Document Type
Article
Disciplines
International Law
Abstract
Recent world events have opened the door to increasing cooperation among states, corporations and individuals in the international legal order. International cooperation is especially important in the area of international environmental law, where the common goal is preservation of life on the planet. Recognition of this goal has led to the formulation and implementation of international environmental legal norms. However, the legal protection of this value is lagging behind the natural urgency of the situation. Environmental protection is less effective than it could be because the legal provisions concerning the environment tend to be declarative rather than protective, at both the national and international levels. This is mainly due to the fact that states are reluctant to concede any portion of their sovereignty.
Current national and international efforts are aimed at providing better legal mechanisms for protecting the environment and defining more precisely the limits thereby imposed on state sovereignty. The legal justification of the right to a healthy environment is more or less identical with that of traditional human rights. Like other civil, political or social rights, the right to a healthy environment could also have been articulated in the form of an obligation towards domestic citizens only. However, historical experience has demonstrated that, in the absence of an efficient enforcement mechanism, states are sometimes reluctant to fulfill their obligations to their citizens. Since human beings currently cannot require their states to recognize an international legal duty, such obligation often remains only at the level of hopeful proclamation.
Recommended Citation
Hodkova, Iveta, "Is There a Right to a Healthy Environment in the International Legal Order?" (1991). Connecticut Journal of International Law. 171.
https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/cjil/171
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