International Law Principles Establishing Standards in Environmental Legislation

Over the years, principles of international law have established standards in environmental legislation that have been accepted and adopted, as a benchmark amongst members of the international community. What informs this position is that since the incident of environmental pollution spares no country the issue of its control should be sought from a global perspective. Discussions on these principles that have applied in establishing standards in environmental legislation enable us to have a more balanced focus on raison d’etre on the provisions of extant legal instruments. To this end, national, as well as regional and international legal instruments for environmental pollution abatement and control are at times guided by these established and universally accepted general principles and standards in order to achieve uniformity in environmental regulations, standards, guidelines and enforcement mechanisms. This chapter discusses some of these general principles and rules of international environmental law as reflected in treaties, binding acts of international organisations, state practices and soft law commitments. The principles in view and discussed in this chapter are: Principle of States’ sovereignty over their natural resources and the responsibility not to cause transboundary environmental damage (The No Harm Rule), the Principle of Preventive Action, the Principle of Co-operation and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities, the Principle of Sustainable Development, the Precautionary Principle, and the Polluter-Pays Principle.