Principles of international environmental protection - Introduction to International Environmental Law - page 129

international law? Or is it a general legal principle? Find the homepage of
the International Court of Justice and study the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros case
and how the principle of no-harm is expressed in that judgment. (Note: it
is often helpful to read the Court's own summaries of its judgments before
tackling the full texts.) Does the Court defi ne the principle of no-harm in
the same manner as the Stockholm and Rio Declarations? If not, does the
difference have legal signifi cance and if so, what?
2 Why is it so diffi cult for states to protect the biological diversity in the
areas beyond their own national jurisdiction? This problem is being
discussed in a process backed by the UN General Assembly and in the
biodiversity system. Find these processes (see the websites list) and con-
sider how the approach to the issue has changed over the past ten years.
3 Find an article about the latest stages in the Trail Smelter saga in your data-
base. The fact that a book on the subject has recently been published
shows the ongoing importance of the case. The arbitrators stated very
emphatically how international law regulates transboundary air pollution.
Why then do so many lawyers seem to be unclear about this?
Principles, approaches and regulatory instruments in international
environmental law
1 Why did the UN International Court of Justice call sustainable develop-
ment a 'concept' rather than an objective or a principle? Don't all the states
in the world at least claim to be implementing sustainable development?
Could sustainable development therefore be considered a general principle
of law that binds all states? How would you defi ne sustainable develop-
ment in more detail? To what types of pollution do you think sustainable
development applies? Does it apply to transboundary pollution?
2 What problems, if any, do you see in the precautionary principle from
the perspective of businesses? Find the Rio Declaration and see how the
precautionary principle is recorded there. How do you think the wording
balances the interests of economic activity with environmental protection?
Do you think the balance is the right one?
3 Imagine that you are working in a regional environmental agency and
you realize that a proposed steelworks that is important for the economy
in your area would probably have transboundary environmental impacts.
Would you report this to the government department so that the neigh-
bouring country and its citizens could participate in the environmental
impact assessment (EIA)? If the EIA legislation gave you an option - if
you understood that it would not be necessary to notify anyone if you
could not be certain that the steelworks would be likely to cause signifi cant
impacts to another state - would you report it? Consider also a scenario in
which you would know that the case you are responsible for is also being
supervised by the central government.