Multiple International Courts and the 'Fragmentation' of International Environmental Law
Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 07/14
Australian Year Book of International Law, Vol. 25, pp. 227-271, 2006
46 Pages Posted: 9 Mar 2007
Abstract
A hallmark of contemporary international litigation is that it takes place in an array of adjudicative institutions including permanent courts, ad hoc arbitral tribunals, regional courts, and bodies with highly specialised subject-matter jurisdiction. The parallel operation of multiple judicial institutions poses a range of practical difficulties for international dispute settlement, and has introduced considerable unpredictability in some well-known environmental disputes.
This article assesses a related but less examined question, namely whether in resolving disputes touching upon environmental issues some of these adjudicative bodies are destabilising key organising rules and principles of international environmental law by adopting parochial approaches that suit the narrow purposes of non-environmental issue-specific regimes. Such analysis is now clearly desirable having regard to the sizeable expansion in the body of international environmental case law.
Keywords: International environmental law, dispute settlement, international courts, 'fragmentation' of international law
JEL Classification: K10, K33, K32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation