Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword by David D. Caron
- TRANSBOUNDARY HARM IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE TRAIL SMELTER ARBITRATION – HISTORY, LEGACY, AND REVIVAL
- PART TWO TRAIL SMELTER AND CONTEMPORARY TRANSBOUNDARY HARM – THE ENVIRONMENT
- 11 Trail Smelter in Contemporary International Environmental Law: Its Relevance in the Nuclear Energy Context
- 12 Through the Looking Glass: Sustainable Development and Other Emerging Concepts of International Environmental Law in the Gabčikovo-Nagymaros Case and the Trail Smelter Arbitration
- 13 Trail Smelter's (Semi) Precautionary Legacy
- 14 Surprising Parallels between Trail Smelter and the Global Climate Change Regime
- 15 Sovereignty's Continuing Importance: Traces of Trail Smelter in the International Law Governing Hazardous Waste Transport
- 16 The Legacy of Trail Smelter in the Field of Transboundary Air Pollution
- 17 The Impact of the Trail Smelter Arbitration on the Law of the Sea
- PART THREE TRAIL SMELTER AND CONTEMPORARY TRANSBOUNDARY HARM – BEYOND THE ENVIRONMENT
- Annex A Convention Between the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada Relative to the Establishment of a Tribunal to Decide Questions of Indemnity and Future Regime Arising from the Operation of Smelter at Trail, British Columbia
- Annex B Trail Smelter Arbitral Tribunal Decision, April 16, 1938
- Annex C Trail Smelter Arbitral Tribunal March 11, 1941, Decision
- Index
17 - The Impact of the Trail Smelter Arbitration on the Law of the Sea
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword by David D. Caron
- TRANSBOUNDARY HARM IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE TRAIL SMELTER ARBITRATION – HISTORY, LEGACY, AND REVIVAL
- PART TWO TRAIL SMELTER AND CONTEMPORARY TRANSBOUNDARY HARM – THE ENVIRONMENT
- 11 Trail Smelter in Contemporary International Environmental Law: Its Relevance in the Nuclear Energy Context
- 12 Through the Looking Glass: Sustainable Development and Other Emerging Concepts of International Environmental Law in the Gabčikovo-Nagymaros Case and the Trail Smelter Arbitration
- 13 Trail Smelter's (Semi) Precautionary Legacy
- 14 Surprising Parallels between Trail Smelter and the Global Climate Change Regime
- 15 Sovereignty's Continuing Importance: Traces of Trail Smelter in the International Law Governing Hazardous Waste Transport
- 16 The Legacy of Trail Smelter in the Field of Transboundary Air Pollution
- 17 The Impact of the Trail Smelter Arbitration on the Law of the Sea
- PART THREE TRAIL SMELTER AND CONTEMPORARY TRANSBOUNDARY HARM – BEYOND THE ENVIRONMENT
- Annex A Convention Between the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada Relative to the Establishment of a Tribunal to Decide Questions of Indemnity and Future Regime Arising from the Operation of Smelter at Trail, British Columbia
- Annex B Trail Smelter Arbitral Tribunal Decision, April 16, 1938
- Annex C Trail Smelter Arbitral Tribunal March 11, 1941, Decision
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The 1941 Trail Smelter arbitral decision is often described as a landmark case in the development of international environmental law. Although not a case dealing with the marine environment, the same claim has been advanced in the context of the law of the sea, with the case exerting a significant impact on aspects of the development of the Law of the Sea Convention, albeit indirectly. Trail Smelter certainly informed the deliberations of delegates to the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as a number of other diplomatic endeavors aimed at providing greater protection to the marine environment. Some of the principles underlying the provisions in the Convention, particularly with respect to marine pollution, clearly have their antecedents in the 1941 Trail Smelter decision. By contrast, there is a dearth of references to Trail Smelter in international cases on the law of the sea, and the development of marine environmental law seems to have occurred without direct reliance on the decision. Indeed, an argument could be made that shipping disasters such as the Torrey Canyon, Amoco Cadiz, and Exxon Valdez, as well as the emergence of the precautionary principle, have had a greater impact on the development of international marine environmental law than the 1941 Trail Smelter decision. This chapter will explore the relationship between the 1941 Trail Smelter decision and the Law of the Sea Convention and evaluate the influence it has exerted.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Transboundary Harm in International LawLessons from the Trail Smelter Arbitration, pp. 209 - 222Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006