The World Court's emphasis on procedural rules in the recent Pulp Mills case: contributing to the progressive and coherent development of international water law

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dc.contributor.authorMcIntyre, Owen
dc.date.accessioned2013-08-08T12:41:10Z
dc.date.available2013-08-08T12:41:10Z
dc.date.issued2011-06
dc.date.updated2013-07-15T16:03:19Z
dc.description.abstractThe judgment of the International Court of Justice in the Pulp Mills (Argentina v. Uruguay) case makes a very important contribution to international law relating to shared international water resources and to international environmental law more generally. It does much to clarify the relationship between procedural and substantive rules of international environmental law. The Court linked interstate notification of new projects to the satisfaction of the customary due diligence obligation to prevent significant transboundary harm. It found that environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an essential requirement of customary international law in respect of activities having potential transboundary effects. The real significance of the judgment is that it held that the duty to notify, and the related duty to conduct an EIA taking account of transboundary impacts, exist in customary international law and thus apply to all states, not just those that have concluded international agreements containing such obligations. The Court confirmed that for shared international water resources, the principle of equitable and reasonable utilisation, universally accepted as the cardinal rule of international water law, is virtually synonymous with the concept of sustainable development, and suggests that considerations of environmental protection are absolutely integral to the equitable balancing of interests involved. The judgment makes it clear that the principle of equitable utilisation ought to be understood as a process, rather than a normatively determinative rule. This ought to help to address widespread confusion about the nature of the key rules and principles of international water resources law and its role in the resolution of water resources disputes and in environmental diplomacy more generally.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationOwen McIntyre (2011) 'The World Court's Emphasis on Procedural Rules in the Recent Pulp Mills Case: Contributing to the Progressive and Coherent Development of International Water Law'. Water Alternatives, 4 (2):124-144.en
dc.identifier.endpage144en
dc.identifier.issn1965-0175
dc.identifier.issued2en
dc.identifier.journaltitleWater Alternativesen
dc.identifier.startpage124en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/1218
dc.identifier.volume4en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.relation.urihttp://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=163&Itemid=1
dc.rights© 2011, Owen McIntyre. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License which permits any non commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.en
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/en
dc.subjectInternational water lawen
dc.subjectProcedural rulesen
dc.subjectNotificationen
dc.subjectTransboundary environmental impact assessmenten
dc.subjectEquitable and reasonable utilisationen
dc.subjectSustainable developmenten
dc.titleThe World Court's emphasis on procedural rules in the recent Pulp Mills case: contributing to the progressive and coherent development of international water lawen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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