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60 Nordic J. Int'l L. 73 (1991)
Peaceful Settlement of Environmental Disputes

handle is hein.journals/nordic60 and id is 75 raw text is: Peaceful Settlement of Environmental Disputes By Martti Koskenniemi * 1. Introduction Peaceful settlement of disputes is an eminently procedural topic - a fact which undoubtedly explains some ot its continued popularity among international lawyers. For material norms inevitably raise issues of breach and sanction which are not easi- ly disposed of in a world of sovereign equals. A purely material code of international law would either be unduly dependent on how States choose to interpret and apply it, or it would need to rely on non-statal institutions with an inordinate degree of unreality about them. By contrast, peaceful settlement does not imply any unplea- sant analogy to criminal law. It seems to be more about consent, adjustment and compromise - everything that diplomatic rhetoric holds crucial for the establishment of a rational world order. With the increase of the transboundary effects of industrial and technological activity, the prospect of international environmental disputes - or, more accurately, disputes concerning the relationship between environmental and economic values - has become a commonplace. It is striking to what extent international efforts to grapple with the problem have concentrated on procedural reform. The Declaration of the Hague, for example, signed by high representatives of 24 countries on 11 March 1989, makes little mention of the content of the norms States should follow in their conduct having an effect on the physical environment. Instead, it calls for new and more effective decision-making and enforcement mechanisms and de- clares five principles relating to the creation of such mechanisms, research, assist- ance, enforcement and negotiation. ' The various multilateral environmental treaties negotiated within the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)2 or elsewhere, usually contain a few material principles of great generality while more detailed provisions address proce- dural issues of prior notification, consultation, monitoring, and various forms of institutionalized cooperation between the States parties. Though there are no instru- ments dealing expressly with dispute settlement in regard to activities having an effect on the environment, these bilateral and multilateral procedural provisions per- form precisely that function. Suggestions have, however, been made both within the UN Decade of International Law as well as the preparatory work for the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) to concentrate explicitly on dispute prevention and settlement.3 To the extent that the UNCED will succeed in adopting legally formulated stan- * LL.D., Counsellor (legal affairs), Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

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