One of the distinctive features of the current stage of development of international environmental law is the further expansion of the range of international relations regulated by this branch of international law. The immediate result of this process was the addition of two traditional subject areas of regulation (relations regarding environmental protection and rational use of natural resources) with two new ones - relations to ensure environmental safety and ensure compliance with environmental human rights.

It is this circumstance that is the reason for such a universally recognized phenomenon as the “greening” of international relations, and the point here is not that environmentally-oriented legal norms are included in the sources of other branches of international law, thereby allegedly expanding their subject scope. The fact, for example, that the principles and norms establishing freedom of flight in public international airspace are enshrined in conventions on the law of the sea does not mean that this range of relations is removed from the subject of international air law and transferred to international maritime law. This state of affairs is explained rather by established traditions and expediency interests, which ultimately predetermined the negative attitude of the overwhelming majority of participants at the III UN Conference on the Law of the Sea to the idea of ​​concluding a separate special convention on this range of issues.

In the domestic legal literature one can also find a different approach to defining the subject of regulation of international environmental law, which originates from the works of Prof. DI. Feldman, who believed that in international law it is necessary to distinguish not sectors, but sub-sectors, since any set of rules existing in it is characterized by a single and common method of regulation. Sharing this point of view, Prof. S.V. Molodtsov, for example, with reference to the principle of freedom of the high seas and some other provisions of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, came to the conclusion that the provisions established by international maritime law can be applied in international air law. Later, this position was shared by Doctor of Law E.S. Molodtsova, who pointed out the purely academic interest pursued by supporters of dividing international law into branches.

Finally, Doctor of Law N.A. Sokolova in her works raises the issue of environmental “burdens” of norms that are part of other branches of international law. In her opinion, “this, for example, is reflected in the strengthening of environmental protection during armed conflicts. The environment is considered as a special civilian object that is protected by international humanitarian law.. A similar situation can be observed in other branches of international law when its subjects create international legal norms to protect the marine environment, outer space, and combat air pollution."

As N.A. believes Sokolov, the incorporation of environmental protection standards within a particular industry gives these standards a comprehensive nature, allowing them to be considered, on the one hand, as a necessary structural element of the natural environment regime (marine, space, air, Antarctic, etc.), which is subject to economic use, scientific and technical development. In this case, the adoption of legal norms for the protection of relevant natural objects is a process of reflecting environmental requirements in the relevant industries. On the other hand, such norms are a necessary systemic element of international environmental law. “The consideration of environmental interests within various branches of international law may have serious theoretical consequences, since it complicates the nature of the international treaties that codify a particular branch,” she concludes.

The emergence of two new subject areas in international environmental law occurred at the end of the 20th century.

The idea of ​​international environmental security was first proposed by the President of the USSR in September 1987 in connection with the promotion of the concept of a Comprehensive System international security(WSMB). In this system of environmental security, a subordinate role was assigned to economic security. However, a year later, issues of ensuring environmental safety were singled out into an independent subject area, which currently includes an extensive array of regulations in the form of resolutions of the UN General Assembly, multilateral and bilateral treaties and agreements. An example is the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Estonia on cooperation in the field of environmental protection dated January 11, 1996, which directly refers to ensuring environmental safety as an area of ​​bilateral cooperation.

Currently, the concept of environmental safety is interconnected with the problems of the strategy of socio-economic development with the assignment of responsibilities to achieve and maintain environmental safety on all states.

In practice, it can be difficult to apply one yardstick to the implementation of such an approach by different countries and especially to the response of a community of states, groups of states or individual countries to situations that may be qualified as a threat to environmental security and occur within the territory of a particular foreign state.

Ensuring environmental safety is complex activities, which includes a set of measures where environmental protection is only one of them. Conventionally, it can be called an environmental measure, which should not lead to denying the existence of other types of measures - political, legal, etc. The idea of ​​​​the possibility of ensuring the environmental safety of the population (or all of humanity as a whole) only through environmental protection activities should not be embedded in environmental consciousness. Security in general is a state of security provided by organizational, legal, economic, scientific, technological and other means.

Environmental safety can be local, regional, regional, national and global. This division allows, first of all, to determine the range of measures applicable to ensure environmental safety of one level or another. Environmental safety itself has an international, global character. Problems of environmental safety affect everyone, regardless of wealth and poverty, because no nation can feel calm in the event of environmental disasters occurring outside its territory. No nation is capable of independently building an isolated and independent line of environmental protection.

The primary structural element of environmental safety at any level, up to universal, is regional environmental safety. This, however, does not mean that universal environmental safety is impossible if there is at least one case of non-compliance with regional environmental safety. Undoubtedly, there is a certain quantitative and qualitative threshold (level of acceptable risk) in this area, below which local environmental threats and even disasters can occur that do not threaten the environmental safety of not only humanity as a whole, but also the corresponding region and state. However, the threat to universal environmental security affects the environmental security of any ecological region without exception.

Promoting the concept of district (and regional) environmental security does not mean a denial of state sovereignty. The question should be put differently: integral part A national security system (which includes environmental security) must, among other things, include elements of regional (as well as regional and global) environmental security. In today's ecologically interconnected world, there is no other way to approach this problem.

If in international environmental law the identification of relations regarding ensuring international environmental safety can be considered a fait accompli, then at the level of national legislation of individual states, recognition of the category “environmental safety” is much more difficult. Some authors consider it as an integral part of environmental protection, others equate them, others include in the content of environmental safety not only environmental protection, but also rational use, reproduction and improvement of environmental quality; Finally, the opinion is expressed that ensuring environmental safety is an activity carried out along with the protection of the natural environment.

The concept of “environmental safety” has relatively recently entered into scientific, political and regulatory circulation. At the same time, in developing countries, politicians and the public are slowly getting used to it. Therefore, there is less chance of acceptance in these countries of an extremely broad definition of the concept of “environmental safety”, developed from the perspective of an ecosystem approach, the basis of which is the imperative of the survival of human civilization, placing environmental issues and the concept of environmental safety at the level of such global problems as the prevention of thermonuclear war and ensuring political and military security. For many developing countries, considerations related to pressing environmental problems and transboundary damage in the format of bilateral relations are more understandable.

National environmental legislation is no exception in this regard. Russian Federation. Here, the controversy surrounding the advisability of highlighting the category of “environmental safety” in the doctrine of environmental law began with the adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993, which in Art. 72 classified ensuring environmental safety as a subject of joint responsibility of the Russian Federation and its constituent entities, along with environmental protection and natural resource management. The discussion on this issue became especially intense after unsuccessful attempt adopt in 1995 the Law “On Environmental Safety”, which was vetoed by the President of Russia due to the vagueness of the concepts used in it, allowing for different interpretations.

Currently, the phrase “environmental safety” is present in two of the 23 principles of environmental protection enshrined in Federal Law No. 7-FZ of January 10, 2002 “On Environmental Protection” (Article 3). This phrase appears repeatedly in other articles of this Law, in more than 90 other federal laws, in more than 40 decrees of the President of the Russian Federation and in more than 170 decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation, in more than 500 departmental regulatory legal acts. In total - in more than 1600 acts.

Believing that the term “environmental safety” was invented during the years of perestroika to demonstrate initiatives, the absence of stagnation, the manifestation of indifference on the part of the state to the field of environmental protection, and without finding any fundamental differences between “environmental protection” and “ensuring environmental safety,” Professor M .M. Brinchuk, in particular, comes to the conclusion that “singling out in the Constitution of the Russian Federation “ensuring environmental safety” as an independent direction, along with natural resource management and environmental protection, was a mistake by the authors of Article 72.” In his opinion, the modern concept of legal environmental protection is based on the idea of ​​​​the need to ensure prevention and compensation for harm to the environment, health and property of citizens, the national economy, which can be caused by environmental pollution, damage, destruction, damage, irrational use of natural resources, destruction natural ecological systems and other environmental violations, and the implementation of this concept is aimed at protecting the environmental interests of man, society, the state and the environment, i.e. specifically to ensure environmental safety.

Such an approach would have its reason, and therefore the right to exist, if we were talking about the “usual” deterioration of environmental quality in violation of established standards. But one cannot deny the logic in this approach, which focuses protective standards in this area on a certain limit, a threshold of acceptable pollution. And then the subject of protection (albeit conditionally) becomes “ecological safety”. Conventionality here is acceptable to the same extent as we are talking, for example, about international security or state security, although the object of protection, in the strict sense of the word, here too could be reduced to the state of protecting the vital interests of the individual, society, etc. p.

The inclusion of relations regarding the enforcement of environmental human rights in the subject area of ​​international environmental law has not caused any disagreement among domestic legal scholars. S.A. Bogolyubov, M.M. Brinchuk and many others unanimously supported this innovation in their scientific articles and textbooks. Moreover, M.M. Brinchuk, for example, went even further, proposing to separate environmental rights from political, civil, social, economic and cultural rights into a separate category. A special status is given to the generally recognized principles and norms of international law that relate to human rights and freedoms, and I.I. Lukashuk, explaining this by the fact that they: a) have a direct effect; b) determine the meaning, content and application of laws, the activities of the legislative and executive powers, local self-government, and are ensured by justice. For this reason, in his opinion, this special group of generally recognized principles and norms of international law has at least no less power than the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

For the first time, the contractual consolidation of one of the types of environmental rights - the right to access environmental information- received in the UNECE Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context of 1991.

In 1994, the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights and the Environment developed a draft Declaration of Principles “Human Rights and the Environment”, which already named four types of environmental human rights: access to environmental information, a favorable environment, access to environmental protection. justice and public participation in decision-making on environmental issues. On the basis of this project, today it is proposed to adopt the International Covenant on Environmental Human Rights, by analogy with the already existing two international covenants of 1966.

Currently, these rights are most fully codified in the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, adopted on 25 June 1998 in Aarhus (Denmark) (entered into force on 2001, the Russian Federation does not participate).

The self-sufficiency of environmental human rights and, as a consequence, the inclusion in the subject of international environmental law of relations regarding ensuring their observance are confirmed today by both the doctrine and practice of international law. At the same time, the autonomous, fundamental nature of such rights is especially emphasized. Let us add to this that environmental rights are currently receiving increasingly adequate protection within the European, American and African regional systems of human rights protection.

International environmental law has a specific range of social relations, i.e. independent subject of regulation, is one of the six mandatory conditions that must be met by any set of international legal principles and norms that claims to be an independent branch of international law.

The other five features of an independent branch of international law are:

• specific rules governing these relations;
• sufficiently large social significance of the circle of social relations;
• a fairly extensive volume of regulatory legal material;
• public interest in identifying a new branch of law;
• special principles of law governing the construction of a new branch of law.

Considering international environmental law from these positions, it can be stated that it meets all of the listed characteristics.

Without going into detail about the characteristics of the first and last of these features (§ 2 and 3 of this chapter are devoted to them), we note that the specificity of the nature and essence of the principles, norms and institutions of international environmental law is that they are applied in the process of regulating various interstate relations environmental in nature, their effect extends to all legal relations of this kind.

The significance of international environmental relations for individual states and for the entire international community is axiomatic and does not require special evidence. Expanding environmental ties between all states, increasing environmental interdependence between them, a course towards restructuring international environmental relations on the basis of equality and mutual benefit - all these are the most important factors of modern social development, prerequisites for the development of friendly cooperation between different countries, the consolidation of peace, the creation of a system of international environmental security . It is the global nature of the earth’s ecology that determines the special urgency of the problem of environmental conservation and protection.

In relation to man, nature performs a number of functions related to satisfying his needs: environmental, economic, aesthetic, recreational, scientific, cultural.

Among them, environmental and economic functions nature, providing favorable conditions for human life and progressive development.

It is no coincidence that the main attention of the world community over the past four decades has been focused on finding ways to “reconcile” the environmental and economic interests of states.

Numerous international treaties, resolutions and declarations adopted during this time on issues of international environmental safety, environmental protection and rational use of natural resources clearly indicate the great importance that world community gives today to international environmental legal relations.

The volume of normative legal material in the field of regulation of international environmental relations is extensive. Currently, there are more than 1,500 multilateral and over 3,000 bilateral international treaties and agreements.

Today, essentially all the largest and most important natural objects have concluded relevant international multilateral agreements, regulating both the mutual rights and obligations of participants in connection with their use, as well as issues of their protection and prevention of pollution from almost all known sources.

Finally, numerous bilateral treaties primarily concern the prevention of transboundary pollution transfers and the resolution of border environmental problems.

A distinctive feature of such agreements concluded over the last decade is the inclusion of provisions aimed at ensuring environmental safety and sustainable development of the parties involved.

The interest of both individual states and the international community as a whole in the existence of an independent branch - international environmental law - is obvious. It is expressed in the already noted huge normative legal material of an international nature.

This is also evidenced by the numerous international conferences convened almost annually on issues of protection, protection and use of the environment, among which the UN Stockholm Conference on the Problems of surrounding a person Wednesday 1972

1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro and the World Summit on top level By sustainable development in Johannesburg 2002. To this list can be added the UN climate change conferences, convened annually since 2009.

Being part of international law, international environmental law has the same subject composition as international law as a whole. What international environmental law sometimes says about the rights and interests of individuals, peoples, generations, etc. is far from equivalent to their legal personality. "Traditional" subjects of international law protect these interests.

The subjects of international environmental law are: 1) states; 2) nations and peoples fighting for their state independence; 3) international intergovernmental organizations.

The main subjects of international environmental law are states. Nations and peoples act as subjects of international environmental law during the formation of their statehood. International intergovernmental organizations are derivative subjects of international law. Their international environmental legal personality is determined by international agreements of states on the establishment and functioning of each of these organizations. The legal personality of an international intergovernmental organization is limited, since it can only be exercised on specific issues specified in the agreement of states establishing this organization.

The correct definition of the circle of subjects of international environmental law is important because sometimes one can come across the statement that international environmental law regulates the relationship of humanity with its natural environment. The latter is clearly illustrated, for example, by the following words of the UN Secretary-General, which precede the text of the draft International Pact on Environment and Development (as amended in 1995): "

The UN Charter regulates relations between states. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has application to the relationship between the state and the individual. The time has come to create a document regulating the relationship between humanity and nature."

As we can see, we are talking here not about relations between states regarding the protection and use of natural resources, but about the creation of some kind of non-legal socio-natural “legal relationship”.

With all the understanding of the reasons that give rise to these statements, one cannot cross the line of what is theoretically permissible. Nature as such, in principle, is not able to act as a subject of legal relations.

States, possessing such a special quality as sovereignty, have universal international legal personality in the field of environmental protection.

As for the legal personality of nations and peoples fighting for their statehood, it does not have any special features in relation to international environmental relations. Their legal representatives, on equal terms with states, are invited to international conferences on environmental problems, sign the final documents adopted at such conferences and are responsible for their implementation.

The specificity of the international legal personality of international intergovernmental organizations in the field of environmental protection is not as obvious as, for example, it is the case in international space law, where existing international “space” treaties for recognition of international intergovernmental organizations as subjects of international space law require that they make a statement about that they assume the rights and obligations set forth in the relevant agreements, and that the majority of member states of these organizations are parties to this agreement and the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, 1967.

There are no such requirements for international organizations to recognize their international legal personality in international environmental law, which is not least due to the absence of specialized international intergovernmental environmental organizations at the universal level.

According to experts, there are currently about 60 international institutions and agencies in the world that deal with environmental issues, but they act separately and uncoordinated. To one degree or another, most specialized UN agencies are involved in international environmental cooperation today at the global level: the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the World Bank Group,

World organization Health (WHO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), World Trade Organization (WTO), etc. In the UN structure, one can note such auxiliary organizational units as the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP),

Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD), five regional socio-economic commissions, etc.

One can note the growing role of the secretariats of various international environmental agreements in the matter of international environmental governance.

The current situation, on the one hand, is explained by the fact that environmental issues are inherently integrated into almost all spheres of human activity (transport, agriculture, construction, etc.) and therefore most international organizations, following the objective reality of international relations, include environmental problems in your field of activity. On the other hand, the lack of a unified international management mechanism in the environmental sphere gives rise to many problems and duplication of some management functions.

Let us recall that for the first time the question of creating a unified institutional basis for international environmental cooperation was raised back in the late 60s - early 70s of the 20th century.

Discussion of issues related to the status and functions of the proposed international body (or organization) began immediately after the adoption of UN General Assembly Resolution 2398 (XXIII) of December 3, 1968, which contained the decision to convene the Stockholm Conference on Environmental Problems in 1972. human environment. Various views have been expressed regarding the nature and legal status of such a body or organization. At the same time, no one then advocated the creation of another specialized UN agency that would deal exclusively with the field of environmental protection and environmental management. For some, this was due to a general negative attitude towards the activities of UN specialized agencies in general, and they expressed great doubts about the ability of an international organization of this kind to effectively solve environmental problems at the global level. Others believed that the existing UN specialized agencies, such as WMO, WHO, IMO, FAO, ILO and others, pay sufficient attention to environmental problems within their constitutional competence and that the creation of a new international organization with the status of a specialized agency would put it on par with existing ones and will not be able to provide it with a leading role in establishing the necessary level and degree of coordination of state efforts in the environmental field. Still others generally believed that there were no objective prerequisites for the creation of a universal international organization, since judgments about environmental hazard are exaggerated, and the existing difficulties can be easily overcome with the help of regional organizational structures.

The idea of ​​establishing a new commission on environmental issues within the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) enjoyed great support among scientists and governments. At the same time, the main emphasis was placed on the broad powers that ECOSOC has under the UN Charter, which also cover the sphere of ecology. Opponents of such a solution to the issue pointed out that seven commissions already function within the framework of ECOSOC and that the creation of another one would diminish the importance of interaction between states in the environmental sphere. In their opinion, ECOSOC is generally not able to carry out policy-making activities in this or that area and is considered, in particular, by developing countries as a body that protects the interests of industrialized countries. In addition, the creation of ECOSOC staff through the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, they believed, would undermine the idea of ​​​​creating an independent staff to help solve environmental problems.

As a possible alternative, a proposal has been put forward to create a special committee of the UN General Assembly or a special unit within the UN Secretariat.

Finally, projects were introduced to create a special international organization with a limited number of members outside the UN system, which would have control and enforcement functions.

As a result, preference was still given to the UN as an organization endowed by its member states with almost universal international legal personality. In its composition, on the basis of Art. 22 of the Charter established the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) with the status of a subsidiary body of the General Assembly.

The promptness with which the UN responded to the recommendation of the Stockholm Conference (UNEP was established on December 15, 1972 by UN General Assembly resolution 2997 (XXVII)) indicates the keen interest of almost all UN members in developing an effective institutional mechanism in this area. However, such a half-hearted solution indicated the unwillingness of states to go further and create not just an effective international, but a supranational mechanism in this area. Meanwhile, in the field of environmental protection, the need for such supranational mechanisms is felt more and more acutely.

The so-called catalytic role, invented specifically for UNEP, which was presented by its developers as a new type of management function that arose as a result of adaptation, could not save the situation. organizational structure UN system to global issues. The fact that there is no management here, but the most ordinary coordination takes place, is evidenced by the following definition of this function: “in conditions when a large number of different UN agencies can and should potentially participate in activities on a particular global problem, the central coordinating authority of the system should strive not so much to take upon itself the implementation of the general work program, but to act as an initiator of projects, the operational implementation of which should be transferred to the relevant units of the UN common system."

In this regard, it is not surprising that literally immediately after the establishment of UNEP, proposals began to be put forward to improve and improve the activities of the world community in the field of environmental protection, including both projects aimed at redistributing powers and functions between already existing international organizations and institutions, as well as ideas for creating new bodies and organizations.

Among the first group of proposals related to strengthening the role of UNEP, those put forward by the UN International Commission on Environment and Development headed by G.H. deserve special attention. Brundtland (Brundtland Commission) the idea of ​​expanding its powers and financial support (1987), the UK project to transform UNEP into a specialized UN agency (1983) and the USSR initiative to transform UNEP into the Environmental Security Council (1989). This group also includes the UK’s proposal to transfer environmental problems to the competence of a special body of the system of main organs of the UN by expanding the powers of the UN Security Council in accordance with Art. 34 of the UN Charter and through the creation of a special sessional committee of the UN General Assembly (1983), as well as a project to transform the UN Trusteeship Council into the Environmental Security Council.

The second group includes the Brundtland Commission's proposal to establish a UN Commission on Environmental Sustainable Development, headed by the UN Secretary-General, the USSR project to create an Environmental Emergency Assistance Center, and the idea put forward by the participants in the 1989 Hague Conference to establish a new main UN environmental body.

In any case, the position of UNEP as the central body of the UN system for organizing and promoting international environmental cooperation needs to be strengthened. UNEP must be transformed into a full-fledged international organization, operating and based on an international treaty, with a full-fledged secretariat, funding and a system of sessional and permanent bodies, placed in strict hierarchical dependence among themselves. It should be endowed with the right to make decisions binding on states with direct action, by analogy with the practice of the UN Security Council, when on issues of maintaining international peace and safety it operates in accordance with Ch. VI and VII of the UN Charter.

These types of changes to UNEP's functionality will inevitably impact its legal status and opportunities to really influence the process of conservation and protection of the environment, which in modern conditions is extremely important, given that the world's environmental problems exceed the existing capabilities of both the Program itself and the well-established UN specialized agencies.

In this situation, the proposal put forward on September 23, 2009 at the 64th session of the UN General Assembly by the President of France to establish an International Environmental Organization in 2012 at the summit on sustainable development "Rio+20" (a regional association of Latin American countries plus ") looks quite realistic. G20"), a forum proposed by Brazil.

At the regional level, on the contrary, there are numerous international intergovernmental organizations whose constituent documents contain sections devoted to environmental protection. These are, for example, the European Union, the Association of States Southeast Asia(ASEAN), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), etc. The extension of the competence of regional organizations to the field of ecology, as well as the creation of special regional institutional structures, is due primarily to the severity of environmental problems experienced by states in a particular region globe.

Principles of international environmental law

Due to its universality and imperativeness, the basis for the regulation of international environmental relations is the generally accepted principles of modern international law.

All sectoral (special) principles of international environmental law must comply with them. They serve as a measure of the legality of all norms of international law, including norms of international environmental law.

Today, such generally accepted principles include: sovereign equality, respect for the rights inherent in sovereignty; refraining from using force or the threat of force; inviolability of borders; territorial integrity of states; peaceful resolution of international disputes; non-interference in matters essentially within the internal competence of the state; respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; equality and the right of peoples to control their own destinies; cooperation between states; conscientious fulfillment of obligations under international law.

Compliance with the fundamental generally accepted principles of international law is fundamental for effective international legal regulation of environmental protection. The role and importance of these principles increase even more in connection with the problem of the transfer of pollution beyond the territory of one state over long distances.

Using the example of the principle of international cooperation, we will illustrate how the generally recognized principles of general international law are transformed in relation to the specifics of international environmental relations.

The principle of international cooperation is currently one of the fundamental principles in international legal regulation of environmental protection. Almost all international legal acts currently in force and being developed in this area are based on it. In particular, it is enshrined in the Southern Nature Conservation Convention Pacific Ocean 1976, Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals 1979, Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources 1980, UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer 1985.

In the Declaration of the United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, this principle is revealed as follows (Principle 24): “International problems related to the protection and improvement of the environment should be resolved in a spirit of cooperation of all countries, large and small, on the basis of equality Cooperation, based on multilateral and bilateral agreements or other appropriate basis, is essential for the effective control, prevention, reduction and elimination of negative environmental impacts associated with activities carried out in all areas, and this cooperation should be organized in such a way that so that the sovereign interests of all states are given due consideration."

On the most conscientious reading and interpretation of this Principle, it is impossible to derive from it precisely the duty to cooperate, and not just a declarative wish. This clearly follows from such elements of the Principle as: “should be decided in a spirit of cooperation..”, “extremely important for..”, “this cooperation should be organized in such a way that the sovereign interests of all states are duly taken into account.”

Principle 7 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development Declaration on Environment and Development states: “States shall cooperate in a spirit of global partnership to preserve, protect and restore the purity and integrity of the Earth’s ecosystem. Recognizing that different States have different have contributed to the degradation of the planet's environment, they have common but differentiated responsibilities. Developed countries recognize the responsibilities they have in the context of international efforts to achieve sustainable development, given the burden that their societies place on the planet's environment. , and the technologies and financial resources that they possess."

The need for international environmental cooperation today is dictated by a number of objective factors, which are conventionally divided into two types: natural-ecological and socio-economic.

Natural environmental factors include:

Unity of the Earth's biosphere. Everything in the biosphere is interconnected. The truth of this statement now no longer needs proof; it is accepted as an axiom by world science. Any change, even the most insignificant at first glance, in the state of one natural resource inevitably has a direct or indirect impact in time and space on the position of others.

The high degree of ecological interdependence of states both within individual regions and between them, the interdependence of natural environmental resources leads to the rapid development of many national environmental problems into international ones. Nature as a phenomenon that exists independently of humans, and state and administrative boundaries in general as a result of the historical development of society are incompatible concepts that lie on different planes. Nature does not know and does not recognize state and administrative boundaries;

The presence of universal natural objects and resources, the effective protection and protection of which, as well as rational use, is impossible within the framework and efforts of one single state (the World Ocean with its biological and mineral resources, atmospheric air, the ozone layer of the atmosphere, near-Earth space , Antarctica with its flora and fauna).

It obliges states, when conducting military operations, to take care “to protect the natural environment from extensive, long-term and serious damage” (Article 55 of the Protocol); prohibits the use of methods or means of warfare that are intended to cause or can be expected to cause such damage to the natural environment, as well as the deliberate manipulation of "natural processes - the dynamics, composition or structure of the Earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or outer space" (Article 2 of the Convention) for the purpose of causing damage to the armed forces of the enemy, the civilian population of the opposing state, its cities, industry, agriculture, transport and communication networks or natural resources.

Certain elements of the principle under consideration are disclosed in Protocol III “On the Prohibition or Restriction of the Use of Incendiary Weapons” to the Convention on the Prohibition or Restriction of the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Cause Excessive Injury or to Have an Indiscriminate Effect, 1980, as well as in a number of disarmament conventions , documents "law of the Hague" and some other international treaties.

The basis of the principle of ensuring environmental safety is the theory of environmental risk - determining the level of acceptable risk with its indispensable consideration when establishing the cost of products and services. Acceptable risk is understood as a level of risk that is justified from the point of view of economic and social factors, i.e. acceptable risk is a risk that society as a whole is willing to tolerate in order to obtain certain benefits as a result of its activities.

Environmental safety is a priority component of national security and global security of the world community, implementing the transition to sustainable development, as well as a priority criterion for social development.

Currently, this principle is in the process of formation and represents more of a goal to which the world community should strive than an actually operating principle.

The principle of international legal responsibility of states for damage caused to the environment. In accordance with this principle, states are obliged to compensate for environmental damage caused both as a result of their violation of their international obligations and as a result of activities not prohibited by international law.

In English, international liability for illegal activities (negative liability) and for actions not prohibited by international law (positive liability) are called by different words: responsibility and liability, respectively. In Russian, both institutions are called by one word - “responsibility”.

Currently, the United Nations International Law Commission (UNILC) has completed work on codifying the rules of objective responsibility of states: in 2001, the Draft Articles on the Prevention of Transboundary Harm from Hazardous Activities were adopted, and in 2006, the Draft Principles relating to the distribution of losses in in case of transboundary harm caused by hazardous activities. Based on these two documents, it is planned to adopt either a convention or an act of “soft” law.

The established practice of states in this matter is reflected in UN General Assembly Resolutions 62/68 of December 6, 2007 “Consideration of the issue of preventing transboundary harm from hazardous activities and distribution of losses in the event of such harm” and 61/36 of December 4, 2006 "Distribution of damages in the event of transboundary harm caused by hazardous activities."

In science, it is customary to identify criteria whose presence allows us to speak about transboundary environmental damage: the anthropogenic nature of the activity that caused the damage; direct connection between anthropogenic activities and harmful consequences; transboundary nature of the impact; the damage must be significant or substantial (minor damage does not give rise to international liability).

As a norm of universal application, the principle of international liability for environmental damage was first formulated in the Stockholm Declaration of 1972 (Principle 22).

The 1992 Rio Declaration reaffirmed the principle of state responsibility for transboundary environmental damage (Principles 13 and 14).

Many international agreements containing various obligations of states in the field of protection and conservation of the environment also imply liability for their violation: liability for damage from the transboundary movement of genetically modified organisms (GMOs); liability for marine oil pollution; liability for damage caused by transboundary transport of hazardous waste and its disposal; liability for damage caused during the transportation of dangerous goods; liability for nuclear damage.

Responsibility for causing transboundary environmental damage in international law can also be borne by individuals within the framework of the institution of individual international responsibility.

Thus, in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 1998, war crimes also include “intentionally committing an attack when it is known that such an attack will cause ... extensive, long-term and serious damage to the natural environment, which would be clearly disproportionate to the specific and immediate expected general military superiority" (Article 8b, iv of the Rome Statute).

The given list of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law within the meaning of Art. 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice represents the consolidated opinion of the most qualified specialists in public law. This, however, does not remove from the agenda the discussion of various doctrinal approaches to compiling lists of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law.

Yes, Prof. K.A. Bekyashev identifies 15 principles of international environmental law: “the environment is the common concern of mankind”, “the natural environment beyond state borders is the common heritage of mankind”, “freedom of research and use of the environment and its components”, “rational use of the environment”, “ promoting international cooperation in the study and use of the environment", "the interdependence of environmental protection, peace, development, human rights and fundamental freedoms", "precautionary approach to the environment", "right to development", "prevention of harm", "prevention environmental pollution", "state responsibility", "he who pollutes pays, or the polluter pays", "universal but differentiated responsibility", "access to environmental information", "waiver of immunity from the jurisdiction of international or foreign judicial organs." At the same time, this author accompanies the selection of almost all of these principles with references to international treaties and state practice.

N.A. Sokolova, proposing her own version of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law, proceeds from the fact that the norm contained in a special principle should determine its content, have significant, fundamental importance for regulating relations in the field of environmental protection, and find constant application in practice states, including when resolving disputes, is contained not only in the preamble, but also in the main text of the treaty, and is considered by the doctrine as a full-fledged international legal norm

• the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, according to which the content and procedure for fulfilling international environmental obligations is determined, taking into account differences in the capabilities of states and their “contribution” to the problem of environmental change. According to N.A. Sokolova, this principle becomes the basis for declaring demands for the participation of all states in solving international environmental problems;
• the principle of the precautionary approach, the normative content of which, according to N.A. Sokolova, includes the following elements:
  • the need to take into account the potential threat that could lead to environmental damage;
  • a direct link between the threat and the possibility of serious and irreversible damage;
  • scientific uncertainty that cannot justify postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation;
• The polluter pays principle, which was originally formulated as an economic principle in the 1970s. As N.A. believes Sokolov, its initial basis should be considered from the point of view of “internalization of costs” (from the English internal - internal) taking into account the actual economic costs of pollution control, cleanup and protective measures by including them in the costs of the activity itself;
• the principle of no harm to the environment beyond national jurisdiction, which covers the following elements:
  • the obligation to carry out activities in such a way that they do not cause damage to the environment beyond national jurisdiction;
  • the obligation to assess activities that may cause harm beyond national jurisdiction in order to determine its extent and nature;
• principle of international environmental cooperation.

From among foreign researchers in various years, their versions of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law were proposed by: F. Sands, A. Kiss, V. Lang, D. Hunter, J. Salzman and D. Zalke.

For example, F. Sands considers intergenerational equality, sustainable use, equal use and integration to be among the most significant principles of international environmental law.

A. Kiss pays special attention to the principle of non-harm beyond national jurisdiction, the principle of international cooperation, the precautionary approach and the “polluter pays” principle. In his writings, he also points out the obligation of all states to preserve the environment, the obligation to assess the impact on the environment, the obligation to monitor the state of the environment, to ensure public access to information about the state of the environment and participation in decision-making.

V. Lang proposes to distinguish three groups of principles according to the degree of their normative consolidation:

• existing principles (for example, the principle of liability for environmental damage);
• emerging principles (right to a healthy environment, warning other states in case of possible environmental impact);
• potential principles (the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities).

Finally, D. Hunter, J. Salzman and D. Zalke combine the principles of international environmental law into several groups:

• principles defining general approaches to the environment;
• principles relating to transboundary environmental cooperation issues;
• principles promoting the development of national environmental legislation;
• principles of international environmental management.

The given range of opinions of domestic and foreign experts regarding the catalog of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law clearly demonstrates the tendency towards convergence of existing scientific approaches, which can be seen, in particular, in the repetition of some of them. Some of the authors, such as prof. K.A. Bekyashev, rightly discovering, apparently, common features in the legal regime of outer space and the environment, borrow the formulations of some special principles of international environmental law, according to which the identification of special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law, as well as the exact formulation of their legal content, is an extremely complex theoretical problem, still far away from successful resolution.

Sources of international environmental law

One of the remarkable phenomena of the modern doctrine of international environmental law is the development in it of the grounds and methods for classifying international environmental norms as a necessary step towards streamlining the system and structure of this branch of international law. Along with the use of traditional classifications into norms, ordinary, generally accepted principles, contractual norms of a multilateral and bilateral nature, mandatory and advisory decisions of international organizations, decisions of international judicial bodies, in recent years, in international environmental law there has been an in-depth theoretical study of individual aspects of the systematization of normative material, due to the specific features practices of legal regulation of international environmental relations.

In particular, much attention is paid to:

• the grounds and conditions for the delimitation of global and regional international environmental legal norms;
• determining the relationship between the framework and detailing norms of the protocols and other supporting agreements;
• assessing the importance of advisory norms, the so-called soft law norms, created especially when determining principles, strategies and, in general, long-term planning in the legal regulation of interstate environmental relations;
• understanding the essence and role of international environmental standards in the mechanism of legal regulation of environmental relations.

In relation to international environmental law, the study of sources, among other things, makes it possible to understand the patterns of formation of this branch of international law and the trends in its further development.

In the complex process of international rule-making, one should distinguish between the main processes, which include those methods of norm formation, as a result of which an international legal norm appears, and auxiliary processes, which are certain stages in the process of formation of an international legal norm, but which do not complete this process.

In this regard, attention is drawn to the fact that in the domestic legal literature almost everywhere there is an equal sign between the concepts of a rule of law and a contract.

It is argued that a contract is a rule of law, that a contract is a form (one of the legal forms) in which a rule of law is expressed.

Indeed, from a formal legal point of view, a rule of law is a certain legal form that contains the rule of behavior of subjects, which they recognize as legally binding for themselves. However, the structure of a norm of international law includes as its elements not only form, but also content. The content of the norm is an abstract legal relationship - abstract because it extends its effect to all subjects and to all events within the framework of a given legal relationship. A specific agreement is part of an objectively existing norm; in relation to this “part”, specific subjects agreed to consider the rule of behavior contained in it as a mandatory norm of behavior for themselves.

To regulate legal relations on a specific issue, subjects do not need to embody in form the entire content of the norm. That is why a particular norm has a plural form.

Finally, the third approach, the so-called Vienna type, originating from the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer of 1985, involves the development and adoption of framework agreements under the auspices of international organizations. Examples of this type of agreement are the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, which, although not called a framework, actually is one, and the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

All three approaches have their own attractive features in the eyes of various groups of states. For example, the first approach is most appropriate at the subregional level, allowing the efforts of a limited number of states experiencing similar or identical environmental difficulties to be concentrated. The second approach requires the adoption of legally binding rules and norms of state behavior, but should not be considered as some kind of limitation of state sovereignty. In this procedure, states, exercising their sovereign rights in practice, delegate part of their sovereign competence to a supranational body, as they often do when joining international intergovernmental organizations. At the same time, this allows states to even expand the scope of their sovereignty through similar actions on the part of other countries that are members of such bodies and organizations. Finally, the third approach best suits the interests of those states that wish to retain the maximum possible amount of sovereignty. In this case, the so-called international interest is represented by one or another international organization serving as a forum for conducting relevant negotiations. Through their relatively broad language and terms, framework agreements provide the necessary basis for interaction and cooperation between the largest possible number of states with different political and economic systems.

And as the first step in the cooperation of efforts, they allow us to immediately begin research and monitoring, which are of exceptional importance, since it is clear scientific data on certain environmental phenomena and consequences that make it possible to move to the level of states adopting specific, more detailed obligations. The achieved results of scientific and technical cooperation make it possible to identify the most relevant areas for interaction and develop in detail the mechanism for their implementation in applications and protocols that become an integral part of the framework agreement.

A special feature of this third approach is also that it is aimed primarily at the “management” of endangered natural resources, and not at the development of general principles of international law. In other words, it is more pragmatic in nature and requires states not to declare their commitment to the general principles of international environmental protection, but to take specific measures aimed at restoring and maintaining a particular natural resource.

The rapid and dynamic development of international environmental law today is largely ensured by the “growth” of “soft” law norms. These norms, in quantitative terms, have long been not inferior to the so-called solid norms in international environmental law. Therefore, to characterize international environmental law as a branch of modern international law great value acquires a definition of their place and role in the system of its sources.

Norms of “soft” law, by establishing rules of behavior, can become the starting point for transforming such rules into contractual or customary international legal norms. As noted in this regard, for example, N.A. Sokolov, speaking about the transformation of “soft” law norms into contractual or customary law, such advisory norms for environmental protection can be assessed from the position of de lege ferenda.

Moreover, some norms of “soft” law, which are not legally binding, are nevertheless given binding force by states, which is of a political and moral nature.

The use of such documents is noteworthy as an indication of a change or establishment of guidelines that may ultimately become legally binding norms. Such principles are important, their influence is significant, but in themselves they do not constitute legal norms.

The norms of “soft” international environmental law are an objective reality, a fact whose existence must be taken into account.

We find indirect confirmation of this fact in the materials of the anniversary UN Congress on Public International Law in 1995, the participants of which pointed out that treaties are not adequate instruments of international law-making, the process of their preparation is complex, and participation is minimal. Because of this, it was proposed to increase the role of resolutions of multilateral forums.

It was proposed to supplement the classical sources of international law with a “peculiar quasi-legislative process”, culminating in the adoption of declarations of principles, codes of conduct, guidelines, model norms, etc.

The emergence of “soft” law norms in the regulation of international environmental relations was more natural than accidental. Despite the apparent “apoliticality” of the sphere of environmental protection, with references to which some foreign researchers tried to explain the emerging trend in the early 70s of the 20th century. "breakthrough" in the development of international environmental law, in reality, states were quite reluctant to reveal their numerous "ecological secrets", especially in the military sphere, which primarily explains, in particular, the half-hearted decision of the participants of the Stockholm Conference on Problems of the Human Environment in 1972 d. to establish the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) with the status of a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly and the subsequent abolition of the Coordination Council within the UNEP structure in 1977.

Being free to choose the means of regulating international environmental relations and resolving environmental difficulties that have arisen, the participants in these relations deliberately settled on the norms of “soft” international environmental law.

In the 70s of the XX century. there was a need to create a regulatory framework for a new system of cooperation in the field of environmental protection. The use of international legal instruments for these purposes would require decades, so “soft” law was applied in the form of resolutions of international conferences, which turned out to be able to more quickly adapt to changing national and political realities and made it possible to determine the possible content of “hard” international environmental law, as well as as well as the limits of permissibility of subjective freedom of action.

As a result, the so-called Declaration of Principles and Action Plan for the Human Environment (Action Plan) were adopted at the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972. This experience was subsequently adopted by the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (1992) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002).

This practice, which has shown its vitality, has convincingly proven the ability of “soft” international environmental law to solve problems that “hard” law cannot do.

It is no coincidence that UN General Assembly Resolution 49/113 of December 19, 1994 “Promoting the principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development” directly states that the Rio Declaration contains the fundamental principles of achieving sustainable development based on a new and fair global partnership, and that all governments are encouraged to promote the widespread dissemination at all levels of the Rio Declaration.

The norms of “soft” international environmental law can solve other specific problems, for example, regulate international relations with the participation of subjects of national law.

Economic, cultural, scientific and technical ties are carried out mainly by private individuals and organizations that cannot be obliged by the state to carry out relevant activities.

As an example, we can refer to the rules of “soft” law contained in the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, adopted at the XXVIII session of the FAO Conference in October 1995.

The Code is not an international treaty; accordingly, there is no contractually established list of member states for which the Code’s norms would be binding. The Code does not express consent for its norms to be binding in any of the ways provided for in Art. Art. 11 - 15

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969. On the contrary, in Art. 1 of the Code specifically designates the voluntary nature of states’ implementation of its provisions. And although the Code includes norms that most states are obliged to implement, this obligation stems from the international legal nature of these norms themselves, and not the Code as such. We are talking, first of all, about the relevant provisions of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Agreement to Promote Compliance by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas international measures Conservation and Management of Biological Resources 1993. In addition, the Code is not subject to registration with the UN Secretariat.

Another example of “soft” law rules governing quite specific area relations involving subjects of domestic law, is the Olympic Movement Agenda 21, adopted at the June session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Seoul in 1999 in response to the call of the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro 1992 to all universal, regional and subregional international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations should develop their own relevant documents, similar to Agenda 21. This Agenda was subsequently endorsed by the Olympic Movement as a whole at the Third World Conference on Sport and Environment, held in Rio de Janeiro in October 1999.

Agenda 21 has received widespread support and endorsement from UNEP as the basis for a policy of close cooperation between members of the Olympic Movement and UNEP. As the Executive Director of UNEP noted, “Agenda 21 of the Olympic Movement should serve as a useful reference tool for the sporting community at all levels to protect the environment and achieve sustainable development... This document... contains important provisions regarding the active involvement of the sporting community in the protection and conservation of the environment environment. The importance of supporting leading sports organizations and the sports industry in achieving these goals should not be underestimated. They not only have a stake in maintaining the quality of the environment, but can also influence the minds and actions of many others in their own countries.”

Agenda 21 of the Olympic Movement, according to the Chairman of the IOC Commission on Sport and the Environment, “proposes governing bodies sports movement's options for how sustainable development can be incorporated into their political strategy and describes actions to enable every individual to actively participate in the promotion of sustainable development, particularly, but not exclusively, in relation to sports activities." Agenda 21 should be seen as a working document that everyone should use it to suit your circumstances.

Like Agenda 21, Agenda 21 contains four main sections, which, however, should not be perceived as a blind copy of one of the documents adopted at the Conference on Environment and Development. The developers of this document sought to highlight from the list of issues contained in Agenda 21 those areas and problems in which the Olympic movement as a whole and its institutional mechanisms in particular are capable, due to the global nature of the Olympic movement, of providing the greatest assistance to the achievement and implementation of environmentally safe development.

Agenda 21, sometimes called the Olympic Environmental Action Agenda, addresses three key issues: improving socio-economic conditions; conservation and management of natural resources for sustainable development; strengthening the role of major groups.

Being a theoretical and practical guide for all members of the Olympic movement, for athletes in general - the IOC, international federations, national Olympic committees, national organizing committees for Olympic Games, athletes, clubs, coaches, as well as functionaries and enterprises related to sports - Agenda 21 must be implemented in a spirit of respect for the economic, geographical, climatic, cultural, religious characteristics that characterize the diversity of the Olympic movement.

The document aims to encourage members of the Olympic Movement to play an active role in sustainable development; establishes the basic concepts and coordinates the overall efforts necessary to achieve these goals; suggests to policymakers areas where sustainable development can be integrated into their policies; indicates how individuals can act to ensure that their sporting activities and overall lives are sustainable.

Finally, “soft” law is also known to national regulatory systems. As an example, we can cite the Environmental Doctrine of the Russian Federation, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 31, 2002 N 1225-r.

The environmental doctrine of the Russian Federation determines the goals, directions, objectives and principles of implementing a unified state policy in the field of ecology in the Russian Federation for the long term.

It is based on the regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation, international treaties of the Russian Federation in the field of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources, and also takes into account the recommendations of the Rio Conference and subsequent international forums on environmental issues and sustainable development.

It is the latter circumstance that explains the fact that the text of the Environmental Doctrine of the Russian Federation included legal principles and norms enshrined in the laws of the Russian Federation, international treaties of the Russian Federation and universal acts of “soft” international environmental law. We are talking primarily about such provisions of the Doctrine as “openness of environmental information”, “ensuring a favorable state of the environment as a necessary condition for improving the quality of life and health of the population”, “participation of civil society, self-government bodies and business circles in the preparation, discussion, adoption and implementation of decisions in the field of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources", etc.

Since the act in question contains mandatory norms that are not legal, we are dealing with the norms of “soft” environmental law.

Thus, “soft” law is a special normative phenomenon in both the national and international normative systems. Without being as strictly limited by formal frameworks as “hard” law, “soft” law is capable of regulating the most complex and delicate relationships. The regulation of international environmental relations gives rise to many norms, which are often inconsistent with each other. It is difficult for “hard” international environmental law to overcome discrepancies, but for “soft” international environmental law, with its flexibility, it is much easier.

Life has shown that the regulation of international environmental relations is possible only with the involvement of all types of regulatory instruments, among which “non-legal” ones play an extremely important role, especially when the chances of creating “firm” norms that can count on universal acceptance are slim. The concept of “soft” environmental law represents a unique response, on the one hand, to the difficulties of forming international environmental law and, on the other, to a significant increase in recent years in the number and legal significance of recommendations related to international environmental law.

As noted in the report of the Institute of International Law, soft law norms in the strict sense of the word are not a source of law, but their influence on the formation of international environmental norms is such that they should be taken into account when studying the sources, at least as an important contributing factor. development of law.

Environmental standards are unilateral acts of international intergovernmental organizations, adopted by them in the exercise of their rule-making and regulatory functions. They can be considered as a preparatory stage in the creation of a rule of law, as a kind of semi-finished product of a legal norm.

As a general rule, the competence to adopt standards in international organizations lies with their executive bodies. This is the case, for example, in the IAEA and a number of specialized UN agencies, such as ICAO, FAO, WHO, WMO, etc., in which environmental standards are adopted in the context of their core, core activities. In IMO, in accordance with Art. 15 of the 1948 Convention on the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization, the Assembly of the organization is vested with exclusive competence to make recommendations on the prevention of marine pollution.

Let us illustrate the procedure for adopting standards using the example of ICAO.

The text of the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation does not define the concept of “international standard”. This definition was first formulated in the resolution of the first session of the ICAO Assembly in 1947 and was reproduced without significant changes in the resolutions of subsequent sessions of the Assembly.

An ICAO standard is defined as “specific requirements for physical characteristics, configuration, material, performance, personnel or procedures, the uniform application of which is recognized as necessary for the safety or regularity of international air navigation and which contracting States are required to follow in accordance with the Convention.”

From the provisions of Art. 38 of the Chicago Convention it follows that neither a standard nor a recommended practice is a norm establishing any rule that is mandatory for execution by an ICAO member state. States are required to submit information to the ICAO Council within a specified time frame regarding the discrepancy between their national practices and the standard set by ICAO.

If states fully agree with such a standard, this means that the national practice of this state does not contradict a specific standard (the exception is cases when states expect to take the necessary measures before the date of application of the standard so that national practice “catch up” to its level ). Moreover, any state at any time can declare that, due to a change in national practice (or without giving any reason at all), it ceases to comply with a particular standard, recommended practice, or any annex to the Chicago Convention as a whole.

Currently, the development of standards regulating the environmental aspects of the use of aircraft within the framework of ICAO is carried out in two directions: protecting the environment from the effects of aircraft noise and from emissions from aircraft engines.

Annex 16 was adopted in 1971, which addressed various aspects of the aircraft noise problem.

In accordance with the Resolution on Civil Aviation and the Human Environment adopted by the ICAO Assembly in 1971, specific actions were taken regarding aircraft engine emissions and detailed proposals were prepared for ICAO Standards to regulate the emissions of certain types of aircraft engines.

These Standards, adopted in 1981, set emission limits for smoke and certain gaseous pollutants and prohibited the discharge of unused fuel. The scope of Annex 16 was expanded to include provisions on aircraft engine emissions and became known as “Environmental Protection”. Volume I of the revised Annex 16 includes provisions for aircraft noise, and Volume II contains provisions for aircraft engine emissions.

The ICAO Council approved a new noise standard (Chapter 4), much more stringent than the standard contained in Chapter 4. 3. On January 1, 2006, the new standard began to apply to all newly certified aircraft and aircraft subject to Sec. 3 if their re-certification is requested under Sec. 4.

This new standard was adopted concurrently with the ICAO Assembly's endorsement of the Aviation Environmental Management Committee's "Balanced Approach to Noise Management" framework, which includes four elements: noise reduction at source, land use planning, operational controls and operational limitations.

Annex 16, Volume II contains standards prohibiting the intentional release of fuel into the atmosphere by all aircraft with gas turbine engines manufactured after 18 February 1982.

It also contains standards limiting smoke emissions from turbojet and turbofan engines designed for subsonic flight and manufactured after January 1, 1983. Similar restrictions apply to engines designed for supersonic flight and manufactured after February 18, 1982. .

Annex 16 also includes standards limiting the emissions of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides from large turbojet and turbofan engines designed for subsonic flight and manufactured after 1 January 1986.

ICAO is currently striving to ensure that the safe and orderly development of civil aviation is as compatible as possible with the maintenance of the quality of the human environment. This approach is fully consistent with the Consolidated Statement of Continuing Policies and Practices of ICAO in the Field of Environmental Protection, as set out in ICAO Resolution A33-7. This document is constantly updated and refined to reflect the practice of international environmental cooperation since the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development.

This includes, in particular, the recognition of the precautionary principle as a principle of ICAO policy and the recognition that emissions trading has the potential to be a cost-effective means of addressing carbon dioxide emissions.

Recently, due diligence standards have begun to be distinguished among environmental standards in international environmental law. This standard depends on a number of factors, such as the scale of the activity, climatic conditions, location of the activity, materials used in the course of the activity, etc. Therefore, in each specific case, an individual approach to determining the due diligence standard and a careful study of all factors influencing to this standard.

This provision is enshrined in Principle 11 of the 1992 Declaration on Environment and Development (Rio Declaration): “States shall adopt effective environmental legislation. Environmental standards, objectives and regulatory priorities should reflect the environmental and development conditions in which they apply . Standards applied by some countries may be inappropriate and impose unreasonable and social costs in other countries, particularly developing countries."

Principle 23 of the Stockholm Declaration emphasizes that national standards"respect the criteria that may be agreed upon by the international community."

The concept of environmental standards received its further development in Art. 43 drafts of the International Pact on Environment and Development (as amended on September 22, 2010). This article consists of two paragraphs, the location of which clearly indicates that national environmental standards must be based on international standards, and in their development, non-binding recommendations and other similar acts must be taken into account.

Similar to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Article 197), the Barcelona Convention on the Protection Mediterranean Sea from pollution 1976 (Article 4(2)), Convention for the Protection of the North-East Atlantic 1992 (Article 2 (1 and 2)) paragraph 1 of Art. 43 of the Project obliges the parties to cooperate in the development of international rules and standards. It is noted that there is a need for harmonization and coordination in resolving issues of common interest, in particular to protect the commons, which will avoid conflicts and distortion of competition, and will also lead to the reduction and elimination of trade barriers.

When developing flexible measures for the implementation of agreed international environmental standards, special attention should be paid to the interests of developing countries, which is consistent with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

The purpose of international environmental standards is to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, a higher level of environmental protection. Taking into account environmental, social and economic characteristics, states have the right to establish national environmental standards that are more stringent than international ones, provided that they do not constitute hidden trade barriers.

National environmental standards, which are discussed in paragraph 2 of Art. 43, must be both preventive and corrective in nature. They should be aimed at eliminating the causes of environmental degradation and ensuring an adequate level of environmental protection.

Codification of international environmental law

In the text of the UN Charter, in diplomatic correspondence, in official statements of the governments of UN member states and at international conferences, in decisions and documents of UN bodies, the concept of “codification” is always accompanied by the expression “progressive development of international law”. In any resolution of the UN General Assembly devoted to issues of its work in the field of international law, both terms - “codification” and “progressive development of international law” - are constantly and inextricably used to characterize this activity.

In the science of international law there is no firmly established definition of codification.

The only one official document, which defines the concept of codification of international law, is the Statute of the International Law Commission (ILC) of the UN. In Art. 15 of the Statute, codification is understood as “a more precise formulation and systematization of the rules of international law in those areas in which there are certain provisions established by extensive state practice, precedents and doctrine.” At the same time, the Statute does not provide an exhaustive definition, but only explains that the term “codification of international law” is used for reasons of convenience.

First of all, during codification, the presence of certain rules of international communication is recorded, which are legally binding for the state as principles and norms of international law. Then these norms are set out and enshrined in the process of codification in any written act, which is usually a draft multilateral agreement of a general nature - a treaty, a convention, etc. This project is submitted for approval by the states, and after completing a certain procedure of signing and ratification by the states, it becomes a valid international legal act containing in a systematized form the principles and norms of a certain branch or institution of current international law.

As for the concept of “progressive development”, the same Art. 15 of the UN ILC Statute reveals its content as follows: the preparation of conventions on those issues that are not yet regulated by international law or on which the law is not yet sufficiently developed in the practice of individual states.

The UN ILC Statute (Articles 16 - 24) provides for various procedures for the codification and progressive development of international law. However, in practice, many of these provisions turned out to be unviable, and therefore the UN ILC in its activities does not adhere to the methodological distinction between codification and progressive development, considering them to be integral, interrelated and interpenetrating elements of a single codification process.

Codification and progressive development of international law are designated as a single process of development and streamlining of international legal acts. The concepts of "codification" and "progressive development" are not mutually exclusive. It is difficult to distinguish between these two processes, since in practice the formulation and systematization of international law may lead to the need to develop some new rules. In the course of codification, the need inevitably arises to fill gaps in existing international law or to clarify and update the content of a number of norms in the light of developments in international relations. The relative nature of the signs of “codification” and “progressive development” outlined in the UN ILC Statute makes it necessary to take into account the elements of innovation in the declared codification.

The process of codification and progressive development of international law, among other things, serves to strengthen the international legal order. In order for international law to fulfill the tasks set before it by the age of globalization, it must go a long way in its development, in which codification and progressive development are called upon to play a central role.

All of the above can be fully applied to international environmental law. This, in particular, allows us to define in the most general form the codification of international environmental law as the systematization and improvement of the principles and norms of international environmental law, carried out by establishing and precisely formulating the content of existing norms, revising outdated ones and developing new norms, taking into account the needs of developing international relations and consolidating in a single internally consistent order of these norms in an international legal act, which is designed to regulate international environmental relations as completely as possible.

Today, in international environmental law, codification processes take place most quickly and dynamically in two directions:

• firstly, principles and norms that are fundamental to the industry and crucial for ensuring international environmental safety, international environmental cooperation and rational resource use are codified and developed;
• secondly, conventions are concluded on issues in the global regulation of which all humanity is interested.

Moreover, in both directions, codification activities are carried out both in official and unofficial forms (the latter in legal literature is sometimes called “doctrinal” codification). Moreover, unofficial codification in international environmental law, like in perhaps no other branch of modern international law, continues to play one of the leading roles.

As the reports on the work of the UN ILC rightly note, “while recognizing that the body of written international law can only consist directly of laws enacted by governments, due credit should also be given to the research carried out by various societies, institutions and individual authors, and the ideas put forward by them , which also had a significant impact on the development of international law."

The official codification of international environmental law is carried out by the UN, represented by its subsidiary bodies such as the UN ILC and UNEP, and a number of specialized UN agencies within their specialized competence. It is also carried out within the framework of regularly convened international conferences on problems of environmental protection, rational use of natural resources and ensuring environmental safety.

Unofficial codification is currently carried out by individual scientists or their teams, national institutions, public organizations or international non-governmental organizations. Among the latter, the leading role belongs to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Recent advances in the formal codification of international environmental law include UN General Assembly Resolution 62/68 of December 6, 2007, “Consideration of the prevention of transboundary harm from hazardous activities and the distribution of damages in the event of such harm,” 61/36 of December 4, 2006, “Distribution of damages in the event of transboundary harm caused by hazardous activities,” and 63/124 of December 11, 2008, “The Law of Transboundary Aquifers.”

Thus, speaking about the last of the named Resolutions of the UN General Assembly, it should be noted that it was the result of the work of the UN ILC on the topic “Shared Natural Resources”, which was included in the program of work of the UN ILC in 2002. At the initiative of the appointed special rapporteur on this topic T. Yamada initially decided to consider the problem of transboundary groundwater(aquifers).

In 2008, the ILC adopted the draft articles “The Law of Transboundary Aquifers” in the final second reading and submitted them for consideration to the UN General Assembly, which in turn adopted them as an annex to Resolution 63/124. In the process of developing the latest version of the draft articles, the Commission made extensive use of the recommendations of experts from UNESCO, FAO, UNECE and International Association hydrologists.

The draft articles have a wider scope of application compared to the Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses of 1997. Although the draft art. 2 contains a new definition of the concept of “use of transboundary aquifers or aquifer systems”, which includes not only the extraction of water, heat and minerals, but also the storage and disposal of any substances, the document nevertheless emphasized the use of aquifers as source of water resources.

The text of General Assembly Resolution 63/124, which annexed these draft articles, made three key points regarding the future of the draft: firstly, the draft articles are “noted” and “are brought to the attention of Governments without prejudice to their future adoption or on other relevant decisions" (clause 4); secondly, the General Assembly “invites the States concerned to enter into appropriate agreements at the bilateral or regional levels for the effective management of their transboundary aquifers, taking into account the provisions of these draft articles” (para. 5); and thirdly, the General Assembly “decides to include this matter on its next agenda with a view to considering, in particular, the form in which the draft articles could be taken” (para. 6).

The adopted draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers make it possible to maintain a balance between the principle of state sovereignty over natural resources, the need for their reasonable and equitable exploitation and protection, and the obligation not to cause significant damage.

In the field of informal codification of international environmental law, a great achievement was the development within the IUCN of the draft International Pact on Environment and Development, which was approved at the UN anniversary congress on public international law (New York, 13 - 17 March 1995).

Initially, the draft Pact consisted of 72 articles, which formulated the basic principles, responsibilities of states in relation to the global ecological system, elements of the natural environment and natural processes, types of human activities affecting the natural environment, and measures to regulate anthropogenic impacts.

It was based on international treaties and customs in the field of international environmental law, as well as the provisions of the Stockholm Declaration of 1972, the Rio Declaration of 1992 and the World Charter for Nature of 1982.

The draft Pact of 1995, in accordance with the provisions of Art. 38.1(d) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, embodies "the doctrine of the most qualified experts in the public law of the various nations."

Subsequently, three new editions of the draft Pact were adopted, and it currently exists in the 4th edition, adopted on September 22, 2010, which was presented at the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in the same year.

In its current form, the draft Covenant consists of 79 articles, grouped into 11 parts.

The draft Pact, like the 1972 Stockholm Declaration and the 1992 Declaration on Environment and Development, contains provisions called principles. At the same time, the draft Pact classifies the following as fundamental principles:

1. respect for all forms of life" (art. 2);
2. the common concern of mankind" (v. 3);
3. interdependent values” (Article 4);
4. equality of rights between generations" (Article 5);
5. prevention" (Article 6);
6. precaution" (Art. 7);
7. choosing the least environmentally harmful model of behavior" (Article 8);
8. taking into account the limited capabilities of natural systems to withstand environmental loads and stress" (Article 9);
9. the right to development" (Article 10);
10. eradication of poverty" (Article 11);
11. common but differentiated responsibilities" (Article 12).

Already from the name of the listed principles it follows that they are not formulated as rules of law.

These are principles-ideas. Therefore, the commentary to the draft Covenant states that it is “a declaratory expression of legal norms and the basis for all the obligations contained in the draft Covenant.” They embody the requirements arising from biosphere thinking, which rejects the anthropocentric model of interaction between man and the environment.

If the Stockholm Declaration and the Rio Declaration do not distinguish between principles-norms and principles-ideas, nor does the relationship between them be established, then in the draft Pact the principles-ideas are separated from the principles-norms and are designated as “fundamental principles”. On these “fundamental principles” the principles-norms provided in subsequent parts and formulated as “general obligations” are built.

The adoption of a single universal codifying international legal act in relation to international environmental law is intended to solve a twofold problem: firstly, to answer the question about the number and content of special sectoral principles of international environmental law, and secondly, to complete the process of formalizing international environmental law into an independent branch of modern international law.

As is known, a group of legal norms and principles can claim to form an independent branch of law in the case when states agree on the formulation of a broad universal international legal act containing the basic principles of international law in a given area of ​​international relations. Moreover, before the appearance of such an act, we can talk about the formation of the corresponding branch of international law, and after its entry into force - about the emergence of a new branch.

As a result of the codification of international environmental law within the framework of a universal international legal act, the norms of a given branch of international law are combined on a qualitatively better regulatory basis in accordance with the level of legal consciousness for a given period, and such norms themselves are more precisely formulated. Achieving such greater orderliness, clarity and better quality of rules of proper conduct in itself has a positive impact on the entire process of implementation of international environmental law, on the effectiveness of international environmental law in general.

Thus, given the great contribution of the UN ILC and IUCN to the codification and progressive development of international environmental law, the following seems rational.

The UN Commission on the basis of the draft International Pact on Environment and Development can develop an Ecological Constitution of the Earth, which in the future, according to established practice, can be adopted either by the UN General Assembly or at an international ad hoc conference.

In particular, the President of Ukraine spoke about the need to develop and adopt a World Ecological Constitution at the September 2009 summit on climate change. It is no coincidence that in December of the same year an international scientific-practical conference"Global climate change: threats to humanity and prevention mechanisms."

According to the expert community, environmental human rights, and first of all the right to a safe (favorable) environment, should be enshrined in the Ecological Constitution of the Earth. The environmental policies of states and the world community as a whole should be aimed at ensuring these rights.

In this regard, the UN ILC and other interested parties will need to do a considerable amount of work to bring Art. 14 of the draft International Pact on Environment and Development (as amended on September 22, 2010) in accordance with the conceptual and terminological apparatus, which currently enjoys the support of most countries in the world. This applies primarily to what is enshrined in Art. 14 the right of everyone “to an environment adequate to his health, prosperity and dignity.” This formulation is in many ways similar to Principle 1 of the Stockholm Declaration, which back in 1972 was a not entirely successful compromise.

In its remaining parts, Art. 14 of the draft Covenant already today contains a list of widely recognized environmental human rights: the right to access environmental information, the right to public participation in decision-making on environmental issues, the right to access environmental justice, the right to participation of indigenous people small peoples in making environmentally significant decisions.

Since ensuring compliance with environmental human rights is entrusted to special (sectoral) principles of international environmental law, which are implemented primarily in the process of international environmental cooperation between states and relevant international organizations, the Environmental Constitution of the Earth should stimulate such cooperation and become a factor in increasing its effectiveness. Consequently, it is advisable to consolidate in it the forms and methods of international environmental cooperation in relation to its specific types.

In order to avoid declarativeness, the Environmental Constitution of the Earth must provide for a reliable organizational mechanism to ensure its implementation in the form of a specialized international organization endowed with broad competence to ensure a safe (favorable) environment, to coordinate international environmental cooperation, as well as to monitor the implementation of the Constitution.

Thus, the proposed concept of the Ecological Constitution of the Earth can solve a number of common problems that are important today for the world community and each of its members:

• to form a system of environmental human rights and consolidate his right to a safe environment;
• determine the directions of global environmental policy, as well as environmental cooperation between states and international organizations;
• eliminate gaps in the international legal regulation of environmental relations and make the branch of international environmental law more systematic;
• create additional international organizational, legal and judicial guarantees for ensuring environmental law and order in the world;
• promote the coordinated development of national systems of environmental legislation.

This is a set of international legal norms and principles governing the relations of subjects of international law in the field of environmental protection, rational use of natural resources, ensuring environmental safety and protecting human rights to a favorable living environment.

International environmental law has two aspects. Firstly, it is an integral part of public international law, which, on the basis of recognized international principles and specific methods regulates all forms of international cooperation between states. Secondly, it is a continuation of national (domestic) environmental law.

In the second half of the 20th century, international environmental law emerged as independent and complex with all its inherent features, which indicates humanity’s recognition of the global nature of environmental processes and the vulnerability of planetary ecosystems.

History of international environmental law.

Depending on the prevailing trends in solving environmental problems history of international environmental law can be divided into four main stages:

First stage 1839-1948 dates back to the bilateral Oystering and Fisheries Convention off the Coasts of Great Britain and France of 2 August 1839. During this period, scattered efforts were made at the bilateral, subregional and regional levels to protect and conserve selected wildlife. The efforts of the conferences were not coordinated or effectively supported by governments. Although during this period states showed a certain attention to environmental issues, expressed in the conclusion of more than 10 regional agreements, nevertheless, it was possible to solve to some extent only private, local problems.

Second stage 1948-1972 characterized by the emergence of numerous intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, primarily the UN and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, directly or indirectly related to international environmental conservation. The environmental problem is becoming global, and the UN and a number of its specialized agencies are trying to adapt to its solution. The first universal international treaties and agreements are concluded aimed at the protection and use of specific natural objects and complexes.

Third stage 1972-1992 associated with the first universal UN Conference on the Human Environment held in 1972 in Stockholm and the establishment, on its recommendation, of the UN Environment Program, designed to coordinate the efforts of international organizations and states in the field of international environmental protection. During this period, international environmental cooperation expands and deepens, conventions are concluded on issues in the global settlement of which all of humanity is interested, previously adopted international treaties and agreements are updated, and work on the official and unofficial codification of sectoral principles of international environmental law is intensified.

Fourth stage after 1992 The modern period in the history of international environmental law begins with the UN Conference on Environment and Development, which was held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in June 1992. This Conference directed the process of codification of international environmental law into the mainstream of the principles of socio-natural development. The parameters and deadlines for implementing the provisions of the “Agenda 21” adopted at the Conference were clarified at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. The main emphasis is on ensuring environmental safety, rational use of natural resources, achieving sustainable development and conservation environment for the benefit of present and future generations.

Sources of international environmental law.

Main sources of international environmental law- this and . Their meaning and nature of interaction are different for different stages of development of this branch of international law.

Currently there are about 500 international agreements on various aspects of environmental protection. These are multilateral universal and regional and bilateral international agreements governing both general questions environmental protection, as well as individual objects of the World Ocean, the earth’s atmosphere, near-Earth space, etc.

Interstate relations in the field of environmental protection are also regulated by “soft” law documents. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment of 1972, the World Conservation Charter of 1982, the RIO-92 Declaration, a number of documents of the World Summit and Johannesburg of 2002.

The source of international legal regulation of environmental protection is also international custom. A number of resolutions of the UN General Assembly, adopted unanimously, incorporate the norms of customary international law. Thus, the General Assembly in 1959 adopted a resolution that declared a moratorium on the development of mineral resources in the international seabed area. This resolution is recognized by all states and must be strictly observed by them.

Having analyzed a large number of international agreements and other international legal acts in the field of environmental protection and rational use, we can highlight the following: specific principles of international environmental law:

The principle of inadmissibility of causing transboundary damage to the environment- States must take all measures necessary to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction and control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The principle of a preventive approach to environmental protection- States should take precautionary measures to anticipate, prevent or minimize the risks of serious or irreversible harm to the environment. Broadly speaking, it prohibits any activity that causes or may cause damage to the environment and endangers human health.

The principle of international law enforcement cooperation- international problems related to the protection and improvement of the environment should be resolved in the spirit of goodwill, partnership and cooperation of all countries.

The principle of unity of environmental protection and sustainable development- environmental protection must be an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it . This principle includes four elements:

1. “reasonable” or “rational” exploitation of natural resources;
2. “fair” distribution of natural resources – when using natural resources, states must take into account the needs of other countries;
3. incorporating environmental considerations into economic plans, programs and development projects; And
4. conservation of natural resources for the benefit of future generations.

The precautionary principle in environmental protection- States must approach the preparation and adoption of decisions with caution and prudence, the implementation of which may have an adverse impact on the environment. This principle requires that all activities and the use of substances that may cause harm to the environment be strictly regulated or prohibited entirely, even if there is no convincing or irrefutable evidence of their environmental hazards.

The “polluter pays” principle- the direct culprit of pollution must cover the costs associated with eliminating the consequences of this pollution or reducing them to a state that meets environmental standards.

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities- States have a shared responsibility in the context of international efforts to protect the environment and recognize the need to take into account the role of each state in the emergence of specific environmental problems, as well as their ability to provide measures to prevent, reduce and eliminate threats to the environment.

Protection of various types of environment.

Since the Stockholm Conference in 1972, a significant number of international documents have been adopted on various environmental issues. These include: marine pollution, air pollution, ozone depletion, global warming and climate change, endangerment wild species animals and plants.

The marine environment was one of the first to become subject to regulation by international environmental law. Norms for the protection of the marine environment are contained both in general conventions (Geneva Conventions of 1958) and special agreements (Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Materials of 1972, North-West Fisheries Convention Atlantic Ocean 1977, Convention on Fisheries and the Conservation of Living Resources of the High Seas, 1982, etc.).

The Geneva Conventions and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea define the regime of maritime spaces, general provisions for preventing their pollution and ensuring rational use. Special agreements regulate security issues individual components marine environment, protection of the sea from specific pollutants, etc.

The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships of 1973 (and two Protocols of 1978 and 1997) provide for a set of measures to prevent operational and accidental oil pollution of the sea from ships; liquid substances transported in bulk; harmful substances transported in packaging; wastewater; garbage; as well as air pollution from ships.

The International Convention concerning Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Accidents, 1969, establishes a set of measures to prevent and reduce the consequences of marine oil pollution due to marine accidents. Coastal states should consult with other states whose interests are affected by a maritime casualty and the International Maritime Organization, and take all possible actions to reduce the risk of pollution and reduce the extent of damage. To this Convention in 1973, a Protocol was adopted on intervention in cases of accidents leading to pollution by substances other than oil.

In 1972, the Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Materials (with three annexes - Lists) was signed. The Convention regulates two types of intentional waste disposal: the dumping of waste from ships, aircraft, platforms and other artificial structures and the sinking of ships, aircraft, etc. at sea. Schedule I lists materials whose discharge into the sea is completely prohibited. Discharge of substances listed in List II requires a special permit. Schedule III defines the circumstances that must be taken into account when issuing discharge permits.

Air protection.

The Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Means of 1977 and the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution of 1979 occupy a central place among the norms of international environmental law in the field of air protection.

The parties to the 1977 Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modifications pledged not to resort to military or other hostile use of environmental modifications (deliberate control of natural processes - cyclones, anticyclones, cloud fronts, etc.) , which have widespread, long-term or serious consequences, as a means of harming or causing harm to another state.

Under the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, states have agreed on the necessary measures to reduce and prevent air pollution, particularly in relation to air pollution control measures. It is envisaged, in particular, the exchange of information on these issues, periodic consultations, and the implementation of joint programs to regulate air quality and train relevant specialists. In 1985, the Convention adopted a Protocol to Reduce Sulfur Emissions or their Transboundary Fluxes, according to which sulfur emissions must be reduced by 30 percent no later than 1993.

Protection of the ozone layer.

Another problem associated with the protection of atmospheric air in international environmental law is the protection of the ozone layer. The ozone shell protects the Earth from harmful influences ultraviolet radiation Sun. Under the influence of human activity, it has been significantly depleted, and ozone holes have appeared over some areas.

Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer, 1985, and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, 1987, provide a list of ozone-depleting substances and define measures to prohibit the import and export of ozone-depleting substances and products containing them to contracting states without the appropriate permit (license). The import of these substances and products from countries that are not parties to the Convention and the Protocol, and their export to these countries, is also prohibited. The 1987 protocol limited the production of freons and other similar substances; by 1997 their production was supposed to cease.

Space security.

The rules of international environmental law regarding pollution and littering of outer space are contained in the fundamental documents - the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and the Moon Agreement of 1979. When studying and using outer space and celestial bodies, participating states are obliged to avoid their pollution and take measures to preventing disruption of the balance formed on them. Celestial bodies and their natural resources are declared.

Climate protection.

Climate protection and problems associated with its changes and fluctuations occupy an important place in the system of international environmental law. In the late 80s of the last century, the problem of climate change began to quickly gain weight on the world agenda and began to be frequently mentioned in resolutions of the UN General Assembly. It was at this time that the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted, the ultimate goal of which is “to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic impacts on climate system" Parties to the Convention are committed to taking precautionary measures to predict, prevent or minimize the causes of climate change and mitigate its negative consequences.

Protection of flora and fauna.

Relations in the field of protection and use of flora and fauna are regulated by a number of universal and many bilateral international agreements.

Among the conventions of international environmental law devoted to the protection and conservation of flora and fauna, the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972 should be highlighted, designed to ensure cooperation in the protection of natural complexes of particular importance, habitats of endangered species of animals and plants. The protection of flora is covered by the Agreement on tropical forests 1983 Of general importance is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, 1973, which established the basis for the control of such trade.

The bulk of the conventions are devoted to the protection of various representatives of the animal world - whales, seals, polar bears. An important position is occupied by the Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992, the purpose of which is “the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.” The 1979 Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals is also of particular importance.

Literature.

1. International law. Special part: textbook. for law students fak. and universities / I.I. Lukashuk. – M.: Wolters Kluwer, 2005.
2. International law: textbook / rep. ed. V. I. Kuznetsov, B. R. Tuzmukhamedov. – M.: Norma: INFRA-M, 2010.
3. International public law in questions and answers: textbook. allowance/answer. ed. K. A. Bekyashev. – M.: Prospekt, 2015.
4. International environmental law: Textbook / Rep. ed. R. M. Valeev. – M.: Statute, 2012.
5. Environmental law of Russia. Volume 2. Special and special parts: textbook for academic bachelor's degree / B. V. Erofeev; L. B. Bratkovskaya. – M.: Yurayt Publishing House, 2018.
6. Guide to International Environmental Law / A. Kiss; D. Shelton. – Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007.
7. Principles of International Environmental Law / P. Sands. – Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018

International environmental law- a set of international legal principles and norms governing relations regarding the protection of the environment from harmful effects, the rational use of its individual elements in order to ensure optimal living conditions for individuals, as well as the existence of all humanity as a whole.

The formation of international OS law:

1. late 19th - early 20th century. During this period, there was no system of international legal treaties comprehensively regulating the protection of environmental protection, but certain measures were already being taken and agreements were concluded on the protection of individual natural objects. (1890 - Agreement for the Protection of Fur Seals)

2. 1913-1948. The first international conference dedicated to the protection of nature was held in Bern.

3. 1948-1972. Creation of the first international environmental organization - the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

4. 1972-1992. Conference in Stockholm. Stockholm Declaration. The first environmental human rights were established.

5. 1992-present day. Rio Declaration (=Brazilian Declaration), CSCE, OSCE.

International legal protection

IGO objects: natural objects, regarding which the subjects of international law.

Types:

The impact on which occurs from the territory of states (air environment, inland waters, flora and fauna)

The impact on which occurs from international territory or from a territory with a mixed regime (space, near-Earth space, the world ocean, objects of the common heritage of mankind (territories that are not under the sovereignty of any state and have environmental immunity (Antarctica, the Moon)), use nature for military purposes)

Subjects of international law:

International governmental and intergovernmental organizations

States

UN, UNET (United Nations Environment Programme), UNESCO (United Nations Cultural, Scientific and Educational Organization) IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) WHO (World Health Organization), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), WMO ( UN World Meteorological Organization)

Organization for European Economic Cooperation (Environmental Directorate)

Non-governmental organizations (International Union for Conservation of Nature, Greenpeace, WWF)

Principles of international environmental law:

General (enshrined in the UN Charter)

1. principle of sovereign equality of states

2. principle of cooperation

3. principle of faithful fulfillment of obligations of international law

4. the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes and non-use of force

Special

a. The principle of the state's sovereign right to natural resources and the obligation not to cause environmental harm beyond national jurisdiction

b. principle...

c. "polluter pays" principle

d. principle of common but distinct responsibilities

e. the principle of equal rights of citizens to a favorable environment

Sources:

1. international standards

2. legal customs

3. general principles of law

4. Judgments and doctrines

6. statements

7. international treaties awaiting entry into force

8. binding decisions of international organizations, international courts and tribunals

International treaties:

Protection of atmospheric air (Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution 1979, Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer 1985, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992, Kyoto Protocol)

Wildlife protection (1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, Cartogena Protocol, Corsair Wetland Convention?!)

International legal protection of citizens' rights.

Orpus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, 1998. (Russia does not participate)

Environmental law of the European Union

legal norms regulating public relations between EU member states and citizens of these states form the system of EU Environmental Law.

Subject of regulation.

Public relations for the protection of the EU OS

Relationships related to the use of various environmentally hazardous substances

Subjects: states, citizens, legal entities of participating states.

The goals and directions of environmental policy were first enshrined in the program of action in 1972.

Sources:

1. sources of primary law:

1. European Community Treaty 1992

2. Treaty of European Union 1992

3. EU constitution

2. sources of secondary law (regulatory legal acts, regulatory agreements, declarations, and other nonsense)

1. Legal acts (regulations, directives (define the goal or result that needs to be achieved, states retain the right to choose measures, methods and procedures), decisions (adopted by the Council or the EU Commission and addressed to specific individuals))

2. regulatory agreements

4. legal precedent

A feature of the EU legislative system is the absence of by-laws.

Environmental issues fall within the competence of the European Parliament Commission on Environment, Health and...

The development and submission of bills to the Council of the European Parliament is entrusted to the European Commission.

Judicial system is represented by two judicial bodies: the Court of European Communities and the Tribunal of First Instance.

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Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………3

I. The concept of international environmental law…………………………..5

II. International environmental legal relations……………………….. 9

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….. 23

Bibliographic list of used literature…………………….. 24

Introduction

Russia's interest in the formation, development and effective application of international environmental law is due to the danger of the growing global environmental crisis and the responsibility of Russia, along with other countries of the world, for its prevention or at least mitigation. The continuing intensification of anthropogenic pressure on nature disrupts the state of the natural environment in the world, causes concern of all countries and peoples and forces them to make joint efforts to balance the existence of people on Earth, the socio-economic development of society with the life-giving capabilities of the natural environment. There are many ways to solve this problem. Among them main role assigned to law, legal regulation of human behavior. With the help of environmentally oriented law, based on knowledge of the laws of development of nature and society, people hope to discipline their own behavior and life activities in order to transform the spontaneous process of interaction between society and nature into conscious and controlled development, which includes concern for conservation, restoration and improvement favorable conditions people's lives.

This approach to solving the problem was called the concept of sustainable development and became the principle of legal regulation of international relations related to human impacts on the natural environment. According to Art. 79 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Russia can participate in interstate associations and transfer to them part of their powers in accordance with international treaties, if this does not entail restrictions on the rights and freedoms of man and citizen and does not contradict the fundamentals of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation.

Article 15 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides that generally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation are an integral part of its legal system. If an international treaty of the Russian Federation establishes rules other than those provided for by law, then the rules of the international treaty apply. These provisions have universal significance and apply to all branches of Russian law. In relation to the field of environmental protection and regulation of natural resources, it can be said that thanks to these provisions, international environmental law, to one degree or another, acts as a part of Russian environmental law.

I. The concept of international environmental law

Currently, Russia is a party to 78 multilateral agreements and their main protocols in the field of environmental protection and environmental management. Bilateral agreements on environmental issues and environmental management have been concluded by Russia with all neighboring countries, as well as with many other countries in Europe, Asia, and America. Russia's active participation in international environmental cooperation is an integral element of its new policy in environmental protection. What is new is the decentralization of environmental policy, the provision of broader rights and powers regarding participation in international relations to the authorities of the constituent entities of the federation and local self-government. For example, the authorities of the Kaliningrad, Pskov, Tver, Novgorod and Leningrad regions and the authorities of the Republic of Karelia actively participate in the interstate program “Green Lungs of Europe” (preservation of surviving forests in Central and Eastern Europe). The population and authorities of the border areas of the Murmansk, Leningrad regions and the Republic of Karelia are actively involved in cooperation with Finland.

Russia is a participant in the global process within the framework of the decisions of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992). The National Environmental Action Plan was adopted (July 18, 1994), developed in accordance with the decisions of the Conference on Environment and Development and in pursuance of the Environmental Action Program for Central and Eastern Europe, adopted in April 1993 in Lucerne ( Switzerland) at the conference “Environment for Europe”. Russia actively participates in the implementation of international conventions on biological diversity, on climate change, on the protection of the ozone layer, on long-range transboundary air pollution, on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora, etc.

Modern international environmental law is an emerging branch of general (public) international law. It is a set of norms aimed at regulating interstate and other international relations in order to ensure the rational use of natural resources and the preservation of favorable natural living conditions for people on Earth in the interests of modern and future generations.

The purpose of international environmental law is to serve as a legal instrument for regulating human behavior through the establishment of mutual rights and obligations of states and other subjects of international relations in the sphere of interaction of society with its natural environment.

The subject of regulation of international environmental law is international environmental relations, that is, relations directly or indirectly related to the natural environment.

The origin and development of international environmental law has a relatively short history. But in modern period The further formation of this branch of international law is taking place very intensively. At the initial stage, the legal regulation of international relations on the use and protection of natural resources developed on the basis of bilateral interstate treaties. One of the first was the Convention concerning Oystering and Fisheries off the Coasts of Great Britain and France of August 2, 1839. One of the first multilateral conventions was the Convention on the Navigation of the Rhine, concluded in 1868 and containing requirements for the protection of the waters of this river from pollution.

To date, there are over 1,600 multilateral universal (global) and regional international conventions and over 3 thousand bilateral treaties in the world, wholly or partially devoted to the protection of the natural environment and regulation of the use of natural resources. The increase in the number of international environmental legal acts continues, although the question of ensuring, first of all, compliance with the requirements of international environmental law has already been quite reasonably raised. This issue is receiving increasing attention in the International Cooperation Process. The first major multilateral event in this area should be considered the Conference on International Nature Conservation, which took place on November 17-19, 1913 in Bern (Switzerland) and in which Russia took part. At the Conferences, an Agreement was signed on the establishment of the Advisory Commission on International Conservation. In October 1948, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) was created, which in October 1996 held its 20th General Assembly, called the World Conservation Congress.

On December 18, 1962, the UN General Assembly at its XVII session adopted a resolution “Economic development and nature conservation”, which notes that nature conservation should be carried out in advance and, in any case, simultaneously with economic development on the basis of effective domestic legislation and international law . It is recommended to fully support the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and other international organizations with similar goals, as well as widely involve the public in solving problems of environmental protection.

Issues of nature conservation and rational use of natural resources have found themselves in the programs of activities of a number of bodies and specialized agencies of the United Nations, such as ECOSOC-ECE, UNESCO, FAO, WHO, IAEA, as well as many international governmental and non-governmental organizations. In June 1972, the United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment took place, which adopted a Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action, which laid the foundation for the broad and long-term environmental activities of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Twenty years later, in June 1992, the UN Conference on Environment and Development, continuing the traditions of the Stockholm Conference, reviewed the state of environmental protection in the world and determined the next steps for humanity in achieving the goals of sustainable development. The Declaration and “Agenda for the 21st Century” (long-term program) adopted by the Conference have become the fundamental documents of modern international environmental cooperation and the development of international environmental law.

In order to ensure strict compliance by states with the requirements of international environmental law, a lot of analytical work is being carried out at the international level to assess the state of international environmental law, its enforceability and determine measures to encourage states to comply with the law.

II. International environmental legal relations

International environmental legal relations are relations regulated by law between states and other subjects of international law regarding the interaction of humans, peoples, the international community with the natural environment. The separation of this wide range of social relations into an independent legal category reflects the growing interest of humanity in their separate, comprehensively coordinated and effective legal regulation. In terms of content, this category includes relationships according to:

- determination of the legal status and legal regime of the natural environment as a whole and its constituent elements;

- study and control of its physical, chemical, biological state (monitoring);

- use of natural resources in all acceptable ways;

- deliberate transformation of nature; reproduction of natural objects;

Protection - maintaining the natural environment in a favorable condition, as well as other relations directly or indirectly related to the impact on the surrounding nature of humans and human life. This category also includes relations to prevent and eliminate harmful natural influences on people, on society with all its material and spiritual values.

International environmental legal relations are characterized by traditional structural elements - subjects, objects, mutual rights and obligations of participants. The subjects, first of all, are states. But along with them, nations and peoples, international governmental and non-governmental organizations, legal entities and individuals operating in the international arena can participate in international environmental legal relations, when provided for by legal norms. The objects of international environmental legal relations are the natural environment as a whole, its constituent elements, individual natural objects, which in most cases are also objects of environmental management and environmental protection. The objects of international environmental legal relations can be material processes and phenomena arising from the very fact of the existence of people and their life activities and embodying the interaction of society and nature. The mutual rights and obligations of participants in international environmental legal relations form a vast area of ​​legally mediated connections within humanity and can be characterized in relation to the areas and subjects of environmental activities.

In the most general idea, the object of international legal protection is the entire nature of the planet Earth and the near-Earth outer space within the limits in which man actually influences the material world. Natural objects, taking into account differences in their legal regime, are divided into those under national jurisdiction or control of individual states - domestic natural objects and those outside national jurisdiction or control - international, international natural objects. Objects under national jurisdiction or control include the natural resources of continents on the territory of individual states, resources located within coastal territorial sea waters, continental shelves and exclusive economic zones. The legal regime of intrastate natural objects is determined by the internal law of each country. In accordance with the norms of internal law, the issue of ownership of natural objects is resolved: they can belong to the state, private individuals, state, cooperative, public organizations, and sometimes to international communities. Internal law establishes the procedure for ownership, disposal and use of natural objects. In the legal regulation of the use and protection of domestic natural objects there is a share of participation and norms of international law. There is a correlation and interaction between the norms of domestic and international law. Typically, progressive principles developed by world practice, universally recognized and enshrined in international legal acts are transformed into norms of domestic law and thus implemented.

Natural objects that are outside national jurisdiction and control, outside the sphere of exclusive sovereignty of individual states, include mainly those that are located in international spaces: the World Ocean with all its riches, outside territorial waters, continental shelves and economic zones , individual continents, for example, Antarctica, part of the Earth's atmosphere and space. The legal regime of international natural objects is determined mainly by the norms of international law. The question of ownership of these objects did not arise for a long time. There was a tacit recognition of international natural objects as nobody's property and agreement with the right of any country to seize these objects. But in modern conditions, this situation has become less and less consistent with the interests and needs of the peoples of the world. Some international legal principles were developed and gradually introduced into practice, limiting the possibility of arbitrary actions in relation to international natural objects. Thus, the legal protection of the World Ocean, its resources and the marine environment is ensured complex system conventions, agreements, treaties of a global and regional nature.

Pollution from petroleum products and other industrial and household waste poses the greatest threat to the World Ocean. Therefore, back in 1954, an international convention for the prevention of sea pollution by oil was signed in London. The Convention was limited to a relatively small area of ​​prohibited zones and did not cover the entire ocean area. Such protection turned out to be insufficient. In 1973, the 1954 Convention was replaced by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships. 1973 Convention concerns not only oil, but also other transported harmful substances, as well as waste ( waste water, garbage) generated on ships as a result of their operation. The appendices to the main text contain international standards permissible discharges. It has been established that each ship is required to have a certificate - evidence that the hull, mechanisms and other equipment comply with the rules for preventing sea pollution. Compliance with this requirement is monitored through special inspections when ships enter ports. Strict sanctions are applied to violators. In addition, unlike the 1954 Convention, its action extends to the entire waters of the World Ocean. For some areas particularly sensitive to pollution (Baltic, Mediterranean, Black Sea) increased requirements have been established. It is also established that any ship that discovers a polluter is obliged to report this to its government, which, in turn, brings this to the attention of the state under whose flag the offender flies, even if it is outside the limits of national jurisdiction.

In addition to the 1973 Convention, a large number of other legal acts are devoted to the protection of the World Ocean from pollution: the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Materials (from Any Source), adopted at an intergovernmental conference in London on November 13, 1972, the Convention on the Prevention marine pollution from land-based sources, signed at the Conference of Western European States in Paris on June 4, 1974; International Convention on Intervention on the High Seas in the Event of Oil Pollution Casualties of November 29, 1969 (Brussels); International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage of 29 November 1969 (Brussels); Convention establishing an international fund for compensation for damage from oil pollution of December 18, 1971 (Brussels), Protocol on intervention on the high seas in cases of marine pollution by substances other than oil of November 2, 1973 (London) and others.

Of particular interest for the theory and practice of international legal regulation of the protection of the World Ocean from pollution is the Agreement on liability for marine pollution associated with drilling for oil in the high seas, which was signed by 12 international oil companies in London on September 4, 1974. Its main goal is in ensuring guarantees of payment of compensation to individuals and states affected by oil spills during accidents at offshore drilling wells.

The complex nature of human interaction with the World Ocean and the disorder of legal regulation in this area have led to the need to codify the law of the sea. In 1982, after lengthy preparation, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was signed, consisting of 320 articles and 9 annexes, which comprehensively regulates the use and protection of the World Ocean. More than 50 articles of this Convention concern the protection of the marine environment and marine resources. The Convention entered into force on November 16, 1994.

Pollution of continental waters - rivers, lakes, reservoirs, etc. no less dangerous than pollution of the World Ocean. The fight against this negative phenomenon is being waged more and more energetically in each individual country. But in some cases, to achieve positive results, it is also necessary international cooperation. Shipping, fishing and other activities on international rivers, lakes and other bodies of water also require international legal regulation, since this affects the interests of various countries and poses a certain danger to the environment. In this area of ​​relations, a large number of treaties, agreements, and conventions have also appeared, providing for the integrated use and protection of water resources, the share of which is total mass acts of international environmental law is 18 percent.

Many issues of protection of continental water bodies of international importance are resolved in agreements on the state border regime. At the same time, there are also special agreements aimed at regulating the use and protection of various types of international water bodies: Agreement between Austria and Yugoslavia on the use of the Mur River (1954); Agreement between Italy and Switzerland for the protection of waters against pollution (1972); United States-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (1972); Agreement between Argentina and Uruguay regarding the La Plata River (1973), etc. Finally, there was a need to codify rules on the protection and use of fresh water, which led to the emergence of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, signed on March 17, 1992 in Helsinki and which came into force (for Russia) on April 13, 1993. The parties to the Convention mutually pledged to take all measures to eliminate or minimize as much as possible negative impacts on any transboundary waters. Water use must be structured in such a way that the needs of the present generation are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

International legal means are widely used to protect wildlife, land, especially those species of animals that are migratory. Back in 1902, the Convention for the Protection of Birds Useful in Agriculture was signed in Paris. But it did not give positive results. Its content did not contain criteria for bird species subject to protection, and its implementation was not controlled. In 1960, a new, broader international convention for the conservation of birds within the European region was adopted. The parties to the Convention agreed to protect not only those useful for agriculture, but all birds, as well as their nests, eggs, chicks, to ban spring hunting of migratory birds, to provide year-round protection to endangered species and species of scientific interest, to stop the mass destruction and capture of birds . In 1979, this was supplemented by the European Convention on the Conservation of Wild Animals and Their Habitats, signed in Bern (Switzerland). On the American continent, the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Birds (1916) was first in force, which regulated relations between the United States and Canada, and then in 1936 a treaty was signed between the United States and Mexico. In recent years, other acts have appeared, and the global Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (1979) has also entered into force.

Special measures are taken to protect endangered animal species. In Ramsar (Iran) in 1971, the Convention on the Protection of Wetlands of International Importance, especially as habitat for migratory waterfowl, was signed. In March 1973, the Convention on the Protection of Wetlands of International Importance, especially as habitat for migratory waterfowl, was signed in Washington. In March 1973 The International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora was signed in Washington.

International measures for the protection of certain species of animals and plants are becoming increasingly important. For example, the Agreement of November 15, 1973 on the protection of the polar bear (Russia, USA, Canada, Denmark, Norway), agreements between the USA, Russia, Japan on the protection of migratory bird species and endangered birds, as well as their habitats ; Chinchilla Convention (Bolivia, Peru, Chile); coordinated programs for the protection of the wolf in Europe, the tiger in Asian countries, the European bison (Russia, Poland), etc. The protection of plant resources was initially dominated by international quarantine measures aimed at preventing the spread of plant diseases and pests. Accordingly, numerous agreements, treaties, and conventions have been adopted and continue to be in force, defining the activities of states in this area of ​​​​relations. Some of them are multilateral and have universal significance, for example, the Plant Protection Convention, adopted in Rome on December 6, 1951, the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Quarantine and Plant Protection from Pests and Diseases of December 14, 1959. However, in recent years, a tendency to take broader measures to protect forests and certain categories of plant communities both in the territories of individual countries and in international spaces. The culmination of the development of international legal protection of the earth's flora and fauna was the Convention on Biological Diversity, signed by representatives of over 150 states during the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro and which came into force on March 21, 1994.

The Convention, which includes a preamble, 42 articles and 2 annexes, declared biological diversity to be of intrinsic value for preserving the ecological well-being of the Earth and recognized that states, having sovereign rights over their biological resources, are responsible for their conservation and sustainable use. The objectives of the Convention are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources, including by providing adequate access to genetic resources and through the appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights to such resources and technology - and through proper financing. Developed country Parties shall provide new additional financial resources to enable developing country Parties to meet the agreed upon full additional costs that they will incur in implementing measures to implement the obligations under the Convention. With regard to countries in the process of transition to a market economy, it is noted that they can voluntarily assume the obligations of Parties that are developed countries.

Legal protection of natural monuments and unique natural objects is carried out mainly by each individual country on its territory through the creation of national parks, reserves, nature reserves, sanctuaries, etc. But in this matter, too, the importance of international cooperation has increased in order to coordinate policies and take agreed measures. At the General Conference of UNESCO on November 16, 1972 in Paris, the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted, which provides for the protection of cultural and natural monuments. By protected natural monuments the Convention understands: natural attractions containing physical or biological formations or their complexes that are outstanding from an aesthetic or scientific point of view; geological or physiographic formations and precisely delineated areas that are habitats for species of animals and plants of special scientific value and which are in danger of extinction; areas of nature or precisely defined natural landscapes that have special benefits for people (from the point of view of health, recreation, tourism), as well as natural beauty.

The need for international legal protection of atmospheric air from pollution and other adverse changes has become obvious in recent years. Legal regulation of atmospheric air protection, which was initially limited to the narrow framework of resolving individual conflicts between a limited number of countries arising from air pollution, is now most aimed at developing the broadest international cooperation in order to take coordinated organizational and technical measures to prevent such pollution. Back in 1964, a European conference on the problem of atmospheric pollution was held in France, at which the question of taking effective legal measures to control emissions of gases, dust, etc. was raised. into the atmosphere. Two years later, the 1st International Congress on Clean Air took place. In 1968, the Committee of Ministers of the European Council adopted a Declaration of Principles for the Control of Air Pollution, which calls on member states of the Council to take the necessary legal and administrative measures to eliminate and prevent air pollution. The European region has the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, signed on November 13, 1979 in Geneva. This Convention is the first international legal document, a binding agreement designed to address air pollution on a broad, multilateral basis. It contains principles on the basis of which contracting parties identify problems caused by transboundary air pollution and develop protocols for specific pollutants, establishing measures and stages for pollution reduction. Existing protocols concern the limitation of emissions of sulfur compounds, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. The development of the second generation of protocols has begun in order to harmonize optimal solutions and establishing an air pollution control system based on the concept of critical loads combined with a system of continuous physical control. The participating countries have created and technically equipped the ongoing “Cooperative Program for Monitoring and Assessment of the Long-Range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe” (EMEP), which carries out the main work for the implementation of the Convention.

Human impact on climate and weather conditions is closely related to the protection of atmospheric air. This impact occurs as a result of emissions into the atmosphere of so-called greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and others. Under the influence of these gases, the thermal balance of the planet is disrupted, the release of excess heat into space decreases, which leads to global warming and other numerous negative consequences. Given these circumstances, the international community adopted the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on May 9, 1992, the participants of which committed themselves to reducing greenhouse gas emissions over a number of years and established mutual control.

Another problem associated with the protection of atmospheric air at the international level is the preservation of the Earth's ozone shell, located in the upper layers of the atmosphere at an altitude of approximately 15 - 20 kilometers above the earth's surface. Ozone, concentrated in this shell, protects the planet’s ecosystem from intense ultraviolet radiation, which is part of sunlight, which is dangerous for all living things. It turned out that there is a decrease in the density of the ozone shell due to the fact that particles of chemical substances produced and used by humans penetrate there - chlorofluorocarbons, bromofluorocarbons and a number of others. Under the influence of these substances, ozone holes appeared in the upper layers of the atmosphere, creating a danger to humans and other living beings. In this regard, international legal acts and measures have been adopted aimed at preventing and eliminating the destruction of the ozone shell. On March 22, 1985, the Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was adopted in Vienna, which defined the general responsibilities of states to protect the ozone layer from destruction. Then, on September 16, 1987, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was adopted, which defines specific ways and methods for fulfilling these responsibilities. The controversy surrounding the Kyoto Protocol continues.

In the second half of the 20th century, humanity was faced with the danger of radiation pollution of the natural environment, which threatened the existence of all life on Earth. The international community is well informed about the consequences of radioactive contamination. Descriptions of tragic consequences atomic explosions In Japan, opposition to nuclear weapons testing is widely known. The adoption of international legal measures against nuclear weapons testing is met with active support. The main act problem solving preventing radioactive contamination of the environment is the Treaty Banning Tests of Nuclear Weapons in the Atmosphere, Outer Space and Under Water, which was signed on August 5, 1963 in Moscow and in which more than 10 states currently participate. The Moscow Treaty had a beneficial effect on the state of the radioactive background of the Earth; the radioactivity of our planet decreased. However, after a series of explosions in the atmosphere carried out in 1969-1970. France and China again increased the content of strontium-90 in the atmosphere by 20 percent. Underground nuclear explosions, which have not yet been prohibited, are also making themselves felt. The phenomena accompanying the explosions of atomic and hydrogen bombs affect the weather, causing changes in the direction of winds, sudden downpours, storms and floods. Nuclear explosions change tensions, scientists say electric field atmosphere and can become a serious cause of climatic disturbances, in particular unexpected cold snaps in areas where normally low temperatures were not observed. It has been proven that nuclear explosions on the Earth’s surface and in the atmosphere not only negatively affect the health of living people, but also threaten future generations. All these circumstances dictate the need for further consistent struggle for a complete ban nuclear tests, as well as taking necessary measures to protect the environment from pollution resulting from the peaceful use of atomic and nuclear energy.

The problem of preventing and eliminating radioactive contamination of the natural environment manifested itself in new dramatic features after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986. The accident also pushed the legal sphere of nuclear safety, giving rise, among other things, to a large complex of new international environmental legal relations. In particular, on September 26, 1986, the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency were adopted in Vienna. The parties to the conventions have undertaken obligations to strictly monitor the condition of nuclear facilities, and in the event of nuclear accidents or emergencies, along with taking protective measures, to immediately notify other contracting parties. They also pledged to provide a variety of technical, social and other assistance (promptly and in a long-term context) to those states and peoples who were victims of a nuclear accident or emergency. Many programs have been adopted and are being implemented related to the implementation of international environmental legal relations in this area of ​​nuclear energy development and ensuring radiation safety.

Among the many important areas of international cooperation in the field of environmental protection, scientific and technical cooperation is becoming increasingly important, making it possible to organize an effective exchange of experience, ensure the rapid implementation of scientific and technological achievements, develop comprehensively justified and coordinated political, economic and technical solutions in order to prevent pollution and other negative impacts on the environment.

Effective cooperation in the field of environmental protection is carried out by the CIS countries on the basis multilateral agreement on cooperation in the field of ecology and environmental protection, which was signed in Moscow on February 8, 1992 by representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. The parties to the agreement agreed that they would develop and implement a coordinated policy in the field of ecology and environmental protection, carrying out all necessary environmental measures on their territory. They will, in particular, harmonize environmental legislation, norms and standards, develop and implement interstate programs and projects in the field of natural resource management and environmental protection, apply common approaches, criteria, methods and procedures for assessing the quality and monitoring the state of the natural environment and anthropogenic impacts on it, ensuring the comparability of data on the state of the natural environment on an international scale, support the interstate environmental information system, providing information on a mutual basis, be guided by general methodological requirements when conducting environmental assessments of programs and forecasts for the development of productive forces, investment and other projects, develop conditions and procedures the use of special forces and means to provide mutual assistance in the event of environmental emergencies, eliminate their consequences and participate in relevant international actions, etc. To organize the implementation of these circumstances, the parties to the Agreement agreed to create the Interstate Environmental Council and under it the Interstate Environmental Fund. In furtherance of the Agreement, a number of provisions, rules and procedures relating to the functioning of the Council and the Fund were adopted.

CONCLUSION

Modern international environmental law is an emerging branch of general international law. It is a set of norms aimed at regulating interstate and other international relations in order to ensure the rational use of natural resources and the preservation of favorable natural living conditions for people on Earth in the interests of modern and future generations. The purpose of international environmental law is to serve as a legal instrument for regulating human behavior through the establishment of mutual rights and obligations of states and other subjects of international relations in the sphere of interaction of society with its natural environment. The subject of regulation of international environmental law is international environmental relations, that is, relations directly or indirectly related to the natural environment.

The origin and development of international environmental law has a relatively short history. But in the modern period, the further formation of this branch of international law is happening very intensively. At the initial stage, the legal regulation of international relations on the use and protection of natural resources developed on the basis of bilateral interstate treaties. One of the first was the Convention concerning Oystering and Fisheries off the Coasts of Great Britain and France of August 2, 1839. In the second half of the 20th century, humanity was faced with the danger of radiation pollution of the natural environment, which threatened the existence of all life on Earth. The international community is well informed about the consequences of radioactive contamination. Descriptions of the tragic consequences of atomic explosions in Japan and protests against nuclear weapons testing are widely known. The adoption of international legal measures against nuclear weapons testing is met with active support.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST OF USED LITERATURE

1. Constitution of the Russian Federation.

2. Commentary on the Law of the Russian Federation on the Protection of the Natural Environment / ed. Bogolyubova S.A.

3. Article-by-article commentary on the Constitution of the Russian Federation / under general. ed. Kudryavtseva Yu.V.

4. Kozyrin. N. Environmental issues of entrepreneurial activity, - “Economy and Law”, - 2007, - No. 6.

5. G.V. Chubukov Environmental law is a developing branch of domestic legislation, - “Journal of Russian Law”, - No. 7, - July 2001.

6. Environmental law / ed. V. D. Ermakova

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Environmental protection by international legal means is a relatively young branch of international law. In fact, today we can only talk about the establishment and formation of an appropriate system of norms and principles. At the same time, the enormous importance of the subject of regulation of this industry for all humanity allows us to predict the intensive development of international environmental law in the foreseeable future. The global environmental problems on the agenda to one degree or another affect the interests of all states and objectively require coordination of the efforts of the world community to resolve them. Some figures characterizing the current state of the environment look very threatening. Thus, currently about a third of the entire land area of ​​the globe is under threat of becoming a desert. Over the past 50 years, the planet's forest fund has almost halved. More than a thousand animal species are at risk of extinction. About half of the world's population suffers from a lack of water resources. Almost all of the problems listed are anthropogenic in nature, that is, to one degree or another related to human activity. It is generally accepted that environmental safety is an integral part of global international security in the broad sense of this concept. In this regard, a certain regulatory framework dedicated to environmental protection has already been formed in international law.

International environmental law(international legal protection of the natural environment) is a system of principles and norms regulating the activities of subjects of international law for the rational and environmentally sound use and protection of natural resources, as well as the preservation of favorable living conditions on Earth.

Scientific and technological progress and the associated growth in the productive forces of man as a biological species leads to a whole range of problems, the solution of which is beyond the power of individual states today. Such problems include, in particular:

Depletion of natural resources;

Pollution of the natural environment;

Irreversible degradation of ecosystems;

Extinction of certain biological species;

Deterioration of the environmental situation, etc.

The fundamental feature of environmental problems is their global nature, which is due to the organic unity of the human environment on Earth. Scale economic activity Human and anthropogenic impact on the natural environment are currently such that it is almost impossible to isolate harmful consequences from them. This is especially true for global ecosystems: the atmosphere, the oceans, and space. Consequently, states as subjects of international law are objectively forced to cooperate to solve the problems facing them. This need is clearly recognized by the world community, which is reflected in the creation of appropriately oriented principles, norms and mechanisms.

Environmental law includes mainly the protection of the environment as a sphere of human physical existence. The environment should be understood as a combination of at least three elements: objects of the living environment, objects of the inanimate environment and objects of the artificial environment..

Objects of the living environment are flora and fauna, flora and fauna of the planet. This element of the environment includes both those plants and animals that are of economic importance for humans, and those that indirectly influence the conditions of its existence (through maintaining the balance of their ecosystems).

Objects of the inanimate environment, in turn, are divided into the hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere and outer space. This includes marine and freshwater basins, air, soil, space and celestial bodies.

Objects of the artificial environment are structures created by man and which have a significant impact on the conditions of his existence and the natural environment: dams, dikes, canals, economic complexes, landfills, megacities, nature reserves, etc.

It should be noted that all elements of the environment are interconnected and mutually influence each other. Therefore, international legal environmental protection requires an integrated approach. This approach is the basis of the concept of sustainable development and the concept of environmental safety.

Analysis of current international legal documents allows us to highlight several main areas of international cooperation in the field of environmental protection. Firstly, this is the establishment of an environmentally sound, rational regime for the exploitation of natural resources. Secondly, preventing and reducing environmental damage from pollution. Thirdly, the establishment of international responsibility for violation of relevant norms. Fourthly, the protection of natural monuments and reserves. Fifthly, regulation of scientific and technical cooperation between states on environmental protection. Sixth, the creation of comprehensive environmental protection programs. According to the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) register, there are more than a thousand international treaties in force in the world, the totality of which forms international environmental law, or international environmental law. The most famous among them are the following.

In the field of protection flora and fauna The Convention for the Conservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State of 1933, the Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Wildlife in the Western Hemisphere of 1940, the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling of 1946, the International Convention for the Conservation of Birds of 1950, the International Plant Protection Convention are in force. 1951, Convention on Fisheries and the Conservation of Living Resources of the High Seas 1958, European Convention for the Protection of Animals in International Transport of 1968, Washington Convention 1973 on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Bonn Convention 1979 on the Conservation of wildlife and natural habitats in Europe, Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals 1979, Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears in Europe 1973, Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources 1980, International Tropical Timber Agreement 1983, Convention on Biological Diversity 1992, South Pacific Conservation Convention 1986 and others.

International legal protection atmosphere The 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution is dedicated. Currently, a number of documents are in force within the framework of the Convention, regulating in more detail the responsibilities of its participants: the 1985 Helsinki Protocol on reducing sulfur emissions by 30%, the 1988 Sofia Protocol on the control of fugitive emissions of nitrogen oxides, the 1991 Geneva Protocol on volatile organic compounds , as well as the Oslo Protocol on Further Reduction of Sulfur Emissions adopted in 1994. In 1985, the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was adopted (in force with its 1987 Montreal Protocol), and in 1992, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In the field of security marine environment highest value have the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of ​​1982, the International Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Oil of 1954, the London Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Materials of 1972, the London Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution from Ships of 1973 and its 1978 Protocol, the 1959 Antarctic Treaty system, the 1971 Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Waterways and International Lakes. In addition, there are a large number of regional agreements on the protection of the marine environment: the 1976 Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution, the 1976 Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Rhine by Chemical Substances, the 1978 Kuwait Regional Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment against Pollution, the 1978 Cooperation Agreement combating pollution of the North Sea with oil and other harmful substances 1983, Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area 1992, Bucharest Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution 1992, Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic Ocean 1992, Kiev Protocol on Civil Liability and Compensation for Damage Caused by the Transboundary Impact of Industrial Accidents on Transboundary Waters, 2003 and others.

A number of environmental standards are enshrined in agreements governing cooperation between states in the field of development space, which also has a great impact on the state of the natural environment. More about these agreements in Chapter 22.

Environmental protection from radioactive contamination provided for, in particular, by the 1980 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. In addition, the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency and the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency were adopted in 1986. Even earlier, in 1960, the Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage was adopted in Paris, and in 1962, in Brussels, the Convention on the Liability of Operators of Nuclear Ships was adopted. Mention should also be made of the 1971 Convention on Civil Liability in the Field of Maritime Transport of Nuclear Materials. Finally, in 1997, the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management was adopted (not yet entered into force).

Separately, it is necessary to point out international agreements that are designed to protect the environment from damage associated with military activities states These include, in particular, the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Moscow Treaty of 1963 banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water and the 1977 Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Means . The prohibition of military activities that harm nature is also contained in the 1982 World Charter for Nature and the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.

Some international agreements in the field of environmental protection do not concern any individual natural objects, as they regulate general environmental safety issues. Such agreements include, in particular, the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage of 1969 and its 1976 Protocol, the International Convention establishing an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage of 1971 and its 1976 Protocol, the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage 1972, European Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context 1991, Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992, Civil Liability Convention for Damage to the Environment by Hazardous Substances 1993, Access Convention to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters of 1998, the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents of 1998, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants of 2001, as well as a number of instruments in the field of human rights protection, establishing the right of everyone to a favorable environment.

Regarding bilateral and regional treaties, then in most cases they regulate the joint use of international and transboundary rivers and basins, the protection of local flora and fauna, quarantine measures, etc. For example, in 1992, Kazakhstan and Russia signed an agreement on the joint use of water bodies. Kazakhstan has similar agreements with the states of Central Asia. On March 27, 1995, an Agreement was signed in Washington between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the US Government on cooperation in the field of environmental protection and natural resources. Within the CIS in 1992, an Agreement on cooperation in the field of ecology and environmental protection and a Protocol on the duties, rights and responsibilities of the parties to the Agreement were adopted. Similar agreements are in force in other regions, for example, the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources of 1968.

An important feature of international environmental law is the presence of a large number advisory acts: declarations, resolutions and decisions of international organizations (so-called “soft law”). Without having binding legal force, these international documents formulate general principles and a strategy for the development of this branch of international law. The positive significance of advisory acts is that they reflect the most desirable model of behavior of states in the field of environmental protection and indicate the standards that the world community should meet in the future. In a certain sense, “soft law” is objectively ahead of the current capabilities of states in this area.

The most authoritative acts of a recommendatory nature in the field of international legal protection of the environment are the World Charter for Nature of 1982 (approved by the 37th session of the UN General Assembly), the UN Stockholm Declaration on Environmental Problems of 1972 and a number of documents adopted in 1992 at the UN Conference for Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.

The 1972 Declaration for the first time established a system of principles of international cooperation in environmental protection and, at a universal level, defined approaches to solving environmental problems by subjects of international law. Subsequently, the provisions of the Declaration were confirmed in international agreements and in the practice of international cooperation. For example, the preamble to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution explicitly mentions one of the principles of the 1972 Declaration.

An important result of the Stockholm Conference of 1972 (the USSR did not take part in it) was the creation of special government structures in more than a hundred countries - ministries for environmental protection. These bodies were supposed to monitor the implementation of the decisions taken at the Conference.

The need to solve environmental problems and the importance of efforts in this area are confirmed in such an authoritative act as Charter of Paris for a New Europe 1990. The charter emphasizes the paramount importance of introducing clean and low-waste technologies, the important role of broad public awareness on environmental issues, and the need for appropriate legislative and administrative measures.

1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, which took place in Rio de Janeiro (“Earth Summit”), marked a qualitative new stage in the development of international environmental law. For the first time, the idea of ​​the unity of sustainable economic growth and environmental protection was formulated at the global level. In other words, the Conference decisively rejected the possibility of social and economic progress without addressing the fundamental ecological systems of our time. At the same time, international cooperation in the field of environmental protection should be carried out taking into account a differentiated approach to the needs of certain categories of countries.

The Conference adopted Declaration of Principles aimed at achieving sustainable development. Of the 27 principles formulated in the Declaration, a number are directly related to environmental protection: the principle of differentiated responsibility, the principle of caution, the principle of environmental impact assessment, the “polluter pays” principle and others. Other provisions enshrined in the Declaration include the following:

The right to development must be respected in such a way that the development and environmental needs of present and future generations are adequately met;

Potentially hazardous activities are subject to preliminary assessment environmental consequences and must be approved by the competent national authorities of the state concerned;

The habitats and natural resources of peoples living under conditions of oppression, domination and occupation must be protected;

When armed conflict occurs, states must respect international law by ensuring environmental protection;

Peace, development and environmental protection are interdependent and inseparable.

The Conference adopted a Statement of Principles for Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests, as well as two conventions: the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The main outcome document of the Conference, Agenda 21, points out the need for global cooperation in the field of environmental protection to achieve sustainable development. Of the four sections of the agenda, the second is entirely devoted to environmental issues - the conservation and rational use of resources for development, including the protection of the atmosphere, forests, rare species of flora and fauna, and the fight against drought and desertification.

The UN General Assembly in September 2000 approved UN Millennium Declaration, section IV of which is entitled “Protecting our common environment”. The Declaration emphasizes the need to spare no effort in ridding all humanity of the threat of living on a planet that will be hopelessly damaged by human activity and whose resources will no longer be sufficient to meet their needs. The General Assembly reaffirmed its support for the principles of sustainable development, including those set out in Agenda 21 agreed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The main idea of ​​this section of the Declaration is the implementation of environmental activities based on the new ethics of careful and responsible attitude towards nature. The UN declared the following priorities:

Make every effort to ensure the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol and begin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions envisaged by it;

Intensify collective efforts for forest management, conservation of all types of forests and sustainable development of forestry;

Work towards the full implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification in those countries experiencing severe drought or desertification, especially in Africa;

Stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources by developing water management strategies at the regional, national and local levels that promote equitable access to water and its sufficient supply;

Intensify cooperation to reduce the number and consequences of natural and man-made disasters;

Provide free access to information about the human genome.

In May 2001, the environmental ministers of the member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) adopted the "Environmental OECD strategy for the second decade of the 21st century." The significance of this document is determined by the fact that the OECD includes the most developed countries on the planet, whose activities largely determine the environmental situation on the planet. The strategy identifies 17 of the most important environmental problems of our time and contains a list of 71 (!) obligations Member States who will implement them at the national level.

In September 2002, a World Summit on Sustainable Development, at which it was stated that environmental problems not only are not decreasing, but, on the contrary, are becoming more and more urgent. In fact, for hundreds of millions of people, environmental problems and the need to solve them are already a factor in physical survival. The representativeness of the summit can be judged by the fact that leaders of more than 100 states took part in its work (including the President of Kazakhstan N. Nazarbayev), and total number The forum participants exceeded 10,000 people.

In general, it can be stated that today international legal protection of the environment is developing in line with the ideas and principles enshrined in the final documents of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. At the same time, the doctrine of international law rightly emphasizes the need to codify the documents in force in this area 1 . The creation of an appropriate single convention would contribute to the progressive development of international environmental law. The first step in this direction can be considered the draft International Charter on Environment and Development, approved in 1995 by the UN Congress on Public International Law.

The environmental legislation of individual states has a certain significance for regulating international relations. In particular, environmental standards regulating the activities of various subjects of international law in territories with mixed and other regimes (in the exclusive economic zone, territorial sea, airspace, on the continental shelf, international channels, etc.) are established by national legislative acts. All states are obliged to respect the relevant rules, and the state that issued them, after due publication, has the right to demand their compliance and bring those responsible to justice.