Balancing of Interests and International Liability for the Pollution of International Watercourses: Customary Principles of Law Revisited

Abstract

By specifying fundamental competences and liabilities, customary international legal principles concerning transnational pollution provide the framework for an approach to and an analysis of international environmental disputes in general. In the legal evaluation of disputes arising from the pollution of international watercourses, this basic function is particularly evident in cases where no binding environmental protection standards of a specific nature may be available as parameters for a decision on the legality of the claims of states concerning the use of a given international watercourse. Conversely, these customary principles also constitute the starting point for the further development of the law relating to the utilization of international watercourses in general and the enactment of concrete water quality standards in particular.