Sovereign rules over natural resources and responsibility
not to cause environmental damage:
The right of peoples and nations to
permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth
and resources must be exercised in the interest of their
national development and of the well-being of the people
of the State concerned.
Principle of preventive action
The pollution prevention principle should be
differentiated from the duty to avoid environmental harm.
Under this new rule, a state may be under the obligation
to prevent damage within its own jurisdiction."
Principle of co-operation
The cooperative principle is a principle of conversation
that was proposed by Grice 1975, stating that participants
expect that each will make a “conversational contribution
such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the
accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange.”
Principle of sustainable development
The ultimate objective of establishing the concept of
sustainability as anorganizing principle is to foster a well-
functioning alignment between individuals, society, the
economy and the regenerative capacity of the planet's
life-supporting ecosystems.
Precautionary principle
the principle that the introduction of a new product or
process whose ultimate effects are disputed or unknown
should be resisted. It has mainly been used to prohibit the
importation of genetically modified organisms and food.
Polluter pays principle
The 'polluter pays'principle is the commonly accepted
practice that those who produce pollution should bear the
costs of managing it to prevent damage to human health
or the environment.
Principle of common but differentiated responsibility
Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and
Respective Capabilities (CBDR–RC) is a principlewithin
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) that acknowledges the different
capabilities and differing responsibilities of individual
countries in addressing climate change.
Multilateral treaties are treaties between 3 or more
countries. Bilateral treatiesare treaties between two
countries. HeinOnline contains
both multilateral andbilateral treaties.
International organizations are bound by the treaties
which constitute them. Nointernational
organization can create its own powers and
competences. These are defined by the will of the
Member States, as a rule through international treaties.
International organizations must act within the
framework of these treaties.
Customary international law “... consists of rules of law
derived from the consistent conduct of States acting out
of the belief that the law required them to act that way.”
(Shabtai Rosenne, Practice and Methods of International
Law 55 (1984)). The elements of customary international
law include:
 the widespread repetition by States of similar
international acts over time (State practice);
 the requirement that the acts must occur out of a
sense of obligation (opinio juris); and
 that the acts are taken by a significant number of
States and not rejected by a significant number
of States.
Judgments of International Courts and Tribunals
they are binding upon the parties in accordance with the
principle of res iudicata; and that the courts or tribunals
giving them are independent of the control of the parties
A standing international body with all the characteristics
of a court may yet be called a tribunal (eg International
Tribunal for the Law of the Sea [ITLOS]); while a body of
arbitrators established by a bilateral international
agreement to resolve a specific dispute may, if the parties
so wish, be called a court of arbitration
UN General Assembly Resolution No. 1803 on
Permanent Sovereignty
The General Assembly adopted resolution 1803 (XVII) on
the “Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources” on
14 December 1962 by 87 votes in favour to 2 against, with
12 abstentions. The resolution had resulted from the
General Assembly’s focus on, firstly, the promotion and
financing of economic development in under-developed
countries and, secondly, in connection with the right of
peoples to self-determination in the draft international
covenants on human rights.
Stockholm Declaration
United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment, byname Stockholm Conference, the
first United Nations (UN) conference that focused on
international environmental issues. The conference, held
in Stockholm, Sweden, from June 5 to 16, 1972, reflected
a growing interest in conservation issues worldwide and
laid the foundation for global environmental governance.
The final declaration of the Stockholm Conference was an
environmental manifesto that was a forceful statement of
the finite nature of Earth’s resources and the necessity for
humanity to safeguard them. The Stockholm Conference
also led to the creation of the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) in December 1972 to coordinate
global efforts to promote sustainability and safeguard the
natural environment.
Brundtland Report
In 1983, the United Nations Secretary-General invited
Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland to chair
a World Commission on Environment and Development.
Concern about the acute pressure of population growth,
modern technology and consumer demand on the
planetary fabric had been smoldering away since the
1970s. Now a new generation of environmental worries -
global warming, deforestation, species loss, toxic wastes
- had begun to capture scientific and popular attention.
The world's natural resources were being rapidly
depleted, often in the name of development, but the
poverty this development was supposed to correct was as
widespread as ever.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties,
an international agreement governing treaties between
states that was drafted by the International Law
Commission of the United Nations and adopted on May
23, 1969, and that entered into force on January 27,
1980.
A convention governing international treaties was one of
the first efforts undertaken by the International Law
Commission, and James Brierly was assigned as special
rapporteur in 1949 to address the subject. After his
resignation in 1952, each of his successors began the
work anew. Sir Humphrey Waldock, appointed in 1961,
produced six reports from which the commission was
able to create a draft to submit to the UN General
Assembly in 1966 with a recommendation that a
conference be convened to conclude a convention
based on the draft. The conference held its first meeting
in 1968, and the convention was adopted at its second
session the following year.
The convention applies only to written treaties between
states. The first part of the document defines the terms
and scope of the agreement. The second part lays out
the rules for the conclusion and adoption of treaties,
including the consent of parties to be bound by treaties
and the formulation of reservations—that is, declining to
be bound by one or more particular provisions of
a treaty while accepting the rest. The third part deals
with the application and interpretation of treaties, and the
fourth part discusses means of modifying
or amending treaties. These parts essentially codify
existing customary law. The most important part of the
convention, Part V, delineates grounds and rules for
invalidating, terminating, or suspending treaties and
includes a provision granting the International Court of
Justice jurisdiction in the event of disputes arising from
the application of those rules. The final parts discuss the
effects on treaties of changes of government within a
state, alterations in consular relations between states,
and the outbreak of hostilities between states as well as
the rules for depositaries, registration, and ratification.
It was necessary for 35 member states of the United
Nations to ratify the treaty before it could go into effect.
Although it took until 1979 to secure those ratifications,
more than half of the UN members had agreed to the
convention by early 2018. Even those members that had
not ratified the document, such as the United States,
generally followed the prescriptions of the agreement.
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the
Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna Convention for
the Protection of the Ozone Layer) is an international
treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out
the production of numerous substances that are
responsible for ozone depletion.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement
between industrialized nations to lower greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions. It is named after Kyoto, Japan where
the agreement was drawn up in 1997 at the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC).