Extend your knowledge on the topic and do the assignments

V. OVER TO YOU

IV.WRITING

Prepare a report on the topics:

· Liability of States for environmental damage

· Nuclear Energy and the Environment

· Types of pollution and their Hazardous Consequences

(see – the recommended literature [№ 1: p. 251-290, 345-385; № 2: p. 243-340, 629-680,])

Under the 1992 Transboundary WatercoursesConvention the “environment” includes “human health and safety, flora, fauna, soil, air, water, climate, landscape and historical monuments or other physical structures or the interaction among these factors”. Among the harmful activitiesare those which result in discharges “into water courses, lakes or the sea, and the use of land, the sea bed, buildings or installations”. The key constitutional moments in the development of international environmental law are related with its historical periods required:

· limitations on the exploitation of certain natural resources (flora and fauna) and the adoption of appropriate legal instruments;

· the creation of a range of international organizations with competence to address particular sources of pollution such as oil pollution, nuclear testing, wetlands, the marine environment and its living resources, the quality of freshwaters, and the dumping of waste at sea;

· a system for co-ordinating responses to international environmental issues, regional and global conventions were adopted, and for the first time the production, consumption and international trade in certain products was banned at the global level;

· the development of principles and rules of international environmental law through treaties, other international acts and custom, and their integration into all activities.

Hazardous substances and activities are regulated by principles and rules of general application to all such substances or activities. Hazardous substances and activities are defined by reference to their inherent characteristics, including their toxicity, flammability, explosiveness and oxidization. The measures protecting the atmosphere from pollution can be found in the new procedural obligations recognizing the responsibility of industrialized nations and the establishment of financial arrangements in the law.

Actors of international environmental law are imposed liability for their illegal acts, or for the adverse consequences of their lawful activities. Liability rules at the domestic or international level serve a variety of purposes. They may be a form of economic instrument which provides an incentive to encourage compliance with environmental obligations. They can also be used to impose penalties for wrongful conduct, or to require corrective measures to restore a given environmental asset to its pre-damage condition. Finally, they may provide a technique for internalising environmental and other social costs into production process and other activities in implementation of polluter-pays principle.

International environmental lawyers often receive specialized training in the form of an LL.M. degree after having a first law degree – often in another country from where they got their first law degree.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-20