Marine Environmental Damage: The Compensability of Ecosystem Service Loss in International Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 602-641
Author(s):  
Günther Handl
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Full Compensation ◽  
Environmental Loss ◽  
National Practice ◽  
Marine Environmental

AbstractKey maritime conventions governing liability and compensation for pollution of the marine environment, foremost among them the 1992 Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Convention and the 2003 Supplementary Fund Protocol (the CLC/Fund regime), exclude compensation for pure environmental loss. This article discusses whether anything less than full compensation of damage to the marine environment, including the loss of ecosystem services, comports with contemporary international public policy or law. After reviewing and rejecting traditional arguments opposing such compensability, the article contrasts the CLC/Fund regime’s environmental claims practice with emerging trends in decision on the international legal plane and in select domestic legal systems, all of which support full compensation. The article thus concludes that an adjustment of the CLC/Fund regime’s environmental claims approach is desirable to align it with this international (and national) practice and thereby to protect the long-term integrity of the regime itself.

Defining the Environment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cymie R. Payne
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Jus Post Bellum ◽  
Complex Concept ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Environmental Integrity ◽  
Healthy Functioning

The principle of ‘environmental integrity’ is a fundamental aspect of jus post bellum. Human life, economy, and culture depend on a healthy, functioning environment. However, environmental integrity is a complex concept to describe. Doctrinal thresholds for legally material environmental damage (significant, long-term, widespread) do not capture it. This chapter interrogates the jus post bellum literature and then turns to scholarship on wilderness management in the Anthropocene era, which also engages with the meaning of ‘environmental integrity’, ‘naturalness’, ‘unimpaired’, or, in the words of the Factory at Chorzów case which sets the international law standard for reparations of damage, ‘the situation which would, in all probability, have existed if that act had not been committed’. Recognition that pristine or historical conditions are often impossible to recover or maintain leads to the legal, ethical, and scientific analysis of evolving environmental norms that this chapter offers.

scholarly journals Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in the Settlement of Marine Environmental Disputes under UNCLOS

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-353
Author(s):  
Lan Ngoc Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
Environmental Disputes ◽  
General Manner ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Marine Environmental

Abstract Part XII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the protection and preservation of the marine environment contains provisions that are worded in a general manner. As “the problems of ocean space are closely interrelated and need to be considered as a whole”, these provisions need to be interpreted in harmony with the wider corpus of international law. However, when marine environmental disputes are brought before the UNCLOS dispute settlement bodies, their jurisdiction is limited to disputes arising under UNCLOS. The tribunals, therefore, have to navigate between deciding disputes in a hollistic manner and remaining within their jurisdictional limits. This article discusses the techniques used by UNCLOS tribunals to resort to other sources of international law when settling marine environmental disputes. It will then assess whether, in doing so, the tribunals have remained within their jurisdictional parameters and the wider implications of this practice.

Arigo and Others v. Swift and Others

2021 ◽  
Vol 195 ◽  
pp. 295-373
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Restricted Area ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The Law

295State immunity — United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 — Articles 30, 31 and 32 — Rules applicable to warships — Non-compliance by warships with laws and regulations of coastal State — United States vessel entering restricted area of Philippine waters — Responsibility of flag State for damage caused by warship — Immunities of warships — Philippines–United States of America Visiting Forces Agreement, 1998 — Whether any waiver of immunity — Role of executiveSea — Treaties — United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — Convention not ratified by United States — Customary international law — Coastal State rights — Marine environment — Whether relevant provisions of treaty codifying customary international law — Whether United States responsible for environmental damage — Whether United States immune from suitJurisdiction — United States vessel entering restricted area of Philippine waters — Whether act jure imperii — Environmental damage — Whether United States having immunity — Whether Philippines barred from exercising jurisdiction over United States respondents — Article XVI of Philippines Constitution, 1987Environment — Marine environment — Right to a healthful ecology — Intergenerational responsibility — Writ of Kalikasan — The law of the Philippines

scholarly journals International Protection of Foreign Investments in Offshore Energy Production and Marine Environmental Protection: Birds of a Feather or Frenemies Forever?

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-280
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Giannopoulos
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
International Investment ◽  
International Regimes ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Marine Environmental Protection ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
Marine Environmental

AbstractInitially, international investment law and international law on the protection of the marine environment were two branches that developed separately. As these international regimes mature, they often speak to the same facts, bringing about their ever-increasing normative interaction, way before any disputes arise. The regulation of investments in offshore energy production is chosen as a case study because it exemplifies how these two bodies of international law can interact. The article does not conceptualize these two international regimes as inherently antagonistic but instead highlights their potential complementarity. Yet, it is primarily the issue of normative conflicts between those two regimes which has generated heated scholarly debates. Against the backdrop of sweeping critiques about the potential ‘regulatory chill’ of international investment agreements and their investor-State dispute settlement mechanism, this contribution examines whether arbitral tribunals have interpreted and applied investment rules in a fashion that can unduly restrict the discretion of host States to honour their marine environmental obligations. First, it explores why and how international investment law and marine environmental law interact and influence each other’s implementation. In a second step, the article investigates the impact (if any) of investment obligations on the discretion of host States to comply with their marine environmental protection obligations. Adopting a forward-looking perspective, it finally enquires into the potential impact of the reformed provisions under new generation IIAs on the right and duty of States to take all necessary measures to protect the marine environment against pollution from offshore energy production activities.

On the issue of environmental damage identification from oil pollution

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-21
Author(s):  
M.M. Zaderigolova ◽  
◽  
S.V. Fradkin ◽  
D.Е. Yakushev ◽  
V.A. Kalinin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Damage Identification ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Environmental Damage

Enhancing community welfare through improved water quality: a case for applying staggered pollution charges in the river Musi sub-basin of Andhra Pradesh, India

Water Policy ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 469-483
Author(s):  
Tishya Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Andhra Pradesh ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Marginal Costs ◽  
Community Acceptance ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Over Time

In conditions of severe water-pollution and dormant community acceptance of accumulating environmental damage, the regulator's role goes beyond pollution prevention and more towards remediation and solutions based on the community's long-term expectations of economic benefits from clean water. This paper suggests a method to enable these benefits to become perceptible progressively, through participatory clean-up operations, supported by staggered pollution charges. It analyses the relevant literature on pollution prevention and applies a cost-based “willingness to pay” model, using primary basin-level data of total marginal costs. It develops a replicable demand-side approach imposing charge-standard targets over time in urban-industrial basins of developing countries.

A Moving Target

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippa Webb
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Moving Target ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
European Court ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
Right Of Access ◽  
National Practice

The last 50 years have seen significant changes in the law of immunity. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has, over the past 15 years in particular, played an influential role in the law applicable to this ‘moving target’. This chapter examines three approaches of the ECtHR to the identification of general international law: (i) the ECtHR looking to the International Court of Justice; (ii) the ECtHR looking to national practice; and (iii) the ECtHR looking to the work of the International Law Commission and the provisional application of treaties. Although the ECtHR strives to locate itself within general international law, it necessarily approaches the immunities of States, officials, and international organizations through the lens of Article 6 ECHR and whether the immunity in question constitutes a legitimate and proportionate restriction on the right of access to court. This has, at times, taken the Court down a different path to other judicial bodies and we can identify the emergence of a ‘European approach’ to the role of immunity in employment disputes.

Oil pollution and fisheries

1982 ◽  
Vol 297 (1087) ◽  
pp. 401-411 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
Local Impacts ◽  
Reduced Water ◽  
Long Term Adverse Effects

The term ‘pollution’ is taken in its broadest sense and effects are recognized to be due to interference, tainting and toxicity. Each of these types of impact is discussed and assessed. It is concluded that no long-term adverse effects on fish stocks can be attributed to oil but that local impacts can be extremely damaging in the short term and that produce from specific localities can be tainted and unmarketable for long periods. In some coastal areas oil can be one among several contributors to reduced water quality, and the implications of this are discussed.

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