About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

10 Geo. Int'l Envtl. L. Rev. 257 (1997-1998)
Responsibility and Liability for Environmental Damage: A Roadmap for International Environmental Regimes

handle is hein.journals/gintenlr10 and id is 265 raw text is: Responsibility and Liability for Environmental Damage: A Roadmap for International Environmental Regimes TEMA A. BERWICK I. INTRODUCTION Since the emergence of international environmental law, the international community has faced two main challenges. States and other actors had to learn, first, how to achieve consensus on substantive standards and, second, how to achieve compliance with them. Early on, delegates to the 1972 United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment focused on setting substan- tive standards, leaving the international responsibility and liability of states and other actors for environmental damage as unfinished business. The Stockholm delegates nevertheless acknowledged the importance of these issues and urged states to develop international legal principles in this area.' With practice, states have vastly improved and streamlined the treaty-making process. As a result, consensus can now be achieved relatively quickly and easily on many issues., Unfortunately, the international community has had more difficulty meeting its second challenge. Effective liability and responsibility mechanisms have remained an elusive goal. Indeed, almost a decade after the Stockholm Conference, GUnther Handl asked whether we can say that progress has been made in the sense of rendering the interrelated notions of state responsibility, liability, and duty of compensation truly operational?2 At that time, little progress had been made. Fortunately today, twenty-five years after the Stockholm Conference, the international community has made greater headway. The International Law Institute has drafted a comprehensive set of guidelines to help international environmental regimes handle questions of liability and responsibility for envi- ronmental damage. This note discusses Responsibility and Liability under Inter- national Law for Environmental Damage,4 a resolution adopted on September 4, 1. States shall cooperate to develop further international law regarding liability and compensation for the victims of pollution and other environmental damage caused by activities within the jurisdiction or control of such States to areas beyond their jurisdiction. Declaration of the United Nations on the Human Environment, June 16, 1972, Principle 22, 11 I.L.M. 1416, 1420. 2. Gtlnther Handl, The Environment. International Rights and Responsibilities, 74 AM. J. Im'L L. 223 (1980). 3. Id. 4. Responsibility and Liability under International Law for Environmental Damage, Institute of Interna- tional Law, Strasbourg Sess., Sept. 4, 1997, (Francisco Orrego Vicufla, rapporteur) (hereinafter Resolution).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most