International Environmental Law: Russian Law Doctrine. Review of the book by Kopylov M.N. “Introduction into the International Environmental Law”

Abstract

There exists such an opinion that environmental and related security issues are “internal” problems of the states and due to this reason should be solved on bilateral rather than on multilateral basis. This is an example of problems touched upon in the new book of M.N. Kopylov, an outstanding scholar in international law. A great number of his works is devoted to problems of protection of the environment and this book presents the result of many years of research of the international environmental law (IEL).The present book will be of great assistance to student, teachers and anyone who is interested in international environmental relations and international environmental law, as this book is the first one Russian law doctrine dealing with the subject.Particularly, the author of the book examines the history of the emergence of IEL, analyzes all the stages of evolution of IEL, offers approaches to the classification of norms of the IEL (including the norms of the “soft” law), focuses on the principle of international cooperation in this sphere, in the last chapter studies the tendencies of the development and codification of IEL.Upon the whole the reviewed book of Professor M.N. Kopylov is a valuable source of information concerning the topic of IEL for everyone who is interested in international environmental law.