross-cutting principle. The authors’ vision of the content of this principle is offered and its various manifestations in the international law of the sea are shown. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The study critically evaluates the prevailing view in the Western international legal literature that the idea of sustainable development was suggested by the 1987 Report «Our Common Future» (the Brundtland Report). It has been shown that the idea predates this report, and that the initial mechanisms for sustainable development had already been reflected in existing interna­tional treaties by 1987. The suggestion is made that the international legal concept of sustainable development has several cumulative components that together define its content. Among these there are elements that are part of this concept primarily because they are means of achieving sustainable development goals, having a much narrower scope if interpreted in isolation. The international legal principle of sustainable development seeks to resolve the tensions primarily between the States’ right to development and their duty to protect the environment, serving as a nexus that ensures that neither the one nor the other is neglected. Its social dimension is undoubtedly significant, although it has been interpreted very differently in the interna­tional legal literature. In the context of contemporary international law, it is expedient to assert an inter-branch (cross-cutting) nature of the sustainable development principle: its legal content extends beyond the scope of specific branches of international law, including international law of the sea, international environmental and economic law. However, most international treaties of a universal and especially regional character that contain some form of sustainable development clauses currently refer to sources of the international law of the sea, which may certainly change in the future.

Unveiling the “Legal Conscience of the Civilized World:” a Critical Look at the Institut de Droit International

For the past 150 years, the Institut de Droit International (IDI) has held a prominent position in the field of international law, garnering recognition as one of the world's distinguished professional organizations for international lawyers. Yet, a closer look at its structures reveals that in fact, the IDI has been and remains an elitist club, comprised of renowned international legal jurists, practitioners, and scholars. Its goal was and is to formulate “principles from which rules [of international law] could be deduced.”1 While there may be doubts regarding the contemporary authority of the IDI in shaping today's international law, it possessed significant influence during its first century of existence. Therefore, on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, this essay offers an alternative perspective on the IDI's contribution to the field, focusing on the implications of its claimed status of the “legal conscience of the civilized world” and exploring whether this status had somehow impacted international legal norms and principles. While further empirical investigation is required to establish a definitive correlation between the IDI's affiliations with the “civilized world” and a skewed focus of international law on Western legal traditions, a few examples can serve as a starting point. The illustrations from the IDI's engagement with the laws of war—specifically, the nineteenth-century regulation of occupation and the post-World War II determination of military targets—exemplify how the inherent elitism rooted in the notion of “civilization” can be discerned in pivotal advancements of international law.

ЕЛІТИ В СИСТЕМІ ГЛОБАЛЬНОЇ УПРАВЛІНСЬКОЇ ПАРАДИГМИ

The article is devoted to the problem of determining the place of modern elite groups in the process of global governance. It was determined that their formation went through certain cycles, has its own specificity and not always obvious consequences. Shown, that usually the conclusions about the composition, interests and sphere of activity of the global elite are made on the basis of the analysis of the global rankings of the richest people in the world or on the basis of declarations about the influence of certain political persons made in the mass media. This approach is questioned by the author in view of the dynamics of rating changes, rather simplified methods of wealth assessment without taking into account the modern features of business networking, cross-ownership, the specifics of the trust form of management, etc. A more objective assessment is possible under the conditions of a retrospective analysis of the fortunes of the most famous business families of the past centuries, which not only did not decrease, but multiplied many times over. That is why it is concluded that the representatives of the historical global elites retain their power and the artificial nature of the ongoing systemic global crisis, the beneficiaries of which are the elite groups themselves, who directly and indirectly interfere in the processes of global management and control, discredit the institution of the state and provoke conflicts in order to maintain access to cheap and available resources. That is why the conclusion is made about the future period of uncertainty and permanent crisis of development. Its trajectory will largely depend on the current plans of the global elites, who today are not able to control the flow of the scenario of controlled chaos, so they resort to much simpler and years-tested reprisals, oppression and barriers under the conditions of the existence of completely incapable states and the paralysis of international legal norms and principles. This is facilitated by the incompetence of representatives of political circles responsible for the protection of national interests, who are promoted to all levels of power by representatives of the global elite. Thus, a conclusion is made about the dominant principle of negative selection, when the main thing is not professionalism and awareness but loyalty and irresponsibility.

ДО ПИТАННЯ ПРО НАУКОВО-ПРАВОВИЙ АСПЕКТ РОЗВИТКУ ІНКЛЮЗИВНОЇ ОСВІТИ В УКРАЇНІ

The article outlines the trends of the scientific and legal aspect of the development of inclusive education in Ukraine. Attention is paid to international legal principles, the national component of scientific and legal support. It was determined that the mainstream of scientific intelligence in the domestic doctrine is challenges related to war. Ukraine has become at the forefront of solving the issue of ensuring educational rights for all people in the conditions of limited resource opportunities and the rapid pace of increasing the problem. In this context, there is a general understanding of the need to urgently accelerate the process of socioeconomic integration of people with disabilities into all areas of society’s life. Progressive European practices of such integration in Ukrainian conditions are predicted to be used at an accelerated pace for objective reasons. There is an urgent need for a scientific understanding of the change in the development vector of inclusive education from «medical» to «social», from «social» to «socio-economic», from «ensuring the education of persons with special educational needs» to «education for all» and «full socio-economic integration». And also the importance of developing a scientific, legal and educational basis for such socio-economic integration of all people in social and state processes. Ukraine is at the forefront of world processes, because the paradigm of full integration of all people into the socio-economic processes of state development is not only caused by the progressive development of human rights, as in other democratic states, but also by the critical need for the urgent mobilization of all resources for the functioning and development of our state in conditions of war. The main trend in the development of the legal sphere is the advancement of social law in the field of legal sciences. Enrichment of the doctrine of social law will ensure an even progress of practice. Studies of its Europeanization continue to play a unique role in this context. Social policy research in the field of political science and economic research, sociological and pedagogical research play an important role. It is possible to note the urgent need to develop cross-sectoral scientific regulations for the comprehensive study of relevant issues and the formation of verified conclusions that will strengthen legislative work and practice.

ПРОЦЕССУАЛЬНОЕ РАВЕНСТВО СТОРОН ОБВИНЕНИЯ И ЗАЩИТЫ В УГОЛОВНОМ СУДОПРОИЗВОДСТВЕ

Introduction: the article explores the national, historical, and international legal aspects of the concept and essence of equality of arms in criminal proceedings as a balance of procedural means and conditions providing each party with the opportunity to present and defend their position on the case before the court. Objectives: to study the concept of equality of the parties within the concept of adversarial criminal proceedings of the Russian theory of criminal procedure; to analyze the relationship of the adversarial principle and equality of the parties as well as the essence of procedural equality of arms in its doctrinal and legal meaning in Russia; to articulate the concept and essence of the international legal principle of equality of arms. Methods: general scientific dialectical method of cognition, systematic approach, general scientific methods (deduction and induction), specific scientific methods (logical and legal analysis and synthesis). Results: the study has shown that the concept ‘equality of arms’ used in the Russian theory of criminal procedure, criminal procedural legislation, and law enforcement practice does not fully reflect all aspects of a fair balance of procedural possibilities of the parties in criminal proceedings. There is an imbalance of legal means and conditions, with the defense being at a disadvantage compared to the prosecution. Conclusions: it is necessary to improve the legislation in order to ensure the balance of the parties’ legal possibilities through establishing elements of favorable treatment of the defense; to provide the defense with the real means necessary to protect their interests; to create conditions that would make it possible to really use these means, i.e., to create mechanisms balancing the parties not only at the level of the law but also in its implementation.

Limitation of labor rights under martial law

The author focuses on the issue of restrictions on particular rights and freedoms through the prism of the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine and international legal acts, the peculiarities of the mechanism of limiting the right to work and the right to strike as well as the problems of their provision during a state of war. The introduction of the legal regime of martial law in Ukraine provided a legal opportunity to limit the number of individual and collective labour rights and human freedoms temporarily. As for the right to strike, in the conditions of martial law, its implementation is impossible at all, which allows us to assert not just about its limitations, but actually about the temporary cancellation of such a right. Based on the international legal and constitutional principles of limiting human rights, any restrictions must at least comply with the principles of legal certainty and predictability, the requirements of legality, necessity, proportionality, and be non-discriminatory. Despite this, the analysis of the legal regulation of restrictions on labour rights and guarantees in the conditions of martial law indicates the presence of individual both terminological and substantive contradictions and shortcomings of the legal acts by which such restrictions are introduced. With the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On the Organization of Labour Relations in the Conditions of Martial Law”, which limits the number of constitutional rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen by Articles 43 and 44 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the problems of law enforcement in labour law became more acute due to the presence of several legal acts, which regulate relations in the labour sphere differently. Given this, one of the primary tasks of the state in the post-war future should be to fully restore and ensure the realization of constitutional human rights and freedoms, as well as human-oriented and effective reform of the social and labour spheres. Key words: labour rights, right to work, right to strike, restrictions of rights, martial law.

МІЖНАРОДНІ ЗАСАДИ КРИМІНАЛЬНО-ПРАВОВОГО ЗАХИСТУ ОБ’ЄКТІВ ІНТЕЛЕКТУАЛЬНОЇ ВЛАСНОСТІ

The article is devoted to issues of international legal principles in the field of implementation and protection of intellectual property objects in the aspect of influence on the processes of law enforcement and law-making in the field of criminal law of domestic legal systems. It is determined that the following are important for the criminal protection of intellectual property rights: the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), the Convention on Cybercrime, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration to them, and others. The relevance of this issue is due to the fact that, taking into account the processes of globalization of the world economy, as well as the process of integration of the legal systems of the countries of the world, the study of the international principles of criminal and legal protection of intellectual property is of great importance at the current stage of Ukraine’s development. The author determines that the concept of “intellectual property” should be understood as a type of property as a generic concept. Based on the analysis of the norms of international acts on the criminal protection of intellectual property rights, a number of problems have been identified that must be resolved in legislation, as well as legal science and practice. These problems include: 1) the problem of determining in which sections of the criminal codes the norms establishing criminal liability for infringement of intellectual property rights should be located. It is proposed to combine the norms establishing criminal liability for infringement of intellectual property rights into one section “Criminal offenses against intellectual property” in the Criminal Code of Ukraine; 2) the problem of determining which objects of intellectual property should be protected by the norms of criminal law. Key words: criminal liability, intellectual property, criminal legal protection, World Intellectual Property Organization, European Union.

Unilateral coercive measures in the doctrine of modern international law

The main purpose of this article was to study the theoretical foundations of the application of unilateral coercive measures by states. It was determined that these measures are not consistent with all the fundamental international legal principles. The author indicates that such measures have a wide range of actions and can be both economic and non-economic by nature. The terminological problem of the concept of “unilateral coercive measures” is considered. These measures are often mistakenly referred to as “sanctions”, thereby identifying them with unquestionably legitimate measures taken by the United Nations Security Council. In the legislation of the Russian Federation, unlike other states, there was no confusion of concepts. The article notes that the issue of the legality of the use of unilateral coercive measures is relevant. The fact is that these measures, among other things, can negatively affect the lives of innocent citizens. The most vulnerable segments of society are particularly affected by this, for example, due to the denial of access to essential goods. For this reason, unilateral coercive measures taken by a state should not create any serious violations of people’s fundamental rights. In addition, due to their specific nature, unilateral coercive measures affect the economic processes of states.

International Legal Principles, Penal Populism and Criminalisation of ‘Unwanted Migration’

Abstract The criminalisation of migration is one of the most explicit ways in which law generates, sustains, and even legitimizes hostility towards “unwanted migrants”. This article will take into examination the criminalisation of “unwanted migration” by the Italian authorities and its relation to internationally established legal principles in the area of human mobility, arguing that the expansion of penal populism constitutes a danger for the balance among them. The article starts with an analysis of human mobility in international law and the “protection through prosecution” paradigm to highlight an inherent harmony of the aims of the legal systems dealing with human mobility from the humanitarian and criminal law perspective. Section two scrutinises the Italian case and the populistic distortion of the provisions and principles entailed in the field of transnational criminal law to counter human mobility. Section three reconnects the national criminalisation of migration with the international legal dimension and argues that the misuse of the transnational organised crime framework ultimately legitimises the violation of human and refugee rights and contravenes key international law principles.

Forms of international cooperation in the field of taxation and Russian tax legislation

The article gives the author’s definition of modern forms of international cooperation in the field of taxation. These include: international tax administration; delimitation of the tax jurisdiction of states and the fight against unfair tax competition among states; convergence of the tax systems of states. In relation to each form of international cooperation, the international legal principles underlying them are noted: international tax transparency, tax sovereignty of the state and its tax jurisdiction; prohibition of unfair tax competition. Particular attention is paid to the implementation of these international forms of tax cooperation in Russian legislation.

Can the WTO appellate Body Apply the Domestic Jurisdictional Rules?

The number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) between countries has significantly increased over the past few decades. RTA may include rights and obligations that are parallel to those of WTO agreement, and provide for its own dispute settlement mechanism that is different from WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). This forum clause allows parties to both RTA and WTO to litigate their dispute outside the DSU. This article addresses the issue of jurisdictional conflict between the RTAs and the WTO dispute mechanism over a claim that is violative of both WTO and RTA’s obligations. The main question this article answers is whether it is possible for the forum clause incorporated in RTA to divest the jurisdiction of WTO if invoked during the proceeding. This article analyzes a number of cases and RTAs involving a choice of forum clause before the WTO panel. This paper proceeds to examine different legal principles to find a legal justification to reconcile the jurisdictional scope of both RTA and WTO. As in current international legal principles do not offer an effective solution, this paper suggests that DSU should be amended to provide a set of rules governing the conflict between the RTA and WTO jurisdictions.

Prospects for Regional Soft Law to Protect the South China Sea Marine Environment

Abstract International marine environmental law has found its primary sources in international legal principles and conventions. At the regional level, some organisations prefer soft laws as their main instruments for regional marine environmental protection. This article proposes that coastal states could use soft law instruments in the South China Sea (scs) region to protect the marine environment through robust institutional processes, addressing environmental degradation concerns against a tense geopolitical backdrop. Based on discussions of regional practices, this article proposes that scs coastal states could strengthen their regional cooperation efforts using the existing soft-law structures by strengthening implementation cooperation through specific and targeted measures.

The Rise of International Health Law

INTRODUCTION. Over the past decades under the influence of demographic processes, economic shocks, morbidity increase and other systemic problems a whole spectrum of threats to health has gradually formed at the international level, characterized by severe socio-economic consequences for each country regardless of the welfare level. Today, the challenges of ensuring universal coverage of services, access to safe, quality medicines, control of health care costs, effective response to health emergencies, antibiotic resistance are not limited by the WHO regulations, but are included in the agenda of the UN, ILO, FAO and other intergovernmental organizations. The need to form a unified approach to regulate activities of numerous participants in international healthcare regulation has served as an incentive for the gradual development of international legal regulation of the field of health protection, becoming the subject of study by leading legal scholars, as well as international organizations. The presented article provides a comprehensive analysis of the main historical stages in the development of international cooperation in the field of health protection, which served as the basis for the formation of international health law in the field of health protection as a new branch of international law. Special attention in the article is paid to the assessment of the role of globalization processes in changing the nature of threats to human and public health and their impact on the formation of global health governance concept. Based on the systemic problems that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, the author formulated the main directions for improving the international legal regulation of the health sector.MATERIALS AND METHODS. During article preparation the following document were studied: acts of a universal and regional nature, resolutions of international organizations, legal positions of UN specialized agencies, as well as professional scientific associations. The theoretical basis of the research are the scientific works of national and foreign scientists in the field of international law and international relations in the field of health protection. The article was prepared using the general scientific method of cognition, including the formal logical and situational method and private law methods, such as comparative, historical and formal legal methods.RESEARCH RESULTS. Within the framework of the study, a conclusion was formulated about the formation of "international health law" as a new branch of international law, uniting international legal norms and principles governing the relations of subjects of international law, as well as other participants in international relations in the field of human health. In the work, the author presents the main sources of "international health law" and formulates the subject of regulation of this branch of law.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Describing the features of international cooperation in the field of health protection, expressed in an increase in the number of involved international organizations and other participants which are not subjects of international law, the author substantiates the formation of the concept of global health management and analyzes the main scientific publications in this area. Having studied the nature of health threats that have formed over the past decade under the influence of globalization processes, as well as the systematic problems of international cooperation demonstrated by the coronavirus pandemic, the authors emphasize the need to implement the repeatedly proposed initiative to develop a universal act that forms the basis of international legal regulation of health protection.

Legal regulation of the mechanism of recovery of unrecorded assets of related individuals and legal entities as a type of civil confiscation and its international legal principles

Legal regulation of the mechanism of recovery of unrecorded assets of related individuals and legal entities as a type of civil confiscation and its international legal principles

ЕТИЧНІ ТА ПРАВОВІ АСПЕКТИ ПРИЙНЯТТЯ СЛІДЧИМ СУДДЕЮ, СУДОМ РІШЕННЯ ПРО ПРИМУСОВЕ ГОДУВАННЯ ЗАСУДЖЕНИХ ТА ОСІБ, ЯКІ ТРИМАЮТЬСЯ ПІД ВАРТОЮ

The article deals with the ethical and legal issues of decision- making by the investigating judge and the court on the forced feeding of a convict and a person in custody. It is noted that given that the court decision on forced feeding of convicts or persons in custody is related to medical intervention, its adoption and implementation is not only in the realm of law, but also of legal and medical ethics. The article attempts to simultaneously highlight and analyze international ethical, medical and legal norms and principles, as well as the legal positions of the ECtHR on the issue of forced feeding of a convicted person or a person in custody. The criteria for compliance of forced feeding with the requirements of Article 3 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms were analyzed, namely: establishing the medical necessity of the forced feeding procedure, compliance with procedural guarantees and the method of carrying out the procedure should not exceed the standard of the minimum level of cruelty established in the practice of the Court. It was concluded that international medical associations recognize the forced feeding of a person who directly and deliberately refused food as unjustified with certain exceptions: for example, if the patient is no longer able to make decisions on his own and, at the same time, has not left any instructions for this case. Given the fact that Ukraine belongs to the list of states in which forced feeding of a person whose freedom is restricted is allowed at the legislative level, it is necessary to develop and approve the procedure for carrying out forced feeding in the event that the petition is granted by the court. An analysis of domestic judicial practice on the issue of force-feeding a convict or a person in custody was carried out. It was concluded that the vast majority of relevant petitions (submissions) are satisfied by the courts. At the same time, as a rule, courts in such decisions do not assess the necessity of forced feeding in accordance with the criteria of the European Court of Human Rights, but limit themselves to indicating that, according to the practice of the Court, such feeding is not considered treatment that degrades human dignity. Attention is drawn to the fact that the current legislation of Ukraine defines the procedural procedure for forced feeding exclusively in relation to the convicted. If a suspect or accused in custody refuses to eat for a long time, which, in turn, creates an obvious threat to his life, then in this case there is no legal mechanism for applying forced feeding to him.

International legal principles for guaranteeing water safety during military conflicts

International legal principles for guaranteeing water safety during military conflicts

Practice of applying international principles in private law relations

National and international courts are increasingly turning to generally recognised international legal principles to regulate private law relations. This is necessitated, in particular, by the fact that the issues and disputes that modern participants in private law relations address to the courts are becoming more widespread. Thus, the practice of international justice and justice in Ukraine demonstrates that such international principles as the principle of justice, equality, non-discrimination, evolutionary interpretation, proportionality, legal certainty, and the rule of law are increasingly used in dispute resolution. This study investigated the application of international principles in private law relations. Based on the general legal research methods, the nature of international legal principles was analysed, the study considered their application in the above-mentioned Ukrainian court cases to the European Court of Human Rights, as well as the Constitutional and Anti-Corruption Courts of Ukraine. The study investigated the judicial practice of the European Court of Human Rights, whose decisions raise the issue of violation of rights and fundamental freedoms stipulated in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and non-compliance with basic international legal principles, as well as highlighted the main trends of these disputes. Based on the results of the analysis, the study identified an insufficient level of the content specification regarding the principle of the rule of law and its features in the current legislation of Ukraine, which must be properly observed by both state authorities and citizens of Ukraine. Based on the conducted research, the authors formulated their scientific positions and conclusions aimed at improving the system of principles of private law relations

Immunities And Arbitration: A New Lex Specialis Regime

AbstractThe interaction between immunities and jurisdiction is complex. One lacuna is whether the international legal principle of state immunity is a rule or principle in its own right or an exception to a pre-existing jurisdiction. In the context of international arbitration disputes, this distinction is significant. States have been relying on immunity to exclude the jurisdiction of national courts to support the international arbitral process. This Article argues there is now a growing set of common and consistent practice according to which state immunity operates as a rule or principle lex specialis to a more general set of rules or principles governing the enforcement jurisdiction of national courts.

The Jurisdictional Conflict Between Regional Trade Agreements and the World Trade Organisation

The number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) between countries has significantly increased over the past few decades. RTAs may include rights and obligations that are parallel to those of the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization 1994 (Marrakesh Agreement). They may also provide for their own dispute settlement mechanism that is different from the WTO Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU). This forum clause allows parties to both RTAs and the WTO to litigate their dispute outside the DSU. This article addresses the issue of jurisdictional conflict between the RTAs and the WTO dispute mechanism over a claim that is violative of both the WTO’s and RTA’s obligations. The main question this article answers is whether it is possible for the forum clause incorporated in RTAs to divest the jurisdiction of the WTO if invoked during the proceeding. This article analyses several cases and RTAs involving a choice of forum clause before the WTO panel. This paper examines different legal principles to find a legal justification to reconcile the jurisdictional scope of both RTAs and the WTO agreements. As current international legal principles do not offer an effective solution, this paper suggests that the DSU should be amended to provide a set of rules governing the conflict between the RTAs and WTO jurisdictions.

Upscaling ecological restoration: toward a new legal principle and protocol on ecological restoration in international law

The United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration is an opportunity for States to advance the development of substantive and qualitative international law obligations for conducting restoration activities. This will help countries move beyond the more quantitative target‐driven approach that currently focuses international commitments on the percentage of degraded areas that have to be restored. In this paper, we argue for two pathways for States to accelerate and pursue international obligations to undertake ecological restoration. Firstly, we advocate for the development of a new international legal principle on ecological restoration, adding to existing international environmental law principles such as the prevention principle, and aiming at achieving the highest level of recovery possible. Secondly, we advocate to utilize available mechanisms through the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity and create a new protocol that will spell out a high ambition level for ecological restoration and a legal basis for adopting generally accepted rules and standards for restoration. The voluntary SER Principles and Standards can play an important role in the development of the legal principle on ecological restoration and standards of best practice.