Principles Of International Environmental Law Research Articles

Internationalization of EIA rules in the BBNJ Agreement: Impediments and possible solutions

The International Legal Agreement for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) has been launched. The final agreement emphasizes that states are obliged to conduct Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), providing more discretion to states that control planned activities. However, the EIA under the BBNJ negotiations, as well as the principles of international environmental law, customary international law and international organizations all call for the internationalization of the EIA and the restraint of states’ power and activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Therefore, an internationalized EIA system that subjects the state-led EIA process to global oversight or guidance is imperative. To demonstrate the necessity of EIA’s internationalization, this article analyses it from the multiple perspectives of international law and its significance to the BBNJ Agreement. Furthermore, the article examines the submissions of the Parties to the BBNJ Agreement and indicates that there is still an opportunity to internationalize the EIA system. The article concludes with recommendations that include the use of soft law documents, the internationalization of EIA guidance through list of activities, as well as the internationalization of EIA oversight through the process of public notification and consultation and rules on responsibility and liability.

Harnessing the Power of Crowdsourcing and Public Participation to Advance Global Environmental Protection

The principles of international environmental law serve as an effective framework in analyzing the legal elements of environmental hazards. In the light of the matter, the important principle of participation is regarded as the primary facilitator in the process of environmental protection and the prevention of the extent and progression of environmental hazards. This principle, in considering methods such as crowdsourcing, may identify a progressive strategy and visualize the impact of citizens and people in the protection of the biosphere. The basic approaches of this research include participatory democracy, access to information, public decision-making, and environmental litigation. This research intends to light up a path to attaining the goals of international environmental legislation by drawing a two-way interaction between the two with the goal of examining the viability of realizing the principle of participation in light of crowdsourcing. It also seeks to resolve the question of how effective the process of using crowdsourcing as an implementation tool of the participation principle may be in attaining the goals of environmental support and protection. By reviewing and analyzing relevant sources, this article argues that enhancing the participation of stakeholders, including civil groups and individuals, may improve the effectiveess of environmental legislation and promote social and environmental justice and suggests that creating platforms to share information and engage with stakeholders and the public, as well as consider mechanisms to ensure accountability and the balance of power along the way, can be very effective.

The Application of the Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities in Environmental Governance on the High Seas

Abstract As an important principle of international environmental law, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (the CBDR principle) is being applied to various international environment protection regimes including environmental governance on the high seas as an important guiding principle in the law of the sea. This may be beneficial for engaging the international community to protect the high seas in solidarity. However, the application of the CBDR principle encounters difficulties, which include obstacles regarding cross-sector application, different understandings of the CBDR principle and difficulties in implementation of international instruments. This article argues that the differentiation should not depend exclusively on the traditional dichotomy of developing and developed countries but must be determined on a fluid and case-by-case basis. This suggests that the details of the differentiated responsibilities should also be context-specific rather than uniform for all States. Moreover, the implementation of the CBDR principle to address environmental problems on the high seas should be based on substantive fairness. Finally, this article makes several observations. First, the demands of developing countries in the field of maritime emission reduction should be considered. Second, obligation of capacity building and the transfer of marine technology prescribed in the BBNJ Agreement should be encouraged and implemented. Third, strengthening international cooperation in plastic pollution control on the high seas is expected. Fourth, the international community should provide developing countries with the financial support and technical assistance in persistent organic pollutants control. All of these may contribute to the protection of the high seas environment and the future realization of the sustainable development of the oceans.

Climate Change and Environmental Refugees: Addressing within the Framework of International Environmental Law Principles

Climate Change and Environmental Refugees: Addressing within the Framework of International Environmental Law Principles

International Trade and Environmental Protection: Revisiting Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”

Twenty-eight years after the emergence of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime, the trade-environmental protection relationship seems to have achieved some harmonisation from an initial chequered one, though not without some forms of lopsided balancing of the variables. This work explores the relationship between international trade and the environment, revealing whether the competing values are balanced. The methodology adopted is doctrinal, with a comparative and analytical approach involving desk and library research. The work is bifurcated into six parts, commencing with an introduction in the first: the second flesh out international environmental agreements relevant to the trade-environment interaction. The third part examines principles of international environmental law. The paper reflects unilateral trade measures in the fourth part. The fifth part takes stock of WTO jurisprudence. While considerable efforts have been made to mainstream environmental protection into trade objectives through the WTO jurisprudence, there remain some forms of market failures, making the trade-environment relationship lopsided, with inadequate attention given to the environment, which brings to fore the need to revisit David Hunter’s metaphoric invisible elbow destroying the common goods created by an invisible hand.

Systemic crisis of modern international environmental law

The article examines the issue of a complex crisis situation in the field of international legal mediation of environmental protection activities, caused by the treacherous attack of the aggressor country on the territory of Ukraine, which showed the complete inability of the established model of international law, including its organizational and institutional component, to oppose the aggressor's plans due to the forced cessation of hostilities , which follows from the direct functional purpose of the United Nations as the main world peacemaker. First of all, a terminological excursion was made into the formation of the name of the field of international law, which provides legal protection of the environment, which is characterized by the absence of a unified conceptual and categorical apparatus, where, along with international environmental law, the names of international ecological, international nature protection and international environmental law are used. The author's conclusion is made about the expediency of finally stopping at the universal name of international environmental law. The conducted analysis made it possible to establish that the aggressor violated almost all existing branch principles of international environmental law, except for the principle of inadmissibility of radioactive contamination of the environment, which is also under constant threat of violation. The lack of an effective mechanism for the protection of the rights and interests of subjects of international environmental law is illustrated by the example of a number of international documents, in particular the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Means of Impact on the Natural Environment, the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Installations, the Convention on nuclear safety and the Agreement between Ukraine and the International Atomic Energy Agency on the application of safeguards in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Can Domestic Environmental Courts Implement International Environmental Law? A Framework for Institutional Analysis

AbstractThe rapid and widespread establishment of domestic environmental courts and tribunals raises important questions regarding their implications for international environmental law and global environmental governance. I use an interdisciplinary, multi-method approach to consider the capacity of domestic environmental courts to identify and apply norms and principles of international environmental law in domestic opinions. I first review existing literature, identifying jurisdiction, judicial discretion, and a court's position in a legal system as key institutional determinants of this capacity. I then develop a typology of domestic environmental courts and tribunals, which suggests that, all else being equal, a court with national geographic jurisdiction that also enjoys attributes of broad subject-matter jurisdiction and discretion may be expected to be best equipped to implement norms and principles of international environmental law. Next, I integrate existing assessments of environmental court presence with original outreach and web research to identify all countries which possess environmental courts, and assess a subset of eight existing national-level institutions. The analysis of this subset highlights the diversity of institutional models that can incorporate theorized best practices. Based on these findings, I draw several theoretical conclusions: specifically (i) the relevance of environmental court research to individual- and institutional-level analysis in transnational and international environmental law, (ii) the need for further legal-institutional analysis in global environmental governance scholarship, and (iii) the opportunity for further interdisciplinary analysis of the role of domestic courts in environmental governance.

Natural resource management and legal consequences for the environment from the perspective of international environmental law

Management of natural resources that is not in accordance with international problems such as air pollution. Pollution that occurs in the air environment due to forest fires that occurred in Indonesia, especially in 2019 in Riau Province, is not in line with the principles of international environmental law. One of them is the principle of "Sic utere tue ut alienum non leads" in which the state is prohibited from allowing and/or carrying out activities that are detrimental to other countries. So that from these actions there are legal consequences for the State of Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to analyze and find out about preventive measures for the air environment and environmental law due to the air environment based on international law. The method used in writing this thesis is a normative research method. The legal materials used are primary, secondary and tertiary legal materials. The results of this study are that the management of natural resources is not carried out in accordance with the principles of international law, causing air pollution which has a negative impact on the State of Indonesia and also for the State of Malaysia, Singapore. From this research, it is also not allowed to take preventive action through supervision carried out through the government of the State of Indonesia.

Application of Principle of Sustainable Development in Governing Transboundary Water Pollution

International water law, based on the two major water conventions, imposes two main obligations of due diligence and cooperation on the complicated issue of governing transboundary water pollution. Meanwhile, principles of sustainable development, as one of the basic principles of international environmental law, are reflected in international water law documents. The practice of preventing, controlling and reducing transboundary water pollution under international water law explains the implications of equity and continuity under principles of sustainable development. Furthermore, advancing cooperation in transboundary water pollution governance also contributes to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals stipulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Integration of general principles of international environmental law into the law of the sea: Assessment and challenges

This paper discusses how general principles of international environmental law and the law of the sea regime, namely the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and its related agreements, have interacted with each other over time. It analyses how the early adoption of international instruments influenced the adoption of Part XII of UNCLOS and how the content of Part XII has evolved through the adoption of new instruments as well as interpretation by international courts and tribunals. It argues that several environmental principles have become normative concepts in the context of the law of the sea, which implies potential development of Part XII of UNCLOS in the future to meet the contemporary environmental challenges.

The Intersection of International Environmental Law and International Humanitarian Law at Sea

Abstract The maritime domain, largely comprised of international ‘commons’ covering more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, presents some unique challenges in identifying, much less reconciling, applicable International Environmental Law (IEL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) principles. This article posits that the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, particularly its prescriptive and enforcement jurisdictional apportionments to nations relating to the prevention and control of pollution, establishes the peacetime IEL normative framework at sea. After exploring this normative framework, this article furthers the symposium’s overall theme by examining the interplay between this IEL framework and the relatively sparse and sporadic IHL regime at sea. As will be seen, this interplay is largely a question of the extent to which, if at all, these jurisdictional apportionments survive during periods of armed conflict. As such, it aligns more closely with the ‘application process’ for impacting the regulation of armed conflict, in which IEL applies alongside IHL to activities related to armed conflict, than with the ‘interpretation process’, whereby IHL is interpreted in light of IEL.

Norms and principles of international environmental law as a national environmental education element

The objective of the study is to substantiate the necessity of studying the basics of international environmental law within the framework of national environmental education courses at all levels and profiles of the educational system, including school. The research methodology is based on the use of such methods as abstraction and concretisation, analysis and synthesis, induction, and deduction. The acquisition by students of knowledge of the basics of international environmental law, as it seems, will allow them to get an idea in a concise and capacious form about the most important achievements of mankind in the sphere of legal regulation of relations formed in the process of environmental protection and nature use, about the main environmental challenges facing mankind, about the key terms of environmental law, a universal legal language understandable to lawyers of all countries of the world, about the mechanism of implementation of the norms of international environmental law. The inclusion of information on international environmental law in educational courses will help to form a developed environmental legal consciousness among the younger generation and promote responsible environmental behaviour in the future.

Analyzing the Application of the Principles of International Environmental Law in the National Legal Framework of Bangladesh

Analyzing the Application of the Principles of International Environmental Law in the National Legal Framework of Bangladesh

Globalni pakt za životnu sredinu - elementi kodifikacije i/ili novi međunarodni ugovor

The paper explores the relationship between the Draft Global Pact for the Environment (the Global Pact) and relevant international documents (declarations and international environmental agreements) and the legislation of Republic of Serbia (RS). The first part of the article provides a survey of the contents of the Global Pact, pointing to the significance of the international environmental law principles included in this document. The next part of the paper discusses the relationship between the Global Pact principles and RS legislation, with specific reference to the relationship between the Global Pact and the right to a (healthy) environment. The author concludes that the norms of the Global Pact and those of the international environmental agreements and RS domestic laws coincide to a great extent. Apart from the intentions to codify environmental law principles, the Global Pact also introduces some new principles whose contents and scope should be analysed in detail.

Ocean Fertilization Technology from the perspective of the principles of international environmental law

Ocean Fertilization Technology from the perspective of the principles of international environmental law

Understanding the Principles of International Environmental Law and Their Reflections in International Environmental Treaties and Non-Binding Soft Law Instruments

There are several principles that are at the heart of the bulk of most environmental protection structures at the international level. These principles are universal in make-up and have far-reaching support and are commonly allowed in state practice. They are universal in the sense that they are possibly applicable to all members of the global society across the scope of projects which they execute or approve and with regard to the protection of every aspects of the environment. Some of these principles might reflect customary law, others may reflect emerging legal obligations, and yet others might have an even less developed legal status. An understanding of these principles which might reflect customary law or emerging legal obligations can give insight into the rationale and drive of the diverse legal systems that have been built upon them. The aim of this article, which adopted the doctrinal research methodology, is to examine the main principles of international environmental law and their reflections in international environmental treaties and non-binding soft law instruments. To achieve its aim, this article discusses the principles of international environmental law (IEL) under the focal areas of the principles of IEL expressing the idea of prevention, principles of IEL expressing the idea of balance and fairness, principles of IEL expressing the idea of cooperation and public participation, principles of IEL expressing the idea of common heritage/concern and shared benefits. The article further examines the international environmental treaties reflecting the principles of IEL. Keywords: International Environmental Law, Principles of IEL, International Environmental Treaties, Non-Binding Soft Law Instruments DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/123-08 Publication date: August 31 st 2022

The Role of International Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development in the Formation of Principles of International Environmental Law

This article studies the significance and role of the regulatory activity of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in the formation of the principles of such a comparatively new field of international law as international environmental law. It is shown that although at the time of its creation in 1960, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development was in no way an international organization of environmental character, but since the early 1970s, environmental issues have become an important area of international legal cooperation under the auspices of this organization. In 1971, an Environmental Protection Committee was formed within the OECD, now called the Environmental Policy Committee. During the 1970s, under the auspices of the OECD, the Recommendations on Guiding Principles concerning International Economic Aspects of Environmental Policies of 1972 and the Recommendation on the Implementation of the Polluter-Pays Principle of 1974 were adopted, enshrining the polluter-pays principle, which imposes on the polluter the costs of implementing pollution prevention and control measures to ensure that the environment is in good condition. The provisions of the OECD Recommendation on the Implementation of the Polluter-Pays Principle of 1974 were quickly implemented in the law of the European Communities and today the Lisbon version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union contains it in paragraph 2 of Article 191, together with such principles of the European Union's environmental policy as the precautionary principle, the principles that preventive action should be taken, that environmental damage should as a priority be rectified at source. The «polluter pays» principle is normatively enshrined only in The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of 1992, The Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents of 1992, etc. Regulatory activity under the auspices of the OECD were also essential for the establishment and formation of such principles of international environmental law as the principle of preliminary environmental impact assessment, the principle of undiminished environmental protection of other states and areas beyond national jurisdiction, etc.

A Brief Assessment of the Principles of International Environmental Law

A Brief Assessment of the Principles of International Environmental Law

Customary Norms, General Principles of International Environmental Law, and Assisted Migration as a Tool for Biodiversity Adaptation to Climate Change

Assisted migration (AM) is a translocation of the representatives of species to areas outside their natural habitats as a response to climate change. This article seeks to identify how customary norms and general principles of international environmental law could guide the development of regulation of AM maximizing the benefits of using AM and minimizing AM-related risks. Among the customary norms and principles of international environmental law discussed in the article and relevant to the regulation of AM are the permanent sovereignty over natural resources, the principle of cooperation, the no-harm rule, the precautionary principle, the principles of prevention, due diligence, and obligation to conduct environmental impact assessment (EIA), the principles of integration and intergenerational equity, common but differentiated responsibilities, and the polluter pays principle, the principles of non-regression, progression, resilience, in dubio pro natura, the principle of ecological proportionality, and the principle of access to information, public participation, and access to justice in environmental matters (principle of good governance, environmental democracy).

International Legal Protection of the Atmosphere and Ozone Layer: the Continuation of the History

The article examines the evolution of international legal regulation of atmospheric air from transboundary pollution over long distances both in connection with the formation of international judicial practice and a series of protocols that developed the 1979 Convention, specifying its content. On the one hand, we are talking about the search for criteria for fulfilling obligations through the concept of “critical load”. On the other hand, it is about clarifying substances and processes for which special regulation is introduced to increase the likelihood of preventing pollution.The protection of the atmosphere is also relevant to the protection of the ozone layer, provided not only through the fulfillment of obligations under the 1985 Convention, but mainly through the Montreal Protocol of 1987, which is achieved not only by more specific obligations, but also by a compliance procedure. If initially, within the framework of the international legal protection of atmospheric air and the protection of the ozone layer, the principles of international environmental law were only declared, then with the adoption of the protocols they received confirmation of their implementation. Strengthening such important principles such as no harm outside national jurisdiction, precaution, common but differentiated responsibility