Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Questions and research tasks
1 What would you consider to be the most effi cient strategy for environmental
protection? Should, for instance, the focus be on enforcement of existing
international environmental law? Should ways be found to better motivate
multinational companies to protect the environment more effi ciently? If you
choose this option, how could companies be motivated? What other options
would you emphasize?
2 Try to fi nd a website that gives an objective discussion of the whaling
treaty system. Then fi nd a scientifi c article that you think gives a neutral
account of ways in which the whaling system might be developed.
3
Consider institutions where you might expect to fi nd good, topical articles
and comment on the development of international environmental law. Find
the homepages and explore the resources.
Notes
1
Contamination and pollution are used here as general terms to refer to harmful
impact on the environment from human activity, understood in a wide sense. The
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, for instance, defi nes pollution of the
marine environment for its purposes in Article 1 (4): '“pollution of the marine
environment” means the introduction by man, directly or indirectly, of substances
or energy into the marine environment, including estuaries, which results or is
likely to result in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources and marine
life, hazards to human health, hindrance to marine activities, including fi shing and
other legitimate uses of the sea, impairment of quality for use of sea water and
reduction of amenities'. An agreement generally needs to consider what kinds of
environmental impact it can be applied to. A good example is the so-called Espoo
Convention (Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary
Context). Article 1(vii) states: '“Impact” means any effect caused by a proposed
activity on the environment including human health and safety, fl ora, fauna, soil,
air, water, climate, landscape and historical monuments or other physical structures
or the interaction among these factors; it also includes effects on cultural heritage
or socio-economic conditions resulting from alterations to those factors.' It is
worth considering whether or not this defi nition includes the reduction of natural
diversity.
2
By international environmental regulation, I refer to intentional actions by govern-
ments to change human behaviour by legally binding and so-called soft-law rules.
Soft-law instruments (e.g. declarations or action programmes) do not strictly bind
governments legally, but signal political or moral commitment. International envi-
ronmental law is a broader notion than international environmental regulation,
since it also comprises other ways in which rules and principles develop. When
governments react to each other's actions, it can be deemed after a certain time that
a principle within international customary law has evolved. It has not been
expressly created by states, but it has evolved gradually as a combined outcome of
the practices and legal views of governments.
3
Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 19 May
2010, on the energy performance of buildings,
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/
4
International environmental law is a branch of international law, though research in
international environmental law is more and more diverging from mainstream
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