Enacting and developing international environmental law - Introduction to International Environmental Law - page 79

international treaties (especially in international environmental law) be given con-
tent via judicial procedures.
18 See the ICJ's guidance on this matter at the North Sea Continental Shelf Cases
(Federal Republic of Germany/Denmark; Federal Republic of Germany/
Netherlands), (para. 74), at the ICJ's website at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/
fi les/52/5561.pdf
19 Convention on the Continental Shelf, 1958, http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/
instruments/english/conventions/8_1_1958_continental_shelf.pdf
20 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_
agreements/convention_overview_convention.htm
21 Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act (AWPPA), http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/
marinesafety/debs-arctic-acts-regulations-awppa-494.htm
22 For example, academics in the fi eld often regard most principles of international
environmental law as principles of customary international law, but many states
(and their foreign ministries) disagree.
23 Even if customary law rules were incorporated into treaties, they still continue to
operate in customary law as well. As the ICJ put it in the Nicaragua case, they
'continue to be binding as part of customary international law, despite the opera-
tion of provisions of conventional law in which they have been incorporated'
(para. 73); see the ICJ's homepage at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/fi les/70/6485.
pdf
24 General principles of law is a source of law, and should not be confused with
principles of international environmental law, which normally develop on the
basis of the rules stipulating how customary international law evolves.
25 It is, however, true that the ICJ has decided many maritime border disputes
between states on the basis of equitable principles. Even if this is the case, the
Court is not asked by the disputing states to decide on the basis of equity, but
on the basis of relevant rules of international law (which include equitable
considerations).
26 Case Concerning Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay ( Argentina v. Uruguay ), para. 204,
at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/fi les/135/15877.pdf
27 International arbitration on the basis of the European Energy Charter and a large
number of bilateral investment treaties has greatly increased over time.
28 The International Court of Justice is entitled, upon the request of the parties to a
dispute, to make a decision according to what they deem to be fair and just, even
going beyond the formally binding rules of international law ( ex aequo et bono ).
No states have to date requested that it do so.
Further reading
Ahmad, A., Cosmopolitan Orientation of the Process of International Environmental Lawmak-
ing; An Islamic Law Genre , Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2001.
Bodansky, D., 'Customary (and Not So Customary) International Environmental
Law', Indiana Global Legal Studies Journal , 3, 1995, s. 105-15.
Boyle, A., 'Some Refl ections on the Relationship of Treaties and Soft Law',
International and Comparative Law Quarterly , 48, 1999, pp. 901-13.
Brownlie, I., Principles of Public International Law , 7th edn, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2008.
Brunnée, J., 'Reweaving the Fabric of International Law? Patterns of Consent in
Environmental Framework Agreements', in R. Wolfrum and V. Röben (eds),
Developments of International Law in Treaty-Making? , pp. 101-26, Berlin: Springer
Verlag, 2005.