Environmental laws are the standards that governments establish to manage natural resources and environmental quality. The broad categories of "natural resources" and "environmental quality" include such areas as air and water pollution, forests and wildlife, hazardous waste, agricultural practices, wetlands, and land use planning. To understand the nature of international environmental law, one must first understand the difference between national and international law. National law is law that is adopted by the government of an individual country. On the other hand, international law concerns agreements among different nations, or between citizens or corporations of different nations. So, international environmental law is a body of international law concerned with protecting the environment, primarily through bilateral and multilateral international agreements. International environmental law covers topics such as population, biodiversity, climate change, ozone depletion, toxic and hazardous substances, air, land, sea and transboundary water pollution, conservation of marine resources, desertification, and nuclear damage.

Environmental problems arise due to the lack of a balance between the elements of the environment itself and because of the people who live in it. Environmental problems are increasing day by day, initially was a national problem that became a part of under national jurisdiction and now it has shifted into cross-border problems and impacted the global environment, so that international environmental agreements was created. There are 2 sources of international law,  i.e. soft law and hard law. Soft law refers to agreements or principles that are meant to influence individual nations to respect certain norms or incorporate them into national law. Soft law by itself is not enforceable. It serves to articulate standards widely shared, or aspired to, by nations. Meanwhile, hard law generally refers to agreements or principles that are directly enforceable by a national or international body.

Soft  law is a form of international law that does not directly bind the state, but it must be guided to form the future law. The eample of soft law is a declaration. There are four major declarations which are soft law for international environmental law, i.e. Stockholm Declaration 1972, Nairobi Declaration 1982, Rio Declaration 1992, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) 2002. Growth of international environmental law began in the 1970s with the Stockholm Declaration 1972. Since then, interest has steadily increased and it was one of the fastest growing areas of international law.  That conference which organized by UN was held from 5-12 June 1972, which marks June 5 as World's Environmental Day.

Whereas, hard law is a form of international law that has binding power to contracting parties directly. The form of hard law can be a treaty, convention, protocol, and others. Hard law about environment is divided into four parts, namely :

1.        Marine Environment Protection

Marine environment protection regime is fragmented in several conventions based on pollution sources. Therefore, the description is divided into several sub-sections, namely the protection of the sea from oil mining activities, dumping, and the pollution from the ground. These are several conventions governing the protection of the marine environment : 1) Paris Convention 1974 (The convention consists of 29 articles and 2 Annexs which require States to individually or jointly prevent the occurrence of marine pollution from ground-based pollutants. This convention regulates and limits the types of prohibited pollutants that may be entered into the sea), 2) London Convention 1976 (This convention is the first international convention to consider that the acts of blemish the marine environment is unlawful. Hence, this convention requires that any corporation that undertakes offshore pollution either sourced from the installation or from the ship must guarantee the financial responsibility for the harm suffered by the victim or the victimized States), and 3) Sea Law Convention 1982 (This convention does not specifically regulate environmental pollution, but regulates in general about the prevention of marine pollution. According to this convention, each State has the right of sovereignty to take natural resources on the sea or on the seabed. In addition, the convention also requires States to use environmentally friendly technologies. Therefore, States in the world are obliged to cooperate in making technology and marine environmental protection regulation).

2.        Atmospheric Protection

This international law deals with climate change, air pollution, and global warming. Several conventions governing the protection of the atmosphere are : 1) Vienna Convention 1985 (The preamble of this convention shows the awareness of international community's on the threat that will be emerged to the world's atmosphere. This convention doesn't contain the standards to be met in order to limit the ozone. Nevertheless, it can be the foundation for cooperation in protecting the thinning ozone layer) and 2) Convention on Climate Change 1992  (The convention is designed to regulate the use of greenhouse gases that caused global warming and climate change. The ultimate objective of the convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level to prevent the harmful effects of greenhouse gases on climate systems. The convention was followed up by Kyoto Protocol in December 1997 which contained norms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions strictly).

3.        Nature Conservation

International law for the protection of biodiversity is contained of two international conventions: 1) CITES 1973 (The convention aims to protect biodiversity through the trade of certain species internationally. The protection of species within CITES is divided into 3 categories contained in its 3 Appendixes; Appendix I: includes all endangered species due to the effects of international trade, Appendix II: includes all species that are not endangered, but may be threatened with extinction if not explicitly regulated, Appendix III: includes all species identified by the parties as species subject to arrangements to prevent or limit the exploitation of such species through an international cooperation between States) and 2) Convention on Biological Diversity (This convention regulates the protection of biodiversity, both ex situ and in situ and equal sharing among States. According to this convention, the State has a sovereign right to its biological resources, but the State also has an obligation to protect and conserve biological resources in its territory. Consideration of ratification of this convention is that biodiversity in the world plays an important role for the continuation of the evolutionary process and the maintenance of ecosystems and biosphere life systems). Both of these conventions are international legal products that provide protection to all species of all habitats in the world.

4.        Toxic Hazardous Substances

The convention about hazardous wastes was established to regulate the prohibition, trade, and transfer of B3 waste from one State to another State. This convention only allows trade and transfer of B3 waste only for recycling purposes or for the purposes of certain industrial raw materials under the condition that the country of origin is willing to re-accept the remaining B3 waste if from the usage still leaves B3 waste. Example of the international law on hazardous substances is International Convention on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste 1989 signed in Basel, Switzerland. This convention forbids the export of hazardous wastes to States that lack "adequate means to dispose of them".

And also, many more instruments of international environmental law that regulate the management and preservation of the environment and other environmental issues that have been a hot issue in recent years. All of these instruments are created because of the commitment of States to preserve the environment which will certainly impact on human life on Earth in the future.

 

Sources :

http://www.unimelb.libguides.com/internationallaw/environmental

www.ucar.edu/communications/gcip/m3elaw/m3pdf.pdf

Images :

https://unitar.org/ksi/fr/portfolio-projects/3387