IMPLICATIONS OF THE INDUS WATER KISHENGANGA ARBITRATION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL LAW OF WATERCOURSES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 697-715
Author(s):  
Jasmine Moussa
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Water Treaty

AbstractOn 19 February 2013, a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)-administered Court of Arbitration issued a Partial Award on the dispute between Pakistan and India regarding the use of the waters of the Kishenganga/Neelum, a tributary of the Indus system of rivers. This article examines the tribunal's decision, which was mainly limited to interpreting the 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT), and its contribution to international environmental law and the law of non-navigational uses of international watercourses. After briefly discussing the dispute's factual context and procedural history, the article critiques the tribunal's methodology, which was based on an inconsistent application of the principles of treaty interpretation. The Award's contribution is therefore mixed: despite its almost complete disregard for the principle of ‘equality of right’, it has contributed to clarifying the criteria for determining ‘existing uses’ of a watercourse and reaffirmed both the substantive obligation to refrain from causing transboundary harm and the procedural duty to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment under international environmental law.

scholarly journals Beyond Public Particpation: The disjuncture between South Africa's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Law and Sustainable Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
T Murombo
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Provisions

One of the key strategies for achieving sustainable development is the use of the process of evaluating the potential environmental impacts of development activities. The procedure of environmental impact assessment (EIA) implements the principle of integration which lies at the core of the concept of sustainable development by providing a process through which potential social, economic and environmental impacts of activities are scrutinised and planned for. Sustainable development may not be achieved without sustained and legally mandated efforts to ensure that development planning is participatory. The processes of public participation play a crucial role in ensuring the integration of the socio-economic impacts of a project into the environmental decision-making processes. Public participation is not the only process, nor does the process always ensure the achievement of sustainable development. Nevertheless, decisions that engage the public have the propensity to lead to sustainable development. The public participation provisions in South Africa’s EIA regulations promulgated under the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 show a disjuncture between the idea of public participation and the notion of sustainable development. The provisions do not create a framework for informed participation and leave a wide discretion to environmental assessment practitioners (EAPs) regarding the form which participation should assume. In order for environmental law, specifically EIA laws, to be effective as tools to promote sustainable development the laws must, among other things, provide for effective public participation. The judiciary must also aid in the process by giving content to the legal provisions on public participation in the EIA process.

scholarly journals Legislative regulation of powers of local government bodies in the field of environmental protection

2021 ◽  
pp. 96-100
Author(s):  
M.M. Slivka ◽  
N.V. Lesko
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Primary Control ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Legislative Regulation ◽  
The Law

The article is devoted to the study of legislative regulation of the powers of local governments in the field of environmental protection and the development of proposals for their improvement. It is noted that local governments occupy an separate and independent place in the mechanism of public administration, which indicates their special administrative and legal status. It is emphasized that local self-government bodies should be endowed with a sufficient amount of powers that would allow them to protect the interests of the administrative-territorial community in the field of environmental protection as effectively as possible. It is stated that the Constitution as the Basic Law of the state, taking into account the global importance of the issue of environmental protection should clearly and without any ambiguity in interpretation contain an article according to which local governments will be empowered to exercise primary control over environmental protection. natural environment at the local level and bringing perpetrators to justice. It is proposed to supplement Article 15 of the Law of Ukraine «On Environmental Protection», which defines the powers of local councils in the field of environmental protection, paragraph «й» of the following content: "decide to bring to administrative responsibility those guilty of violating legislation in the field of environmental protection environment of individuals and / or legal entities ". It is highlighted that based on the analysis of Part 4 of Art. 42 of the Law of Ukraine «On Local Self-Government in Ukraine», village, town, city mayor have a wide range of powers, but among these powers there are no ones that would give them the right to monitor compliance with environmental legislation in the region and bring perpetrators to justice. It is emphasized that local governments are given broad powers in terms of controling the activities of economic entities and they should be included as a subject of a lawsuit in accordance with Art. 16 of the Law of Ukraine "On Environmental Impact Assessment" in case of violations in the field of environmental impact assessment.

Due Diligence in the Use of International Watercourses

2020 ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Malgosia Fitzmaurice
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Exchange Information ◽  
The Law

This chapter analyses the concept of due diligence in the law of international watercourses. Both conventions and the case-law give some indications on the constitutive elements of the standard of due diligence in this area. The chapter reveals that due diligence provides a legal tool to balance the principle of equitable and reasonable utilisation and the principle of no harm. It also highlights that due diligence is the basis of procedural obligations in this field, such as the duty to exchange information or the duty to conduct an environmental impact assessment. The chapter however argues that the unspecified content of these norms and the lack of uniformity in their application render it impossible to draw consistent and holistic conclusions on due diligence in the field of watercourses law.

Sustaining the unsustainable? Environmental impact assessment and overdevelopment in Bali

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Warren ◽  
Agung Wardana
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
New Order ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Resort Development

Bali faces serious environmental crises arising from overdevelopment of the tourism and real estate industry, including water shortage, rapid conversion of agricultural land, pollution, and economic and cultural displacement. This article traces continuities and discontinuities in the role of Indonesian environmental impact assessment (EIA) during and since the authoritarian ‘New Order’ period. Following the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, the ‘Reform Era’ brought dramatic changes, democratizing and decentralizing Indonesia's governing institutions. Focusing on case studies of resort development projects in Bali from the 1990s to the present, this study examines the ongoing capture of legal processes by vested interests at the expense of prospects for sustainable development. Two particularly controversial projects in Benoa Bay, proposed in the different historical and structural settings of the two eras—the Bali Turtle Island Development (BTID) at Serangan Island in the Suharto era and the Tirta Wahana Bali Internasional (TWBI) proposal for the other side of Benoa in the ‘Reform Era’—enable instructive comparison. The study finds that despite significant changes in the environmental law regime, the EIA process still finds itself a tool of powerful interests in the efforts of political and economic elites to maintain control of decision-making and to displace popular opposition forces to the margins.

scholarly journals Health Impact Assessment as an Essential Element of Environmental Law in the National Legal Order. Considerations on the Basis of International Law

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-208
Author(s):  
Maciej Pakowski ◽  
◽  
Anna Garus-Pakowska ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Health Impact Assessment ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Right To Information

The purpose of this paper was to prove that the standards for environmental friendliness set out by international law require the states to carry out Health Impact Assessment (HIA) before implementation of public or private investments having a potential human health impact even if national legal systems do not require it. The analysis of both soft international law and treaty law, as well as the case-law of international courts and tribunals show that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the international law ius cogens. At the same time the human right to information and protection of life and health are regarded as fundamental human rights. According to the authors it means that carrying out proper Environmental Impact Assessment without Health Impact Assessment is not possible. It would be contrary to the human right to information and the obligation of the authorities to provide citizens with active transparency mentioned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and with the principle of fair balance developed in the case-law of the similar European Court together with the objective on sustainable development adopted in Agenda 2030. According to the authors Health Impact Assessment is an immanent and integral part of environmental impact and the possible absence of provisions in the national law requiring investors to carry out HIA where EIA is necessary, does not justify the failure to assess.

scholarly journals IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN UKRAINE:

2018 ◽  
pp. 94-106
Author(s):  
V. V. Sharavara ◽  
O. A. Bondarenko ◽  
O. H. Tarasova ◽  
R. B. Gavrilyuk ◽  
D. V. Hulevets ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Organizational Support ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
The Public ◽  
Division Of Powers ◽  
The Law ◽  
European Standards

The National Ecological Center of Ukraine examined the effectiveness of the implementation of the Law of Ukraine “On Environmental Impact Assessment” (dated May 23, 2017 No. 2059-VII) and the by-laws adopted for its implementation. Based on the study, some shortcomings of the Law were named and discussed as wee as ways for their elimination were established. It was shown that a number of articles of the Law should be clarified, and the title of the Law needs compliance with its scope, terminology, and the lists of activities subject to impact assessment. There is also a need to clarify the division of powers and to adopt regulations on organizational support for conducting an environmental impact assessment and public discussion. There is an urgent need to further refine and harmonize the regulatory and methodological framework of the Law with European environmental legislation, in particular, environmental quality standards and relevant methodologies for their definition. Since no provisions have so far been adopted on expert commissions for environmental impact assessment, and the territorial environmental protection authorities are still subject to regional administrations, there is a real threat that the latter can exert pressure to get a customized conclusion. It was noted that there is no relevant procedure for selecting experts of professional and qualitative environmental impact assessment; there is also no mechanism for adding the public to the formation of the register and selection of experts, and financial issues are not fully resolved either. It was highlighted: the main directions for improving environmental impact assessment and organizing the Law revision. Several other urgencies were indicated: to accelerate the modernization of state building norms and other regulations; to withdraw territorial environmental protection departments from the subordination of regional state administrations; to provide a transparent procedure for the appointment of members to the expert commissions, to urgently review environmental indicators, classifications, norms, limits and other restrictive requirements and harmonize them to European standards.

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