Unit 2:  The Legal System Within The UK

2.3  Introduction to International Environmental Law

Environmental pollution is an international problem. Domestic environmental law must take stock of international law imposed by treaty obligations and the significance of certain organisations. The joining in 1972 by the UK to the European Community (EC) has invariably meant that the UK has had to observe and follow EC law which has been primarily enforced by international law, upon developing it's own environmental law. This Common Inheritance gives the framework of UK policy and in it is stated that the threat of pollution:

  can only be overcome if all nations work together. One country's pollution can be every country's predicament.

The major sources defining international law are:

  • general principles recognised by major states
  • decisions of international arbitral and judicial bodies
  • accepted principles of law from the International Court of Justice


Further Reading
Birnie P. and Boyle A. (1992) International Law and the Environment. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Soussan J.G (1992) Sustainable Development. In A.M Mannion and S.R Bowlby (eds) Environmental Issues in the 1990s. John Wiley Chichester, pp21-36.
World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, Oxford.