This ppt was used in a Legal English class. Seminario de Ingles Jurídico. Universidad Católica de Cuyo San Luis. Environmental Law

1. ENVIRONMENTAL
LAWDra. Flor Asquinazi- Alumna. Seminario de Inglés Jurídico. Universidad Catolica de Cuyo
SL. 27-9-2019- Profesora: Dra. Adela Perez delViso

2. Environmental Law
1. Definition
2. Principles
3. International Legislation.

3. Definition:
Environmental law is the collection of laws, regulations, agreements and
common law that governs how humans interact with their environment.
The purpose of environmental law is to protect the environment and create
rules for how people can use natural resources. Environmental laws not
only aim to protect the environment from harm, but they also determine
who can use natural resources and on what terms. Laws may regulate
pollution, the use of natural resources, forest protection, mineral
harvesting and animal and fish populations.

4. Principles:
1. Sustainable development
Defined by the United Nations Environment Programme as "development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," sustainable development may
be considered together with the concepts of "integration" (development cannot be considered in isolation from
sustainability) and "interdependence" (social and economic development, and environmental protection, are
interdependent).

5. 2. Equity
Defined by UNEP to include intergenerational equity - "the right of future generations to enjoy a fair level of the
common patrimony" - and intragenerational equity - "the right of all people within the current generation to fair
access to the current generation's entitlement to the Earth's natural resources" - environmental equity considers
the present generation under an obligation to account for long-term impacts of activities, and to act to sustain the
global environment and resource base for future generations.
3.Transboundary responsibility
Defined in the international law context as an obligation to protect one's own environment, and to prevent
damage to neighboring environments, UNEP considers transboundary responsibility at the international level as a
potential limitation on the rights of the sovereign state.

6. 4. Public participation and transparency
Identified as essential conditions for "accountable governments,... industrial concerns," and organizations generally,
public participation and transparency are presented by UNEP as requiring "effective protection of the human right to
hold and express opinions and to seek, receive and impart ideas,... a right of access to appropriate, comprehensible
and timely information held by governments and industrial concerns on economic and social policies regarding the
sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of the environment, without imposing undue financial
burdens upon the applicants and with adequate protection of privacy and business confidentiality," and "effective
judicial and administrative proceedings."These principles are present in environmental impact assessment, laws
requiring publication and access to relevant environmental data, and administrative procedure.
5. Precautionary principle
One of the most commonly encountered and controversial principles of environmental law, the Rio
Declaration formulated the precautionary principle as follows:
In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their
capabilities.Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used
as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.

7. 6. Polluter Pays:
Tied to responsibility and accountability, it is the core belief that those who cause damage should be responsible
for the cleanup rather than expecting the public or others to do so such as taxpayer dollars. Environmental
remediation is a necessary area of environmental protection and it is on this basis that such roles exist within
organizations.
7.Prevention: “Prevention is better than cure” is a mantra in many areas and it's certainly true of ecology and
environmental protection. It looks at ways of pushing the need for analyzing potential harms in such processes
as risk assessment and puts in place measures for preventing incidents, accidents and worst case scenarios.The
cost of prevention (financial or otherwise) is always better than the long-term harm and massive expense
necessary with a cleanup, for example.

8. International Legislation:
Two major declarations on international enviromental law are:
The Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (the 1972 Stockholm
Declaration).This declaration represented a first major attempt at considering the global human impact on the
environment, and an international attempt to address the challenge of preserving and enhancing the human
environment.The Stockholm Declaration espouses mostly broad environmental policy goals and objectives rather
than detailed normative positions.
The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development was a short document produced at the 1992 United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), known as the Rio Earth Summit.The Rio
Declaration consists of 27 principles intended to guide future sustainable development around the world.
In 2012 the 20th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit was commemorated by the Rio+20 UN Conference on
Sustainable Development.
There are hundreds of bilateral and multilateral environmental treaties creating states' rights and obligations.
The UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the UN Commission on Sustainable Development have negotiated
many of these treaties.
Some examples:

9. There are hundreds of bilateral and multilateral environmental treaties creating states' rights
and obligations.The UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the UN Commission on Sustainable
Development have negotiated many of these treaties.
Some examples:
• ViennaConvention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, 1985, and Montreal Protocol on Substances
that Deplete the Ozone Layer, 1987
• Basel Convention on the Control ofTransboundary Movements of HazardousWastes and their
Disposal, 1989
• Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992, and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on
Biological Diversity, 2000
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992 (UNFCCC)
• Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1997
• United NationsConvention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought
and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa, 1994 (UNCCD)
• Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of InternationalWatercourses, 1997