11 - The future of international environmental litigation

Summary

The flourishing of international environmental litigation

In concluding this book it must be asked what the future holds in store for international environmental dispute settlement. It certainly could not have been imagined at the Stockholm or Rio conferences, the two key ‘constitutional moments’ for international environmental law, that within decades international litigation on environmental matters would become a relatively routine occurrence in international relations. By 1972 only a handful of environmentally significant cases had been decided, the most important being the arbitral awards in the Bering Sea Fur Seals, Trail Smelter, and Lake Lanoux cases. No environmental case had yet been determined by the ICJ, although the Fisheries Jurisdiction cases were commenced just prior to the Stockholm Conference.

There were some important additions in the years leading up to the Rio Conference, beginning with the Nuclear Tests cases, which marked a new era in international environmental litigation in which ecological threats were identified clearly and directly, and claims began to be asserted on the basis of a growing collection of applicable rules and standards. Similarly, Nauru's application in the Certain Phosphate Lands in Nauru, which began in 1989, was built upon evidence of massive environmental degradation suffered while the Pacific microstate was under the administration of Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Since the Rio Conference there has been a tremendous intensification and diversification in the practice of environmental dispute settlement.