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The Evolution of Transnational Environmental Law: Four Cases in Historical Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Peter H. Sand
Peter H. Sand*
Affiliation:
Institute of International Law, University of Munich, Germany. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This essay places transnational environmental law in an epistemological context. Starting from the general concept of ‘transnational law’ and the specific environmental dimension of ‘international administrative law’, four case histories are presented to illustrate the integrant approach of transnational environmental law. The cases – all arising in the 1970s – deal with transboundary problems of aircraft noise, ocean dumping, river pollution, and marine protected areas. In addition to traditional aspects of public international law in the environmental field, they typically interface with questions of administrative law, private international law, criminal law, and human rights law. The essay advocates a new focus on mechanisms for participation by civil society in the operation and implementation of transnational environmental law.

Keywords

Transnational LawPublic ParticipationAircraft NoiseOcean DumpingRiver PollutionMarine Protected Areas
Type
Commentary
Information
Transnational Environmental Law , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , April 2012 , pp. 183 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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33 See the OECD recommendations at n. 98 below.

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51 Barcelona (Spain), 16 Feb. 1976, in force 12 Feb. 1978, 1102 UNTS 92; amended as: Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean, Barcelona (Spain), 10 June 1995, in force 9 July 2004, available at: http://www.unepmap.org/index.php?module=content2&catid=001001004.

52 N. 50 above, Annex I(A) para. 8 (subject to further negotiations on specific thresholds).

53 See http://www.sec.gov/answers/form10k.htm.

54 See http://www.iso.org/iso_14000_essentials.

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76 Fox, ibid., at p. 1029, with regard to the 1966 UN Covenants on Human Rights (ratified by the UK in 1976). In contrast, the UN Human Rights Committee considers the Covenants to apply to the BIOT, and in 2008 urged the UK government ‘to include the territory in its next periodic report’: Report of the Committee on its 93rd Session, UN Doc. CCPR/C/GBR/CO/6, Geneva (Switzerland), 30 July 2008, p. 6. Among the environmental treaties ratified by the UK but not extended to the BIOT – out of concern for operations on the US military base – are the 1989 Basel Convention on Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes, Basel (Switzerland) 22 Mar. 1989, in force 5 May 1992, 173 UNTS 57, available at: http://www.basel.int; the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), 5 June 1992, in force 29 Dec. 1993, 1760 UNTS 79, available at: http://www.cbd.int/convention/text; the Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto (Japan), 10 Dec. 1997, in force 16 Feb. 2005, 2303 UNTS 148, available at: http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php; the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, Stockholm (Sweden), 22 May 2001, in force 17 May 2004, 2256 UNTS 119, available at: http://www.pops.int; and the Aarhus Convention (see n. 110 below).

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83 The Queen (on the application of Bancoult) v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Bancoult 2) [2008] UKHL 61, (2008) 4 All England Law Reports 1055, (2010) 138 International Law Reports 628; critical case notes in (2009) 103 American Journal of International Law, pp. 317–24, and (2009) Public Law, pp. 260–86, 697–722.

84 British Indian Ocean Territory, Proclamation No. 1 of 2010 (Marine Protected Area) and Sch., 1 Apr. 2010; see Sand, P.H., ‘The Chagos Archipelago: Footprint of Empire, or World Heritage?’ (2010) 40 Environmental Policy and Law, pp. 232–42.Google Scholar

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86 See ‘New Protection for the Marine Life of the British Indian Ocean Territory’, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Press Statement, 1 Apr. 2010, available at: http//www.ukotcf.org/pdf/News/MPA100401FCOStatementonBIOT.pdf.

87 Montego Bay (Jamaica), 10 Dec. 1982, in force 16 Nov. 1994, 1833 UNTS 3, available at: http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_agreements.htm.

88 See n. 76 above; Abraham, G., ‘Paradise Claimed: Disputed Sovereignty Over the Chagos Archipelago’ (2011) 128 South African Law Journal, pp. 63–99Google Scholar; and Papanicolopulu, I., ‘Submission to Arbitration of the Dispute on the Marine Protected Area around the Chagos Archipelago’ (2011) 26 International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, pp. 667–78.Google Scholar

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95 Lorenz, K., Die Rückseite des Spiegels: Versuch einer Naturgeschichte menschlichen Erkennens (Piper, 1973), pp. 30–32, 320.Google Scholar The English translation by R. Taylor, Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge (Harcourt Brace, 1978) unfortunately misplaces the nuance of the metaphor: Lorenz was not at all concerned with some wonderland behind the looking-glass, but most pragmatically with the mirror itself, and its dark reverse side (Rückseite) neglected by conventional epistemologies.

96 Friedman, L., ‘Borders: On the Emerging Sociology of Transnational Law’ (1996) 32 Stanford Journal of International Law, pp. 65–90Google Scholar; and generally Rawls, J., The Law of Peoples (Harvard University Press, 1999).Google Scholar

97 Stockholm (Sweden), 19 Feb. 1974, in force 5 Oct. 1976, 1092 UNTS 279.

98 Recommendations C(74)224 on Principles Concerning Transfrontier Pollution, 14 Nov. 1974; C(76)55 on Equal Right of Access in Relation to Transfrontier Pollution, 11 May 1976; and C(77)28 on the Implementation of a Regime of Equal Right of Access and Non-Discrimination in Relation to Transfrontier Pollution, 17 May 1977.

99 E.g., Art. 2(6) of the unece Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Espoo (Finland), 25 Feb. 1991, in force 10 Sept. 1997, 1989 UNTS 309, available at: http://www.unece.org/env/eia/eia.html; Art. 9(3) of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, Helsinki (Finland), 17 March 1992, in force 6 Oct. 1996, 1936 UNTS 269; and Art. 32 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, New York, NY (US) 21 May 1997, not yet in force, (1997) 36 International Legal Materials, p. 719.

100 Art. 15 (‘Non-Discrimination’); see the Report of the International Law Commission on its 53rd Session, 23 Apr.–1 June and 2 July–10 Aug. 2001, UN Doc. A/56/10 (2001), at p. 427.

101 See text at nn. 14–18 above.

102 Based on Art. 258 TFEU. See Krämer, L., ‘Du contrôle de l’application des directives communautaires en matière de l’environnement’ (1988) 31 Revue du Marché Commun, pp. 22 – 40.Google Scholar

103 Website revised in Sept. 2009: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/legal/law/complaints.htm.

104 See Annex 2 of EEC Information Memo P/90/5, ‘Control of the Application of Community Law on Environment: First Commission Report’, 8 Feb. 1990, Table 2 in P.H. Sand, Lessons Learned in Global Environmental Governance (World Resources Institute, 1990), at p. 32.

105 Art. 14 NAAEC (Canada-Mexico-USA, 13 Sept. 1993), (1993) 32 International Legal Materials, p. 1480. See Raustiala, K., ‘Citizen Submissions and Treaty Review in the NAAEC’, in Markell, D.L. & Knox, J.H. (eds.), Greening NAFTA: The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (Stanford University Press, 2003), p. 256–73.Google Scholar

106 World Bank Resolution 93-10 of 22 Sept. 1993, (1993) 4 Yearbook of International Environmental Law, p. 883; Clark, D. et al. . (eds.), Demanding Accountability: Civil Society Claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).Google Scholar

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109 Term coined by Raustiala, K., ‘The “Participatory Revolution” in International Environmental Law’ (1997) 21 Harvard Environmental Law Review, pp. 537–86.Google Scholar

110 Aarhus (Denmark), 25 June 1998, in force 30 Oct. 2001, 2161 UNTS 447, available at: http://www.unece.org/environmental-policy/treaties/public-participation/aarhus-convention.html.

111 See Decision I/7 of the 1st Meeting of the Parties, UN Doc. ECE/MP.PP/2002/2/Add.8, Annex, Geneva (Switzerland), Oct. 2002.

112 Art. 8 of the Protocol on Ozone-Depleting Substances, Montreal (Canada), 16 Sept. 1987, in force 1 Jan. 1989, available at: http://ozone.unep.org/, and Decision II/5 of the 2nd Meeting of the Parties. Széll, P., ‘The Montreal Protocol: A New Legal Model for Compliance Control’, in Le Prestre, P.G. et al. . (eds.), Protecting the Ozone Layer: Lessons, Models, and Prospects (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998), pp. 91–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

113 See generally Treves, T. et al. . (eds.), Non-Compliance Procedures and Mechanisms, and the Effectiveness of International Environmental Agreements (Asser Press, 2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

114 See Epiney, A., ‘The Role of NGOs in the Process of Ensuring Compliance with MEAs’, in Beyerlin, U. et al. . (eds.), Ensuring Compliance with Multilateral Environmental Agreements: A Dialogue between Practitioners and Academia (Martinus Nijhoff, 2006), pp. 319–52, at 325, 340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

115 Gehring, T., ‘International Environmental Regimes: Dynamic Sectoral Legal Systems’ (1990) 1 Yearbook of International Environmental Law, pp. 35–56, at 52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

116 The standard dispute settlement provisions of most multilateral environmental treaties have never been used in practice: see Romano, n. 11 above, at p. 1041.

117 Klabbers, J., ‘Compliance Procedures’, in Bodansky, D. et al. . (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law (Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 995–1009.Google Scholar

118 See Koester, V., ‘The Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention: An Overview of Procedures and Jurisprudence’ (2007) 37(2/3) Environmental Policy and Law, pp. 83–96.Google Scholar

119 ‘Guidance Document on the Aarhus Convention Compliance Mechanism’, p. 5, available at: http://live.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/pp/compliance/CC_GuidanceDocument.pdf. See Pitea, C., ‘NGOs in Non-Compliance Mechanisms under Multilateral Environmental Agreements: From Tolerance to Recognition?’, in Treves, T. (ed.), Civil Society, International Courts and Compliance Bodies (Asser Press, 2004), pp. 205–24.Google Scholar

120 On recent jurisprudence of the Committee, see Koester, V., ‘The Compliance Mechanism: Outcomes and Stocktaking’ (2011) 41 Environmental Policy and Law, pp. 196–204.Google Scholar

121 E-mail communication from the BIOT Administrator to the author (26 Nov. 2008); see also nn. 75 and 76 above. The UK ratified the Convention in 2005, without extension to overseas territories.

122 Report of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), 3–14 June 1992, UN Doc. A/CONF.151/26/Rev.1, vol. I/Annex I, p. 3, (1992) 31 International Legal Materials, p. 874.

123 See European Parliament, Resolution of 29 Sept. 2011 on Developing a Common EU Position Ahead of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), provisional edn. B7-0522/2011, at paras. 82–83 (‘effective global implementation of Rio Principle 10’, ‘global convention’); and Submission by Brazil to the Preparatory Process of the Rio+20 Conference, Brasilia (Brazil), 1 Nov. 2011, at p. 33 (‘launch of negotiations on a global convention’).

124 See http://www.accessinitiative.org.

125 See Petkova, E. & Bruce, G. (eds.), Assessing Access to Information, Participation, and Justice for the Environment: A Guide (World Resources Institute, 2003).Google Scholar But see, on initial US government resistance, Sand, P.H., ‘The Right to Know: Freedom of Environmental Information in Comparative and International Law’ (2011) 20 Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law, pp. 1–30, at 23.Google Scholar

126 See 11th Special Session/Global Environmental Forum, Bali (Indonesia), 26 Feb. 2010, UN Doc. UNEP/GCSS.XI/4/1/Annex.

127 Bacon, See F., Essayes or Counsel, Civill and Morall (Havilland, 1625)Google Scholar: 24 (‘Of Innovations’).