Basic issues in international environmental law - Introduction to International Environmental Law - page 17

law). The primary subjects of international law are states: as sovereign actors
in the international community they are entitled to conclude treaties, and have
(in principle) international-legal operational responsibility within their territory.
The principle of no-harm in international law requires states to regulate
their polluting operations carefully in order to avoid causing environmental
damage to territories belonging to other states or to areas beyond national
jurisdiction.
The 'polluter pays' principle has been applied within certain treaties in order
to make private enterprises or industry sectors accountable for environmental
damage. Such agreements primarily concern certain high-risk operations such
as nuclear power plants or oil transportation, and even then they have only a
limited effect. A small number of treaties have even been made to allow for
compensation claims from victims of environmental accidents in the legal
system of the country of their choice. Private enterprises have been heavily
involved in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, although they are not
directly involved in the negotiations; climate regime is, after all, ultimately a
matter for agreement by states.
Generally, a company can only be held legally accountable for environmental
damage through the national legal system. How this happens in practice depends
on the rules relating to transboundary damage. For instance, Article 3 of the
Nordic Environmental Protection Convention 20 states:
Any person who is affected or may be affected by a nuisance caused by
environmentally harmful activities in another Contracting State shall have
the right to bring before the appropriate Court or Administrative Authority
of that State the question of the permissibility of such activities including
the question of measures to prevent damage, and to appeal against the
decision of the Court or the Administrative Authority to the same extent
and on the same terms as a legal entity of the State in which the activities
are being carried out.
The provisions of the fi rst paragraph of this Article shall be equally appli-
cable in the case of proceedings concerning compensation for damage
caused by environmentally harmful activities. The question of compensation
shall not be judged by rules which are less favourable to the injured party
than the rules of compensation of the state in which the activities are being
carried out.
Anyone affected can, then, take a claim of compensation for transboundary
environmental damage to a court in the state in which the damaging activities
are being conducted.