Environmental Change and International Law: New Challenges and Dimensions (UNU, 1992, 493 pages): Issues in international environmental law: 4. Emerging principles and rules for the prevention and mitigation of environmental harm: 1. Significance and role of principles and rules of prevention and mitigation

Environmental Change and International Law: New Challenges and Dimensions (UNU, 1992, 493 pages)

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Note to the reader from the UNU

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

Introduction

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1. Global environmental change and international law: the introductory framework

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I. Trends in global environmental change

II. The development of international environmental law

III. Themes

IV. Important future themes

V. Organization of the book

Notes

Issues in international environmental law

2. International norm-making

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A. The international legislative process

B. Steps in the treaty-making process

C. The creation of customary law

D. The creation of soft law

E. Concluding remarks

Annex

Notes

3. Changing requirements for international information

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Introduction

Changing environmental information requirements

Better understanding of environmental conditions and trends

International environmental impact assessments?

Information to strengthen international agreements

Ecosystem and resource information with policy implications

The precautionary principle

A new regime for sustainable development

Recent developments

Looking ahead

Notes

4. Emerging principles and rules for the prevention and mitigation of environmental harm

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Introduction

1. Significance and role of principles and rules of prevention and mitigation

2. Traditional norms, principles, and rules

3. Characteristics of global environmental change

4. Double-track approach as a treaty-making technique

5. Emerging principles and rules of prevention and mitigation

6. Toward an international management of global environmental change

Notes

5. State responsibility, liability, and remedial measures under international law: new criteria for environmental protection

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1. The evolving law of state responsibility

2. New environmental realities and their impact upon the law

3. Conceptual developments and the new basic principle of international law

4. The expanding scope of the law: global reach and international cooperation

5. Material changes in the law of state responsibility

6. Expanding the protection of the affected interests

7. Liability for acts not prohibited by international law: the ongoing debate

8. The expanding role of practice: substantive and procedural developments

9. The protection of the marine environment: a leading case of innovation

10. The Antarctic environment: developing a comprehensive regime for responsibility and liability

11. The new law of state responsibility: improvement and caution

12. Avoiding environmental degradation and opposing the world ecological government: a conclusion

Notes

6. Law and global environmental management: some open issues

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The point of departure

International preventive norms and mechanisms

Compensatory remedies: gaps and trends in international law

Enforcement: deterrence: incentives and disincentives

Future outlook

Notes

7. The legislation and implementation of international environmental law and the third world: the example of China

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An overview of international environmental legislation and its implementation

The status of third-world states in international environmental legislation and its implementation

Some personal views and suggestions to encourage a more positive role of the third world in the legislation and implementation of international environmental law

Notes

Appendix: a case-study: China's positive attitude toward the adoption and implementation of international environmental legislation

Notes

International human rights law and environmental problems

An introductory note on a human right to environment

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Notes

8. The human rights system as a conceptual framework for environmental law

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Environmental issues

Environmental rights in the context of the natural order

Duty to future generations

The concept of ''the common concern of mankind''

The protection of indigenous peoples

Environmental rights and international refugee law

Substantive norm-making and enforcement procedures

Conclusion

Notes

9. The contribution of international human rights law to environmental protection, with special reference to global environmental change

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Summary

I. The growth of human rights protection and environmental protection: from internationalization to globalization

II. The incidence of the temporal dimension in environmental protection and in human rights protection

III. The fundamental right to life at the basis of the ratio legis of international human rights law and environmental law

IV. The right to health as the starting-point towards the right to a healthy environment

V. The right to a healthy environment as an extension of the right to health

VI. The protection of vulnerable groups at the confluence of international human rights law and international environmental law

VII. The recognition of the right to a healthy environment: The concern for environmental protection in international human rights instruments

VIII. Concern for the protection of human rights in the realm of international environmental law

IX. Concern for the protection of the environment in the realm of international humanitarian law

X. Protection of the environment and international refugee law

XI. The question of the implementation (mise en oeuvre) of the right to a healthy environment

XII. The right to a healthy environment and the absence of restrictions in the expansion of human rights protection and environmental protection

Notes

Future directions in international regimes

10. The implications of global change for the international legal system

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The impact of global change on different functions in international law

The impact of global change on international structures

Notes

11. Restructuring the international organizational framework

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A. The current structure

B. Some objectives of and constraints on possible improvements

C. Changes to be considered

D. Conclusion

Notes

Annex: The learning capacity of international organizations

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12. Intergenerational equity: a legal framework for global environmental change

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I. The temporal dimension in international law

II. Alternative approaches to intergenerational equity

III. Principles of intergenerational equity

IV. Intergenerational rights and obligations

V. Implementation of intergenerational equity

Notes

13. Ecological security: response to global challenges

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I. Conceptual paradigm

II. Legal regime

III. Principles

Appendices

A. Global learning: concept and applications

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I. Introduction: antecedents

II. Approaches to global learning

III. Global learning: facilitation and obstacles

IV. Content of global learning

Notes

B. Chronological index of selected international environmental legal instruments

C. Contributors

1. Significance and role of principles and rules of prevention and mitigation

Prevention and mitigation are two tools used for the protection of the environment. The principle of prevention purports to prevent specific harms from arising, e.g., alteration of the environment, damage to people or the environment, interference with legitimate and legal uses of the environment, and overload of the assimilative capacity of the environment.¹ The principle of mitigation, on the other hand, purports to minimize the occurrence of such specific harms. Principles of prevention and mitigation work together in the international regulation of pollution or environmental harm.

Prevention is less costly than reparation both in economic and social terms because of the intrinsic nature of pollution or environmental harm - i.e., their long-lasting and irreversible detrimental effects upon people and the environment. Consequently, more importance has been given in international environmental law to the principles of prevention and mitigation than to reparation. While the principle of liability does have a deterrent effect on environmental harm, preventive and mitigative measures have an even more direct and effective deterrent effect.