2.1 Basic Principles of International Environmental Law
Protecting the environment is becoming increasingly important for modern international law and takes more and more space in it. The protection of natural resources has become a central task of international law. The reason for this is that the threat and destruction of our natural resources are unstoppable without increased cooperation. Thus, the pollution of the atmosphere and oceans, global warming, ozone depletion, the rapid loss of biodiversity and threats by very risky activities have become the subject of international treaties. The subjects they content, such as the protection of the climate and biodiversity, are partially considered as a "common concern of humankind". It is about the effective protection of indivisible environmental goods, which can no longer be regulated alone within state sovereignty zones. The same applies to cross-border environmental impacts that require international cooperation. The economic globalization can lead to increasing environmental impacts, for example through the growing international transport of goods.
From these different potential hazards to the environment also different tasks on duties arise for the international environmental Law. Required for this is a framework for international cooperation. This cooperation frame international rules in international treaties create, that primarily serve to protect the environment. They form the core of international environmental law. However, there are important provisions of such international regulation fields also in other matters, such as international economic law or human rights. So, there is no clearly distinguishable jurisdiction "international environmental law", even if the terms of environmental protection norms of international law are based on common principles and conflicts.
The historical roots of international environmental law date back very far. But a first upturn marks the Earth Summit in Stockholm in 1972 with its Stockholm Declaration. In its principle 21 states are obliged - in spite of their fundamental sovereignty over their own natural resources - to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or under their control do not cause environmental damage in other states or in sovereignty free spaces. In addition, the "United Nations Environment Program" (UNEP) was set up at the conference in Stockholm. This program plays an important role in the initiation and negotiations of many regional and global environmental agreements.
Special upturn has this development taken by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in 1992. Here the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities of developed and developing countries for the protection of the environment has been enshrined in all documents. The international reference is given as the cross-border nature of serious environmental pollution is obvious. Furthermore, environmental problems cannot be solved on a regular basis by one country alone but often require cooperation between damaged and polluter state. A significant contribution to solving environmental problems should have been the creation of a UN-Commission on Sustainable Development to coordinate the international sustainability concerns. In part, a link between the protection of human rights and that of the environment is seen, thus in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the African Charter of Humans and Peoples' (Art. 24) and the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights (Art. 11). The areas of human rights and environmental protection are featuring the new "public" international law.
However, the targeted global partnership has been hitherto little viable. This can be seen on the "World Summit on Sustainable Development" from 2002 in Johannesburg as well as on the Rio + 20 Summit 2012 in Brazil. Whether the Treaty of Paris of 2015 brings a change for the better, remains to be seen despite the general agreement by all parties. Its results and agreements cannot be sanctioned, so depend on the good will and the political, economic and social situations of each country. They can be set in their national implementation, among other things by the parliaments or repealed by the courts.
