Principles of International Environmental Law in Light of International Case Law

Abstract

Principles of international environmental law have been entered into international environmental law corpus by case law and international peaceful relations. In international relations, due to different international issues, disputes are commonplace. Today, the international disputes on the rise are the environmental ones, which threat human life and therefore the environment is backed by criminal guarantees in some cases. The scope of international issues in the international environmental area suffers from gaps. So, by referring the disputes to these tribunals, whose decisions are legally binding, one may believe that in addition to settling disputes peacefully, they have played a complementary and declaratorydevelopmental role in identifying important environmental principles in international relations. Among the very important principles of international environmental disputes are the principles of non-harmful use of land, precaution, sustainable development and etc. which, in the form of customary law, play an important role in regulating the relations and preventing the armed conflicts. Perhaps, if countries did not refer to international authorities for settling their disputes, there would not exist any applicable principle in international environmental law. In this article, we will examine and declare these principles by international legal decisions, and recognize the unique position of referring to legal means of settlement of international disputes.

Keywords

• international relations
• international environmental principles
• peaceful settlement of international disputes
• criminal support of international environment