States Responsibility and Liability for Transboundary Environmental Harm

Abstract

AbstractOne strategy to address environmental degradation caused by transnational human activities is to focus on States as the principal actors and law-makers on the international plane. In order to address environmental challenges, States have by and large three avenues for regulatory management at their disposal: the first one is domestic legislation on pollution control and conservation within the boundaries of jurisdictional limits set by international law; the second avenue is action through regional organisations of economic integration which have the power of supranational law-making, although these also have to observe the same jurisdictional limits in relation to the international community; and the third avenue is traditional international law-making, the method on which this Chapter focuses.