Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Before looking at the scope of international environmental law in detail, we
should consider the basic issues.
To understand the system of international environmental law, we need to
have a general understanding of the nature of international law. In this chapter,
we will focus primarily on the factors that have infl uenced the development of
international environmental law. We will then be able to review international
environmental law's potential to resolve regional and even global environmental
problems. As international law is a legal system controlled by states, we will see
that there is good reason to question its capacity to regulate environmentally
destructive activities in a world in which it is not primarily states but multina-
tional businesses operating within an increasingly global market which are the
worst polluters.
The main function of international environmental law
International environmental law is an extremely challenging branch of law and
diffi cult to organize into a coherent whole. If there were a global, international
environmental organization comparable to the World Trade Organization
(WTO), with its automatic dispute settlement procedures, international envi-
ronmental law could be viewed in a more unifi ed light. But in international
environmental law, there are just a number of loosely connected international
environmental and other organizations, self-standing international environ-
mental agreements and piecemeal governmental practices related to the use of
the environment, united by an effort to promote international environmental
protection or sustainable use of natural resources. However, as we will see in
Chapter 4
, efforts to protect the environment have resulted in the development
of a signifi cant number of principles, which have brought some coherence to
international environmental law.
