Concept of international environmental law

International environmental law is a set of principles and norms of international law governing the relations of its subjects in the field of environmental protection and rational use of its resources. In domestic literature, the name “international environmental law” is more common. The term "environmental law" seems preferable only because of its international use. S. V. Vinogradov, O. S. Kolbasov, A. S. Timoshenko, V. A. Chichvarin are known for their research in this area.

Nowadays, environmental protection comes to the fore. The consequences of insufficient attention to the problem can be catastrophic. This is not just about the well-being of humanity, but about its survival. What is especially alarming is that the degradation of the natural environment may be irreversible.

Water pollution harms human health and fish stocks. Farmland degradation has led to drought and soil erosion in many areas. Hence malnutrition, hunger, disease. Air pollution is increasingly damaging people's health. Massive destruction of forests has a negative impact on the climate and reduces biodiversity and the gene pool. A serious health threat is the depletion of the ozone layer, which protects against harmful radiation from the sun. The “greenhouse effect”, i.e., global warming as a result of growing emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, is leading to catastrophic changes in the Earth’s climate. The irrational use of mineral and living resources leads to their depletion, which again poses the problem of human survival. Finally, accidents at enterprises involving radioactive and toxic substances, not to mention testing nuclear weapons, cause enormous damage to human health and nature. It is enough to recall the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and at the American chemical plant in India. Armed conflicts cause great damage to the environment, as evidenced by the experience of the wars in Vietnam, Kampuchea, the Persian Gulf, Yugoslavia, etc.

The position of states regarding environmental protection varies. The states that were formed as a result of the liquidation of the USSR inherited a difficult legacy as a result of long-term neglect of the interests of protecting nature. Vast areas were poisoned and unable to provide normal living conditions. Meanwhile, resources to correct the situation are extremely limited.

In developing countries, environmental problems can undermine the success of the development process, and the means to change the situation are lacking. In the most developed countries, the existing consumption system leads to such a depletion of resources not only in their own, but also in other countries, which poses a threat to future development throughout the world. This demonstrates that environmental protection concerns all aspects of social development and is vital for all countries, regardless of their level of development. Therefore, such protection should become an element of the policy of any state. Since national parts of the environment form a single global system, its protection should become one of the main goals of international cooperation and an integral element of the concept of international security. In a resolution of 1981, the UN General Assembly indicated the importance of peace for nature conservation and noted the inverse relationship - nature conservation contributes to strengthening peace by ensuring the proper use of natural resources.

All of the above stimulates the dynamic development of international environmental law. A noteworthy feature of this development is the large role of the public and the media. Many acts and decisions are taken by governments under their influence. Mass movements in defense of nature and various green parties are becoming increasingly influential.

The position of governments is explained by differences in interests. Protecting the environment is very expensive. It negatively affects the competitiveness of goods. Activities on their territory do not prevent transboundary pollution. Factories on the Kola Peninsula are damaging the Norwegian environment. In 1996, Russia entered into an agreement for Norway to finance the installation of filters at a metallurgical plant on the Kola Peninsula. In general, the problem can only be solved on a global scale, and this requires enormous funds.

International environmental law began to take shape as customary law, first of all, this concerns its principles. This is how the basic principle of international environmental law was established - the principle of not causing harm to the nature of another state by actions carried out on its own territory. The most general principle has emerged - the principle of environmental protection. The principle of responsibility for causing harm to the nature of another state is being established. I would especially like to note the cardinal principle, which was formulated in the Declaration of the UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 as follows: “Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and proper living conditions, to an environment of such quality that makes it possible to live in dignity and well-being.” .

International environmental law is closely related not only to human rights, but also to other branches of international law. As we have seen, environmental protection is also a principle of maritime and space law. The International Labor Organization pays significant attention to the protection of workers from polluted environments; for example, in 1977 it adopted the Convention for the Protection of Workers against Occupational Hazards from Air Pollution, Noise and Vibration.

In the general process of formation of customary norms of international environmental law, an important role is played by resolutions of international organizations and conferences, which pave the way for positive law. As an example, I will point to such acts of the UN General Assembly as the 1980 resolution “On the historical responsibility of states for preserving the nature of the Earth for present and future generations” and the 1982 World Charter for Nature.

Treaties are an important source of international environmental law. In recent years, a whole range of universal conventions in this area have been adopted, which give an idea of ​​the subject matter of this branch of international law. First of all, these are the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Impact on the Natural Environment of 1977, as well as the Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer of 1985, the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals of 1979, the Convention on International Trade in Species of Wild Fauna and endangered flora, 1973, UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, 1972

Among these conventions there is no main, fundamental one that would contain the provisions reflected in the mentioned UN resolutions. There is not even a convention dedicated to such an urgent problem as air protection. Regional organizations have made more progress in this direction.

The leading role in the development of international environmental law belongs to international organizations. The UN occupies a special place. Fundamental resolutions of the General Assembly have already been noted earlier. The Economic and Social Council is constantly involved in environmental issues; an important role belongs to other organizations of the UN system, as well as its regional commissions. In their field, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), UNESCO, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are developing rules for environmental protection. There is a special United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which is practically an international organization, although legally it is a subsidiary body created by a resolution of the General Assembly. UNEP has a primary role in promoting the development of international environmental law. Within its framework, the foundations of this right are being developed and the preparation of conventions is being initiated.

Regional organizations play a significant role. Environmental protection is one of the main objectives of the CFE. Within its framework, a number of conventional acts and a number of decisions in this area have been adopted.

Cooperation within the CIS is expected to play a significant role in protecting the environment. This task is set by the CIS Charter and confirmed by many other acts. The 1996 Treaty between Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia obliges to increase “cooperation in the field of environmental protection, including the development and adoption of common environmental safety standards.” The parties “take joint measures to prevent and eliminate the consequences of accidents, natural disasters, nuclear and environmental disasters” (Article 9). The above provisions give an idea of ​​how the principle of environmental protection is understood in the relations between the CIS countries.

To implement the principle, in 1992 the CIS countries concluded an Agreement on cooperation in the field of ecology and environmental protection. Based on the Agreement, the Interstate Environmental Council was established, and under it the Interstate Environmental Fund. The task of the Council is to coordinate cooperation between states in the field of nature conservation and to prepare relevant regulations. The fund is intended to finance interstate programs, assistance in eliminating environmental emergencies, as well as design and research work in the field of environmental protection.

Security various types environment

The marine environment was one of the first to become the object of protection. The relevant provisions are contained in the general conventions on the law of the sea. Particular attention is paid to combating oil pollution. The first environmental universal convention is devoted to this problem - the London Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Oil of 1954. It prohibited the discharge of oil and oil-water mixture from ships: After a number of accidents with tankers, new conventions were adopted. The Brussels Convention on Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Casualties, 1969, gave coastal states very broad powers, including the right to destroy the vessel and cargo in the event of a threat of serious pollution of the coast and coastal waters. The Convention paved the way for the control of marine pollution and other substances in similar cases (1973 Protocol).

Naturally, the question of compensation for damage caused by oil pollution arose. Already in 1969, the Brussels Convention on Civil Liability for Damage from Oil Pollution was dedicated to it. It established absolute, i.e., independent of fault, liability of shipowners, but at the same time limited its scope, albeit to a rather high ceiling. Combating the consequences of oil pollution requires joint action by states. The Oil Pollution Preparedness, Control and Cooperation Convention of 1990 is dedicated to the organization of such actions.

The prohibition of all operational discharges from ships is contained in the Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships of 1973. The Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Materials of 1972 is devoted to the disposal of environmentally harmful substances at sea.

Agreements have also been concluded at the regional level. Thus, the 1992 Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea from Pollution deals with issues of land-based sources of pollution, disposal, and cooperation in the fight against pollution by oil and other harmful substances in emergency conditions.

The Baltic Sea also occupies a special position. It has been designated as a "special area" by the 1973 Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution from Ships. Such areas are subject to increased pollution prevention requirements. In 1974, the Baltic countries concluded the Helsinki Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area. Its peculiarity is the prohibition of sea pollution from land. On the basis of the Convention, the Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea was created. However, it soon became clear that the provisions of the Convention were insufficient, and in 1992 a new Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea was adopted, which established more stringent requirements. I would especially like to note that its effect extends to a certain part inland waters, the limits of such distribution are determined by each state.

The waters of rivers and lakes differ so significantly that the development of a common convention was impossible. Even the regional convention prepared by the Council of Europe in 1974 did not receive the required number of ratifications. Separate provisions on the prevention of river pollution are contained in agreements on other issues. The mentioned Baltic Sea Convention also affects the rivers flowing into it. But in most cases, protection issues are resolved by agreements between coastal states, although so far unsatisfactorily. As a positive example, we can refer to the norms and organizational forms protection of the Rhine waters. In 1963, the Berne Convention for the Protection of the Rhine from Pollution was signed. To implement it, a Commission was established, which in 1976 prepared a Convention for the Protection of the Rhine against Pollution by Chemicals and another on Protection against Chlorides.

In connection with the growing consumption of fresh water and the limited availability of its resources, the issue of protecting freshwater basins is acquiring exceptional importance. As a result, new aspects of international environmental law are emerging. Responding to the demands of life, the UN International Law Commission prepared and submitted to the General Assembly draft articles on the right of non-navigational use of international watercourses.

A watercourse is understood as a system of not only surface water, but also underground water, forming a single whole and usually flowing to one outlet. International watercourses are watercourses, parts of which are located in different states. The regime of such watercourses is determined by agreement of the states with whose territory they are connected. Each such state has the right to participate in the agreement.

States have an obligation to use watercourses in such a way as to provide them with the necessary protection. They are obliged to participate in the protection of watercourses on an equitable basis and to cooperate to achieve this goal.

The air environment, as already noted, is the common heritage of humanity. Despite this, its protection is not reflected in any way in international environmental law. The issue is being resolved at the bilateral and regional levels. Perhaps the only significant step in this area is the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution prepared within the framework of the CFE, which was subsequently supplemented by a number of protocols. Particular attention is paid to reducing sulfur emissions into the atmosphere, which generate acid rain, which is transported over long distances and harms all living things.

An important direction in protecting nature is cooperation in counteracting the increase in the greenhouse effect, i.e., global warming as a result of the saturation of the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, the main source of which is motor transport. The consequences of this effect could be catastrophic in the coming decades. On the one hand, new vast deserts will appear, and on the other, rising sea levels will lead to the flooding of large areas developed by humans. In 1992, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted. It defined general provisions and main areas of cooperation. The general responsibility of states is established, but differences in economic potential must be taken into account. Particular attention should be paid to the interests of developing countries, which are most vulnerable to negative climate change, and on the other hand, have the least ability to counteract it.

The ozone layer protects the Earth from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Under the influence of human activity, it has been significantly depleted, and “ozone holes” have appeared over some areas. In 1985, the Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was adopted. It talks about monitoring his condition and cooperating to protect him. In 1987, the Montreal Protocol regarding substances that lead to the depletion of the ozone layer appeared. Restrictions have been established on the production of substances that negatively affect this layer.

Radioactivity from the peaceful and military uses of nuclear energy has become a serious danger to life on Earth. An important step in reducing it was the Moscow Treaty banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water in 1963. The IAEA sets safety standards for the use of nuclear energy in the national economy, including the safety of workers associated with it. The Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials of 1980 was prepared. The Convention contains provisions allowing any state to prosecute foreigners for relevant crimes, regardless of where they were committed.

The European Atomic Energy Agency operates in Europe. The main standards in this area are established by the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EUROATOM).

Protection of fauna and flora

The 1972 United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment endorsed the principle that the Earth's natural resources, including air, water, surface, flora and fauna, should be protected for the benefit of present and future generations through careful planning and management where necessary.

The overall strategy was developed by a non-governmental organization, the International Union for Conservation, Nature and Natural Resources, and published in 1982 as the World Conservation Strategy Program of Action. In the process of preparing the document, numerous consultations were held with governments and international organizations. The purpose of the strategy is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development through the conservation of living resources by offering governments effective methods for regulating these resources. The strategy aims to support important ecological processes and self-preservation of systems, such as soil restoration and protection, nutrient recycling, water purification, and biodiversity conservation. Many vital processes depend on all this. The goal is to ensure the sustainable use of certain species of animals and vegetation, as well as ecosystems.

Achieving these goals should be as quickly as possible. The Earth's ability to provide for its population is constantly decreasing. Many millions of tons of soil are lost every year due to deforestation and misuse. At least 3 thousand square meters per year. km of agricultural land are taken out of use only in industrialized countries as a result of the construction of buildings and roads.

As one of the important means of achieving its goals, the strategy points to a radical improvement of legislation on natural resources. It is necessary to create more effective and broad-based national environmental law, along with increased development of international environmental law. The survival of the entire diversity of nature, including humans, can be ensured only on the condition that state policies are built with an understanding of the fact that all elements of nature are interconnected, interdependent, that the environment is a single global system.

The same Union prepared the World Charter for Nature, which was approved and solemnly proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1982. According to the Charter, living resources should not be used beyond their restoration capabilities; Soil productivity should be maintained and increased; resources, including water, should be recycled and reused whenever possible; Non-renewable resources should be used with maximum restrictions.

Among the conventions dedicated to flora and fauna, I would like to mention first of all the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972, designed to ensure cooperation in the protection of natural complexes of particular importance, habitats of endangered species of animals and plants. Protection flora dedicated to the 1983 Tropical Forest Agreement. General value has the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, 1973, which established the basis for control of such trade.

The bulk of the conventions are aimed at protecting various representatives of the animal world - whales, seals, polar bears. I would particularly like to note the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, the name of which gives an idea of ​​its content. The 1979 Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals is also important.

Everything that has been said above gives an idea of ​​the enormous importance of environmental protection and the urgency of decisive measures based on broad cooperation between states. This determines the role of international environmental law, which still lags behind the needs of life.

One of the distinctive features of the current stage of development of international environmental law is the further expansion of the range of international relations regulated by this branch of international law. The immediate result of this process was the addition of two traditional subject areas of regulation (relations regarding environmental protection and rational use of natural resources) with two new ones - relations to ensure environmental safety and ensure compliance with environmental human rights.

It is this circumstance that is the reason for such a universally recognized phenomenon as the “greening” of international relations, and the point here is not that environmentally-oriented legal norms are included in the sources of other branches of international law, thereby allegedly expanding their subject scope. The fact, for example, that the principles and norms establishing freedom of flight in public international airspace are enshrined in conventions on the law of the sea does not mean that this range of relations is removed from the subject of international air law and transferred to international maritime law. This state of affairs is explained rather by established traditions and expediency interests, which ultimately predetermined the negative attitude of the overwhelming majority of participants at the III UN Conference on the Law of the Sea to the idea of ​​concluding a separate special convention on this range of issues.

In the domestic legal literature one can find a different approach to defining the subject of regulation of international environmental law, which originates from the works of prof. DI. Feldman, who believed that in international law it is necessary to distinguish not sectors, but sub-sectors, since any set of rules existing in it is characterized by a single and common method of regulation. Sharing this point of view, Prof. S.V. Molodtsov, for example, with references to the principle of freedom open sea and some other provisions of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea came to the conclusion that the provisions established by international maritime law can be applied in international air law. Later, this position was shared by Doctor of Law E.S. Molodtsova, who pointed out the purely academic interest pursued by supporters of dividing international law into branches.

Finally, Doctor of Law N.A. Sokolova in her works raises the issue of environmental “burdens” of norms that are part of other branches of international law. In her opinion, “this, for example, is reflected in the strengthening of environmental protection during armed conflicts. The environment is considered as a special civilian object that is protected by the norms of international humanitarian law.. A similar situation can be observed in other branches of international law, when its subjects create international legal norms to protect the marine environment, outer space, and combat air pollution."

As N.A. believes Sokolov, the incorporation of environmental protection standards within a particular industry gives these standards a comprehensive nature, allowing them to be considered, on the one hand, as a necessary structural element of the natural environment regime (marine, space, air, Antarctic, etc.), which is subject to economic use, scientific and technical development. In this case, the adoption of legal norms for the protection of relevant natural objects is a process of reflecting environmental requirements in the relevant industries. On the other hand, such norms are a necessary systemic element of international environmental law. “The consideration of environmental interests within various branches of international law may have serious theoretical consequences, since it complicates the nature of the international treaties that codify a particular branch,” she concludes.

The emergence of two new subject areas in international environmental law occurred at the end of the 20th century.

The idea of ​​international environmental security was first proposed by the President of the USSR in September 1987 in connection with the promotion of the concept of a Comprehensive System of International Security (CSIS). In this system of environmental security, a subordinate role was assigned to economic security. However, a year later, issues of ensuring environmental safety were identified as an independent subject area, which currently includes an extensive array of regulations in the form of resolutions of the UN General Assembly, multilateral and bilateral treaties and agreements. An example is the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Estonia on cooperation in the field of environmental protection dated January 11, 1996, which directly refers to ensuring environmental safety as an area of ​​bilateral cooperation.

Currently, the concept of environmental safety is interconnected with the problems of the strategy of socio-economic development with the assignment of responsibilities to achieve and maintain environmental safety on all states.

In practice, it can be difficult to apply one yardstick to the implementation of such an approach by different countries and especially to the response of a community of states, groups of states or individual countries to situations that may be qualified as a threat to environmental security and occur within the territory of a particular foreign state.

Ensuring environmental safety is a complex activity that includes a set of measures, where environmental protection is only one of them. Conventionally, it can be called an environmental measure, which should not lead to denying the existence of other types of measures - political, legal, etc. The idea of ​​​​the possibility of ensuring the environmental safety of the population (or all of humanity as a whole) only through environmental protection activities should not be embedded in environmental consciousness. Security in general is a state of security provided by organizational, legal, economic, scientific, technological and other means.

Environmental safety can be local, regional, regional, national and global. This division allows, first of all, to determine the range of measures applicable to ensure environmental safety of one level or another. Environmental safety itself has an international, global character. Problems of environmental safety affect everyone, regardless of wealth and poverty, because no nation can feel calm in the event of environmental disasters occurring outside its territory. No nation is capable of independently building an isolated and independent line of environmental protection.

The primary structural element of environmental safety at any level, up to universal, is regional environmental safety. This, however, does not mean that universal environmental safety is impossible if there is at least one case of non-compliance with regional environmental safety. Undoubtedly, there is a certain quantitative and qualitative threshold (level of acceptable risk) in this area, below which local environmental threats and even disasters can occur that do not threaten the environmental safety of not only humanity as a whole, but also the corresponding region and state. However, the threat to universal environmental security affects the environmental security of any ecological region without exception.

Promoting the concept of district (and regional) environmental security does not mean a denial of state sovereignty. The question should be put differently: an integral part of the system national security(which includes environmental safety) there must be, among other things, elements of regional (as well as regional and global) environmental safety. In today's ecologically interconnected world, there is no other way to approach this problem.

If in international environmental law the identification of relations regarding ensuring international environmental safety can be considered a fait accompli, then at the level of national legislation of individual states, recognition of the category “environmental safety” is much more difficult. Some authors consider it as an integral part of environmental protection, others equate them, others include in the content of environmental safety not only environmental protection, but also rational use, reproduction and improvement of environmental quality; Finally, the opinion is expressed that ensuring environmental safety is an activity carried out along with the protection of the natural environment.

The concept of “environmental safety” has relatively recently entered into scientific, political and regulatory circulation. At the same time, in developing countries, politicians and the public are slowly getting used to it. Therefore, there is less chance of acceptance in these countries of an extremely broad definition of the concept of “environmental safety”, developed from the perspective of an ecosystem approach, the basis of which is the imperative of the survival of human civilization, placing environmental issues and the concept of environmental safety at the level of such global problems as the prevention of thermonuclear war and ensuring political and military security. For many developing countries, considerations related to pressing environmental problems and transboundary damage in the format of bilateral relations are more understandable.

National environmental legislation is no exception in this regard. Russian Federation. Here, the controversy surrounding the advisability of highlighting the category of “environmental safety” in the doctrine of environmental law began with the adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993, which in Art. 72 classified ensuring environmental safety as a subject of joint responsibility of the Russian Federation and its constituent entities, along with environmental protection and natural resource management. The discussion on this issue especially intensified after the unsuccessful attempt to pass the Law “On Environmental Safety” in 1995, which was vetoed by the President of Russia due to the vagueness of the concepts used in it, allowing for different interpretations.

Currently, the phrase “environmental safety” is present in two of the 23 principles of environmental protection enshrined in Federal Law No. 7-FZ of January 10, 2002 “On Environmental Protection” (Article 3). This phrase appears repeatedly in other articles of this Law, in more than 90 other federal laws, in more than 40 decrees of the President of the Russian Federation and in more than 170 decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation, in more than 500 departmental regulatory legal acts. In total - in more than 1600 acts.

Believing that the term “environmental safety” was invented during the years of perestroika to demonstrate initiatives, the absence of stagnation, the manifestation of indifference on the part of the state to the field of environmental protection, and without finding any fundamental differences between “environmental protection” and “ensuring environmental safety,” Professor M .M. Brinchuk, in particular, comes to the conclusion that “singling out in the Constitution of the Russian Federation “ensuring environmental safety” as an independent direction, along with natural resource management and environmental protection, was a mistake by the authors of Article 72.” In his opinion, the modern concept of legal environmental protection is based on the idea of ​​​​the need to ensure prevention and compensation for harm to the environment, health and property of citizens, the national economy, which can be caused by environmental pollution, damage, destruction, damage, irrational use of natural resources, destruction natural ecological systems and other environmental violations, and the implementation of this concept is aimed at protecting the environmental interests of man, society, the state and the environment, i.e. specifically to ensure environmental safety.

Such an approach would have its reason, and therefore the right to exist, if we were talking about the “usual” deterioration of environmental quality in violation of established standards. But one cannot deny the logic in this approach, which focuses protective standards in this area on a certain limit, a threshold of acceptable pollution. And then the subject of protection (albeit conditionally) becomes “ecological safety”. Conventionality here is acceptable to the same extent as we are talking, for example, about international security or state security, although the object of protection, in the strict sense of the word, here too could be reduced to the state of protecting the vital interests of the individual, society, etc. P.

The inclusion of relations regarding the enforcement of environmental human rights in the subject area of ​​international environmental law has not caused any disagreement among domestic legal scholars. S.A. Bogolyubov, M.M. Brinchuk and many others unanimously supported this innovation in their scientific articles and textbooks. Moreover, M.M. Brinchuk, for example, went even further, proposing to separate environmental rights from political, civil, social, economic and cultural rights into a separate category. A special status is given to the generally recognized principles and norms of international law that relate to human rights and freedoms, and I.I. Lukashuk, explaining this by the fact that they: a) have a direct effect; b) determine the meaning, content and application of laws, the activities of the legislative and executive powers, local self-government, and are ensured by justice. For this reason, in his opinion, this special group of generally recognized principles and norms of international law has at least no less power than the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

For the first time, one of the types of environmental rights - the right of access to environmental information - was contractually established in the 1991 UNECE Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context.

In 1994, the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights and the Environment developed a draft Declaration of Principles “Human Rights and the Environment”, which already named four types of environmental human rights: access to environmental information, a favorable environment, access to environmental protection. justice and public participation in decision-making on environmental issues. On the basis of this project, today it is proposed to adopt the International Covenant on Environmental Human Rights, by analogy with the already existing two international covenants of 1966.

Currently, these rights are most fully codified in the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, adopted on 25 June 1998 in Aarhus (Denmark) (entered into force on 2001, the Russian Federation does not participate).

The self-sufficiency of environmental human rights and, as a consequence, the inclusion in the subject of international environmental law of relations regarding ensuring their observance are confirmed today by both the doctrine and practice of international law. At the same time, the autonomous, fundamental nature of such rights is especially emphasized. Let us add to this that environmental rights are currently receiving increasingly adequate protection within the European, American and African regional systems of human rights protection.

International environmental law has a specific range of social relations, i.e. independent subject of regulation, is one of the six mandatory conditions, which any set of international legal principles and norms that claims to be an independent branch of international law must comply with.

The other five features of an independent branch of international law are:

• specific rules governing these relations;
• sufficiently large social significance of the circle of social relations;
• a fairly extensive volume of regulatory legal material;
• public interest in identifying a new branch of law;
• special principles of law governing the construction of a new branch of law.

Considering international environmental law from these positions, it can be stated that it meets all of the listed characteristics.

Without going into detail about the characteristics of the first and last of these features (§ 2 and 3 of this chapter are devoted to them), we note that the specificity of the nature and essence of the principles, norms and institutions of international environmental law is that they are applied in the process of regulating various interstate relations environmental in nature, their effect extends to all legal relations of this kind.

The significance of international environmental relations for individual states and for the entire international community is axiomatic and does not require special evidence. The expansion of environmental ties between all states, the increasing environmental interdependence between them, the course towards restructuring international environmental relations on the basis of equality and mutual benefit - all these are the most important factors of modern social development, prerequisites for the development of friendly cooperation between different countries, the consolidation of peace, the creation of a system of international environmental security . It is the global nature of the earth’s ecology that determines the special urgency of the problem of environmental conservation and protection.

In relation to man, nature performs a number of functions related to satisfying his needs: environmental, economic, aesthetic, recreational, scientific, cultural.

Among them, the ecological and economic functions of nature are of paramount importance, providing favorable conditions for human life and progressive development.

It is no coincidence that the main attention of the world community over the past four decades has been focused on finding ways to “reconcile” the environmental and economic interests of states.

Numerous international treaties, resolutions and declarations adopted during this time on issues of international environmental safety, environmental protection and rational use of natural resources clearly indicate the great importance that the world community attaches today to international environmental legal relations.

The volume of normative legal material in the field of regulation of international environmental relations is extensive. Currently, there are more than 1,500 multilateral and over 3,000 bilateral international treaties and agreements.

Today, essentially all the largest and most important natural objects have concluded relevant international multilateral agreements, regulating both the mutual rights and obligations of participants in connection with their use, as well as issues of their protection and prevention of pollution from almost all known sources.

Finally, numerous bilateral treaties primarily concern the prevention of transboundary pollution transfers and the resolution of border environmental problems.

A distinctive feature of such agreements concluded in last decade, is to include provisions aimed at ensuring environmental safety and sustainable development of the parties involved.

The interest of both individual states and the international community as a whole in the existence of an independent branch - international environmental law - is obvious. It is expressed in the already noted huge normative legal material of an international nature.

This is also evidenced by the numerous international conferences convened almost annually on issues of protection, protection and use of the environment, among which a special place is occupied by the UN Stockholm Conference on Problems of the Human Environment in 1972,

The UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. To this list can be added the UN climate change conferences convened annually since 2009.

Being part of international law, international environmental law has the same subject matter as international law as a whole. What international environmental law sometimes says about the rights and interests of individuals, peoples, generations, etc. is far from equivalent to their legal personality. "Traditional" subjects of international law protect these interests.

The subjects of international environmental law are: 1) states; 2) nations and peoples fighting for their state independence; 3) international intergovernmental organizations.

The main subjects of international environmental law are states. Nations and peoples act as subjects of international environmental law during the formation of their statehood. International intergovernmental organizations are derivative subjects of international law. Their international environmental legal personality is determined by international agreements of states on the establishment and functioning of each of these organizations. The legal personality of an international intergovernmental organization is limited, since it can only be exercised on specific issues specified in the agreement of states establishing this organization.

The correct definition of the range of subjects of international environmental law has important because sometimes you can come across the statement that international environmental law regulates the relationship of humanity with its natural environment. The latter is clearly illustrated, for example, by the following words of the UN Secretary-General, which precede the text of the draft International Pact on Environment and Development (as amended in 1995): “

The UN Charter regulates relations between states. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has application to the relationship between the state and the individual. The time has come to create a document regulating the relationship between humanity and nature."

As we see, we are talking here not about relations between states regarding the protection and use of natural resources, but about the creation of some kind of non-legal socio-natural “legal relationship”.

With all the understanding of the reasons that give rise to these statements, one cannot cross the line of what is theoretically permissible. Nature as such, in principle, is not able to act as a subject of legal relations.

States, possessing such a special quality as sovereignty, have universal international legal personality in the field of environmental protection.

As for the legal personality of nations and peoples fighting for their statehood, it does not have any special features in relation to international environmental relations. Their legal representatives, on equal terms with states, are invited to international conferences on environmental problems, sign the final documents adopted at such conferences and are responsible for their implementation.

The specificity of the international legal personality of international intergovernmental organizations in the field of environmental protection is not as obvious as, for example, it is the case in international space law, where existing international “space” treaties for recognition of international intergovernmental organizations as subjects of international space law require that they make a statement about that they assume the rights and obligations set forth in the relevant agreements, and that the majority of member states of these organizations are parties to this agreement and the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, 1967.

There are no such requirements for international organizations to recognize their international legal personality in international environmental law, which is not least due to the absence of specialized international intergovernmental environmental organizations at the universal level.

According to experts, there are currently about 60 international institutions and agencies in the world that deal with environmental issues, but they act separately and uncoordinated. To one degree or another, most specialized UN agencies are involved in international environmental cooperation today at the global level: the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the World Bank Group,

World Health Organization (WHO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), World Trade Organization (WTO), etc. In the UN structure, one can note such auxiliary organizational units as the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP),

Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD), five regional socio-economic commissions, etc.

One can note the growing role of the secretariats of various international environmental agreements in the matter of international environmental governance.

The current situation, on the one hand, is explained by the fact that environmental issues are inherently integrated into almost all spheres of human activity (transport, agriculture, construction, etc.) and therefore most international organizations, following the objective reality of international relations, include environmental problems in your field of activity. On the other hand, the lack of a unified international management mechanism in the environmental sphere gives rise to many problems and duplication of some management functions.

Let us recall that the question of creating a unified institutional basis for international environmental cooperation was first raised in the late 60s - early 70s of the 20th century.

Discussion of issues related to the status and functions of the proposed international body (or organization) began immediately after the adoption of UN General Assembly Resolution 2398 (XXIII) of December 3, 1968, which contained the decision to convene the Stockholm Conference on Environmental Problems in 1972. human environment. Various views have been expressed regarding the nature and legal status of such a body or organization. At the same time, no one then advocated the creation of another specialized UN agency that would deal exclusively with the field of environmental protection and environmental management. For some, this was due to a general negative attitude towards the activities of UN specialized agencies in general, and they expressed great doubts about the ability of an international organization of this kind to effectively solve environmental problems at the global level. Others believed that the existing UN specialized agencies, such as WMO, WHO, IMO, FAO, ILO and others, pay sufficient attention to environmental problems within their constitutional competence and that the creation of a new international organization with the status of a specialized agency would put it on par with existing ones and will not be able to provide it with a leading role in establishing the necessary level and degree of coordination of state efforts in the environmental field. Still others generally believed that there were no objective prerequisites for the creation of a universal international organization, since judgments about environmental dangers were exaggerated, and the existing difficulties could be dealt with with the help of regional organizational structures.

The idea of ​​establishing a new commission on environmental issues within the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) enjoyed great support among scientists and governments. At the same time, the main emphasis was placed on the broad powers that ECOSOC has under the UN Charter, which also cover the sphere of ecology. Opponents of such a solution to the issue pointed out that seven commissions already function within the framework of ECOSOC and that the creation of another one would diminish the importance of interaction between states in the environmental sphere. In their opinion, ECOSOC is generally unable to carry out policy-making activities in this or that area and is considered, in particular, by developing countries as a body that protects the interests of industrialized countries. In addition, the creation of ECOSOC staff through the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, they believed, would harm the idea of ​​​​creating an independent staff to help solve environmental problems.

As a possible alternative, a proposal has been put forward to create a special committee of the UN General Assembly or a special unit within the UN Secretariat.

Finally, projects were introduced to create a special international organization with a limited number of members outside the UN system, which would have control and enforcement functions.

As a result, preference was still given to the UN as an organization endowed by its member states with almost universal international legal personality. In its composition, on the basis of Art. 22 of the Charter established the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) with the status of a subsidiary body of the General Assembly.

The promptness with which the UN responded to the recommendation of the Stockholm Conference (UNEP was established on December 15, 1972 by UN General Assembly resolution 2997 (XXVII)) indicates the keen interest of almost all UN members in developing an effective institutional mechanism in this area. However, such a half-hearted solution indicated the unwillingness of states to go further and create not just an effective international, but a supranational mechanism in this area. Meanwhile, in the field of environmental protection, the need for such supranational mechanisms is felt more and more acutely.

The so-called catalytic role, invented specifically for UNEP, which was presented by its developers as a new type of management function that arose as a result of adapting the organizational structure of the UN system to global issues, could not save the situation. The fact that there is no management here, but the most ordinary coordination takes place, is evidenced by the following definition of this function: “in conditions when in the activity of one or another global problem potentially a large number of different UN agencies can and should participate, the central coordinating authority of the system should strive not so much to take upon itself the implementation of the general work program, but to act as an initiator of projects, the operational implementation of which should be transferred to the relevant units of the UN common system."

In this regard, it is not surprising that literally immediately after the establishment of UNEP, proposals began to be put forward to improve and improve the activities of the world community in the field of environmental protection, including both projects aimed at redistributing powers and functions between already existing international organizations and institutions, as well as ideas for creating new bodies and organizations.

Among the first group of proposals related to strengthening the role of UNEP, those put forward by the UN International Commission on Environment and Development headed by G.Kh. deserve special attention. Brundtland (Brundtland Commission) the idea of ​​expanding its powers and financial support (1987), the UK project to transform UNEP into a specialized UN agency (1983) and the USSR initiative to transform UNEP into the Environmental Security Council (1989). This group also includes the UK’s proposal to transfer environmental problems to the competence of a special body of the system of main organs of the UN by expanding the powers of the UN Security Council in accordance with Art. 34 of the UN Charter and through the creation of a special sessional committee of the UN General Assembly (1983), as well as a project to transform the UN Trusteeship Council into the Environmental Security Council.

The second group includes the Brundtland Commission's proposal to establish a UN Commission on Environmental Sustainable Development, headed by the UN Secretary-General, the USSR project to create an Environmental Emergency Assistance Center, and the idea put forward by the participants in the 1989 Hague Conference to establish a new main UN environmental body.

In any case, the position of UNEP as the central body of the UN system for organizing and promoting international environmental cooperation needs to be strengthened. UNEP must be transformed into a full-fledged international organization, operating and based on an international treaty, with a full-fledged secretariat, funding and a system of sessional and permanent bodies, placed in strict hierarchical dependence among themselves. It should be endowed with the right to make decisions binding on states with direct action, by analogy with the practice of the UN Security Council, when on issues of maintaining international peace and security it acts in accordance with Chapter. VI and VII of the UN Charter.

These types of changes to UNEP's functionality will inevitably impact its legal status and opportunities to really influence the process of conservation and protection of the environment, which in modern conditions is extremely important, given that global environmental problems exceed the existing capabilities of both the Program itself and well-established UN specialized agencies.

In this situation, the proposal put forward on September 23, 2009 at the 64th session of the UN General Assembly by the President of France to establish an International Environmental Organization in 2012 at the summit on sustainable development "Rio+20" (a regional association of Latin American countries plus ") looks quite realistic. G20"), a forum proposed by Brazil.

At the regional level, on the contrary, there are numerous international intergovernmental organizations, including constituent documents which have sections devoted to environmental protection. These are, for example, the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), etc. The extension of the competence of regional organizations to the field of ecology, as well as the creation of special regional institutional structures, is due to First of all, the severity of environmental problems experienced by states in one or another region of the globe.

Principles of international environmental law

Due to its universality and imperativeness, the basis for the regulation of international environmental relations is the generally recognized principles of modern international law.

All sectoral (special) principles of international environmental law must comply with them. They serve as a measure of the legality of all norms of international law, including norms of international environmental law.

Today, such generally accepted principles include: sovereign equality, respect for the rights inherent in sovereignty; refraining from using force or the threat of force; inviolability of borders; territorial integrity of states; peaceful resolution of international disputes; non-interference in matters essentially within the internal competence of the state; respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; equality and the right of peoples to control their own destinies; cooperation between states; conscientious fulfillment of obligations under international law.

Compliance with the fundamental generally accepted principles of international law is fundamental for effective international legal regulation of environmental protection. The role and importance of these principles increase even more in connection with the problem of the transfer of pollution beyond the territory of one state over long distances.

Using the example of the principle of international cooperation, we will illustrate how the generally recognized principles of general international law are transformed in relation to the specifics of international environmental relations.

The principle of international cooperation is currently one of the fundamental principles in international legal regulation of environmental protection. Almost all international legal acts currently in force and being developed in this area are based on it. In particular, it is enshrined in the 1976 South Pacific Conservation Convention, the 1979 Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, the 1980 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. , Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer 1985

In the Declaration of the United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, this principle is revealed as follows (Principle 24): “International problems related to the protection and improvement of the environment should be resolved in a spirit of cooperation of all countries, large and small, on the basis of equality Cooperation, based on multilateral and bilateral agreements or other appropriate basis, is essential for the effective control, prevention, reduction and elimination of negative environmental impacts associated with activities carried out in all areas, and this cooperation should be organized in such a way that so that the sovereign interests of all states are given due consideration."

On the most conscientious reading and interpretation of this Principle, it is impossible to derive from it precisely the duty to cooperate, and not just a declarative wish. This clearly follows from such elements of the Principle as: “should be decided in a spirit of cooperation..”, “extremely important for..”, “this cooperation should be organized in such a way that the sovereign interests of all states are duly taken into account.”

Principle 7 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development Declaration on Environment and Development states: “States shall cooperate in a spirit of global partnership to preserve, protect and restore the purity and integrity of the Earth’s ecosystem. Recognizing that different States have different have contributed to the degradation of the planet's environment, they have common but differentiated responsibilities. Developed countries recognize the responsibilities they have in the context of international efforts to achieve sustainable development, taking into account the burden that their societies place on the planet's environment , and the technologies and financial resources that they possess."

The need for international environmental cooperation today is dictated by a number of objective factors, which are conventionally divided into two types: natural-ecological and socio-economic.

Natural environmental factors include:

Unity of the Earth's biosphere. Everything in the biosphere is interconnected. The truth of this statement now no longer needs proof; it is accepted as an axiom by world science. Any change, even the most insignificant at first glance, in the state of one natural resource inevitably has a direct or indirect impact in time and space on the position of others.

The high degree of ecological interdependence of states both within individual regions and between them, the interdependence of natural environmental resources leads to the rapid development of many national environmental problems into international ones. Nature as a phenomenon that exists independently of humans, and state and administrative boundaries in general as a result of the historical development of society are incompatible concepts that lie on different planes. Nature does not know and does not recognize state and administrative boundaries;

The presence of universal natural objects and resources, the effective protection and protection of which, as well as rational use, is impossible within the framework and efforts of one single state (the World Ocean with its biological and mineral resources, atmospheric air, the ozone layer of the atmosphere, near-Earth space , Antarctica with its flora and fauna).

It obliges states, when conducting military operations, to take care “to protect the natural environment from extensive, long-term and serious damage” (Article 55 of the Protocol); prohibits the use of methods or means of warfare that are intended to cause or can be expected to cause such damage to the natural environment, as well as the deliberate manipulation of "natural processes - the dynamics, composition or structure of the Earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or outer space" (Article 2 of the Convention) for the purpose of causing damage to the armed forces of the enemy, the civilian population of the opposing state, its cities, industry, agriculture, transport and communication networks or natural resources.

Certain elements of the principle under consideration are disclosed in Protocol III “On the Prohibition or Restriction of the Use of Incendiary Weapons” to the Convention on the Prohibition or Restriction of the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Cause Excessive Injury or to Have an Indiscriminate Effect, 1980, as well as in a number of disarmament conventions , documents "law of the Hague" and some other international treaties.

The basis of the principle of ensuring environmental safety is the theory of environmental risk - determining the level of acceptable risk with its indispensable consideration when establishing the cost of products and services. Acceptable risk is understood as a level of risk that is justified from the point of view of economic and social factors, i.e. acceptable risk is a risk that society as a whole is willing to tolerate in order to obtain certain benefits as a result of its activities.

Environmental safety is a priority component of national security and global security of the world community, implementing the transition to sustainable development, as well as a priority criterion for social development.

Currently, this principle is in the process of formation and represents more of a goal to which the world community should strive than an actually operating principle.

The principle of international legal responsibility of states for damage caused to the environment. In accordance with this principle, states are obliged to compensate for environmental damage caused both as a result of their violation of their international obligations and as a result of activities not prohibited by international law.

In English, international liability for illegal activities (negative liability) and for actions not prohibited by international law (positive liability) are called by different words: responsibility and liability, respectively. In Russian, both institutions are called by one word - “responsibility”.

Currently, the UN International Law Commission (UNILC) has completed work on codifying the rules of objective responsibility of states: in 2001, the Draft Articles on the Prevention of Transboundary Harm from Hazardous Activities were adopted, and in 2006, the Draft Principles concerning the distribution of losses in in case of transboundary harm caused by hazardous activities. Based on these two documents, it is planned to adopt either a convention or an act of “soft” law.

The established practice of states in this matter is reflected in UN General Assembly Resolutions 62/68 of December 6, 2007 “Consideration of the issue of preventing transboundary harm from hazardous activities and distribution of losses in the event of such harm” and 61/36 of December 4, 2006 "Distribution of damages in the event of transboundary harm caused by hazardous activities."

In science, it is customary to identify criteria whose presence allows us to speak about transboundary environmental damage: the anthropogenic nature of the activity that caused the damage; direct connection between anthropogenic activities and harmful consequences; transboundary nature of the impact; the damage must be significant or substantial (minor damage does not give rise to international liability).

As a norm of universal application, the principle of international liability for environmental damage was first formulated in the Stockholm Declaration of 1972 (Principle 22).

The 1992 Rio Declaration reaffirmed the principle of state responsibility for transboundary environmental damage (Principles 13 and 14).

Many international agreements containing various obligations of states in the field of protection and conservation of the environment also imply liability for their violation: liability for damage from the transboundary movement of genetically modified organisms (GMOs); liability for marine oil pollution; liability for damage caused by transboundary transport of hazardous waste and its disposal; liability for damage caused during the transportation of dangerous goods; liability for nuclear damage.

Responsibility for causing transboundary environmental damage in international law can also be borne by individuals within the framework of the institution of individual international liability.

Thus, in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 1998, war crimes also include “intentionally committing an attack when it is known that such an attack will cause ... extensive, long-term and serious damage to the natural environment, which would be clearly disproportionate to the specific and immediate expected general military superiority" (Article 8b, iv of the Rome Statute).

The given list of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law within the meaning of Art. 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice represents the consolidated opinion of the most qualified specialists in public law. This, however, does not remove from the agenda the discussion of various doctrinal approaches to compiling lists of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law.

Yes, Prof. K.A. Bekyashev identifies 15 principles of international environmental law: “the environment is the common concern of mankind”, “the natural environment beyond state borders is the common heritage of mankind”, “freedom of research and use of the environment and its components”, “rational use of the environment”, “ promoting international cooperation in the study and use of the environment", "the interdependence of environmental protection, peace, development, human rights and fundamental freedoms", "precautionary approach to the environment", "right to development", "prevention of harm", "prevention environmental pollution", "state responsibility", "he who pollutes pays, or the polluter pays", "universal but differentiated responsibility", "access to environmental information", "waiver of immunity from the jurisdiction of international or foreign judicial organs." At the same time, this author accompanies the selection of almost all of these principles with references to international treaties and state practice.

ON THE. Sokolova, proposing her own version of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law, proceeds from the fact that the norm contained in a special principle should determine its content, have significant, fundamental importance for regulating relations in the field of environmental protection, and find constant application in practice states, including when resolving disputes, is contained not only in the preamble, but also in the main text of the treaty, and is considered by the doctrine as a full-fledged international legal norm

• the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, according to which the content and procedure for fulfilling international environmental obligations is determined, taking into account differences in the capabilities of states and their “contribution” to the problem of environmental change. According to N.A. Sokolova, this principle becomes the basis for declaring demands for the participation of all states in solving international environmental problems;
• the principle of the precautionary approach, the normative content of which, according to N.A. Sokolova, includes the following elements:
  • the need to take into account potential threats that could lead to environmental damage;
  • a direct link between the threat and the possibility of serious and irreversible damage;
  • scientific uncertainty that cannot justify postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation;
• The polluter pays principle, which was originally formulated as an economic principle in the 1970s. As N.A. believes Sokolov, its initial basis should be considered from the point of view of “internalization of costs” (from the English internal - internal) taking into account the actual economic costs of pollution control, cleanup and protective measures by including them in the costs of the activity itself;
• the principle of no harm to the environment beyond national jurisdiction, which covers the following elements:
  • the obligation to carry out activities in such a way that they do not cause damage to the environment beyond national jurisdiction;
  • the obligation to assess activities that may cause harm beyond national jurisdiction in order to determine its extent and nature;
• principle of international environmental cooperation.

From among foreign researchers in various years, their versions of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law were proposed by: F. Sands, A. Kiss, V. Lang, D. Hunter, J. Salzman and D. Zalke.

For example, F. Sands considers intergenerational equality, sustainable use, equal use and integration to be among the most significant principles of international environmental law.

A. Kiss Special attention focuses on the principle of non-harm beyond national jurisdiction, the principle of international cooperation, the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle. In his writings, he also points out the obligation of all states to preserve the environment, the obligation to assess the impact on the environment, the obligation to monitor the state of the environment, to ensure public access to information about the state of the environment and participation in decision-making.

V. Lang proposes to distinguish three groups of principles according to the degree of their normative consolidation:

• existing principles (for example, the principle of liability for environmental damage);
• emerging principles (right to a healthy environment, warning other states in case of possible environmental impact);
• potential principles (the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities).

Finally, D. Hunter, J. Salzman and D. Zalke combine the principles of international environmental law into several groups:

• principles defining general approaches to the environment;
• principles relating to transboundary environmental cooperation issues;
• principles promoting the development of national environmental legislation;
• principles of international environmental management.

The given range of opinions of domestic and foreign experts regarding the catalog of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law clearly demonstrates the tendency towards convergence of existing scientific approaches, which can be seen, in particular, in the repetition of some of them. Some of the authors, such as prof. K.A. Bekyashev, rightly discovering, apparently, common features in the legal regime of outer space and the environment, borrow the formulations of some special principles of international environmental law, according to which the identification of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law, as well as the exact formulation of their legal contents are an extremely complex theoretical problem, which is still far from being successfully resolved.

Sources of international environmental law

One of the remarkable phenomena of the modern doctrine of international environmental law is the development in it of the grounds and methods for classifying international environmental norms as a necessary step towards streamlining the system and structure of this branch of international law. Along with the use of traditional classifications into norms, ordinary, generally accepted principles, contractual norms of a multilateral and bilateral nature, mandatory and advisory decisions of international organizations, decisions of international judicial bodies, in recent years, in international environmental law there has been an in-depth theoretical study of individual aspects of the systematization of normative material, due to specific features practices of legal regulation of international environmental relations.

In particular, much attention is paid to:

• the grounds and conditions for the delimitation of global and regional international environmental legal norms;
• determining the relationship between the framework and detailing norms of the protocols and other supporting agreements;
• assessing the importance of advisory norms, the so-called soft law norms, created especially when determining principles, strategies and, in general, long-term planning in the legal regulation of interstate environmental relations;
• understanding the essence and role of international environmental standards in the mechanism of legal regulation of environmental relations.

In relation to international environmental law, the study of sources, among other things, makes it possible to understand the patterns of formation of this branch of international law and the trends in its further development.

In the complex process of international rule-making, one should distinguish between the main processes, which include those methods of norm formation, as a result of which an international legal norm appears, and auxiliary processes, which are certain stages in the process of formation of an international legal norm, but which do not complete this process.

In this regard, attention is drawn to the fact that in the domestic legal literature there is almost everywhere an equal sign between the concepts of a rule of law and a contract.

It is argued that a contract is a rule of law, that a contract is a form (one of the legal forms) in which a rule of law is expressed.

Indeed, from a formal legal point of view, a rule of law is a certain legal form that contains the rule of behavior of subjects, which they recognize as legally binding for themselves. However, the structure of a norm of international law includes as its elements not only form, but also content. The content of the norm is an abstract legal relationship - abstract because it extends its effect to all subjects and to all events within the framework of a given legal relationship. A specific agreement is part of an objectively existing norm; in relation to this “part”, specific subjects agreed to consider the rule of conduct contained in it as a mandatory norm of behavior for themselves.

To regulate legal relations on a specific issue, subjects do not need to embody in form the entire content of the norm. That is why a particular norm has a plural form.

Finally, the third approach, the so-called Vienna type, originating from the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer of 1985, involves the development and adoption of framework agreements under the auspices of international organizations. Examples of this type of agreement are the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, which, although not called a framework, actually is one, and the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

All three approaches have their own attractive features in the eyes of various groups of states. For example, the first approach is most appropriate at the subregional level, allowing the efforts of a limited number of states experiencing similar or identical environmental difficulties to be concentrated. The second approach requires the adoption of legally binding rules and norms of state behavior, but should not be considered as some kind of limitation of state sovereignty. In this procedure, states, exercising their sovereign rights in practice, delegate part of their sovereign competence to a supranational body, as they often do when joining international intergovernmental organizations. At the same time, this allows states to even expand the scope of their sovereignty through similar actions on the part of other countries that are members of such bodies and organizations. Finally, the third approach best suits the interests of those states that wish to retain the maximum possible amount of sovereignty. In this case, the so-called international interest is represented by one or another international organization serving as a forum for conducting relevant negotiations. Through their relatively broad language and terms, framework agreements provide the necessary basis for interaction and cooperation between the largest possible number of states with different political and economic systems.

And as the first step in the cooperation of efforts, they allow us to immediately begin research and monitoring, which are of exceptional importance, since it is clear scientific data on certain environmental phenomena and consequences that make it possible to move to the level of states adopting specific, more detailed obligations. The achieved results of scientific and technical cooperation make it possible to identify the most relevant areas for interaction and develop in detail the mechanism for their implementation in applications and protocols that become an integral part of the framework agreement.

A special feature of this third approach is also that it is aimed primarily at the “management” of endangered natural resources, and not at the development of general principles of international law. In other words, it is more pragmatic and requires states not to declare their commitment general principles international environmental protection, but to take specific measures aimed at restoring and maintaining a particular natural resource.

The rapid and dynamic development of international environmental law today is largely ensured by the “growth” of “soft” law norms. These norms, in quantitative terms, have long been not inferior to the so-called solid norms in international environmental law. Therefore, to characterize international environmental law as a branch of modern international law, determining their place and role in the system of its sources is of great importance.

Norms of “soft” law, by establishing rules of behavior, can become the starting point for transforming such rules into contractual or customary international legal norms. As noted in this regard, for example, N.A. Sokolov, speaking about the transformation of “soft” law norms into contractual or customary law, such advisory norms for environmental protection can be assessed from the position of de lege ferenda.

Moreover, some norms of “soft” law, which are not legally binding, are nevertheless given binding force by states, which is of a political and moral nature.

The use of such documents is noteworthy as an indication of a change or establishment of guidelines that may ultimately become legally binding norms. Such principles are important, their influence is significant, but in themselves they do not constitute legal norms.

The norms of “soft” international environmental law are an objective reality, a fact whose existence must be taken into account.

We find indirect confirmation of this fact in the materials of the anniversary UN Congress on Public International Law in 1995, the participants of which pointed out that treaties are not adequate instruments of international law-making, the process of their preparation is complex, and participation is minimal. Because of this, it was proposed to increase the role of resolutions of multilateral forums.

It was proposed to supplement the classical sources of international law with a “peculiar quasi-legislative process”, culminating in the adoption of declarations of principles, codes of conduct, guidelines, model norms, etc.

The emergence of “soft” law norms in the regulation of international environmental relations was more natural than accidental. Despite the apparent “apoliticality” of the sphere of environmental protection, with references to which some foreign researchers tried to explain the emerging trend in the early 70s of the 20th century. "breakthrough" in the development of international environmental law, in reality, states were quite reluctant to disclose their numerous " environmental secrets", especially in the military sphere, which primarily explains, in particular, the half-hearted decision of the participants of the Stockholm Conference on Problems of the Human Environment in 1972 to establish the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) with the status of a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly and the subsequent one in 1977 - abolition of the Coordination Council within the UNEP structure.

Being free to choose the means of regulating international environmental relations and resolving environmental difficulties that have arisen, the participants in these relations deliberately settled on the norms of “soft” international environmental law.

In the 70s of the XX century. there was a need to create a regulatory framework for a new system of cooperation in the field of environmental protection. The use of international legal instruments for these purposes would require decades, so “soft” law was applied in the form of resolutions of international conferences, which turned out to be able to more quickly adapt to changing national and political realities and made it possible to determine the possible content of “hard” international environmental law, as well as as well as the limits of permissibility of subjective freedom of action.

As a result, the so-called Declaration of Principles and Action Plan for the Human Environment (Action Plan) were adopted at the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972. This experience was subsequently adopted by the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (1992) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002).

This practice, which has shown its vitality, has convincingly proven the ability of “soft” international environmental law to solve problems that “hard” law cannot do.

It is no coincidence that UN General Assembly Resolution 49/113 of December 19, 1994 “Promoting the principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development” directly states that the Rio Declaration contains the fundamental principles for achieving sustainable development based on a new and fair global partnership, and that all governments are encouraged to promote the widespread dissemination at all levels of the Rio Declaration.

The norms of “soft” international environmental law can also solve other specific problems, for example, regulate international relations with the participation of subjects of national law.

Economic, cultural, scientific and technical ties are carried out mainly by private individuals and organizations that cannot be obliged by the state to carry out relevant activities.

As an example, we can refer to the rules of “soft” law contained in the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, adopted at the XXVIII session of the FAO Conference in October 1995.

The Code is not an international treaty; accordingly, there is no contractually established list of member states for which the norms of the Code would be binding. The Code does not express consent for its norms to be binding in any of the ways provided for in Art. Art. 11 - 15

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969. On the contrary, in Art. 1 of the Code specifically designates the voluntary nature of states’ implementation of its provisions. And although the Code includes norms that most states are obliged to implement, this obligation arises from the international legal nature of these norms themselves, and not from the Code as such. We are talking, first of all, about the relevant provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of ​​1982 and the Agreement to Promote Compliance by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas with International Measures for the Conservation and Management of Biological Resources of 1993. In addition, the Code is not subject to registration with the UN Secretariat.

Another example of “soft” law rules governing a rather specific area of ​​relations involving subjects of domestic law is Agenda 21 of the Olympic Movement, adopted at the June session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Seoul in 1999 in response to the call of the UN Environment Conference and development in Rio de Janeiro 1992 to all universal, regional and subregional international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to develop their own relevant documents, similar to Agenda 21. This Agenda was subsequently endorsed by the Olympic Movement as a whole at the Third World Conference on Sport and Environment, held in Rio de Janeiro in October 1999.

Agenda 21 has received widespread support and endorsement from UNEP as the basis for a policy of close cooperation between members of the Olympic Movement and UNEP. As the Executive Director of UNEP noted, “Agenda 21 of the Olympic Movement should serve as a useful reference tool for the sporting community at all levels to protect the environment and achieve sustainable development... This document... contains important provisions regarding the active involvement of the sporting community in the protection and conservation of the environment "The importance of the support of leading sports organizations and the sports industry in achieving these goals should not be underestimated. Not only do they have a stake in maintaining the quality of the environment, but they can also influence the minds and actions of many others in their own countries."

Agenda 21 of the Olympic Movement, according to the Chairman of the IOC Commission for Sport and the Environment, “offers the governing bodies of the sports movement options for how sustainable development can be included in their political strategy and describes actions that enable each individual to actively participate in the promotion of sustainable development, in particular, but not only in relation to sports activities." Agenda 21 should be viewed as a working document that everyone should use to suit their own circumstances.

Like Agenda 21, Agenda 21 contains four main sections, which, however, should not be perceived as a blind copy of one of the documents adopted at the Conference on Environment and Development. The developers of this document sought to highlight from the list of issues contained in Agenda 21 those areas and problems in which the Olympic movement as a whole and its institutional mechanisms in particular are capable, due to the global nature of the Olympic movement, of providing the greatest assistance to the achievement and implementation of environmentally safe development.

Agenda 21, sometimes referred to as the Olympic Movement's Environmental Action Agenda, addresses three key issues: improving socio-economic conditions; conservation and management of natural resources for sustainable development; strengthening the role of major groups.

Being a theoretical and practical guide for all members of the Olympic movement, for athletes in general - the IOC, international federations, national Olympic committees, national organizing committees for the Olympic Games, athletes, clubs, coaches, as well as functionaries and enterprises related to sports, - the Agenda 21 must be carried out in the spirit of respect for the economic, geographical, climatic, cultural, religious characteristics that characterize the diversity of the Olympic movement.

The document aims to encourage members of the Olympic Movement to play an active role in sustainable development; establishes the basic concepts and coordinates the overall efforts necessary to achieve these goals; suggests to policymakers areas where sustainable development can be integrated into their policies; indicates how individuals can act to ensure that their sporting activities and lives in general are sustainable.

Finally, “soft” law is also known to national regulatory systems. As an example, we can cite the Environmental Doctrine of the Russian Federation, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 31, 2002 N 1225-r.

The environmental doctrine of the Russian Federation determines the goals, directions, objectives and principles of implementing a unified state policy in the field of ecology in the Russian Federation for the long term.

It is based on the regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation, international treaties of the Russian Federation in the field of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources, and also takes into account the recommendations of the Rio Conference and subsequent international forums on environmental issues and sustainable development.

It is the latter circumstance that explains the fact that the text of the Environmental Doctrine of the Russian Federation included legal principles and norms enshrined in the laws of the Russian Federation, international treaties of the Russian Federation and universal acts of “soft” international environmental law. We are talking primarily about such provisions of the Doctrine as “openness of environmental information”, “ensuring a favorable state of the environment as a necessary condition for improving the quality of life and health of the population”, “participation of civil society, self-government bodies and business circles in the preparation, discussion, adoption and implementation of decisions in the field of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources", etc.

Since the act in question contains mandatory norms that are not legal, we are dealing with the norms of “soft” environmental law.

Thus, “soft” law is a special normative phenomenon in both the national and international normative systems. Without being as strictly limited by formal frameworks as “hard” law, “soft” law is capable of regulating the most complex and delicate relationships. The regulation of international environmental relations gives rise to many norms, which are often inconsistent with each other. It is difficult for “hard” international environmental law to overcome discrepancies, but for “soft” international environmental law, with its flexibility, it is much easier.

Life has shown that the regulation of international environmental relations is possible only with the involvement of all types of regulatory instruments, among which “non-legal” ones play an extremely important role, especially when the chances of creating “firm” norms that can count on universal acceptance are slim. The concept of “soft” environmental law represents a unique response, on the one hand, to the difficulties of forming international environmental law and, on the other, to a significant increase in recent years in the number and legal significance of recommendations related to international environmental law.

As noted in the report of the Institute of International Law, soft law norms in the strict sense of the word are not a source of law, but their influence on the formation of international environmental norms is such that they should be taken into account when studying the sources, at least as an important contributing factor. development of law.

Environmental standards are unilateral acts of international intergovernmental organizations, adopted by them in the exercise of their rule-making and regulatory functions. They can be considered as preparatory stage in the creation of a rule of law, as a kind of semi-finished product of a legal norm.

As a general rule, the competence to adopt standards in international organizations lies with their executive bodies. This is the case, for example, in the IAEA and a number of specialized UN agencies, such as ICAO, FAO, WHO, WMO, etc., where environmental standards are adopted in the context of their core, core activities. In IMO, in accordance with Art. 15 of the Convention on the Intergovernmental Maritime advisory organization 1948 The Assembly of the organization was vested with exclusive competence to make recommendations on the prevention of sea pollution.

Let us illustrate the procedure for adopting standards using the example of ICAO.

The text of the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation does not define the concept of “international standard”. This definition was first formulated in the resolution of the first session of the ICAO Assembly in 1947 and was reproduced without significant changes in the resolutions of subsequent sessions of the Assembly.

An ICAO standard is defined as “specific requirements for physical characteristics, configuration, material, performance, personnel or procedures, the uniform application of which is recognized as necessary for the safety or regularity of international air navigation and which contracting States are required to follow in accordance with the Convention.”

From the provisions of Art. 38 of the Chicago Convention it follows that neither a standard nor a recommended practice is a norm establishing any rule that is mandatory for execution by an ICAO member state. States are required to submit information to the ICAO Council within a specified time frame regarding the discrepancy between their national practices and the standard set by ICAO.

If states fully agree with such a standard, this means that the national practice of this state does not contradict a specific standard (the exception is cases when states expect to take the necessary measures before the date of application of the standard so that national practice “catch up” to its level ). Moreover, any state at any time can declare that, due to a change in national practice (or without giving any reason at all), it ceases to comply with a particular standard, recommended practice, or any annex to the Chicago Convention as a whole.

Currently, the development of standards regulating the environmental aspects of the use of aviation equipment within the ICAO is carried out in two directions: protecting the environment from the effects of aircraft noise and from emissions from aircraft engines.

Annex 16 was adopted in 1971, which addressed various aspects of the aircraft noise problem.

In accordance with the Resolution on Civil Aviation and the Human Environment adopted by the ICAO Assembly in 1971, specific actions were taken regarding aircraft engine emissions and detailed proposals were prepared for ICAO Standards to regulate the emissions of certain types of aircraft engines.

These Standards, adopted in 1981, set emission limits for smoke and certain gaseous pollutants and prohibited the discharge of unused fuel. The scope of Annex 16 was expanded to include provisions on aircraft engine emissions and became known as “Environmental Protection”. Volume I of the revised Annex 16 includes provisions for aircraft noise, and Volume II contains provisions for aircraft engine emissions.

The ICAO Council approved a new noise standard (Chapter 4), much more stringent than the standard contained in Chapter 4. 3. On January 1, 2006, the new standard began to apply to all newly certified aircraft and aircraft subject to Sec. 3 if their re-certification is requested under Sec. 4.

This new standard was adopted concurrently with the ICAO Assembly's endorsement of the Aviation Environmental Management Committee's "Balanced Approach to Noise Management" framework, which includes four elements: noise reduction at source, land use planning, operational controls and operational limitations.

Annex 16, Volume II contains standards prohibiting the intentional release of fuel into the atmosphere by all aircraft with gas turbine engines manufactured after 18 February 1982.

It also contains standards limiting smoke emissions from turbojet and turbofan engines designed for subsonic flight and manufactured after January 1, 1983. Similar restrictions apply to engines designed for supersonic flight and manufactured after February 18, 1982. .

Annex 16 also includes standards limiting the emissions of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides from large turbojet and turbofan engines designed for subsonic flight and manufactured after 1 January 1986.

ICAO is now committed to ensuring that the safe and orderly development of civil aviation is as compatible as possible with the maintenance of the quality of the human environment. This approach is fully consistent with the Consolidated Statement of Continuing Policies and Practices of ICAO in the Field of Environmental Protection, as set out in ICAO Resolution A33-7. This document is constantly updated and refined to reflect the practice of international environmental cooperation since the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development.

This, in particular, concerns the recognition of the precautionary principle as one of the principles of ICAO policy and the recognition of the fact that the exchange of emissions allowances has the potential to be economically effective means solving the problem of carbon dioxide emissions.

IN Lately Among environmental standards in international environmental law, due diligence standards began to be distinguished. This standard depends on a number of factors, such as the scale of the activity, climatic conditions, location of the activity, materials used in the course of the activity, etc. Therefore, in each specific case, an individual approach to determining the due diligence standard and a careful study of all factors influencing to this standard.

This provision is enshrined in Principle 11 of the 1992 Declaration on Environment and Development (Rio Declaration): “States shall adopt effective environmental legislation. Environmental standards, objectives and regulatory priorities should reflect the environmental and development conditions in which they apply "The standards applied by some countries may be inappropriate and impose unreasonable and social costs in other countries, particularly developing countries."

Principle 23 of the Stockholm Declaration emphasizes that national standards “respect criteria that may be agreed upon by the international community.”

The concept of environmental standards received its further development in Art. 43 drafts of the International Pact on Environment and Development (as amended on September 22, 2010). This article consists of two paragraphs, the location of which clearly indicates that national environmental standards must be based on international standards, and their development must take into account non-binding recommendations and other similar acts.

Similar to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Article 197), the Barcelona Convention on the Protection Mediterranean Sea from pollution 1976 (Article 4(2)), Convention for the Protection of the North-East Atlantic 1992 (Article 2 (1 and 2)) paragraph 1 of Art. 43 of the Project obliges the parties to cooperate in the development of international rules and standards. It is noted that there is a need for harmonization and coordination in resolving issues of common interest, in particular to protect the global commons, which will avoid conflicts and distortion of competition, and will also lead to the reduction and elimination of trade barriers.

When developing flexible measures for the implementation of agreed international environmental standards, special attention should be paid to the interests of developing countries, which is consistent with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

The purpose of international environmental standards is to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, a higher level of environmental protection. Taking into account environmental, social and economic characteristics, states have the right to establish national environmental standards that are more stringent than international ones, provided that they do not constitute hidden trade barriers.

National environmental standards, which are discussed in paragraph 2 of Art. 43, must be both preventive and corrective in nature. They should be aimed at eliminating the causes of environmental degradation and ensuring an adequate level of environmental protection.

Codification of international environmental law

In the text of the UN Charter, in diplomatic correspondence, in official statements of the governments of UN member states and at international conferences, in decisions and documents of UN bodies, the concept of “codification” is always accompanied by the expression “progressive development of international law”. In any resolution of the UN General Assembly devoted to issues of its work in the field of international law, both terms - “codification” and “progressive development of international law” - are constantly and inextricably used to characterize this activity.

In the science of international law there is no firmly established definition of codification.

The only official document that defines the concept of codification of international law is the Statute of the UN International Law Commission (ILC). In Art. 15 of the Statute, codification is understood as “a more precise formulation and systematization of the rules of international law in those areas in which there are certain provisions established by extensive state practice, precedents and doctrine.” At the same time, the Statute does not provide an exhaustive definition, but only explains that the term “codification of international law” is used for reasons of convenience.

First of all, during codification the presence of certain rules international communication, which are legally binding for the state as principles and norms of international law. Then these norms are set out and enshrined in the process of codification in some written act, which is usually a draft multilateral agreement of a general nature - a treaty, a convention, etc. This project is submitted for approval by the states, and after completing a certain procedure of signing and ratification by the states, it becomes a valid international legal act containing in a systematized form the principles and norms of a certain branch or institution of current international law.

As for the concept of “progressive development”, the same Art. 15 of the UN ILC Statute reveals its content as follows: preparation of conventions on those issues that are not yet regulated by international law or on which the law is not yet sufficiently developed in the practice of individual states.

The UN ILC Statute (Articles 16 - 24) provides for various procedures for the codification and progressive development of international law. However, in practice, many of these provisions turned out to be unviable, and therefore the UN ILC in its activities does not adhere to the methodological distinction between codification and progressive development, considering them to be integral, interrelated and interpenetrating elements of a single codification process.

Codification and progressive development of international law are designated as a single process of development and streamlining of international legal acts. The concepts of "codification" and "progressive development" are not mutually exclusive. It is difficult to distinguish between these two processes, since in practice the formulation and systematization of international law may lead to the need to develop some new rules. In the course of codification, the need inevitably arises to fill gaps in existing international law or to clarify and update the content of a number of norms in the light of developments in international relations. The relative nature of the signs of “codification” and “progressive development” outlined in the UN ILC Statute makes it necessary to take into account the elements of innovation in the declared codification.

The process of codification and progressive development of international law, among other things, serves to strengthen the international legal order. In order for international law to fulfill the tasks set before it by the age of globalization, it must go a long way in its development, in which codification and progressive development are called upon to play a central role.

All of the above can be fully applied to international environmental law. This, in particular, allows us to define in the most general form the codification of international environmental law as the systematization and improvement of the principles and norms of international environmental law, carried out by establishing and precisely formulating the content of existing norms, revising outdated ones and developing new norms, taking into account the needs of the development of international relations and consolidation in a single internally consistent order of these norms in an international legal act, which is designed to regulate international environmental relations as completely as possible.

Today, in international environmental law, codification processes take place most quickly and dynamically in two directions:

• firstly, principles and norms that are fundamental to the industry and crucial for ensuring international environmental safety, international environmental cooperation and rational resource use are codified and developed;
• secondly, conventions are concluded on issues in the global regulation of which all humanity is interested.

Moreover, in both directions, codification activities are carried out both in official and unofficial forms (the latter in legal literature is sometimes called “doctrinal” codification). Moreover, unofficial codification in international environmental law, like in perhaps no other branch of modern international law, continues to play one of the leading roles.

As the reports on the work of the UN ILC rightly note, “while recognizing that the body of written international law can only consist directly of laws enacted by governments, due credit should also be given to the research carried out by various societies, institutions and individual authors, and the ideas put forward by them , which also had a significant impact on the development of international law."

The official codification of international environmental law is carried out by the UN, represented by its subsidiary bodies such as the UN ILC and UNEP, and a number of specialized UN agencies within their specialized competence. It is also carried out within the framework of regularly convened international conferences on problems of environmental protection, rational use of natural resources and ensuring environmental safety.

Unofficial codification is currently carried out by individual scientists or their teams, national institutions, public organizations or international non-governmental organizations. Among the latter, the leading role belongs to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Recent advances in the formal codification of international environmental law include UN General Assembly Resolution 62/68 of December 6, 2007, “Consideration of the prevention of transboundary harm from hazardous activities and the distribution of damages in the event of such harm,” 61/36 of December 4, 2006, “Distribution of damages in the event of transboundary harm caused by hazardous activities,” and 63/124 of December 11, 2008, “The Law of Transboundary Aquifers.”

Thus, speaking about the last of the named Resolutions of the UN General Assembly, it should be noted that it was the result of the work of the UN ILC on the topic “Shared Natural Resources”, which was included in the program of work of the UN ILC in 2002. At the initiative of the appointed special rapporteur on this topic T. Yamada initially decided to consider the problem of transboundary groundwater (aquifers).

In 2008, the ILC adopted the draft articles “The Law of Transboundary Aquifers” in the final second reading and submitted them for consideration to the UN General Assembly, which in turn adopted them as an annex to Resolution 63/124. In the process of developing the latest edition of the draft articles, the Commission made extensive use of the recommendations of experts from UNESCO, FAO, UNECE and the International Association of Hydrologists.

The draft articles have a wider scope of application compared to the Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses of 1997. Although the draft art. 2 contains a new definition of the concept of “use of transboundary aquifers or aquifer systems”, which includes not only the extraction of water, heat and minerals, but also the storage and disposal of any substances, the document nevertheless emphasized the use of aquifers as source of water resources.

The text of General Assembly Resolution 63/124, which annexed these draft articles, made three key points regarding the future of the draft: firstly, the draft articles are “noted” and “are brought to the attention of Governments without prejudice to their future adoption or on other relevant decisions" (clause 4); secondly, the General Assembly “invites the States concerned to enter into appropriate agreements at the bilateral or regional levels for the effective management of their transboundary aquifers, taking into account the provisions of these draft articles” (para. 5); and thirdly, the General Assembly “decides to include this question in its next agenda with a view to considering in particular the form in which the draft articles could be taken” (para. 6).

The adopted draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers make it possible to maintain a balance between the principle of state sovereignty over natural resources, the need for their reasonable and equitable exploitation and protection, and the obligation not to cause significant damage.

In the field of informal codification of international environmental law, a great achievement was the development within the IUCN of the draft International Pact on Environment and Development, which was approved at the UN anniversary congress on public international law (New York, 13 - 17 March 1995).

Initially, the draft Pact consisted of 72 articles, which formulated the basic principles, responsibilities of states in relation to the global ecological system, elements of the natural environment and natural processes, types of human activities affecting the natural environment, and measures to regulate anthropogenic impacts.

It was based on international treaties and customs in the field of international environmental law, as well as the provisions of the Stockholm Declaration of 1972, the Rio Declaration of 1992 and the World Charter for Nature of 1982.

The draft Pact of 1995, in accordance with the provisions of Art. 38.1(d) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, embodies "the doctrine of the most qualified experts in the public law of the various nations."

Subsequently, three new editions of the draft Pact were adopted, and currently it exists in the 4th edition, adopted on September 22, 2010, which was presented at the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in the same year.

In its current form, the draft Covenant consists of 79 articles, grouped into 11 parts.

The draft Pact, like the 1972 Stockholm Declaration and the 1992 Declaration on Environment and Development, contains provisions called principles. At the same time, the draft Pact classifies the following as fundamental principles:

1. respect for all forms of life" (art. 2);
2. the common concern of mankind" (v. 3);
3. interdependent values” (Article 4);
4. equality of rights between generations" (Article 5);
5. prevention" (Article 6);
6. precaution" (Art. 7);
7. choosing the least environmentally harmful model of behavior" (Article 8);
8. taking into account the limited capacity of natural systems to withstand environmental loads and stress" (Article 9);
9. the right to development" (Article 10);
10. eradication of poverty" (Article 11);
11. common but differentiated responsibilities" (Article 12).

Already from the name of the listed principles it follows that they are not formulated as rules of law.

These are principles-ideas. Therefore, the commentary to the draft Covenant states that it is “a declaratory expression of legal norms and the basis for all the obligations contained in the draft Covenant.” They embody the requirements arising from biosphere thinking, which rejects the anthropocentric model of interaction between man and the environment.

If the Stockholm Declaration and the Rio Declaration do not distinguish between principles-norms and principles-ideas, nor does the relationship between them be established, then in the draft Pact the principles-ideas are separated from the principles-norms and are designated as “fundamental principles”. On these “fundamental principles” the principles-norms provided in subsequent parts and formulated as “general obligations” are built.

The adoption of a single universal codifying international legal act in relation to international environmental law is intended to solve a twofold problem: firstly, to answer the question about the number and content of special sectoral principles of international environmental law, and secondly, to complete the process of formalizing international environmental law into an independent branch of modern international law.

As is known, a group of legal norms and principles can claim to form an independent branch of law in the case when states agree on the formulation of a broad universal international legal act containing the basic principles of international law in a given area of ​​international relations. Moreover, before the appearance of such an act, we can talk about the formation of the corresponding branch of international law, and after its entry into force - about the emergence of a new branch.

As a result of the codification of international environmental law within the framework of a universal international legal act, the norms of a given branch of international law are combined on a qualitatively better regulatory basis in accordance with the level of legal consciousness for a given period, and such norms themselves are more precisely formulated. Achieving such greater orderliness, clarity and better quality of rules of proper conduct in itself has a positive impact on the entire process of implementation of international environmental law, on the effectiveness of international environmental law in general.

Thus, given the great contribution of the UN ILC and IUCN to the codification and progressive development of international environmental law, the following seems rational.

The UN Commission on the basis of the draft International Pact on Environment and Development can develop an Ecological Constitution of the Earth, which in the future, according to established practice, can be adopted either by the UN General Assembly or at an international ad hoc conference.

In particular, the President of Ukraine spoke about the need to develop and adopt a World Ecological Constitution at the September 2009 summit on climate change. It is no coincidence that in December of the same year an international scientific and practical conference “Global climate change: threats to humanity and prevention mechanisms” was held in Lvov.

According to the expert community, environmental human rights, and first of all the right to a safe (favorable) environment, should be enshrined in the Ecological Constitution of the Earth. The environmental policy of states and the world community as a whole should be aimed at ensuring these rights.

In this regard, the UN ILC and other interested parties will need to do a considerable amount of work to bring Art. 14 of the draft International Pact on Environment and Development (as amended on September 22, 2010) in accordance with the conceptual and terminological apparatus, which currently enjoys the support of most countries in the world. This applies primarily to what is enshrined in Art. 14 the right of everyone “to an environment adequate to his health, prosperity and dignity.” This formulation is in many ways similar to Principle 1 of the Stockholm Declaration, which back in 1972 was a not entirely successful compromise.

In its remaining parts, Art. 14 of the draft Covenant already today contains a list of widely recognized environmental human rights: the right to access environmental information, the right to public participation in decision-making on environmental issues, the right to access environmental justice, the right to participation of indigenous peoples in making environmentally significant decisions.

Since ensuring compliance with environmental human rights is entrusted to special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law, which are implemented primarily in the process of international environmental cooperation between states and relevant international organizations, the Environmental Constitution of the Earth should stimulate such cooperation and become a factor in increasing its effectiveness. Consequently, it is advisable to consolidate in it the forms and methods of international environmental cooperation in relation to its specific types.

In order to avoid declarativeness, the Environmental Constitution of the Earth must provide for a reliable organizational mechanism to ensure its implementation in the form of a specialized international organization endowed with broad competence to ensure a safe (favorable) environment, to coordinate international environmental cooperation, as well as to monitor the implementation of the Constitution.

Thus, the proposed concept of the Ecological Constitution of the Earth can solve a number of common problems that are important today for the world community and each of its members:

• to form a system of environmental human rights and consolidate his right to a safe environment;
• determine the directions of global environmental policy, as well as environmental cooperation between states and international organizations;
• eliminate gaps in the international legal regulation of environmental relations and make the branch of international environmental law more systematic;
• create additional international organizational, legal and judicial guarantees for ensuring environmental law and order in the world;
• promote the coordinated development of national systems of environmental legislation.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Syktyvkar State University Faculty of Parallel Education and External Studies

Department of Civil Law and Procedure

Test in the discipline "Environmental Law"

Checked:

Makhmudova Zh.A.

Completed by a 4th year student

6400 group, Mantarkov G.Kh.

Syktyvkar 2004

1. International legal principles of cooperation in solving environmental problems

1. International legal principles of cooperation in solving environmental problems

According to the legal and semantic significance, the declared principles of environmental protection can be divided into nine groups, at the head of which, of course, it is necessary to determine the principles that affirm the right of citizens to a favorable environment, although 20 years ago priority was given to the sovereignty of states to use natural resources and protect the environment environment.

So, the first group includes principles that establish the priorities of human rights to a favorable environment and sustainable development. Caring for people is central to efforts to achieve sustainable development. People have the right to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature. The right to development must be realized to ensure that the development and environmental needs of present and future generations are equitably met. To achieve sustainable development, environmental protection must be an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it.

Note also that Principle 2 of the Stockholm Declaration states that the Earth's natural resources, including air, water, land, flora and fauna, and especially representative examples of natural ecosystems, should be conserved for the benefit of present and future generations through careful planning and management as appropriate .

The second group of principles proclaims the sovereignty of states over the use of natural resources. This provision is especially clearly reflected by the principle of the 21st Stockholm Conference, which states: “In accordance with
Under the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, States have the sovereign right to use their own resources in accordance with their national policies in approaching environmental problems, and it is their responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause harm to the environment in other States or areas beyond national jurisdiction."

States adopt effective environmental legislation. Environmental standards, regulatory objectives and priorities should reflect the environmental and development contexts in which they apply. Standards applied by some countries may be inappropriate and impose unreasonable economic and social costs in other countries, particularly developing countries.

Principle 8 of the Rio Declaration states that to achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, states must limit and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate population policies.

The third group of principles characterizes the responsibilities of citizens in the field of environmental protection. Every person is called to act in accordance with the provisions of the World Charter for Nature; Each person, acting individually, must strive to ensure that the objectives and provisions of the Charter are achieved (clause 24).

In the Declaration of Rio de Janeiro these provisions are formulated as follows:

Women play a vital role in environmental management and development. Therefore, their full participation is necessary to achieve sustainable development;

The creativity, ideals and courage of the world's youth must be mobilized to forge a global partnership to achieve sustainable development and a better future for all;

Indigenous people and their communities, as well as other local communities, have a vital role to play in managing and improving the environment through their knowledge and traditional practices.
States must recognize and duly support their identity, culture and interests and ensure their effective participation in achieving sustainable development;

The environment and natural resources of peoples living under conditions of oppression, domination and occupation must be protected.

The fourth group declares responsibility for environmental protection. Principle 4 of the Stockholm Declaration proclaimed the special responsibility of man for the conservation and wise management of works of nature and its environment, which are under serious threat due to a number of unfavorable factors. And the World Charter for Nature states: the genetic basis of life on Earth should not be endangered; the population of every form of life, wild or domesticated, must be maintained at least at a level sufficient for its survival; the necessary habitat should be preserved (principle 2); these principles of conservation apply to all parts of the earth's surface, land or sea; special protection should be provided to unique areas - typical representatives of all types of ecosystems and habitats of rare or endangered species (principle 3); Ecosystems and organisms used by humans, as well as terrestrial, marine and atmospheric resources, should be managed in such a way that their optimal and continuous productivity can be achieved and maintained, without compromising the integrity of those ecosystems or species with which they coexist (principle 4).

The fifth group sets priorities in the use of natural resources. The World Charter for Nature provides (principle 10) that natural resources should not be wasted, but used in moderation: a) biological resources are used only within the limits of their natural ability to recover; b) soil productivity is maintained or improved through measures to preserve its long-term fertility and the process of decomposition of organic matter and to prevent erosion and any other forms of self-destruction; c) reusable resources, including water, are reused or recycled; d) non-renewable single-use resources are exploited in moderation, taking into account their reserves, rational possibilities for their processing for consumption and the compatibility of their operation with the functioning of natural systems.

The sixth group consists of principles (in particular, principles 6 and 7
Stockholm Declaration), focused on preventing environmental pollution and other harmful effects on nature. The Charter on this issue states the following: any discharge of pollutants into natural systems should be refrained from, if such a discharge is unavoidable, then these pollutants should be neutralized in the places where they are produced, using the best means available to producers, and Special precautions must also be taken to prevent the dumping of radioactive and toxic waste (principle 12).

The seventh, most extensive group of environmental protection principles involves close and effective international cooperation in this area. Nations cooperate in a spirit of global partnership to preserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth's ecosystem. Because of their different roles in global environmental degradation, states bear common but different responsibilities. Developed countries recognize the responsibilities they bear in the context of international efforts to achieve sustainable development, taking into account the stress that their societies place on the global environment, technology and financial resources they possess.

Principle 12 of the Rio Declaration states that in order to more effectively address environmental degradation, States should cooperate to create a favorable and open international economic system that would lead to economic growth and sustainable development in all countries. Trade policy measures taken to protect the environment must not constitute means of arbitrary or unjustified discrimination or disguised restrictions on international trade. Unilateral actions to address environmental issues outside the jurisdiction of the importing country should be avoided. Environmental measures aimed at solving transboundary or global environmental problems should, as far as possible, be based on international consensus.

States should develop national laws regarding liability and compensation for victims of pollution and other environmental damage. States are also cooperating promptly and more decisively to further develop international law relating to liability and compensation for the adverse effects of environmental damage caused by activities under their jurisdiction or control in areas outside their jurisdiction (principle 13).
States must cooperate effectively to contain or prevent the transfer and transfer to other States of any activities and substances that cause serious environmental damage or are considered harmful to human health (principle 14). In order to protect the environment, states widely apply the precautionary principle to the best of their ability. Where there is a threat of serious or irreversible harm, the lack of full scientific certainty cannot be a reason for delaying the adoption of cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation (Principle 15). National authorities should strive to promote the internationalization of environmental costs and the use of environmental funds, taking into account the approach that the polluter has an obligation to cover the costs of pollution, with due regard to the public interest and without disrupting international trade and investment (principle 16).

Environmental impact assessment as a national instrument is carried out in relation to proposed activities that are likely to have a significant negative impact on the environment and which are subject to approval by a decision of the competent national authority (principle
17). The State shall immediately notify other States of any natural disaster or other emergency situations, which may lead to unexpected harmful consequences for the environment in these states.
The international community is making every effort to provide assistance to affected States (Principle 18). States provide advance and timely notification and relevant information to potentially affected States about activities that may have significant adverse transboundary effects, and consult with those States early and in good faith (Principle 19). States should cooperate to strengthen efforts to build national capacity to achieve sustainable development by enhancing scientific understanding through the exchange of scientific and technological knowledge and enhancing the development, adaptation, diffusion and transfer of technologies, including new and innovative technologies (principle 9).

The eighth group characterizes the principles ensuring the right to information. In accordance with Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, environmental issues are resolved in the most effective manner with the participation of all concerned citizens - at the appropriate level. At the national level, everyone should have adequate access to environmental information held by government authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall develop and encourage public awareness and participation through the widespread provision of information. The effective use of judicial and administrative procedures, including redress and remedies, is ensured.

The ninth group establishes obligations to protect the environment in cases of armed conflict. War inevitably has a destructive impact on the process of sustainable development. States should therefore respect international law that protects the environment during armed conflicts and, where necessary, cooperate in its further development.

The process of improving legal norms governing environmental protection is reaching new level in the 90s. Taking into account the recommendations and principles set out in the documents of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), decisions of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, more than 20 countries around the world have adopted national programs on environment and development 4 .

These programs reflect the main recommendations and principles of documents adopted in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, the desire to make a transition to sustainable development, providing a balanced solution to socio-economic problems, problems of preserving a favorable environment and natural resource potential in order to meet the needs of current and future generations of people. The “Agenda 21st Century” adopted by the UN Conference outlines the strategy of the world community for the future, providing for the harmonious achievement of the main goals - preserving the environment and a healthy economy for all peoples of the world. This involves environmental protection and rational use of natural resources, conservation of biological diversity, environmentally friendly use of high technologies, chemical substances taking into account the solution of socio-economic problems.

2. Objects of international legal environmental protection

The object of international legal protection is the entire nature of the planet
Earth and near-Earth space within the limits in which man actually influences material world. But since the natural environment has a number of internal structural divisions, its elements and protected objects differ. Including:

Continents that constitute the main and immediate living space for the development of humanity. Traditionally, this concept covers the entire natural complex that is firmly connected with the land surface of the Earth, i.e. soils, bowels of the earth, water resources, flora and fauna. However, in recent years, there has been a differentiation of natural objects in the field of international legal protection and international rivers and other continental water bodies, migratory animals that spend certain periods of life in the territory of various countries and in international spaces, and other natural resources are gradually gaining independent recognition as protected objects. belonging to two or more countries.

Atmospheric air is the gaseous envelope of the globe, lying between the surface of the Earth and outer space. The composition of atmospheric air gases is relatively constant, containing oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide in certain proportions, which ensures one of the basic physiological needs of living organisms - respiration, as well as a number of metabolic processes in nature.

Space is all material space lying beyond the Earth and its atmosphere. Outer space is infinite. But the sphere of influence of people is limited to the areas closest to the Earth. Therefore, at the current level of development of productive forces, which determines the processes of human penetration into space, only part of space needs international legal protection, namely, near-Earth outer space, the natural satellite of the Earth - the Moon, planets solar system, the surfaces of which spaceships reach.

Regardless of the given classification natural objects taking into account the differences in their legal regime, they are divided into those under national jurisdiction or control of individual states - intrastate natural objects and those outside national jurisdiction or control - international, international natural objects.

Objects under national jurisdiction or control include the natural resources of continents on the territory of individual states, resources located within coastal territorial sea waters, continental shelves and exclusive economic zones.
The legal regime of intrastate natural objects is determined by the internal law of each country. In accordance with the norms of internal law, the issue of ownership of natural objects is resolved: they can belong to the state, private individuals, state, cooperative, public organizations, and sometimes to international communities. Internal law establishes the procedure for ownership, disposal and use of natural objects. In the legal regulation of the use and protection of domestic natural objects there is a share of participation and norms of international law. There is a correlation and interaction between the norms of domestic and international law. Typically, progressive principles developed by world practice, universally recognized and enshrined in international legal acts are transformed into norms of domestic law and thus implemented.

Natural objects that are outside national jurisdiction and control, outside the sphere of exclusive sovereignty of individual states, include mainly those that are located in international spaces: the World Ocean with all its riches, outside territorial waters, continental shelves and economic zones , individual continents, for example, Antarctica, part of the Earth's atmosphere and space.
The legal regime of international natural objects is determined mainly by the norms of international law. The question of ownership of these objects did not arise for a long time. There was a tacit recognition of international natural objects as nobody's property and agreement with the right of any country to seize these objects. But in modern conditions, this situation has become less and less consistent with the interests and needs of the peoples of the world. Some international legal principles were developed and gradually introduced into practice, limiting the possibility of arbitrary actions in relation to international natural objects.

3. Concept and classification of sources of international law

The central place among the sources of international legal protection of the natural environment is occupied by the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and
World Conservation Charter. They are of decisive importance in the implementation of the principles and provisions of international legal environmental cooperation.

Among the resolutions of the UN General Assembly devoted to environmental protection and rational use of the world's natural resources, attention should be paid to four.

December 18, 1962 The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution
“Economic Development and Conservation”, which endorses the initiative and recommendations proposed by UNESCO. The adopted resolution highlights three important points: firstly, a holistic consideration of the totality of the environment, natural resources, flora and fauna; secondly, the integration of the term nature conservation into the broader term “environmental protection”; thirdly, the concept of an organic combination of interests of environmental protection and economic development, which was developed at the Stockholm UN Conference on the Environment in 1972.

On December 3, 1968, the UN General Assembly adopts a resolution recognizing the essential role of a good environment for respect for fundamental human rights and proper economic and social development. For this purpose, the UN General Assembly decides to convene the UN Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972.

In September 1980, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution “On the historical responsibility of states for preserving the nature of the Earth for present and future generations.” The resolution calls on all states and peoples to take concrete measures to reduce armaments and develop measures to protect the environment.

In 1982, the UN General Assembly approves the World Conservation Charter.

The World Conservation Charter was approved and approved on October 28, 1982 by the Resolution of the 37th session of the UN General Assembly. It consists of 24 basic principles.

The Charter considers environmental education as an integral part of general education. It is recognized as necessary to expand our knowledge about nature in every possible way through research and the dissemination of this knowledge by information systems of any type. The principles of this charter must be reflected in the legal practice of each state and at the level of international cooperation.

In terms of its legal force, the charter is an international legal document of recommendatory value. This means that its norms and principles are not legally binding for states and international organizations, but in their practical activities, members of the world community, based on the universal obligation to protect the natural environment, must adhere to the provisions of this act.

As a source of international legal protection, the treaty occupies a central place. Among this group of sources, the most prominent are agreements of political content, where problems of environmental protection are intertwined with issues of peace, security, and arms reduction.

The main place in this group is occupied by the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, signed by all European states, the USA and Canada. This group also includes a number of conventions, treaties, and agreements banning the production, testing, and use of means of mass destruction. These include such documents as the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Sea (1963); Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968); Treaty on the Prohibition of the Placement of Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Bottom of the Seas and Oceans (1971); Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) Weapons and Toxins and Their Destruction (1972). A number of agreements on the reduction, limitation, and destruction of strategic offensive weapons are bilateral in nature, since they were concluded by the USSR and the USA.

Another significant group of treaties as sources of international legal protection of the environment consists of international treaties of environmental content. Among them, one subgroup is formed by environmental-complex agreements, the other by environmental-resource agreements.

Such international legal acts as the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Means of Impact on the Natural Environment have signs of complex environmental content
(1977); Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (1979); Treaty on Principles for the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (1967); 1959 Antarctic Treaty.

4. International environmental organizations

Environmental protection is carried out by all known types of international organizations - specialized agencies and bodies of the UN, intergovernmental organizations, international non-governmental organizations of a universal type, regional and subregional bodies.

The leading role in international environmental cooperation belongs to
United Nations, its specialized agencies. The protection of the human environment directly follows from the UN Charter. Its goal and task is to assist in resolving international problems in the field of economic, social life, healthcare, improving the standard of living of the population, respect for human rights.

The UN General Assembly determines the main directions of environmental policy of the international community, develops principles of relations between states on environmental protection, makes decisions on holding international UN conferences on major environmental problems, develops draft international conventions, recommendations on environmental protection, creates new environmental bodies, promotes development of multilateral and bilateral cooperation between states to protect the environment.

The environmental activities of the UN are carried out directly or through its main and subsidiary bodies or a system of specialized agencies. One of the main organs of the UN is
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), within which functional and regional commissions and committees operate.

All these bodies, along with other political, economic and social issues, deal with environmental issues. However, the UN system has a special central body that deals exclusively with environmental protection.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was created by resolution
UN General Assembly on December 15, 1972, in accordance with the recommendations of the Stockholm UN Conference on the Environment (1972).
UNEP has a Governing Council, which includes representatives of states, and an Environmental Coordination Council. Fund

environment.

The main directions of UNEP activities are determined by the Governing Council. 7 areas have been identified as priorities for the near future:

1) human settlements, human health, environmental sanitation;

2) protection of lands and waters, prevention of desertification;

3) oceans;

4) protection of nature, wild animals,

genetic resources;

5) energy;

6) education, vocational training;

7) trade, economics, technology.

As the organization's activities develop, the number of priority areas may increase. In particular, the problems of codification and unification of international and domestic environmental legislation are already being put forward as priority areas.

In solving these problems, UNEP acts, as a rule, jointly with other international environmental organizations. For example, during the preparation and holding of two international conferences on environmental education in Tbilisi in 1977 and 1987. UNEP actively collaborated with UNESCO.

United Nations Cultural, Scientific, Educational Organization
(UNESCO) was founded in 1948 with headquarters in Paris.
It carries out environmental activities in several areas:

a) management of environmental programs in which more than South Ossetia states are involved. The programs include the long-term, intergovernmental and interdisciplinary program (MAB), the International Program for Environmental Education, the International Hydrological Program, etc.; b) recording and organizing the protection of natural sites classified as World Heritage; c) providing assistance to developing and other countries in the development of environmental education and training of environmental specialists.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources - (IUCN) - was established in 1948. It is a non-governmental international organization that represents over 100 countries, non-governmental organizations and international governmental organizations (over 500 members in total). From
Russian members of IUCN are the Ministry Agriculture and food (Ministry of Agriculture and Food) and the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation.
The main task of IUCN is to develop international cooperation between states, national and international organizations, and individual citizens: a) preservation of natural ecosystems, flora and fauna;

b) preservation of rare and endangered species of plants and animals, natural monuments;

c) organization of reserves, reserves, national natural parks;

d) environmental education.

With the assistance of IUCN, international conferences on nature conservation are held, and draft international conventions on the protection of natural monuments, individual natural objects and complexes are being developed. At the initiative of the IUCN, the Red Book of Rare and Endangered Species of Plants and Animals is maintained, and a program has been developed

It should be noted that decisions (which are usually qualified as resolutions) of international organizations do not have legislative significance, although they influence the creation of norms of international law. Consequently, the influence on their parties is not of a directive, but of a recommendatory nature, and is realized only after the acceptance of one or another recommendation of an international organization determined by the state. This is one of the specific reasons for the herd nature of managing international cooperation.

It is now clear that solving all environmental problems within one country through national efforts alone is no longer possible. It is necessary that similar measures be taken by other countries. The environmental impact of each country far beyond its borders should also be monitored. We are talking about the transboundary movement of contaminated water and air, the import of goods containing dangerous toxic components, etc.

Independent resolution of environmental problems by individual countries also becomes impossible due to the need to attract large material, scientific, intellectual and other resources. And this is not always enjoyed by one country. For example, about 60 thousand chemical substances are now widely used in the world, and several hundred of them have turned out to be dangerous (toxic, flammable, explosive, etc.). These substances enter the environment, pollute it and often adversely affect human health (for example, poisoning by substances buried in the “Canal of Love” at the Niagara Reservoir in the USA, the elimination of the consequences of which cost $30 million). Every year, almost 1 thousand new chemical substances appear on the world market, each with a sales volume of at least 1 ton. This encourages the adoption of regional and global decisions at the highest political level. The time has come to say a strong word for so-called environmental diplomacy. It is precisely this that is designed to ensure the appropriate conditions for the gradual and unhindered development of international environmental cooperation to unite the efforts of countries and peoples in the interests of preserving the environment, which implies the adoption of specific measures to correct the unfavorable environmental situation on the planet, in individual countries, in a particular region. From declarations to practical actions at the global, regional and national levels of environmental work - this is how we can formulate the credo of environmental diplomacy today.

It is noteworthy that environmental issues at the global level began to be considered in... The UN has been around almost since its founding in 1962. General. Assembly. The UN adopted a resolution on “economic development and nature conservation”; in 1971, the “Man and the Biosphere” program was adopted, in which Ukraine was also involved. The program provides for an appropriate set of environmental research and activities -. VVI aims, in particular, to protect against pollution of pool waters. Dnieper, protection from pollution. Donetsk region; rational use, restoration and strengthening of the protective functions of ecosystems. Carpathians; rational use and protection of natural resources. Polesie (in connection with the implementation of large-scale drainage reclamation), development and improvement of technological processes with a reduced amount of gas emissions into the atmosphere.

The central link and coordinator of international environmental cooperation is. UNEP. Program. United Nations Environment (UNEP) was founded by the 27th session. General. Assembly in 1972 based on the recommendations of nations. Conferences. UN Environment (Stockholm, 5-16 June 1972) to ensure the speedy and effective implementation by governments and international communities of activities aimed at protecting and improving the environment. This organization is headquartered in. Nairobi (Kenya) today has branches in all parts of the world.

The Stockholm Conference identified three main functional objectives for international environmental cooperation under the auspices of. UNEP: environmental assessment (monitoring, information exchange) environmental management (targeting and planning, international consultations and agreements). Other activities (education, public information, technical cooperation.

It must be admitted that before practical international cooperation in the environmental sphere, a significant part of the countries joined with a noticeable delay. While declaring in words their commitment to protecting the environment, they often remained outside the most important international events in the environmental sphere, in fact, they ignored the experience accumulated by multilateral diplomacy in this area. Yes, Soviet and. The Union, for purely political reasons, did not participate in the work. Stockholm conference. UN Environment. Because of this, there were financial difficulties, departmental problems, and most importantly, probably, the fear of revealing “secret” information about oneself and an unjustified reliance only on one’s own strength. It was at this forum that a declaration was born that laid the ideological foundations for international activities on environmental protection.

Now. UNEP carries out about a thousand projects and programs covering all corners of the planet. The following environmental programs operate within its framework: Global Environmental Monitoring System. Global database of natural resources. International Register of Potential Toxic Substances. Action plan. UN to combat desertification. Global Conservation Action Plan marine mammals,. Action plan for forest trails. Program for the environmentally sound use of inland waters. World Soil Policy. Together with other organizations. UN. UNEP is involved in implementation. World Climate Programme. International Geosphere-Biosphere Program "Global Changes". International Environmental Education Program. Programs to assist developing countries in solving environmental problems.

last years. UNEP initiated the adoption of such important environmental documents as: Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Destruction. Under the auspices of this organization, a global convention on the conservation of the planet's biological diversity is being developed. Such wide possibilities. UNEP, as described by it, valuable scientific and practical experience in environmental work deserve close attention in Ukraine to solve its own urgent environmental problems.

In such an authoritative document as the “Final Act” of the Conference on Security and Cooperation. Europe (1975), it was noted that the protection and improvement of the environment, nature conservation and rational use of its resources in the interests of present and future generations is one of the tasks that are of greatest importance for the well-being of peoples and the economic development of all countries. Many problems in the natural environment, in particular in. Europe, can only be effectively resolved through close international cooperation.

In 1982 session. The UN adopted a document of historical importance - the "World Charter for Nature" Under the auspices. The UN was created in 1983. The International Commission on Environment and Development, which prepared an important report “Our Common Future is a New Year”.

Environmental problems on the scale of our planet were also considered. International forum "For a nuclear-free world, for the survival of humanity", which took place in. Moscow in February 1987. Unfortunately, then in. Until its collapse, the USSR did not have a unified state program for environmental protection and rational use of natural resources. And life has shown that without a strong domestic environmental policy and external policy, environmental policy is unthinkable, and reliable international environmental safety is impossible.

The lack of significant achievements in environmental protection in most countries has had a negative impact on the inclusion of the environmental factor in foreign policy. Decisions and resolutions in the field of environmental protection adopted at the international level have had little effect on improving the environmental situation. For example, the resolution of the 35th session. General. Assembly. The UN “On the historical responsibility of the Ph.D. of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences for the conservation of nature. The Earth for present and future generations” (1981) for many countries has remained only a good call to action. Of course, even now different countries have unequal financial capabilities to implement international agreements; in particular, if the intellectual potential of Ukraine seems sufficient for this, then the material capabilities are quite limited. And this cannot be ignored when planning and implementing eco-political Western political approaches.

As already noted, it could set an example of organizing international environmental cooperation at the regional and interregional levels. Europe. It is to this that the proposal is addressed to form a system of environmental safety and implement a long-term continental environmental program. There is a reliable one for this organizational structure-. Economic Commission for Europe. The UN, with its rich experience in environmental issues and projects. Positively perceived by the public and readiness for constructive continental cooperation on environmental issues is declared. European. Community and. Advice. Europeopi.

This is a set of international legal norms and principles governing the relations of subjects of international law in the field of environmental protection, rational use of natural resources, ensuring environmental safety and protecting human rights to a favorable living environment.

International environmental law has two aspects. Firstly, it is an integral part of public international law, which, on the basis of recognized international principles and specific methods, regulates all forms of international cooperation between states. Secondly, it is a continuation of national (domestic) environmental law.

In the second half of the 20th century, international environmental law emerged as independent and complex with all its inherent features, which indicates humanity’s recognition of the global nature of environmental processes and the vulnerability of planetary ecosystems.

History of international environmental law.

Depending on the prevailing trends in solving environmental problems history of international environmental law can be divided into four main stages:

First stage 1839-1948 dates back to the bilateral Oystering and Fisheries Convention off the Coasts of Great Britain and France of 2 August 1839. During this period, scattered efforts were made at the bilateral, subregional and regional levels to protect and conserve selected wildlife. The efforts of the conferences were not coordinated or effectively supported by governments. Although during this period states showed a certain attention to environmental issues, expressed in the conclusion of more than 10 regional agreements, nevertheless, it was possible to solve to some extent only private, local problems.

Second stage 1948-1972 characterized by the emergence of numerous intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, primarily the UN and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, directly or indirectly related to international environmental conservation. The environmental problem is becoming global, and the UN and a number of its specialized agencies are trying to adapt to its solution. The first universal international treaties and agreements are concluded aimed at the protection and use of specific natural objects and complexes.

Third stage 1972-1992 associated with the first universal UN Conference on the Human Environment held in 1972 in Stockholm and the establishment, on its recommendation, of the UN Environment Program, designed to coordinate the efforts of international organizations and states in the field of international environmental protection. During this period, international environmental cooperation expands and deepens, conventions are concluded on issues in the global settlement of which all of humanity is interested, previously adopted international treaties and agreements are updated, and work on the official and unofficial codification of sectoral principles of international environmental law is intensified.

Fourth stage after 1992 The modern period in the history of international environmental law begins with the UN Conference on Environment and Development, which was held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in June 1992. This Conference directed the process of codification of international environmental law into the mainstream of the principles of socio-natural development. The parameters and deadlines for implementing the provisions of the “Agenda 21” adopted at the Conference were clarified at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. The main emphasis is on ensuring environmental safety, rational use of natural resources, achieving sustainable development and conservation environment for the benefit of present and future generations.

Sources of international environmental law.

Main sources of international environmental law- this and . Their meaning and nature of interaction are different for different stages of development of this branch of international law.

Currently there are about 500 international agreements on various aspects of environmental protection. These are multilateral universal and regional and bilateral international agreements that regulate both general issues of environmental protection and individual objects of the World Ocean, the earth’s atmosphere, near-Earth space, etc.

Interstate relations in the field of environmental protection are also regulated by “soft” law documents. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment of 1972, the World Conservation Charter of 1982, the RIO-92 Declaration, a number of documents of the World Summit and Johannesburg of 2002.

The source of international legal regulation of environmental protection is also international custom. A number of resolutions of the UN General Assembly, adopted unanimously, incorporate the norms of customary international law. Thus, the General Assembly in 1959 adopted a resolution that declared a moratorium on the development of mineral resources in the international seabed area. This resolution is recognized by all states and must be strictly observed by them.

Having analyzed a large number of international agreements and other international legal acts in the field of environmental protection and rational use, we can highlight the following: specific principles of international environmental law:

The principle of inadmissibility of causing transboundary damage to the environment- States must take all measures necessary to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction and control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The principle of a preventive approach to environmental protection- States should take precautionary measures to anticipate, prevent or minimize the risks of serious or irreversible harm to the environment. Broadly speaking, it prohibits any activity that causes or may cause damage to the environment and endangers human health.

The principle of international law enforcement cooperation- international problems related to the protection and improvement of the environment should be resolved in the spirit of goodwill, partnership and cooperation of all countries.

The principle of unity of environmental protection and sustainable development- environmental protection must be an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it . This principle includes four elements:

1. “reasonable” or “rational” exploitation of natural resources;
2. “fair” distribution of natural resources – when using natural resources, states must take into account the needs of other countries;
3. incorporating environmental considerations into economic plans, programs and development projects; And
4. conservation of natural resources for the benefit of future generations.

The precautionary principle in environmental protection- States must approach the preparation and adoption of decisions with caution and prudence, the implementation of which may have an adverse impact on the environment. This principle requires that all activities and the use of substances that may cause harm to the environment be strictly regulated or prohibited entirely, even if there is no convincing or irrefutable evidence of their danger to the environment.

The “polluter pays” principle- the direct culprit of pollution must cover the costs associated with eliminating the consequences of this pollution or reducing them to a state that meets environmental standards.

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities- States have a shared responsibility in the context of international efforts to protect the environment and recognize the need to take into account the role of each state in the emergence of specific environmental problems, as well as their ability to provide measures to prevent, reduce and eliminate threats to the environment.

Protection of various types of environment.

Since the Stockholm Conference in 1972, a significant number of international documents have been adopted on various environmental issues. These include: marine pollution, air pollution, ozone depletion, global warming and climate change, and the threat of extinction of wild animal and plant species.

The marine environment was one of the first to become subject to regulation by international environmental law. Norms for the protection of the marine environment are contained both in general conventions (Geneva Conventions of 1958) and special agreements (Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Materials of 1972, Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Convention of 1977 ., Convention on Fisheries and the Conservation of Living Resources of the High Seas, 1982, etc.).

The Geneva Conventions and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea define the regime of maritime spaces, general provisions for preventing their pollution and ensuring rational use. Special agreements regulate the protection of individual components of the marine environment, protection of the sea from specific pollutants, etc.

The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships of 1973 (and two Protocols of 1978 and 1997) provide for a set of measures to prevent operational and accidental oil pollution of the sea from ships; liquid substances transported in bulk; harmful substances transported in packaging; wastewater; garbage; as well as air pollution from ships.

The International Convention concerning Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Accidents, 1969, establishes a set of measures to prevent and reduce the consequences of marine oil pollution due to marine accidents. Coastal states should consult with other states whose interests are affected by a maritime casualty and the International Maritime Organization, and take all possible actions to reduce the risk of pollution and reduce the extent of damage. To this Convention in 1973, a Protocol was adopted on intervention in cases of accidents leading to pollution by substances other than oil.

In 1972, the Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Materials (with three annexes - Lists) was signed. The Convention regulates two types of intentional waste disposal: the dumping of waste from ships, aircraft, platforms and other artificial structures and the sinking of ships, aircraft, etc. at sea. Schedule I lists materials whose discharge into the sea is completely prohibited. Discharge of substances listed in List II requires a special permit. Schedule III defines the circumstances that must be taken into account when issuing discharge permits.

Air protection.

The central place among the norms of international environmental law in the field of air protection is occupied by the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Means of Impact on the Natural Environment of 1977 and the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution of 1979.

The parties to the 1977 Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modifications pledged not to resort to military or other hostile use of environmental modifications (deliberate control of natural processes - cyclones, anticyclones, cloud fronts, etc.) , which have widespread, long-term or serious consequences, as a means of causing damage or injury to another state.

Under the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, states have agreed on the necessary measures to reduce and prevent air pollution, particularly in relation to air pollution control measures. It is envisaged, in particular, the exchange of information on these issues, periodic consultations, and the implementation of joint programs to regulate air quality and train relevant specialists. In 1985, the Convention adopted a Protocol to Reduce Sulfur Emissions or their Transboundary Fluxes, according to which sulfur emissions must be reduced by 30 percent no later than 1993.

Protection of the ozone layer.

Another problem associated with the protection of atmospheric air in international environmental law is the protection of the ozone layer. The ozone shell protects the Earth from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Under the influence of human activity, it has been significantly depleted, and ozone holes have appeared over some areas.

The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, 1985, and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, 1987, provide a list of ozone-depleting substances and define measures to prohibit the import and export of ozone-depleting substances and products containing them to contracting states without the appropriate permit (license). The import of these substances and products from countries that are not parties to the Convention and the Protocol, and their export to these countries, is also prohibited. The 1987 protocol limited the production of freons and other similar substances; by 1997 their production was supposed to cease.

Space security.

The rules of international environmental law regarding pollution and littering of outer space are contained in the fundamental documents - the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and the Moon Agreement of 1979. When studying and using outer space and celestial bodies, participating states are obliged to avoid their pollution and take measures to preventing disruption of the balance formed on them. Celestial bodies and their natural resources are declared.

Climate protection.

Climate protection and problems associated with its changes and fluctuations occupy an important place in the system of international environmental law. In the late 80s of the last century, the problem of climate change began to quickly gain weight on the world agenda and began to be frequently mentioned in resolutions of the UN General Assembly. It was at this time that the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted, the ultimate goal of which is “to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic influence on the climate system.” Parties to the Convention are committed to taking precautionary measures to predict, prevent or minimize the causes of climate change and mitigate its negative consequences.

Protection of flora and fauna.

Relations in the field of protection and use of flora and fauna are regulated by a number of universal and many bilateral international agreements.

Among the conventions of international environmental law devoted to the protection and conservation of flora and fauna, the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972 should be highlighted, designed to ensure cooperation in the protection of natural complexes of particular importance, habitats of endangered species of animals and plants. The Tropical Forest Agreement of 1983 is dedicated to the protection of flora. Of general importance is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, 1973, which established the basis for control of such trade.

The bulk of the conventions are devoted to the protection of various representatives of the animal world - whales, seals, polar bears. An important position is occupied by the Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992, the purpose of which is “the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.” The 1979 Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals is also of particular importance.

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