Tímarit lögfræðinga - 01.12.1989, Blaðsíða 16
formulated by the World Commission on Environment and Develop-
ment.1 Attention must also be drawn to a proposed draft Treaty on
Long-distance Transboundary Pollution of 19 May 1988 by the
Institut International de Gestion et de Génie de l’Environnement.
But the most authoritative document on the legal principles covering
the protection of the environment is in my respectful opinion Part
XII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10
December 1982. Part XII deals with the Protection and Preservation
of the Marine Environment. In doing so, the Convention in reality
formulates provisions that may be considered expressions of general
principles of environmental international law. This was also the
intention of the drafters of Part XII. As examples of the general
principles laid down in Part XII of the Convention mention may be
made of the following:
1. “States have the obligation to protect and preserve the marine
environment.” (Article 192).
2. “States have the sovereign right to exploit their natural resources
... in accordance with their duty to protect and preserve the marine
environment.” (Article 193).
3. According to Article 195 States have the duty “not to transfer,
directly or indirectly, damage or hazards from one area to another or
transform one type of pollution into another.”
4. According to Article 197 States have the obligation to “co-
operate on a global basis and ... on a regional basis directly or through
competent international organizations ... ” in establishing “inter-
national rules, standards and recommended practices and procedures
.. . for the protection and preservation of the marine environment . . .”.
I could also refer to Article 208, paragraphs 2, 3 and 4. To me, Article
222 is of special importance, dealing with pollution from or through
the atmosphere, for example by garbage vessels burning poisonous
garbage on the high seas.
V
1. Based on these proposals I shall, in concluding, make an attempt
to formulate certain basic principles of international law emerging from
these various sources examined above.
1 Printed i.a. in Le Droit á la Qualité de l’Environnement: un droit en devenir — en droit
á définir, under the direction of Nicole Duplé, Québec/Amerique, 1988, pp. 231—290.
222